The end of the year often leads to sites publishing the "best books" of the past year, either published or read. I always enjoy these, as it often leads to getting information on possible new books to add to my to-read list.
Looking back at my past year in reading, I feel as if I lost my way a bit. I read 40 books this year; that's the first time I've read less than 50 books and the fewest books I've read since 2009. There are probably a lot of reasons for this - I was reading weekly subscriptions to both The New Yorker and The Economist, which certainly cut into my book reading time; my schedule from both a personal and professional standpoint was more chaotic over the last several months. But some of it was I just chose poorly how to spend my free time, choosing more mindless pursuits instead of committing to picking up the book sitting next to me.
In any event, I still read 40 books this year, totaling almost 16,000 pages. The shortest was Miguel Ruiz's The Four Agreements, with the longest being the massive City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg. I liked pretty much everything I read, giving 9 books 5 of 5 stars on Goodreads, 12 books 4 stars, 13 books 3 stars, and 6 books 2 stars. 19 books were non-fiction, 21 were fiction (best balance between the two I've had in awhile, at least).
On the 9 five-star books I read this year, I would say The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah would be the best piece of fiction I read this year, with Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari the best work of non-fiction I read this year. Both were terrific books that I would highly recommend.
When I start this year, I was hoping to up my book total by 5, from 55 to 60. I obviously fell well short of that challenge. Tomorrow's a new day, and a new year, to re-dedicate myself to utilizing my time in the pursuit of reading books. I must remind myself of why I enjoy reading - not only the break it gives my mind from my "real life" concerns, but that there are always more stories to be entertined by; more histories and culture and ideas to learn about. Here's hoping it motivates me towards better usage of my time, and pushing towards 60 books in 2018.
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