Winter on the homestead has become one of my favorite times of the year. It’s that special time of year when I can come inside, cozy up next to the fire with a warm drink, and lose myself in good book. On today’s episode I’m sharing what I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the winter. I’m also sharing my favorite sources of reading material, including new and used books, audio books, magazines, and more. What are you reading this year? Drop me a comment and share what you’re excited to read in the coming months. I’m always looking for new suggestions.
Links Mentioned In Show:
My Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/g/xra4m
AbeBooks: www.abebooks.com
Winter on the homestead has become one of my favorite times of the year. It’s that special time of year when I can come inside, cozy up next to the fire with a warm drink, and lose myself in good book. On today’s episode I’m sharing what I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the winter. I’m also sharing my favorite sources of reading material, including new and used books, audio books, magazines, and more. What are you reading this year? Drop me a comment and share what you’re excited to read in the coming months. I’m always looking for new suggestions.
Links Mentioned In Show:
My Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/g/xra4m
AbeBooks: www.abebooks.com
Welcome to the old fashioned on purpose podcast back in episode 54 I told you about how I came to learn to love winter time. I used to hate it, I used to dread it, but these days I really, really sink into it and look forward to it and one of the reasons why is that it gives me more time to read and learn, which are two things that I just can't usually fit in during the crazy summer. So I thought it would be fun today to share a few of the books that are currently on my to read list, the ones that are sitting on my nightstand. Maybe give you a few ideas and I'd love to hear yours as well. I'm your host Jill winger and this is a podcast for those of you who are disenchanted with conformity. The ones who favor homegrown and handmade over cheap and mass produced. The ones who swim upstream while the societal herd rides the river of least resistance, the ones who grow and shepherd, nurture and produce, need and craft rather than only consume the ones who are old fashioned on purpose and choose to truly live, not merely exist. If you're a trailblazer, a Maverick, a homesteader, a modern pioneer or a backyard farmer, you have found your people. So before I get into my list, I wanted to give you a few of my tips for getting the books. There's a couple little tricks that I use, especially since, you know, I love the library, but we live a ways from the library. So we do do library trips, but sometimes it just doesn't fit with the schedule and sometimes our library just doesn't have what I want. So here's what I do in lieu of the library. When I can't find the books or I can't get to town, I like to buy books used. And if I'm not sure about a book or I'm like, I don't know, I might read it, but I'm not really wanting to own it. You know, that's obviously a library pick. But a lot of the times there'll be books that I hear recommended that I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to keep in my library longterm. So I try to get them used. Now Amazon sometimes has used books for really good prices. You just kind of have to shop and look at the different listings. More recently though I have been going to, I don't know if it's a buy books or Abebooks, it doesn't matter how you say it cause the spelling is the same, but A, B, E books.com I'll leave a link in the show notes and that is a source of used books that most of them are really, really cheap. The shipping is a little bit longer. It's not prime shipping so you have to wait a week or two. But if I buy a lot of books, I'd rather pay, you know, three bucks a pop versus$20 each new on Amazon. So just an option, go check it out. I've really been actually ordering quite a bit from them. Now, my other little trick is I am a visual learner. I like to hold a paper book in my hand. I just, some books I refuse to listen to, I need to touch them. But occasionally on a lighter book or a book that's not quite as heavy with concepts or numbers or whatever, I do like to listen and I actually can get through audio books really quickly because it's 45 minutes to town one way. And I will listen when I drive, I listen when I workout on a treadmill. And I also like to listen while I'm in the kitchen cooking. So when you combine those three activities, like I can get through a book pretty darn fast. So I use scribd, to listen to audio books. This is not a commercial, like they're not, I'm not associated with them or affiliated with them, but I like them better than audible because it's like eight bucks a month for unlimited unlimited digital books and unlimited audio books. And they have a really good selection. Like every once in a while they don't have something I want, but I'm pretty darn good. So some of the books I am listening to, others I'm reading, I kind of do this hybrid, but I'll link scribd in the show notes as well in case you want to check it out. I just liked that it's eight bucks a month and I can listen to as many as I want and don't have to worry about credits or anything like that. Okay. On to the books. I'm just going to go through my list. Tell you a little bit about why I selected them. I realized this is a very, uh, I don't know what the word is. Eclectic. Eccentric. Um, yeah, it jumps all over the place. I have a lot of topics. I guess I have a wide variety of books that I like. So here we go. I don't read fiction hardly ever. Maybe once a year. If I find a fiction book that feels very compelling to me. Otherwise I'm all nonfiction all the time. So if you're a fiction person solely, you may not like my list, but that's okay. Okay. So the book I just finished, is gifts of imperfection by Brene Brown. I've read, I think most of Brene's other books, I love her stuff. You know, most people are really, really into what she speaks about. It's such a timely message for our culture today. So I've read rising strong and daring greatly and I hadn't read gifts of imperfection yet and it was good. It was, I think she wrote it before she wrote some of the others. And so some of it was repeat of the concepts. Honestly, I need to hear those concepts again. So about once or twice a year, I just like to read something of hers, whether it's a repeat of something I've already read. But I feel like the idea of being vulnerable and authentic and sinking into imperfection is something that I just need to hear all the time. Like just to remind myself. So it was a good read. Like I said, not brand new concepts as compared to some of her other books, but if you're a Brene Brown fan, I recommend it. Another book that I am rereading is folks, this ain't normal by Joel Salatin, which I'm sure many of you listening are familiar with that book. If you haven't already read it. I read it, I don't know, 10 years ago, 12 years ago, way back when we started our homesteading journey and I loved it and it was transformative, to our mindset at the time. And so much has changed since then. So much of myself has changed. I thought it would be fun to read it again. It's probably, I doubt I'm g onna remember much c ause it was a long time ago. So reading t hat again, getting some fresh insight. U m, so I'm looking forward to that one and it's a good read. It's Joel's funny and he's engaging and he's so intelligent, so I highly recommend any of his books. Okay. Again, this is like, it's funny, I didn't sort this list, excuse me, by t opic. So this is like all over the place. The next one I have on my list is the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin a nd I just, yeah, I realize it's eclectic. I actually heard this recommended in another book. They said that it is one of the best autobiographies ever written and he talks, he just has some great ideas on life and education and things like that. So I'm going to dive in and you know, different language, different time, different English, so I think it will be a slower read. I definitely got a paper copy of it because I'm going to have to like probably reread different pieces. That's not going to be a good audio fit for me, but I'm looking forward to it and I don't know what's happening to me the older I get and maybe it's the homeschool mom thing. I'm getting super nerdy about like history and science and all these things that, you know, 20 years ago I would've thought was so boring and now I'm like seeking them out on purpose. I don't know. Have you ever done that? Like I don't know. I don't know what's happening to me. I'm getting old and nerdy, but anyway, I'm excited to read that one. I'll let you know what I think. The next one I actually just finished it. It is called weapons of mass instruction. So I, N S, T, R, U, C, T, I, O, N not destruction instruction by John Taylor Gatto. I don't know how, I never have heard of him before. It was a fantastic book. It was a book that I could not stop talking about while I was reading. I'm pretty sure Christian and my sister were like, stop Jill, stop talking about the book. We know Jill, we know you're reading the book. It was so good. Um, anyway, in a nutshell, John Taylor Gatto was a school teacher for 30 years and he, he dove in deeply to education in America and how we got to where we are today and some of the pieces of education that are broken and how they can actually be damaging children in different ways. So I, when I started reading it, I didn't realize he was pro homeschooling. I found that out at the end of the book. So if you're considering homeschooling, or you're just curious in how our public education system got to where it is today, it's a fascinating read, very well written, very compelling. Definitely I think has changed my view of homeschooling. And how children learn probably forever. So highly recommended on that one. I, I think I listened to that one. That's right. Yeah, I listened to it and then I also bought it cause I liked it so much. I bought the paper copy. Okay, next on the list, the contrary farmer by gene Logsdon. Um, I've heard of him forever. He is a champion in the, you know, self-sufficient, self-sustaining farmer movement. I've just never read one of his books. And this one seemed like a good place to start because I liked the idea of being contrary, to be honest. That is appealing to me. So contrary farmer heck yes, right up my alley. I'm excited to dive in. The next one is will power doesn't work by Benjamin Hardy. And I've heard that one recommended on a podcast. And honestly I am fascinated at, how do I describe this? What motivates humans? Again, super nerdy and weird and random, but that's fascinated me forever. What causes some people to reach for their dreams and to push forward and change the world while others are just okay, you know, kind of with that mediocre existence. So anyway, I love reading books that talk about motivation and willpower and what spurs people on to greatness. So I'm hoping that will address some of my questions and I've heard really good reviews on it, so I think it'll be a good one. Okay, next up is another kind of a business book. I actually do read a lot of business books. I don't have anything on my list for like this first half of the year because last year I read basically only business books, but I know we'll have more coming in, trickling in as the year progresses. But um, this is one called, if you're not first, you're last by grant Cardone. He's a big entrepreneur, influencer like millionaire. And I've heard really good things about his work, so I grabbed it, decided to dive in. I'll, we'll see how it goes. I'm not read anything of his before, but I'd k inda f igure I can't go wrong with it. And like I said, business books k ind o f are my favorite. I read a lot of them, so I think i t w ill be right up my alley. Okay. Next up is actually w hat I'm reading right now. It's letters to the church by Francis Chan. I don't talk a lot about church or spirituality on the podcast or I haven't thus far. But I'm on a major journey the last couple of years, analyzing my faith and my spirituality and my walk with God and looking at it from different perspectives and reading a lot of different books, all different perspectives, all different angles, from unchurched people to really churchy people and everything in between. And so this one I selected because Francis Chan was a pastor of a mega church and he's left that and moved on to home churches. And I was just curious about his transformation in his thought processes. So thinking about, I don't know, a third of the way through. It's good. Just good things to think about. I like mixing up my perspectives of what I read and sometimes I like to read things with conflict from conflicting perspectives because I feel like it keeps me well rounded. And there was a time in my life where I only read things from people I agree with 100% and it made me lopsided. You know, you only hang around people just like you and only listen to perspectives who are exactly like you and you get really lopsided really fast. So I like to mix it up and yeah, I think that is scandalous to some people, but it's a good thing. And then the last one on my list is when I just am finishing. I think I'll finish it today. Probably I'm, I'm actually listening to it while I run on a treadmill. It helps me feel motivated to go out to the treadmill cause I do not like the treadmill otherwise. But it's for the love by Jen Hatmaker. She's entertaining. She's one of the few books I've read that I actually laugh out loud. Like I just am hard to impress I guess with the humor thing. But she's funny and it's light enough. It's like thought provoking but light enough that I can listen to it while I'm cooking or running on a treadmill and still get something out of it. And I don't have to like stop it every 30 seconds and be like, what did you just say? Oh my gosh, I need to wrap my brain around that concept. So I like a mixture of heavier books and lighter books, for different activities I'm doing. So anyway, that was my list for now. It's kind of my first, I'd say my first quarter of the year and I'll add to it and as the year goes on. So maybe we'll do another episode about my summer reading list, although that one will be probably pretty short because let's face it, I don't read a whole lot during the summer, because of the garden and life and 4-H and riding horses and being outside, although I do like to listen, to podcasts and books while I'm in the gardener planting or weeding or whatever. So we'll see. Anyway, lots of rambling. I'd like to know what are you reading right now? Do you have any books that maybe, I'd like to add to my list? So if you feel compelled to share, which I hope you do, pop over to Facebook or Instagram, drop me a comment or a DM, tell me what you're reading, what you found compelling lately, and maybe I'll add it to my list. That's it for this episode today, my friend. If you feel so inclined, it would mean a lot. If you could pop over to your favorite podcast player really quick and leave a short review. It not only helps me to know what you like or didn't like, but it helps other people to find the podcast as well. Thanks so much for listening and we'll chat again on the next episode of the old fashioned on purpose podcast.