My 2016 in Books

January 4, 2017

In true 2016 fashion, my year in books was pretty bad. In 2015, I set a goal of reading 50 books, hit it in September, and tacked on another 25 at the end. My ambition inflated by that success, I set a goal of 100 books this year. And I failed miserably.

As usual, I started off the year with a bunch of kids’ books as part of the Global Reading Challenge. My reading dropped down to one or two books per month when my freelance business took off and I found myself working crazy hours all spring. A summer full of travel and child care – and more work than last year – kept the rate low until I got sick in October. Apparently, I didn’t read a single book in October. In November, I read Egil’s Saga three times, but since I read Egil’s Saga years ago, I couldn’t add it to my Goodreads total.

Then, I got my Goodreads report in the middle of December and thought, “No fair, the year isn’t over yet!” I delayed sharing it so that I could squeeze at least one more book in. But I am reading Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter right now, and it just goes on forever. I’m not sure, but if I finish before New Years, it might dislodge Shantaram as my longest read of the year.

The worst part, though, is that as few books as I read this year, I don’t remember quite a few of them at all. The only ray of light in this bleak report is that I read a couple of books this year that have changed my way of seeing the world forever, and that I am finally, finally, discovering the powerful, amazing, rich, brilliant, erudite, and insightful world of African-American literature.

TOTALS

Img totalmediuml 2x