This is the first of three posts on what I read in 2023 (I know. But reading is my thing, so apologies in advance, because three posts is probably two (three?) more than you want.) This one is about what I read, then the next two will actually list the books. I'm going to try doing the lists this year with a shortened version of the reviews I posted on Goodreads, which makes for a longer post, which is why I split it in two.
I am all in favor of everyone reading whatever the heck they want, so I have zero intent to change your mind about what to read. But if you know how our tastes compare, then you can figure out if a book I like might be a book you will like. So, with that in mind:
What works for me: character-driven novels as long as something is happening; plot-driven novels as long as the characters are well-developed and memorable. It's not easy to make me laugh while reading, so when an author can do that, I love it. I often enjoy books that have a mystery element, but I'm only good for a handful of actual "mysteries" a year. I love some books that leave me in tears, but not many. And I especially love a book that surprises me with how good it is, which is not much help in figuring out my taste, I know. I love smart characters, competent characters, or on the other hand, characters that start out in a bad place but then learn and grow.
What doesn't work for me: horror, suspense, or anything that's going to interfere with my sleep. My main time to read is right before bed, so I don't want to read anything that's going to keep me up with dread, anxiety, or scary-ness. (That said, for my entire life I've stayed up too late on countless nights reading books I couldn't put down. I just don't want it to be because they are scary or horrifying.) I don't mind if Everything Is Awful at various different points in a story, but I don't like books whose main message is that Everything Is Awful, even if the writing is gorgeous. I do not like books that other readers describe as leaving them wrecked, sobbing on the floor with my soul torn in two. I'm just too old for that.
I was an English major in college, and I loved it. Then I went straight from undergrad into grad school to get a Master's in English, but I bailed, because I was so burned out on school. I hated grad school the first time I tried. But unlike people who get tired of reading when they have to study it in school, reading was never the problem. It was school that was the problem, not reading. I have gone through periods where I was uninterested in reading certain types of books, but I don't think I've had a day that I didn't read since I was in about second grade.
Then I went back to grad school when I was 49 and that time, I finished and got my Master's. I wrote about a bazillion posts about that while it was happening so I'll skip over that. Unfortunately, the second time ruined me for bad writing. I used to be able to read anything. Now it has to have a certain level of good writing or I can't get through it. I know I'm supposed to be a snob about that (and I am), but I also regret it. It's much harder to find books that I love now.
The other thing grad school did for me is use up whatever patience I once had for existentialism. It's been the gold standard of academic posturing for the past sixty years and I have no use for it. If you're sincere about it, it'll make you suicidal, and if you're not sincere about it, it's just a pose. No thank you. Human existence is inherently meaningful, and inherently worth experiencing. You don't need to believe in God to believe that. So there.
Whoa. Where did that soap box come from? So anyway. If you're out of patience with existentialism, that eliminates upwards of half of "serious" literary fiction from the past couple of decades, so I've been on the wrong side of intelligent opinions for awhile now. Which makes me kind of defiantly determined to read whatever the fuck I want, you know? So I read romance novels, science fiction, memoir, and all kinds of literary fiction, and if you tell me that we need a "women's fiction" category because it's not as intellectually sophisticated as so-called literary fiction, you and I have nothing in common, go away. And lucky for me, I'm not the only one who is getting tired of existentialism, so there's a lot more good literary fiction out there than there used to be. (Good as defined by me, that is.)
As I've said before, I keep track of my reading on Goodreads (click here). According to them, I read 98 books this year, but they count books that I shelve as "skimmed," which I don't, so really I read 86 books this year, a good amount. I'm happy with it. Mainly fiction, maybe a dozen non-fiction. The non-fiction was mostly memoir except for Sharon Salzberg's book Faith, which is excellent, even though it didn't make the top-twelve list I'll get to next time I post.
Sorry about all the grumpy opinions today. I feel like I didn't cover everything I meant to, but it's 11pm on Thursday night and I don't want to miss posting on Friday the very first week after I said I was going to start, so that is all. It's well below zero here right now (possible explanation for the grumpiness), I hope you are warm and have a stack of good books, wherever you are.
Post from the past: Last year's reading wrap-up
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