My reading this year was pretty sporadic. I had some trouble concentrating off and on throughout the year, so I spent long stretches of time vegging out watching YouTube instead of sitting with a book. I’ve noticed, though, that I sleep better and I’m overall more content when I prioritize reading over watching TV. I need and benefit from both, but the balance was off this year. This seems to be a recurring theme for the past few years, honestly.

I still managed to get through a goodly number of titles, methinks: 46 total, 29 nonfiction (63%) and 17 fiction (37%). This continues my nonfiction-heavy habit of the past few years. I read 20 titles for Booklist this year, accounting for 43.5% of my total. Most of what I read this year was very good, so quality makes up for quantity.

Despite going long stretches without reading anything, I continued to impulsively check out books from the library as they caught my fancy. This resulted in very tall stacks of books sitting on my end table for months, as I renewed them over and over, or had to turn them back in and put them back on hold, because I just wasn’t reading them. By mid-November, I got sick of them sitting there, so I plowed through 12 titles all in the last month and half of the year (9 in less than two weeks, which I think is a personal record for me!)

I became shockingly lax about turning in my book reviews on time, trying the patience of my Booklist editor far more than she deserves. I should make a resolution for next year to be more on top of these.

I read several books about the development of artificial intelligence, which have made me both more and less concerned about this technology and how it’s evolving (see my list of Tech Books for People Who Don’t Trust Tech). I continued to seek out a diversity of perspectives and experiences of the world. I also read a handful of titles about professional leadership, and reassessing our culture’s deeply unhealthy and inhumane relationship to work.

I think next year I want to go back to mostly fiction. I’ll still get a decent amount of nonfic from Booklist, but I think it’s easier for me to want to read more if I’m reading fiction.

For a list of my favorite books I read this year, go here >

Continue reading “2024: My Year in Reading” →

For a list of my favorite books I read this year, go here >

This was a very low-key year in reading for me. I read 46 books—less than most past years, but I think still a respectable amount—roughly 40% of which were for Booklist. That’s ok. I had a lot going on at work, so reading took a bit of a back seat. I finally got around to reading all of Becky Chambers’ stuff, she’s been on my To Read list for years!

I read 26 nonfiction titles and 20 fiction. I’ve been more interested in nonfic as I get further into middle age, which isn’t something I anticipated. I discovered a new favorite author and read one of the wisest books I’ve ever read.

Books Read in 2023

Continue reading “2023: My Year in Reading” →

For a list of my favorite books I read this year, go here >

I read 54 books in 2022. It felt like a pretty normal year in reading, for the first time in a while. I read when I wanted to, didn’t when I didn’t, and didn’t overthink it either way, other than to reaffirm my intense dislike of Jack McDevitt. I didn’t watch much TV—my desire for visual storytelling has been subsumed by YouTube, where I follow many channels. I finally went back to a movie theater for the first time since the pandemic started. I missed seeing things on the big screen! I saw Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (so good, but it should have been so much better!)

I also purged half of my personal book collection this year, which still sometimes feels a bit like sacrilege, but I remain confident it was the right thing to do and I haven’t regretted it yet.

Continue reading “2022: My Year in Reading” →

• For a list of my favorite books I read this year, go here >
• I participated in #LibFaves2021 on Twitter. See my selections here >

I read 57 books in 2021, which is surprising, given that I didn’t want to read all that much this year and went weeks at a time without cracking open a book.

I also started watching more TV this year. My TV watching has been abnormally low for the past few years—partly due to being distracted by the internet and partly due to self-consciousness and a reluctance to watch stuff by myself. I’ve always been this way: I don’t like using the TV to watch stuff no one else in the house is interested in. I love watching with other people, I’m just not comfortable using a shared TV to watch things only for me.

So this year, we set up a second TV in our back room where I can go watch by myself without worrying about it. It’s also a smart TV, so I can stream YouTube full screen and Bluetooth connect my noise cancelling headphones to it. (First world solutions for first world problems.) I spent a good amount of time catching up on some of the shows I’ve missed, which is nice.

Continue reading “2021: My Year in Reading” →

• For a list of my favorite books I read this year, go here >
• I participated in #LibFaves20 on Twitter. See my selections here >
• I had a few least favorite books this year but not enough to merit making a list.
• A complete list of all the books I read in 2020 is at the bottom of this post

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I read 41 books this past year, which is one more than the least amount I’ve read of any year since I started tracking (2014 only had 40). Honestly, this is more than I thought it would be because… well, because 2020. This was not an easy or normal year. 22 titles were assigned to me by Booklist to review.

2020 is the first year in the past six that I didn’t track my reading in depth. I kept a list of titles but I didn’t record start or end dates, or the number of days spent on each book. I explained why I chose not to keep a detailed reading list anymore in a previous post.

Now it’s time to assess: Was this a good choice?

Continue reading “2020: My Year in Reading” →

All of the data that follows was collected by me throughout the year using a combination of Google Sheets and Google Calendar. This year, I analyzed my reading using both the start and finished dates for each title: for example, I totaled how many books I started reading each month and also how many I finished each month. I calculated separate averages for both and found the overall totals work out the same either way. Average days to read titles are based on the number of days actually spent reading each title, and not necessarily the full span from starting date to finished date.

A complete list of all the books I read in 2019 is at the bottom of this post.

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For a list of my favorite books I read this year, go here >

I participated in #LibFaves19 on Twitter. See my selections here >

I didn’t create a “Least Favorites” list this year. I started to but then realized I enjoyed even my least favorite books too much to justify such a list. It was a good year for reading!

Continue reading “2019: My Year in Reading” →