Every year, the r/Fantasy subreddit issues a challenge: complete a bingo card filled with various science fiction and fantasy topics on it. As you can see, the topics are varied, but that’s the point. The core of this challenge is encouraging readers to step out of their comfort zones, discover amazing new reads, and motivate everyone to keep up on their reading throughout the year.
It’s been far too long since I’ve done a personal year in review. Let’s take a look back at what I read, listened to, and watched in 2023. Reading I read forty-three books in 2023! That’s a total of 13,759 pages, with an average book length of 320 pages. The shortest book was 21 pages (Clap Back, by Nalo Hopkinson), while the longest book was 608 pages (Death’s End, by Cixin Liu).
I don’t read enough books written by women. Since I started keeping track of what I read, only 33% of the 180 different authors I’ve read are women. That’s a problem. I’ll be making a more concerted effort to read books by women from now on, starting with Women’s History Month, where I read books exclusively by women.
Continuing the tradition I started last year, I celebrated Black History Month by reading black authors. Here are those books I read along with some of my favorite passages from them. Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin How Long ’til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel Bump Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and this sense of somebody-ness.
2020 was quite a year, wasn’t it? Last year’s roller coaster both thrilled and nauseated me, and at different times made me happy, sad, depressed, confused, excited, fulfilled, overjoyed, and despaired. Is that enough adjectives? Those will have to do, because 2020 brought on so many different emotions that my vocabulary is not large enough to describe it.
Reading is one of my favorite pastimes, and the pandemic hasn’t stopped my appetite for books. I have, however, steered clear of anything dystopian or post-apocalyptic, because who wants to read about that at a time like this! Instead, I’ve taken in the rare historical fiction novel along with the usual sci-fi and mystery/thriller books.
I decided to celebrate this Black History Month by reading only black authors. I even managed to mix in some non-fiction, a rarity for me. I thought it’d be fun to share my reading list along with my highlighted passages. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor Binti by Nnedi Okorafor The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The language of marriage is often a language of ownership, not a language of partnership.
Kobe Bean Bryant. August 23, 1978 - January 26, 2020. My mind has been all over the place since Kobe’s tragic death. I’ve been thinking about mortality, fatherhood, legacy, basketball, grief, depression, happiness, forgiveness, appreciation, family, friendship…as I said, all over the place. As I’ve been reading and listening to people speak about Kobe’s career, I found my thought’s in an interesting place: The Wise Man’s Fear.
2019 was quite a year of reading for me. I easily completed my Goodreads Reading Challenge by reading 34 books, which beat my previous record of 33 books in 2018. The Books All the books I read in 2019, in order of date read: Nomad, Matthew Mather Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Batman: Nightwalker, Marie Lu Sanctuary, Matthew Mather The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead Way Station, Clifford D.
As the decade draws to a close, I thought I’d make a list of some of my favorite books, albums, and movies released or published in the 2010s. For when the dog bites. And the bee stings. In no particular order: Books Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates The Sellout, Paul Beatty The Storied Life of A.
Barack Obama shared his summer reading list (see below), and he’s inspired me to share mine. Here are the books I’ve read so far this summer: Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor The Last Firewall, William Hertling Zeus is Undead: This One Has Zombies, Michael G. Munz Superman: Dawnbreaker, Matt de la Pena The Sellout, Paul Beatty The Robots of Dawn, Isaac Asimov The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang View this post on Instagram It's August, so I wanted to let you know about a few books I've been reading this summer, in case you're looking for some suggestions.
Once again I completed Goodreads Reading Challenge. My goal for 2018 was 15 books, and I read 33! A total of 11,211 pages. I’ve done the challenge for the last five years and have completed my goal each year. I think it’s time I raise the bar for 2019! Books I read in 2018 American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot, Craig Ferguson Origin, Dan Brown The Book Thief, Markus Zusak Molly’s Game, Molly Bloom American Assassin, Vince Flynn Flygirl, Sherri L.