In between knitting for my latest pattern release – Hessian Shawl, I’ve been reading reading reading. Audiobooks are a knitter’s best friend and I’ve really enjoyed broadening my reading horizons, whilst being able to thoroughly ‘crack on’ with my various knitting projects.

I’m halfway through my journey to read at least 40 books this year, with the help of a little reading challenge by Popsugar. You can check out my progress on my shawl and reading list below!

What have you been reading lately? How do you balance reading and knitting in your spare time?

1. A book recommended by a librarian The Woman in Cabin 10 / Anne of Green Gables
2. A book that’s been on your TBR list for way too long – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them and bonus read of Original Screenplay
3. A book of letters The Perks of Being a Wallflower
4. An audiobook Stardust
5. A book by a person of colour Twelve Years a Slave
6. A book with one of the four seasons in the title Autumn
7. A book that is a story within a story The Princess Bride
8. A book with multiple authors Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
9. An espionage thriller The Bourne Identity
10. A book with a cat on the cover The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
11. A book by an author who uses a pseudonym Jane Eyre
12. A bestseller from a genre you don’t normally read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
13. A book by or about a person who has a disability All the Light We Cannot See
14. A book involving travel Into Thin Air
15. A book with a subtitle Curated Closet:Discover Your Personal Style and Build Your Dream Wardrobe
16. A book that’s published in 2017 This Love
17. A book involving a mythical creature The Golem and the Jinni
18. A book you’ve read before that never fails to make you smile The Secret Garden
19. A book about food A Year in Provence
20. A book with career advice #GIRLBOSS
21. A book from a nonhuman perspective Watership Down
22. A steampunk novel The Time Machine
23. A book with a red spine Fight Club
24. A book set in the wilderness Into the Wild
25. A book you loved as a child Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
26. A book by an author from a country you’ve never visited The Snow Child
27. A book with a title that’s a character’s name Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
28. A novel set during wartime A Town Like Alice
29. A book with an unreliable narrator Fingersmith
30. A book with pictures The Walking Dead, Vol 06: This Sorrowful Life
31. A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you A Thousand Splendid Suns
32. A book about an interesting woman Scrappy Little Nobody
33. A book set in two different time periods The Secret History
34. A book with a month or day of the week in the title Tuesdays with Morrie
35. A book set in a hotel The Shining
36. A book written by someone you admire David Attenborough: Life on Air
37. A book that’s becoming a movie in 2017 Ready Player One
38. A book set around a holiday other than Christmas Chocolat
39. The first book in a series you haven’t read before The Cuckoo’s Calling
40. A book you bought on a trip North and South

PS. If you’re super hard core, there are even 12 bonus books to add on (that’s a huge 52 books in one year). I’ve looked at books I could possibly cover these topics off with, but it’ll be a miracle if I get far enough through my list to pick these ones up this year.

1. A book recommended by an author you love Far from the Madding Crowd (recommended by Suzanne Collins)
2. A bestseller from 2016 The Little Book of Hygge
3. A book with a family-member term in the title Braving It: A Father, A Daughter and an Unforgettable Journey Into the Alaskan Wild
4. A book that takes place over a character’s life span The Curious Case of Benjamin Button / A Man Called Ove
5. A book about an immigrant or a refugee Hamilton: The Revolution / The Silence and the Roar
6. A book from a genre/subgenre that you’ve never heard of One (Verse novel) / Jurassic Park (Biopunk)
7. A book with an eccentric character The Rosie Project
8. A book that has more than 800 pages Outlander
9. A book that you got from a used book sale The Age of Innocence
10. A book that’s been mentioned in another book Murder on the Orient Express
11. A book about a difficult topic When Breath Becomes Air
12. A book based on mythology Norse Mythology / The Once & Future King

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