My year in books: 2022 edition

This is the year I stopped obsessively bean counting toward a reading goal. Number of books read. Calculations of reading velocity, including the average number of books read per week and per month. The sheer quantity of pages turned — for I am forever a reader of print, or at least until my eyesight fails me. I even missed writing up a few in the book log that I have kept faithfully since Thanksgiving 2006.

While I’d like to say this letting go was intentional, the truth is, I’ve been hit hard by middle-age malaise this year. No longer fresh faced and feeling overwhelmed in turns by 401k contributions and how much plastic I’ve used in a lifetime and why gun violence is the number one cause of death for children in this country. But I digress.

Ceasing to count these key performance metrics has not been without its gifts and chief among them has been the chance to live with a book much longer than I normally would — to wallow in the wordplay, to get to know the characters living between the pages, and to sit with the ideas and emotions they invoke.

Without a complete list of books read to reference this year, here are the ones still alive in my mind with a hint about why they linger:

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonazalez

Because I should have been thinking more about Puerto Rican independence.

The Reading List: A Novel by Sara Nisha Adams

Because you’ll cry, you’ll laugh, and your faith in humanity will live on.

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

Because I will forever love a Gatsby retelling.

The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazard

Because this quote is a whole mood: “Dora sat on a corner of the spread rug, longing to be assigned some task so she could resent it.”

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

Because this is the book I wish I had written had I been more ambitious (bonus: the podcast brings me joy)

The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen 83 ¼ Years Old author unknown

Because if you can’t laugh at growing old and life in a retirement home, you’ll cry (and I speak from experience).

The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas

Because this quote made me cackle out loud: “Boxtel, once more worsted by the superiority of his hated rival, was now completely disgusted with tulip growing, and being half mad with jealousy devoted himself entirely to spying.”

Delphi by Claire Pollard

Because this captures the zeitgeist of the COVID lockdown malaise with such perfection and I loved visiting Delphi.

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What books have called to you this year?