Most years, I try to do a little check-in partway through every year to see how my reading is going. As I’ve done in years past, I’m taking a look around the halfway point (ish) in the year at the books I’ve read so far, with links where they exist to books that I’ve reviewed or at least jotted a brief note or impression on Goodreads. As I’ve always pointed out, it’s a competition with no one but myself, but it is always useful and interesting to stop and reflect a bit where one is at with one’s reading, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Here’s the quantitative part: Of the 38 books I’ve read so far this year, 6 were non-fiction, 14 were poetry and the balance of 18 were fiction (novels and short story collections). One book was a reread. Two books were works in translation. Twenty-one of the books were by Canadian writers. Three books were read aloud in their entirety (over a period of time, not in one sitting), which is a wonderful way to share the experience with another reader/listener.
I continue to keep track of my reading in my handwritten, 36-year-old, recently beautifully rejuvenated book of books. I’ll include some pictures of my 2019 pages in this blog post.
Qualitatively, it’s definitely another good year. There are some selections on this year inspired by book club recommendations, particularly from our much beloved local silent book club here in east end Toronto, which you know I go on and on about. I’ve been privileged to read some more books in advance of their release and hope to share some enthusiastic reviews of them in the late summer / early fall.
I always have multiple books on the go, with me wherever I go, and I am one happy reader so far in 2019. Hope you are too!
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Milkman
Anna Burns
2018 -
Years, Months, and Days
Amanda Jernigan
2018 -
Voodoo Hypothesis
Canisia Lubrin
2017 -
Machine Without Horses
Helen Humphreys
2018 -
OBITS.
tess liem
2018 -
The Emissary
Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani
2018 -
The Long Take
Robin Robertson
2018 -
City Poems
Joe Fiorito
2018 -
Reproduction
Ian Williams
2019 -
Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte
1847
(read aloud) -
Indecency
Justin Phillip Reed
2018 -
Can You Ever Forgive Me? Memoirs of a Literary Forger
Lee Israel
2008 -
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
Kathleen Rooney
2017 -
Nirliit
Juliana Leveille-Trudel, translated by Anita Anand
2018 -
Human Hours
Catherine Barnett
2018 -
Living Up To a Legend
Diana Bishop
2017
(read aloud) -
The Quaker
Liam McIlvanney
2018 -
The Organist – Fugues, Fatherhood and a Fragile Mind
Mark Abley
2019 -
Wonderland
Matthew Dickman
2018 -
Gingerbread
Helen Oyeyemi
2019 -
These are not the potatoes of my youth
Matthew Walsh
2019 -
Quarrels
Eve Joseph
2018 -
Belonging – A German Reckons with History and Home
Nora Krug
2018 -
No Bones
Anna Burns
2001 -
The Perseverance
Raymond Antrobus
2018 -
Women Talking
Miriam Toews
2018 -
Girl of the Southern Sea
Michelle Kadarusman
2019 -
Watching You Without Me
Lynn Coady
2019 -
Normal People
Sally Rooney
2018 -
The Art of Dying
Sarah Tolmie
2018 -
There Are Not Enough Sad Songs
Marita Dachsel
2019 -
Most of What Follows is True
Michael Crummey
2019 -
On Looking – Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes
Alexandra Horowitz
2013
(read aloud) -
Heave
Christy Ann Conlin
2002 -
Into That Fire
MJ Cates
2019 -
The Teardown
by David Homel
2019 -
Watermark
Christy Ann Conlin
2019 -
Casting Deep Shade
C.D. Wright
2019
Currently in progress:
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The Flamethrowers
Rachel Kushner
2013 -
The Caiplie Caves
Karen Solie
2019 -
Broke City
Wendy McGrath
2019 -
Say Nothing
Patrick Radden Keefe
2019
(read aloud)
How is your reading going so far in 2019?