17,445 Pages

One of the benefits of having a goodreads.com account is that it keeps track of all the books you read throughout the year, and the amount of pages. This year, I saw an increase in nonfiction and humorous short stories/essays novels that I read. Rainbow Rowell became my favorite author discovery of 2014; I cannot wait to read her new book, Landline. A fluff book series that I started in undergrad, Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich, I continued to read this year but I want her to end the series already. The most recent Stephanie Plum novel was book #21, and in my opinion, the last book in the series that was good was #13. I have enjoyed the first TV season of "Orange is the New Black" more than the book. Although I do enjoy reading ebooks on my nook and iPad; I still read about 70% books, and according to goodreads, I still have 1,698 books that I want to read.

Here are some of the books I tackled in 2014; let me know if you have any recommendations:

• The Sirens of Titans-Kurt Vonnegut
• 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice In My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help that Actually Works- Dan Harris
• Top Secret Twenty-One- Janet Evanovich
• On The Bus With Rosa Parks- Rita Dove
• We Were Liars- E. Lockhart
• This Will Be Difficult to Explain: And Other Stories- Johanna Skibsrud
• How To Quinoa: Life Lessons From My Imaginary Well-Dressed Daughter- Tiffany Beveridge
• Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened- Allie Brosh
• Everything I Need To Know I Learned From A Little Golden Book- Diane Muldrow
• What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding- Kristin Newman
• Naptime is the new Happy Hour: And Other Ways Toddlers Turn Your Life Upside Down- Stefanie Wilder-Taylor
• City of Heavenly Fire- Cassandra Clare
• Night Broken- Patricia Briggs
• The Goldfinch- Donna Tartt
• Orange is the New Black- Piper Kerman
• For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet's Journey- Richard Bianco
• Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary Happiness- Willard Spiegelman
• Uganda Be Kidding Me- Chelsea Handler
• Dad is Fat- Jim Gaffigan
• The Dude and the Zen Master- Jeff Bridges
• I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education and Was Shot by the Taliban- Malala Yousafzai
• The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, & Murder- Charles Graeber
• A Religion of One's Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World- Thomas Moore
• Takedown Twenty- Janet Evanovich
• Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps- Kelly Williams Brown
• A Little Book of Sloth- Lucy Cooke
• What's Worth Knowing- Wendy Lust Bader
• Inferno- Dan Brown
• Fangirl- Rainbow Rowell
• The Giver- Lois Lowry
• The Sugar Frosted Nutsack- Mark Leynor
• The Best of Me- Nicholas Sparks
• City Of Lost Souls- Cassandra Clare
• Euphemania: Our Love Affair with Euphemisms- Ralph Keyes
• Faceless Killers- Henning Mankell
• The Pact- Jodi Picoult
• It- Stephen King 

2015 New Year's Resolutions

I accomplished all of my 2014 resolutions. They were to continue experimenting with acrylic painting, to beat my dailymile.com mileage from 2013 (which was 1300 miles), and to read more books and pages than 2013 (50 books and 16,863 pages). In 2014, I painted nine new acrylic canvases; I completed 1370 miles, and read 59 books and 17,445 pages.

In 2014, I based my "resolutions" on ways I wanted to improve my life. This year (2015), my resolutions are set-up to truly challenge myself on things I already love and enjoy. If you glance at my 2015 list, my hobbies and life consists of drinking coffee, reading books, cooking, and hiking. Each year, I go back and reread my blog entries, almost as one may do with a journal. I have been able to see my personal growth and new hobbies emerging and remaining since I moved from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest. I started my blog in 2011 while I was working towards my doctorate, and at the time, would never had predicted that in four years I would have a goal that included to summit Mount St. Helens.

Here are my 2015 resolutions:

• To summit Mount St. Helens.
• To finish cooking through my favorite cookbook, Smitten Kitchen.
• To do more hiking in Eastern Washington; about 90% of the trails I accomplish are in Western and Central Washington.
• To accomplish five more trails in my hiking book, 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Seattle. 
• To try 10 new coffeehouses in Seattle. 
• To read all of the 2014 Goodreads book winners.