I have always been something of a sporadic reader (sometimes I would say a "reading camel"—I could read a few books in short order and then not really read much of anything for months and months at a time.) Last year, around Christmastime, I had added Wendell Berry's Jayber Crow to my Amazon list, and my parents gave it to me for Christmas. After reading it (twice), I kept the pattern going by starting through a handful of books that had been neglected or half-started on my shelves. For most of the year, I managed to stay reading fairly consistently. There were gaps here or there, but often at night I would sit down in bed and read however many pages before calling it a night and going to sleep. I don't have any set goals for anything, each book tends to have its own velocity, some are simply easier to read than others. Particularly for reading before bed, fiction or some kind of narrative works best, it can be hard to read too many dense paragraphs of theology or political philosophy before my eyelids lose the battle with gravity. (There have been exceptions to this, however!)
I generally keep track of what I'm reading on GoodReads, and I have an ever-growing list of books that I want to read at some point. I often take recommendations from various newsletters that I subscribe to and other folks that I follow on Twitter. I've rarely been steered wrong by those.
Top Five
These I will list as my favorite five books that I read all year.
Jayber Crow (Wendell Berry)
This is somewhat tongue in cheek, but in some ways I started at the top and it was all downhill from there. I've never particularly been able to identify with folks that say they've read the Lord of the Rings trilogy or whatever umpteen times, I can't think of any book, really, that I've read more than once, or read multiple times within, say, ten years. My second reading of this was about two weeks after I finished it the first time, because I realized I simply wanted to spend more time in that world, and with those characters, and I've collected a handful more of his books about the Port William Membership since, but this remains my favorite among them. (I'm contemplating re-reading this one again when I finish my current stack in progress.)
Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry)
I picked this up on a whim from the library this fall. At more than 850 pages, it's quite a long one, and having a train ride to Connecticut and some downtime while with friends there helped me get through it before the loan expired. Like Jayber Crow, McMurtry built a fascinating world that made it easy to keep reading.
Home (Marylinne Robinson)
A follow-on novel set in Gilead, but focused on Glory and Jack. The exploration of the alienation felt by those two, in different ways, resonated with me, and this may have been my favorite of the series (up there with Gilead.)
The Uncontrollability of the World (Hartmut Rosa)
One of those non-fiction exceptions to being able to read at night without losing the thread of the argument, it seems to present a sharp argument of what happens when Ellul's technological society continues on to its natural end.
My Life in France (Julia Child)
Child's memoirs of her years studying cooking in France while her husband served in the foreign service through her time developing her book and cooking show in the States. I found it engaging and entertaining.
The Full List
- Jayber Crow (Wendell Barry) - 5/5
- Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut) - 3/5
- The Voyage of the Narwhal (Andrea Barrett) - 3/5
- Art & Faith (Makoto Fujimura) - 3/5
- Jack (Marylinne Robinson) - 4/5
- Hannah Coulter (Wendell Berry) - 5/5
- Silas Marner (George Eliot) - 3/5
- Calico Joe (John Grisham) - 1/5
- The Uncontrollability of the World (Hartmut Rosa) - 4/5
- All That's Good (Hannah Anderson) - 3/5
- The Memory of Old Jack (Wendell Berry) - 5/5
- Blackout (Connie Willis) - 3/5
- Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) - 3/5
- A World Lost (Wendell Berry) - 3/5
- Tools for Conviviality (Ivan Illich) - 3/5
- All Clear (Connie Willis) - 3/5
- Death Comes for the Archbishop (Willa Cather) - 4/5
- Housekeeping (Marylinne Robinson) - 2/5
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Agatha Christie) - 3/5
- My Life in France (Julia Child) - 4/5
- The World Beyond Your Head (Matthew B. Crawford) - 4/5
- Humble Roots (Hannah Anderson) - 3/5
- Home (Marylinne Robinson) - 5/5
- The Twilight World (Werner Herzog) - 5/5
- A Place on Earth (Wendell Berry) - 5/5
- Piranesi (Susannah Clarke) - 4/5
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig) - 2/5
- Sea of Tranquility (Emily St. John Mandel) - 3/5
- Barracoon (Zora Neale Hurston) - 3/5
- Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry) - 5/5
- The Human Condition (Hannah Ardent) - 4/5
- Remembering (Wendell Berry) - 3/5
- The World Cannot Give (Tara Isabella Burton) - 4/5
- Lila (Marylinne Robinson) - 3/5
- Walden (Henry David Thoreau) - 2/5
- Women Talking (Miriam Toews) - 4/5
- Crossroads (Jonathan Franzen) - 4/5
Children's Books
Most nights I try to read to Abby, my oldest, before she goes to bed as well. We'll bounce between some of the short picture books she brings home from the school library and some longer form books that I've picked out. Her favorte of the latter I'm pretty sure is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. When I told her that there was a book called that, I'm pretty sure that the fact that chocolate was involved was enough to make it a sight-unseen (book-unread) favorite. We are currently re-reading it. I've listed the other books I've read with her below, with my ratings attached to them.
- Charlotte's Web (E.B. White) - 4/5
- Stuart Little (E.B. White) - 3/5
- Skunk & Badger (Amy Timberlake) - 3/5
- The Trumpet of the Swan (E.B. White) - 3/5
- Egg Marks the Spot (Amy Timberlake) - 3/5
- Zita the Spacegirl (Ben Hatke) - 3/5
- The BFG (Roald Dahl) - 3/5
- Charlie and the Chocoate Factory (Roald Dahl) - 4/5
- The Tale of Despereaux (Kate DiCamillo) - 4/5