A YEAR OF READING | How These Books Improved My English!

Do you say you love books but how often do you actually read them? Are you “too busy” to read but can spend hours in front of your favorite TV shows instead? I always felt like I was a “fake book lover” that could pull off any book related conversation because I had once watched the movie. I wanted to understand what the phrase “The book is better than the movie” was all about.

I have to admit that living in this century made me transition towards movies and shows rather than towards the written medium. For that, I always felt sad because I always fancied the idea of carrying a book under my arm very much. To find a quiet spot under a tree and disappear in a fictional world for a while.

So to make this real I just started to read. Pages filled with letters did feel overwhelming at first since we live in an image-driven world. As I just moved on, word by word, sentence by sentence I soon got a rhythm where my brain relaxed and I soon forgot that I was reading. The feeling was lovely. I noticed when I took the time to read, for the most part, I felt more rested. I felt like my brain got a new kind of exercise that I didn’t know was there before. If you are one of those who frequently goes to a gym you know how lazy you can feel in the body if you skip a session or two. A similar feeling occurred in my brain after being without a book for a couple of days. (Maybe it is different from one person to another.) I also realized how much time my brain had been on standby mode earlier. It is sad that our modern day is designed that way. There is so much activity that does not require any form of brain activity. Just scrolling, scrolling, and scrolling.

I also realized how much time my brain had been on standby mode earlier.

As a Swede living in America, the other reason that made me want to read more was to build my vocabulary. I wanted to improve my writing in English. I think it worked, at least if you ask my wife that has noticed new expressions coming out of my mouth during this last year. I still have my Swedish accent, which I choose to keep, but mixed with fancy words it makes a great combo if you ask me.

Last year’s books turned out to be 16 finished books, plus 2 that I began but was not able to finish before new year’s eve. (Sometimes I’m working on two books during the same period of time to get some variation.) For some people that is nothing, but for me, it is around one and a half book per month. Something to remember is that you read for your own relaxation, it is not a competition, so do not be driven by numbers.

Here comes a summarized list of the finished books during last year. I will not review them in this post, but I leave a link to each one of them, each book title and author if you are interested to find out more. I chose to read a different mix of genres. To improve my writing it was important to not get stuck in only one genre. If you challenge yourself reading outside your comfort zone you will improve your skills to recognize good writing from the bad. If you ask me I had a really good time “traveling” from fantasy realms to foggy backstreets of old London and beyond. I hope you enjoy the list.

• Stardust – Neil Gaiman

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone – J.K. Rowling

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J.K. Rowling

• The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

• Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins

• Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins

• Vägen till Vansinnet (English title “The Road to Madness”)
  Jens Bergman & Emil Hårsmar (My twin brother, so proud of him.)

• Closed for the Season – Mary Downing Hahn

• The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman

• The Shakespeare Stealer – Gary Blackwood

• The Further Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle

• A wrinkle in time – Madeleine L’Engle

• The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel – Michael Scott

• Beartown – Fredrik Backman

• Us against you – Fredrik Backman
  (Started at the end of the year but not finished before the new year.) 

• A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

• The Bone Clocks – David Mitchell
  (Started at the end of the year but not yet finished.)

Hope you can find some good book tips in this list. Have a good time with your book reading, and hey, if you read anything that you find exciting, let us know by commenting!
Bye for now & Hej Då Allihopa!
-Jonas