(A limited edition cover for John Connolly’s The Book of Lost Things)
Hi friends,
This is a bit of a lighter note than I usually go for on this forum. I apologize for the lack of forthcoming essays here; I’ve been very happily hard at work on the first draft of something much longer, which I hope to share with you someday soon.
As some of you know, I keep a log of everything I read, by the year. At the end of each year, I publish that list on Medium, with an invite for discussion, recommendations, any sort of book-chatter, really.
This year, I’ve decided to do something a bit different. I’ve published my usual list on Medium, but want to take to this forum to do a little bit of analysis, if you will. (Analysis! Am I a woman in STEM yet?) So without further ado, here’s a little run-down of the good, the bad, the boring and the thought provoking.
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Total books read: 114*
The true number is actually more like 123, but nine of the books I read were so bad they don’t bear mentioning, so I took them off.
(Those nine books were JKR’s books for adults which I tore through on a lull in Libby holds. Suffice it to say, she tells on herself. Said a different way, she’s vile and so is her prose.)
Best books of the year’s reading
Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward
I’ve read other Jesmyn Ward and I know she is a master of prose, but the way this book balanced voice and beauty in each word has stayed with me since my initial reading. Also, what beautiful writing about dogs!
No Time To Spare, Ursula K. LeGuin
Many of us know UKL for her fiction, but I was pleasantly surprised to read this compilation of her nonfiction, especially excerpts of a blog she kept in old age. There’s a little essay she wrote about capitalism and how nothing in nature grows in perpetuity except for cancer that I think of still. (And who knew Ursula was so funny?)
The Land of Lost Things, John Connolly
Take a look at my book list and you’ll see that I have been on something of a John Connolly kick these last few weeks. The Book of Lost Things is the story that partially inspired Hayao Miyazaki’s Boy and the Heron and this is the unofficial sequel to that book. Eerie, haunting, without much logic, I loved this book.
Martyr, Kaveh Akbar
I spent a lot of time explaining the dream-dialogue conceit to people. I love a book that everyone is reading, that puts you in conversation with others. Out in paperback soon!
The Lost Journals of Sacagawea, Debra Magpie Earling
For many reasons related to my longer project, I’ve been thinking about Sacagawea and the Shoshone people this year. This book really helped spur, challenge and spin those thoughts.
Age of Vice, Deepti Kapoor
A book that I went to bed early to finish; characters and emotional landscapes that completely hooked me.
In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick
Nonfiction account of the real life ship that inspired Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (which I still have not read). Started a momentary obsession with accounts of survival-cannibalism. A good choice if you need to buy someone’s Dad a gift.
Worst/ Most boring books of the year
A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sara J. Maas
I’m not someone who will turn her nose up at Romantasy—I read Throne of Glass and thought it was fine! But this book was a SLOG and also overuses the word ‘snarl.’ If one more person snarls while they hold back their sexual desire, I’m going to scream and not in a good way.
After Alice, Gregory Maguire
Without really thinking of the Wicked implications, I went on a small Gregory Maguire binge in the early fall. I really enjoyed Hiddensee, his book about the Nutcracker. I thought this one, though, was like sweating through a fever dream. Can’t win them all, I suppose!
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry
Because of my personal history, narratives of addiction are both deeply compelling and also deeply upsetting. I hated reading this book, mostly for the anxiety and sorrow it caused.
The City of Mirrors, Justin Cronin
I had to read this because I needed to see how he landed the plane but by God was I tired of this world at the end. I learned from this series that you can’t successfully write an apocalypse story where everything is bad all the time. Readers need breaks.
Murtagh, Christopher Paolini
I hesitate to put this on the worst-of list because my inner fifth-grade-nerd loved coming back to these characters, but it also was a book that really made me think about how rough it must be to write your most successful work when you are too young to have a fully developed brain and then come back to this world as an adult and try to inject your newly mature sensibility. I’ll still read the next one though!
Non-book honorable mentions
Kobo
Even for me, 123 books in a year is a LOT. This would not have been possible had Jack not bought a Kobo e-reader for me for Christmas last year. The context here is that we co-sleep with our baby, who wakes up at the sound of a page being turned, so I hadn’t really spent a lot of time reading paper books after her birth. I must be honest, I scoffed when I opened Jack’s gift. “I don’t need this!” I said. How wrong I was. The Kobo has become an extension of my body. I carry it everywhere. I am actually on my third Kobo because the first one was stolen and the second one I accidentally stepped on. Shout out to the return policy at Target. I even bought Jack a Kobo as a thank you for my Kobo. Now we lay in bed in the dark both of our faces lit up in that hazy sepia light, reading away as our daughter dreams of soup between us (she was saying “Zoop! Zoop!” in her sleep last night).
Hate Reading
Recently, I read Stephen King’s On Writing which gave me a lot to think about. But one thing he said which I agree with is that reading one bad book can be more instructive than a whole semester of classes. The reason being it’s easy to identify what you hate and why when you hate read something. So I’m a big proponent for reading bad books!
DNF
For the longest time I’ve been averse to not finishing something I’ve started. This year, I started DNF-ing (Did Not Finish) books I couldn’t handle and weren’t even getting something out of. I was surprise to find it made me a faster reader—something about discarding a book makes me even hungrier to find the next one.
Friends
This year I got to participate in the delicious tradition of borrowing and lending books to friends, specifically my writer’s group. Because of them, I got to read Nightbitch, Shelley Parker Chan, and Rebecca Roanhorse. It reminded me of being in middle school, of standing around playgrounds and talking about favorite characters. Thanks friends, for providing me with the only paper books I read this year.
Going to Bed Early
People who know me IRL know that I am a huge proponent of bed time. Getting into my Kobo has made it a near-religion for me. These days, I eat dinner, take a bath with the baby, put her to sleep, hang out with the husband and then tuck myself in by 9 or so. Somedays I fall asleep after fifteen minutes. Other days I’m up for nearly three hours (usually when reading mysteries). I love books and I love bed time.
Alright, that’s my silly little run down of all thing book related. Questions for you: what did you like reading this year? what did you hate? Did any books make you wish you had a book club to discuss with?
Bookishly yours,
Nina
PS: If you liked any of this and wanted to ‘tip’ me for my writing, please consider donating to the Refaat Alareer Camp!