Book Lady Linda's January 2025 Reading Report & Diary

Happy New Year! 2025 is here! And January is a great month to stay inside, stay warm, and read books.

Patience

Bible Verses of the Month

I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry.” – (Psalm 40:1 NKJV)

This month’s reading diary is at the bottom of this page, after the book list.

My Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/lindajm

My reading list codes:
★ – I’m reading it.
✓ – I finished reading it. Yay!
⇗ – Still reading at the end of the month.
⇓ – I did not like it or finish it.
∅ – Stalled – I started but didn’t finish.

Challenges

1. Epistolary January – I’m taking part in an event for reading epistolary books.

2. Becoming vegan – I’m transitioning to the Forks Over Knives diet – with books!

3. The 2025 Biblical Studies Challenge – this challenge asks us to read one book monthly on a set topic one would study if lucky enough to attend a Bible college. The January topic is hermaneutics. Book posted below: Knowing Scripture.

4. The David McCullough Readalong continues throughout 2025.

5. Read What You Own – I’ll be reading books I’ve already bought during 2025… hopefully, for the most part.

6. The Virtual Theology Christian Reading Challenge (goal: 73 books)

This video tells about my reading and booktube goals and intentions for 2025.

Finished Reading This Month

✓ Survival Literature: Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Journey, by Alfred Lansing

Finished 1/23/25 – An amazing story of survival on the ice just north of Antarctica. Shackleton’s story is inspirational. Review

✓ Epistolary Fiction: Several People Are Typing, by Calvin Kasulke

This is Epistolary January and I have six books planned for reading. This is one of them.

Update: Finished 1/13/25 – I gave it a one-star review mainly because of excessive cussing plus weak plotting. Review

★ Christian Nonfiction: Knowing Scripture, by R.C. Sproul

I’m reading this as my January book for the Biblical Studies Challenge. This month the topic is hermaneutics.

Update: I finished reading this on January 12. Very helpful, for learning about hermaneutics! Review

✓ History: Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition, by Buddy Levy

I’m continuing on with my readings in the Survival Literature genre. This one hit me hard. The Greely Expedition was a US Army Signal Corps effort to establish a scientific data collection site on Ellesmere Island, Canada, north of Greenland… in a very cold place! The first year went fine, and then the tragedies started. 25 men were involved. I gave it five stars. Review

✓ Picture Book: His First Bible, by Melody Carlson, il: Tish Tenud

I’ve signed onto the VT Christian Reading Challenge again. (VT = Visual Theology) … this year they’re asking people to read some books for children so I read this one I just happened to have on hand. Cute. I liked it. Review

✓ Epistolary Fiction: Address Unknown, by Katherine Kressman Taylor

A friend said this was her favorite book, so I need to read it.

Update, 1/1/25 – This is a short book; it was originally published as a short story. However it has sold hundreds of thousands of copies as a book and has been translated into many languages. It is well worth my time spent reading it today. Five stars. Review

What I’m Reading Now

★ Ergodic Fiction: Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov

Ergodic fiction – a man obsesses over a poet, who has died. The foreword, poem, and commentary are all parts of this novel. There’s also an index. Definition of ergodic: “Relating to or denoting systems or processes with the property that, given sufficient time, they include or impinge on all points in a given space and can be represented statistically by a reasonably large selection of points.” (per Oxford Languages Dictionary)