I have to admit, this was my worst year yet since finishing grad school back in 2011.
Since then, I've made it a goal to read at least 50 books a year (approximately 4 a month). This may seem like a lot, but it's really not. What I've found in the last couple years of being back in Kansas City, however, is that it's become more difficult to reach these numbers for a few reasons...the first one being the most important:
- I no longer take public transit everywhere. Since I drive my own car wherever I need to go, my face isn't buried in a book while I travel. I would spend AT LEAST an hour every day on a bus or train while living in San Francisco. This made for easily getting through my reading list.
- I spend more time working on my writing and hanging out with people from my past who I haven't seen since moving back to KC. I had a few friends commit suicide during my first year back, so I'm especially cognizant of the time I spend with people; it's grown rather than decreased because of those deaths.
Anyway, despite being laid up after back surgery, I didn't write or read nearly as much as in previous years, which is disappointing. Without any fanfare at all, here's the disappointing list from 2017.
December
01.) Bo Fowler - "Scepticism, Inc." (256pgs)
(256 pgs)
January
02.) Patrick Ness - "A Monster Calls" (205pgs)
03.) Roberto Bolano - "The Insufferable Gaucho" (164pgs)
(643 pgs)
February
04.) Amber Sparks - "The Unfinished World and Other Stories" (223pgs)
05.) Matthew Johnson - "Irregular Verbs and Other Stories" (340pgs)
(563 pgs)
April
06.) Steven Millhauser - "In the Penny Arcade" (164pgs)
07.) Steven Millhauser - "Voices in the Night" (290pgs)
08.) Phantom Drift Vol. 6: "The Impression of Irreducible Strangeness" (172pgs)
10.) Joshua Mohr - "Sirens" (179pgs)
(805 pgs)
June
11.) Carlos Ruiz Zafon - "The Midnight Palace" (301pgs)
12.) Don DeLillo - "Zero K" (274pgs)
13.) Carlos Ruiz Zafon - "The Watcher in the Shadows" (288pgs)
(863 pgs)
August
14.) Margaret Atwood - "The Handmaid's Tale" (311pgs)
15.) David Lagercrantz - "The Girl in the Spider's Web" (400pgs)
(863 pgs total)
September
18.) Matt Bell - "A Tree or a Person or a Wall: Stories" (400pgs)
(400 pgs total)
18 Books
4,393 Total Pages