2025 I Can Only Blame MyShelf Reading Challenge: Introduction

Artwork by Shannon Maddox
aka "Auntie"

Welcome to the 2025 "I Can Only Blame MyShelf" reading challenge!

Before we get started, let's do a little review.  Last year's challenge was the most successful so far.  My goal was 50 books; I read 83!  This year I thought I'd give myself the biggest goal ever--100 books! Now, don't get me wrong, this isn't going to be an exercise in speed reading, skimming, or playing my audiobooks at double speed  No, like the rest of my reading, I want to absorb, enjoy, and learn from what I read.  

If they are available, I may participate in the book bingo reads again.  I also want to include more fun fiction in my selections.  I love the heavy theological works and personal development genre, but I need some good old stories in which to occasionally lose myself.

Sample categories for this year's reads include:

• Glorious rereads - books I enjoyed so much that I'm reading them again.
• Recommended Reads - books recommended by what I hope are trustworthy sources.
• Cross References - books referenced in other books I read. Not exactly a recommended read, but similar.
  
• Everybody's Reading It - books that everybody and their grandma read that I'm just now getting to.
• Impulse Reads - Books I bought, borrowed, or checked out of the library for no other reason than "hey, this looks interesting."
• Kiddie Lit -children's books.  Hey, just because I'm over 50 doesn't mean I can't enjoy a good (or bad) children's book.

My rating systems is as follows:

✮✮✮✮ = Outstanding
✮✮✮ = Pretty good
✮✮ = Could have been better / could have been worse.
✮ = Not so great.  What the heck did I just read?  I'm finishing this one purely out of spite.
Zero stars = Ain't nobody got time for that = DNF (did not/would not/could not finish)

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Books Read and Reviewed:

Completed books will be marked as a link to the review or Goodreads comments. *indicates a volume from my personal collection.

Book 01
Book 02
Book 03
Book 04
Book 05

Read but Not Reviewed: *indicates a volume from my personal collection.

1. God is in the Manger by Dietrich Bonhoeffer ✮✮✮✮ (Category;  Glorious reread)
   
2. High Road Leadership by John C. Maxwell ✮✮✮✮
3. Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership by Ruth Haley Barton  ✮ 1/2
4. Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff 1/2 (Category: Cross reference) 
5. Lectures to My Students by Charles H. Spurgeon ✮✮✮✮

First Line Friday Entries for the Year:

#26     #31

#27     #32

#28     #33

#29     #34

#30     #35

Ain't Nobody Got Time for That!: