Tag Archives: year in reading

Reading

Ye Olde 2018 Reading Roundup

I set out to read 40 books this year, and I ended up reading 51.

My presidential biography project got sidelined a bit this year, which is probably why I read more. I tend to either take comfort from the fact that we’ve been arguing about the same national issues since the beginning or I get irritated about it, and I found myself getting irritated more than comforted this year.

I still read a lot of nonfiction this year, though, and some of those titles were my favorites of the year. In no particular order, here are my Top Seven Reads of 2018:

“Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back)” by Jeff Tweedy. I probably would’ve enjoyed this regardless because I love Wilco, but this is so well written, funny and moving that I think it would be enjoyable even to non-Wilco fans.

“The Broken Earth” series by NK Jemisin. OK, so this is technically three books. But it’s a wonderful and different sci-fi/fantasy series and I think you should read it.

“No Turning Back: Life, Love and Hope in Wartime Syria” by Rania Abouzeid. This is not a light breezy read, but it will give you a new perspective on the Middle East.

“Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches” by John Hodgman. This made me laugh out loud, and I read a lot of passages to Rockford. It’s terrific.

Thanks as always to Goodreads for helping me keep track of all of this!

Reading

The one with all the books

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When I logged into Goodreads last week to record a book I’d finished, I noticed a link at the top of the page that said “See your year in books.” So I clicked on it and found that Goodreads has compiled a very nifty page with all sorts of statistics about my reading this year. They didn’t include an option to embed it, so I copied it all as jpeg files to share here.

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I set out to read 40 books in 2015, and I ended up with 43. This may be the only area in which I exceeded expectations this year.

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I love that they included the “most popular” and “least popular” titles I read this year. I read “Eleanor and Park” after reading many, many rave reviews about it. Most of the people I know who’d read it said it made them cry; I can’t remember whether or not I cried, but it was a pretty good book. “The Mechanical” was the last book I finished this year. I read about it on BuzzFeed’s list of the best sci-fi of 2015. It was a weird and intriguing book of reimagined history, and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t gain in popularity on Goodreads. I’ll be looking out for the next book in the series.

Here’s everything I read this year:

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My favorite books this year were — in no particular order — “Jurassic Park,” “Wave,” “The Martian” and “The Song of Achilles.” I hadn’t read “Jurassic Park” before, and I liked it even more than the movie. “Wave” is a memoir by a woman who lost her family in the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka, and it is beautifully raw and devastating. I loved the movie version of “The Martian,” but the book is a little richer in detail and characterization. I read “The Song of Achilles” when I was preparing for my Greek mythology class. It isn’t canon, but it’s an interesting telling of Achilles’ story from an alternative voice.

On the other side of the equation, my least favorite reads were “Mr. Mercedes,” “Killing Floor” and “A Cold Day in Paradise.” That wasn’t really surprising, as I’ve mostly stopped reading murder mysteries. I picked each of them up on a whim and didn’t enjoy either. I was also somewhat disappointed in two books I’d been looking forward to reading. “As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust” and “Avenue of Mysteries” just weren’t as good as previous books by their respective authors.

I’m aiming to read 40 books again in 2016, and I’m starting with a few more selections from BuzzFeed’s sci-fi list. I’ll also continue working through my presidential biographies. I’ve been stuck on Madison for a few months, so I don’t imagine they’ll make up the bulk of my 2016 reading. What do you think I should read next?