I mentioned last year that I never do the ’52 books in a year’ challenge. I love reading, but it’s difficult to make it a priority when there’s a semester in session because there’s always so much that HAS to get done. So reading falls off the to do list. My StoryGraph* from 2023 did a good job demonstrating this:
I only managed to read 42 books because I read almost all of them during breaks. (That ‘only’ isn’t meant to imply that 42 is a small number of books to read in a year. I mean it in ‘this was the only possible path to that number’ way.)
I wanted to find a way to make reading a priority. In other words, a way to give myself permission to make it a priority (and no, noone needs permission to do so – it’s just how my brain works when I’m teaching). So I joined a book club. When that one turned out to be a complete mess, I joined a different one – June of ’23, the SciFi/Fantasy book club at my local bookshop was about the read Andy Weir’s Hail Mary Project – seemed like a perfect time to join. And then I joined a second one two months later. Fast forward to July of this last year, and I joined a third one…which might just be masochistic of me. 🤣 Three books a month when I’m mid-semester has turned out to be a lot – but I managed to keep my head above water so far. If anything, this has at least allowed me to spread out my books throughout the year:
While I only read two more books than last year, they were apparently longer – I read 4,526 more pages than last year – and that feels like I achieved my overall goal.
The one thing that gets to me, though, is that with three book clubs, there is no time during the semester to read anything just for me. I’ve tried reading ahead, but then by the time the meeting occurs, I’ve read so many other things that I’ve forgotten the book we’re about the discuss (I did start taking notes using the Trello app, though – that helps a bit).
One thing I really like about tracking apps is the ability to easily look back at what I read the previous year. My favorites from nonfiction (17/44) were the memoir Solito by Javier Zamora and the research-driven Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Evolution by Cat Bohannon. Both of these should be required reading – especially for anyone in public office. My favorite fiction (27/44) was Babel by R.F. Kuang.
What did your year of reading look like?
*If you’re on Goodreads but looking for a non-@m@zon alternative, check out StoryGraph. You can even transfer your Goodreads records over to StoryGraph – so no lost information and no wasted time trying to add every book you’ve ever read.
Ami Maxine 