Overall

Thirty books completed this year!

Themes

We’ll see what themes emerge with this year’s reading. I have a good backlog of physical and electronic books to work through, so I plan on pulling primarily from that, with supplementary efforts to make sure I’m continuing to read across various axis of diversity.

Completed

• Literary Journalism, edited by Norman Sims and Mark Kramer
  • Completed: Jan. 4, 2023
  • Source: Purchased for college literary journalism seminar, 1998
• Black Paper, by Teju Cole
  • Completed: Jan. 15, 2023
  • Source: Purchase
• Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, by Mason Currey
  • Completed: Jan 28, 2023
  • Source: Gift
• Bicycling with Butterflies, by Sara Dykman
  • Completed: Feb. 13, 2023
  • Source: Around the hill neighbor’s free pile
• The High Sierra, by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Completed: March 27, 2023
  • Source: Gift
  • An absolute joy of a read, reminding me of a couple of summers I spent in the Sierra as a camp counselor
    • The area I worked wasn’t in the book’s coverage area, but there are areas near to where I’ve passed through on other vacation trips with my folks
  • 530 some-odd pages!
• Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport
  • Completed: April 8, 2023
  • Source: Library
  • Interesting, but, since being away from Twitter since late Dec. 2022, a lot of what Newport describes and advocates for have already just fallen in
  • If and when there’s a reconsideration of the 2010s and what social media meant, I believe a key conclusion will be a deleterious effect on attention spans and nuance
  • I also believe a key finding will be, when it worked well, a serendipitous joy, shaded by the fact that the signal to noise declined over time
• Run River, by Joan Didion
  • Completed: April 18, 2023
  • Source: Library
  • The narrative was very enjoyable on its own, but I really valued the place setting of the Sacramento Valley in the 1940s and 50s. So much recognition from my time there much later
  • One of the events mentioned in passing in the book is the Wheatland Hop Riot, which, I did not know was a thing going to high school not that far over the Feather River from Wheatland.
• Diane Arbus: A Biography, by Patricia Bosworth
  • Completed: May 14, 2023
  • Source: Library
  • I really struggled reading this until the last quarter of the book
  • I suspect some is that the material itself, the life of Diane Arbus, is challenging, but also the biography is relentlessly and exhaustingly linear
• Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022, edited by Rebecca Roanhorse
  • Completed: June 9, 2023
  • Source: Gift
  • A number of absolute banger stories in this collection
• Kissa by Kissa, by Craig Mod
  • Completed: July 1, 2023
  • Source: Purchase
  • Reread
• The Peripheral, by William Gibson
  • Completed: July 4, 2023
  • Source: Gift
  • Rereading this after having read it not long after it came out
• The Great Railway Bazaar, by Paul Theroux
  • Completed: July 6, 2023
  • Source: Amazon Prime Reading
  • Overall, very enjoyable, but the book definitely has elements of the time it was written in the early 1970s
  • I’m interested in reading the 2010s follow-up title to see how Theroux changed at all in approach and life experience besides the local changes along the way
• No One is Talking About This, by Patricia Lockwood
  • Source: Library
  • Completed: July 15, 2023
• A World Without Email, by Cal Newport
  • Source: Library
  • Completed: Aug. 1, 2023
  • I finished reading this during one of the busiest work periods I have during the year, and prompted a ton of thinking about how to improve the structure of how I work
  • Worthwhile
• Three Simple Lines, by Natalie Goldberg
  • Source: Library
  • Completed: Aug. 11, 2023
  • Fantastic book that’s given me much to think about regarding photography
• The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
  • Source: Library
  • Completed: Aug. 30, 2023
• Let Dogs Be Dogs, by the Monks of New Skete and Marc Goldberg
  • Source: Purchase
  • Completed: Sept. 3, 2023
  • This dog training book is less about step-by-step training instruction and a lot more about vibes
    • There’s space for that kind of thing though, and this has been helpful
  • The general vibe is: Your dog needs you to act as a pack leader for both you and your dog to get the most out of your mutual relationship
• Best American Short Stories 2022, edited by Andrew Sean Greer
  • Source: Gift
  • Completed: Sept. 8, 2023
  • As ever, a delightful and thought-provoking collection of short fiction
• All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy
  • Source: Library
  • Completed: Sept. 20, 2023
  • McCarthy’s unconventionalness around standard writing practices like shorter chapters, punctuating contractions, providing quotation around dialog makes getting into the story a little more challenging
  • Overall, a good read with some absolute gem passages of imagined observation and scene making
• The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig
  • Source: Purchase
  • Completed: Sept. 28, 2023
• Starter Villain, by John Scalzi
  • Source: Purchase
  • Completed: Oct. 1, 2023
  • Hands down, the funniest book I’ve read in a long while
  • It’s a fast read and while that sounds like damning with faint praise, it is not
  • It reads fast because it is tight and exceptionally well-written
• Sidekiq in Practice, by Nate Berkopec
  • Completed: Oct. 6, 2023
  • Source: Purchase
• Resilient Web Design, by Jeremy Keith
  • Completed: Oct. 15, 2023
  • Source: Free online
• On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals, by Turid Rugaas
  • Completed: Oct. 20th, 2023
  • Source: Purchase
  • A very fast and informative read on understanding your dog’s body language
• The Ministry for the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Completed: Nov. 10, 2023
  • Source: Library
  • Interesting, if somewhat bleak speculative fiction about the events that will lead to the planet addressing climate change
  • Further interesting because his experiences in Switzerland, covered in High Sierra: A Love Story very clearly informs this book
• Imprints by David Plowdon
  • Completed: Nov. 19, 2023
  • Source: Gift
  • A career-spanning retrospective of 40-plus years of photography, from steam locomotive-driven trains, steel mills, bridges, and lots of midwest farmland
  • I received this as a gift in college when I was working primarily with a 4x5 view camera and I remember skimming it then, but I appreciate it more now
• Walkaway, by Cory Doctorow
  • Completed: Dec. 2, 2023
  • Source: Library
  • Of a piece with William Gibson’s The Peripheral and Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future
• Herding Cats, by Sarah Anderson
  • Completed: Dec. 7, 2023
  • Source: Library
• M Train, by Patti Smith
  • Completed: Dec. 10, 2023
  • Source: Library
• Leviathan Wakes, By James S.A. Corey
  • Completed: Dec. 26, 2023
  • Source: Library