Starting in 2017, I made a goal to not only read more, but to read consciously. I didn’t want to only focus on book count or book length, but I wanted to challenge myself. Reading is an amazing way to learn in depth from others’ perspectives, but that only happens if you are actually reading different perspectives.
In 2017, I found the majority of books I had read previously were books written in 20th — 21st century by white male authors who live in Western civilization. So I made these goals to incentivize reading diverse authors. In 2 years of doing this, I’ve learned so much and plan to continue on this trend.
Short Summary:
How did I do my 2019 reading goals? Ouch. Not that great at all. But it was a great year for reading women authors and graphic novels.
Reminder of 2019 Goals:
- Read 5 books a month (60 total): No, read 33 total.
- Read longer books ( > 300 pages): No
- Half of books by women: Yes! 61%
- Half of non-fiction books by women: Yes, 68%
- More than half of books written by an author of color: No, 42%
- A few books by non-western authors: Ok, 24%
- A few books by winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Yes
- A few books written before 1900: Ok
- Read more MENA (Middle East North Africa) books: No
2019 Results in Detail:
- Read 5 books a month (60 total):
No! Not even close. I read 33 books, or 14 less than last year and half my yearly goal. Was definitely overly ambitious here, but still disappointing I didn’t beat last years. I had many big life changes this year (such as moving to a new city and starting a new job) that affected my reading for the year. I’m optimistic about having more time to read in 2020.
2. Read longer books ( > 300 pages):
Not Really.
In 2018:
- average book length was 291 pages
- 19% of the books I read had more than 300 pages
In 2019:
- average book length was 272 pages
- 33% of the books I read had more than 300 pages
- But only 17% of the non-graphic novel books I read had more than 300 pages.
In 2018 I read a lot of books under 100 pages, but I had also read a few really long books that brought my average up. The longest was IQ84, which had almost 1,000 pages.
In 2019, more of my books were around the same length of ~250 pages. The longest book I read was the graphic novel Blankets by Craig Thompson with 592 pages. The longest book I read was 100 Years of Solitude with 417 pages.
3. Half of books by women
Yes! 61% of the books I read this year were by women. This is a huge win and something I was hyper conscious of this year because I hated failing at it last year. I’m very pleased I reached this goal.
4. Half of non-fiction books by women
Yes! I read 7.5 (0.5 for one that was co-authored) non-fiction books by woman this year.
In 2018, 34% of the non-fiction books I read were by woman.
In 2019, 68% of the non-fiction books I read were by woman.
I added this goal for 2019 because I’ve also noticed a big difference in the types of books I read by female authors. It was hard to find well recommended non-fiction books by female authors. Yet, I knew they existed and this was my way of prioritizing finding those books.
The best book I read this year, Educated by Tara Westover, fell into this category.
5. More than half of books written by an author of color
Almost.
In 2018, 47% of the books I read were by an author of color.
In 2019, 42% of the books I read were by an author of color.
A win in this category was reading a book by a Hispanic author (I didn’t read any last year).
A loss was not reading any books by any Indigenous authors this year and only reading 1 MENA book despite putting it as a priority.
6. A few books by non-western authors
In 2018, 23.4% of the books I read were by non-western authors.
In 2019, 24% of the books I read were by non-western authors.
I didn’t really have a specific target here, so this is good enough for me.
7. A few books by winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Yes, I read Toni Morison’s The Bluest Eye and my last book for 2019 was 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Gareia Marquez ( a book that took me over a year to finish).
Like last year, I learned more than I thought I would from these authors and read some spectacular writing.
8. A few books written before 1900
I read 1 book before 1900. I really liked this book, so a bit bummed I only read 1 book in this category.
9. Read more MENA books
No. I read 1 MENA book. Very disappointed in failing this category.
2019 Recommendations:
Here are the 5 books I’d highly recommend from 2019.
- Educated by Tara Westover — I read this memoir in Jan of 2019 and I still can’t stop thinking about it. Tara’s life sounds like fiction.
- How to win an election by Quintus Tullius Cicero — I was amazed by how relevant this book written over 2,000 years ago was.
- Saga series by Fiona Staples and Brian Vaughhan — I read 14 Graphic novels this year, and this series was by far the best. I could not put these books down.
- W.E.B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits by Whitney Battle-Baptise — The data nerd in me loved this. Long before computers, Du Bois hand drew data portraits on race in America that are as beautiful as they are informative. Also, a really short quick read.
- Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates — I was expecting to hate this book because most billionaire’s are out of touch. But I’d argue this is the best book about the issues involve women in poverty I’ve ever read. I’ve been reading a lot about this subject, so that’s saying something.
2020 Goals:
- Read 3 books a month ( 36 total). That felt very manageable in 2018, and I like having the potential to go over.
- Read 1 book over 600 pages. (Tolstoy, I’m looking at you).
- Half of books by women.
- Half of non-fiction books by women.
- Half of books written by an author of color.
- A few books by non-western authors.
- A few books by winners of the Nobel Peace Price. Taking a break from the literature category because I want to read more books about human rights next year.
- A few books written before 1900.
- Read at least 3 MENA (Middle East North Africa) books.
Categories of books I’m particularly interested in for 2020: Human rights, climate change (specifically policy), economics (with a focus on feminist economics), MENA books and poetry. Here is my current desired reading list for 2020.
Data and Past Years Results:
2019
2018
2017
