2015: My Year in Reading

Alas, I did not complete my  Reading Syllabus by the time the clock rolled over to 2016. That said, I only missed it by two books and one of those books was a book on money management, which I think we all knew I’d beg off if I had the chance. The other was a “tough read” and I promise to give Never Let Me Go the time it deserves in 2016. 

Thanks in large part to Infinite Jest, I read 16,690 pages this year. The longest book I read was indeed IJ at 1,079 pages, the shortest is a tie between Sharks in the Rivers by Ada Limon and Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi, both 96 pages long. I managed to finish every book I started this year, which  I don’t think I have ever done. I didn’t really mind hating, or even being bored by, some of the things I read, which is good because I read Go Set a Watchman this year and that book’s both hateful and boring. I also read 25 romance novels. That’s almost half the reading I did this year (52 books total) and I only started reading them in August/September after I finished IJ. They’re damn readable, full of interesting women stuck in situations that demand they hide that (I read mostly historical fiction and the female protagonist who shirks off societal obligations/norms in favor of her own sense of self is a pretty common trope), and they are a guaranteed happy ending. For a person with anxiety and occasional insomnia, it’s much better than staying up reading something that might accidentally set me on edge. I feel like I might be explaining my choices here and I don’t have to explain myself.

I also made an effort to read more diversely and looking at the final numbers, I could have done better. I also did much better than I probably ever have:

Author Break Down:

Men: 13 (7 white men, 6 men of color)

Women: 14 (12 white women, 7 women of color)

If I recall correctly, I had a fairly even gender split in 2014, but my reading was almost exclusively white and American. Six of the books I read this year were by non-American authors, and of those only one was by a white/European author. While I included a line for an LGBT author/story (fulfilled by James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room), a number of the romance novels I read included LGBT side characters–not as oddities or scandals, but as people. 

Does reading my diversely make me a better person? No, it’s doesn’t. I’m not sure I could say that I am honestly more enlightened or open-minded than I was at the start of 2015 as a result of the books I read this year. I’d like to think I am, but I also know that when I choose to read James Baldwin as my LGBT  author instead of a living, working writer I’m not helping anyone right now except me (and the employees of the used book store where I purchased Giovanni’s Room…and even that is suspect since I use trade-in credits to buy the book.) Part of the reason readers need to practice a little more reading affirmative action is that a large enough shift in consumption would signal to publishing companies that readers want diverse books. It wouldn’t solve the problem of publishing’s lack of diversity, but it could help alter the landscape. People who don’t want to change their reading habits often respond to this suggestion with something along the lines of “but I’m just reading the best work I can find…” Implicit in that statement is the assumption that the best writers are white or male or straight or cisgender and that’s not true. The canon is  full of great books, but it’s not full of dead white guys because Henry David Thoreau is necessarily a better writer than Margaret Fuller. It’s because the thoughts and experiences of white men have historically been valued as having more universal merit than the writings of women (or people of color, or gays and lesbians, etc.)

I don’t have anything so strict planned for 2016. I have a tentative TBR full of books I picked up this year, but did not have time for (I’m looking at you A Little Life and A Brief History of Seven Killings.) I’d like to keep reading contentiously, which is to say aware of the context in which a work was written and by whom so that I continue to experience stories that do not at all mirror my own. I can use Goodreads to trackwhat I’m reading and make adjustments when I see myself reverting to type. I started a book club late last year, so that will guide my reading somewhat. I’m not great at taking my friends up on their reading recommendations. This is a good experiment for me. 

2015 Reading Syllabus: Final Tally 

I’ve bolded the books I’d recommend.

A book by an African author. Ghana Must Go: Taiye Selasi

A book by an Asian author not named Haruki Murakami. The Noodle Maker: Ma Jian

A book by a Central or South American author. House of Spirits: Isabel Allende

A book by a Middle Eastern author. Earth and Ashes: Atiq Rahimi

A book by Haruki Murakami. After the Quake

A book by an LGBT author. Giovanni’s Room:  James Baldwin

A book in translation. Europeana: Patrík Ourednik

A novella I read in one sitting. Parnassus on Wheels: Christopher Marley

A collection of poetry (published in the last five years.) Sharks in the Rivers: Ada Limón 

A collection of short stories (again, published in the last five years.) Bream Gives Me Hiccups: Jesse Eisenberg 

East of Eden

A book of historical non-fiction. Rain: A Natural and Cultural History: Cynthia Barnett

A book by a Native American author. Tonto and the Lone Ranger in a Fistfight in Heaven: Sherman Alexie

A book by an African American author. Between the World and Me: Ta-Nehisi Coates

A book by a Latino/a-American author. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao: Junot Diaz

A YA novel The Fault In Our Stars: John Green

A “tough” read. DID NOT COMPLETE

A book about feminism. Bad Feminist: Roxane Gay 

A book about race in the United States. Men We Reaped: Jesmyn Ward

A book recommended by my CBT. Daring Greatly: Brene Brown

Some good old fashioned po-mo. Infinite Jest: David Foster Wallace

A collection of essays. Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Joan Didion

A non-superhero graphic novel. Persepolis: Marjan Satrapi

Something I really should have read by now. Wuthering Heights: Emily Brontë

A book about money management. DID NOT COMPLETE

Sci-fi/Fantasy. Kindred: Octavia Butler