Nightstand (January 2013)

Has it really been 4 months since I last posted a Nightstand post?

It has.

In those four months, I’ve become engaged, changed jobs, moved cities, and read practically nothing.

I am not lying.

This past four months, I read:

  • A Place Called Home by Lori Wick
    A re-read. Comfort reading while I was wedding planning and starting to get my possessions into boxes.
  • A Song for Silas by Lori Wick
    Ditto the above.
  • Rocking the Roles by Robert Lewis and William D. Hendricks
    Re-read, this time for premarital counseling before handing the book off to Daniel. He’s almost finished with it now–and we’ll be discussing roles more in our counseling session Wednesday night.
  • The Language of Sex by Gary Smalley and Ted Cunningham
    Also read for premarital counseling, although we won’t be discussing this one in our counseling session for a few weeks.
  • A Woman after God’s Own Heart by Elizabeth George
    Read for personal development.
  • The Anatomy of Peace by The Arbinger Institute
    A book about resolving conflicts by helping things go right. Have read this in fits and starts.
  • Wordsmithy by Douglas Wilson
    Received for Christmas. I put it on my list when I was still writing (and reading, for that matter). Hoping to resume both sometime in the near future.
  • Scripture
    This has been my only consistent reading over the past four months. It is, as always, straight from the mouth of God. Even if every other book is forgotten, this one demands to be read and reread, meditated on and mulled over, memorized and discussed. It contains the very words of life.

So there we have it. The full extent of my reading over the past four months.

I hope to resume reading at a slightly more rapid rate once I’ve got my stuff settled into Daniel’s house and once we’ve gotten married so I can settle in myself.

So, another two to three months of light reading and then things can pick up again? Maybe?

How did getting married affect your reading life? Did you still read when you were planning your wedding?

Don’t forget to drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading this month!

What's on Your Nightstand?

17 thoughts on “Nightstand (January 2013)”

  1. Congrats on your engagement; I wish you happiness! I don’t recall marriage affecting my reading life. I *do* remember thinking it was much more difficult to do my job (I was an elementary teacher and gave it 110%)! I don’t think I’ve read any of your titles this month, but I love the emphasis you put on Scriptures. What you said there is so true!

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  2. Hey — major happenings around here! Congratulations!! I wish you great happiness.

    I don’t think I read much during my engagement. Those lighter reading seasons are usually good when they come for whatever reason though.

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  3. Books will return in due time. Such exciting changes for now!

    For me, reading did take a hit with marriage (but it could just be “life”–married or not). I get the most read when Jeff is out of town. Not a good trade-off though! ha. The past year we’ve FINALLY learned a great trick–earplugs for the TV. That way if he wants to watch ballgames after we go to bed and I want to read, I can now read in silence, yet we’re still together.

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  4. You can fill up that time after you leave Daniel with some good reading! I love Lori Wick although it has been a long time since I have ready any of her stuff. When I read A Woman After God’s Own Heart I was so moved that immediately made some changes in my life! I then passed the book onto another lady and purchased more copies to have when someone might need it! And then you can never go wrong with scripture!

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  5. Interesting question there at the end. I wasn’t blogging then so I have no idea. I think I did not read very much at that time. (I started book blogging after having been married for a year.) So you are already ahead of the game.

    Curious for your thoughts on Wordsmithy.

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  6. Wow, congratulations! I think you have a pretty good reason for not reading much. I don’t recall reading much while I was engaged but it was a long time ago. :) Once things have settled down I think you’ll find you’ll go back to it pretty easily.

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  7. It looks like you’ve been reading good books, even though you haven’t been reading a lot of them! Marriage has not changed my reading much. I didn’t read much while planning the wedding, though. But like Nancy said, it was a long time ago so I don’t remember. ;)

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  8. My reading took a hit when I was engaged and now that I’m married. It’s harder to find time to sit down and read what with housework and a newborn.

    But my husband does travel for work and is out of town a week at a time so I usually fit in more reading on the weeks he’s gone.

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  9. I think I went through a period of not reading much except what I had to read for school when I first started teaching. This coincided with meeting my husband and marrying him the summer before my third year to teach high school. I rediscovered a real passion and desire for reading first when I went to graduate school (one year after I got married) to be a librarian. Then, when I became a SAHM four years later, I finally had more time to focus on reading for pleasure and edification. You’ll find your groove again! :-)

    I’m glad you’re back to blogging! I missed you!

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  10. You got a good bit read for having everything else going on at the same time.

    Lori Wick is definitely comfort reading. I wish she’d write some new stuff. :-) But I could reread her old stuff, too — it has been a while since I’ve read much of it.

    It’s been ages since my engagement, and I didn’t keep records of what I read then, so I am not sure. We got engaged in May, went to our separate homes 1,000 miles away for the summer, worked full time over the summer while trying to get wedding plans taken care of as much as possible, then met again as full time college students in the fall before getting married in December. That was the semester I did my student teaching. I’m guessing I wasn’t doing a lot of recreational reading during that time.

    Funny story: someone had recommended to us The Act of Marriage by Tim LaHaye, and so we thought we’d read it out loud together in the social parlor of our Christian college. It didn’t take very long to realize we shouldn’t read it together, much less out loud and in public, LOL!

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  11. Elizabeth George is on of my favorite authors!

    Wordsmithy is always calling my name when I’m looking at books. I’ll be interested in reading your thoughts on it.

    I have always read but I can’t really remember how marriage affected it. I would say that I didn’t read as much and could probably say that marriage and children changed the way I read (in a good way).

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  12. Congratulations!! I’ve been MIA for several months too. I loved A Woman After God’s Own Heart and I’m curious to hear what you think of Wordsmithy. I generally enjoy Doug Wilson’s writing, so it sounds interesting.

    As far as how marriage affected my reading…I have to say I honestly don’t remember! I guess the fact that it was almost 17 years ago is a pretty good excuse…and I didn’t generally really track what I read back then, although I have *always* been a total bookworm! ;)

    Reply

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