Reading 52 Books in 52 Weeks, Year 9
Work and writing made this a hectic year! I read more widely across formats and for different purposes, finding not just advice and levity but also expansive ways of thinking about creativity, relationships, and the world.
What I did differently this year
2022 was very busy. I stepped into a management role at work in January and the rest of the year was an intense push to launch a new platform and redesigned website. In the evenings, I focused on writing short stories and trying to reach my rejection goal. I was generally always reading something, but I wasn’t as intentional about it this year. While my friend and I kept up our romance book club, I otherwise didn’t have much time to attend many book or author-related events.
My Goodreads frequently told me that I was 3–5 books behind my reading goal, but at this point, I don’t stress about it too much. Having done this for almost a decade (!!) I know my reading pace and patterns pretty well and can adjust pretty easily. Sometimes that means reading shorter books, other times it’s reading other genres or reading two books at once (usually one fiction, one nonfiction).
I still use my book-tracking spreadsheet to track metadata around the books and authors I read. The final count ended up being 52 books, with 1 book written by a nonbinary person of color, 43 books by women (19 of those written by women of color) and 8 books by men (4 of those written by men of color).
I was able to read more advance copies of books like Permission to Come Home, Disorientation, and How Far the Light Reaches (thank you to the publicists and authors who have been so generous!) I made use of various libraries, including the NYPL, the Brooklyn Public Library, and The Center for Fiction where I became a member. Of the 52 books I read, 25 were library checkouts. I read across more formats: 40 physical books, 11 ebooks (including 1 Kobo original, which I only got because I’m that dedicated to Talia Hibbert), and 1 audiobook.
The first, and so far only, audiobook I’ve listened to is What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo. A coworker recommended the audiobook specifically, so I checked it out using my Audible trial one weekend while my partner and I had a long drive for a wedding. Foo is a seasoned radio journalist and producer, and her narration really deepened the emotional resonance of her story. It was also illuminating how she incorporated recordings of her own therapy sessions.
This year was one of my most active writing years. I published a short story in The Lumiere Review and won first place in the Pigeon Pages Flash Contest. I attended my first ever fiction workshops at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop and Aspen Words. I participated in Jami Attenberg’s mini #1000wordsofsummer and finished a novel draft. I continued my biweekly newsletter with 21 dispatches. One of my favorites was an interview with Elaine Hsieh Chou about her debut novel, Disorientation. I did readings of my own work at The Cosmos Community Reading Series and Ditmas Lit!
Pages read per month:
Breakdown of books I read:
As has been my pattern for the last few years, I skewed more towards fiction than nonfiction: 36 vs. 16, plus 1 book of poetry.
In nonfiction, I read some excellent memoirs (Messy Roots, Heavy, I Came All This Way to Meet You) and memoir-istic essay collections (How Far the Light Reaches, Having and Being Had). I read books on fandoms, more generally with Everything I Need I Get from You and specifically my favorite TV show with The 30 Rock Book. I found books like Resilient Management, The Making of a Manager, and The First 90 Days extremely helpful primers on engineering management. Some craft books I read were The Anatomy of Story and Craft in the Real World.
In fiction, I read several incredible short story collections like Fiona and Jane and You Will Never Be Forgotten. My favorite novels of the year were Parable of the Sower and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, both stellar examples of world building and epic in their own ways. My partner and I decided to read one spooky book in October—last year was Misery, this year it was Frankenstein. I read novels by authors who were my workshop leaders (The Family Chao, You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine). Since social media and technology are central in my own fiction, I read books that tackled similar topics, such as Happy for You, Several People Are Typing, and No One Is Talking About This. I devoured 15 romance novels, many of which were thanks to the romance book club with my friend! She introduced me to Evie Dunmore, Lisa Kleypas, and Christina Lauren. We continued reading our favs, Sarah MacLean, Tessa Bailey, and Emily Henry.
How I track what I read
I tweet out a book when I finish it with the hashtag #52booksin52weeks. I use Coach.me and Goodreads to track day-to-day progress. I started compiling all of my tweets/books into Twitter Moments for better discoverability: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. As of 2022, Twitter has made it so that only “professional content creators” can create Moments, among other sweeping changes…🥴 I’ve liked sharing my recent reads in my newsletter and the books can be found on my Bookshop page.
How I choose books to read
I continuously add books to my to-read list on Goodreads. I am not immune to all the anticipated book releases and year-end lists. I try to support authors I like and writers whose work I follow. I got some great recommendations from friends who are fellow writers (Intimacies, Eileen) and am increasingly trying to read more books that are in conversation with my own writing.
A few favorites
- Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
- Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
- A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore
- Something New Under the Sun by Alexandra Kleeman
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
- What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo
- Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses
- Having and Being Had by Eula Biss
- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Heavy by Kiese Laymon
- How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler
What I’m doing differently this year
I’ve seen a friend recommend the #10books10decades reading challenge, which seems like a great way to read more widely. As much as I love reading new releases, there are also so many amazing books from past years (and decades!) that I have been meaning to read.
I ended up focusing more on short stories last year, but I’d like to start a longer writing project again in 2023. I’ll continue to delve into more craft books, as well as read comparison titles or books that deal with similar themes. Something I’m also trying to do more in the coming year is to maintain a kind of commonplace book, a place to compile things I’ve found interesting, but also to reflect on the types of media I consume (including books), why I admire them, and how they work. As a writer, I want to be a more analytical reader.
