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I look forward to this post every year, and I’ve had several clients and friends tell me they look forward to it too. Who am I to deny the people what they want? 🙂
I read 51 books in 2024, the third year in a row I’ve read 50 or more. That’s not counting the 6 manuscripts and 2 journal articles I edited. I also continued the periodic freelance writing gig I got last year.
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It’s time for what’s become an annual tradition for me–recapping my year in reading! For 2023, I read 50 books. That’s in addition to the 8 manuscripts and 1 journal article I edited. (I also picked up a freelance writing gig this year.) That’s two years in a row that I’ve read at least 50 books!
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For the past couple of years, I’ve ended the year with a reflection on and recap of my reading over the course of the year, and I wanted to continue the tradition to close out 2022.
I read 53 books for fun in 2022 and another 9 manuscripts, as well as several shorter projects, for work.
I tend to average about 30-40 books a year now–the years of devouring 100+ books a year haven’t happened since I was a teenager–and back in January, I assumed I’d maintain a similar pace for this year. Reading about a book a week was a pleasant surprise and one I’m not opposed to repeating next year if I can.
I tend to delve into deep-dive reading binges when something captures my attention, whether they’re nonfiction subjects or fictional series or multiple works from the same author. This year, I read a lot about topics that I always find myself drawn back to (true crime, World War II, the Holocaust, art history) and explored some new-to-me interests (1960s NASA and mountaineering disaster). I also got back into murder mysteries and enjoyed series that ranged in setting from fin-de-siècle Vienna to modern Quebec to the contemporary American Southwest. I love a good atmospheric mystery!
In any event, here are some of the books and series I found especially interesting, enjoyable, excellent, and/or thought-provoking. I also included some of the books I wanted to read and didn’t get around to (story of my life) and a few I’m already looking forward to next year.
What were you reading in 2022? What did you want to read and not get around to this year? What are you already looking forward to next year? Tell me! As you may have noticed, I love to talk about books. 🙂
Have you succumbed to Wordle? If you’re one of the uninitiated, it’s a daily word game where you have 6 chances to solve a 5-letter word.
I resisted for quite a while. I’m just naturally suspicious of trends. I don’t think this is necessarily a good or bad quality. It’s just the way I am.
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I always get reflective about my year in reading in late December, and I thought it might be a nice change of pace to take a brief break from the “What Is Editing” series to share some of what I’ve been reading this year.
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I’ve loved reading, writing, history, and true crime since I was a child. Some of my earliest memories involve demanding someone, anyone, explain the definitions of words to me; poring over my dad’s history books before I was old enough to understand what they were about; and hiding on the back porch to read true crime stories in magazines.
It is perhaps only inevitable that I grew up to be an editor who specializes in history and true crime, as well as other nonfiction, though it took me awhile to figure that out.
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