I had a hard year. It’s strange to be here on the other side of the world away from my loved ones, especially during such a volatile time in my country’s history. I felt helpless, lonely, and frustrated a lot in 2017. Books and music, as always, provided much comfort, as well as entertaining and educating me.
I read 97 books total in 2017. Ninety-seven! I can’t believe that; doesn’t seem real. Is it weird that even though I wildly exceeded my goal and read more than ever before in a single year, I’m a little mad I didn’t hit 100?? I’m a competitive person. A lot of them were in the form of audiobooks listened to while I was spending hours drawing. Reading on paper is still my favorite method, though, and I want to get back to reading more of my physical books in the new year.
• 97 books read total
• 9,599 pages read
• 407 hours (approx.) of audiobooks (that’s 17 days!)
• 27.8% paper books, 58.8% audiobooks, 11.3% ebooks, 2.1% paper/audio
• 61.9% non-fiction, 38.1% fiction
• 64.9% library borrows, 32% own books read, 2.1% audible free trial, 2% borrow
• 2007: average publishing year of books read
• 2017: publishing year of most books read (38 of 97)
• 8 books read per month average
I did track author gender (identifying as), POC or not, and whether they were from the United States or not. I ended up about half-and-half on gender and POC/white, but disproportionately more American writers than other nationalities. I’d like to read even more books by women, writers of color, and non-Americans in 2018… although I admit I usually just go with what looks good and interesting to me first and foremost before taking these other items into account. But I’m glad I started tracking this to be more aware of my reading choices and to diversify it further.
Here are my favorite books I read in 2017, separated by non-fiction and fiction, in alphabetical order by author’s last name (links go to my individual posts):
• The New Jim Crow … Michelle Alexander (2010)
• What Happened … Hillary Clinton (2017)
• Hunger … Roxane Gay (2017)
• Janesville: An American Story (audio) … Amy Goldstein (2017)
• Killers of the Flower Moon (audio) … David Grann (2017)
• When Breath Becomes Air … Paul Kalanithi (2016)
• The Glass Castle … Jeannette Walls (2005)
• They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us … Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib (2017)
• What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky (ebook) … Lesley Nneka Arimah
• The Heart’s Invisible Furies (audio) … John Boyne
• The Hearts of Men (audio) … Nickolas Butler
• Bitch Planet, Vol. 2: President Bitch … DeConnick / De Landro
• Difficult Women … Roxane Gay
• Made for Love (audio) … Alissa Nutting
• Borne … Jeff VanderMeer
• Sing, Unburied, Sing … Jesmyn Ward
**all fiction here published in 2017
Honorable Mentions from 2017 (alpha by author’s last name):
The Teacher Wars … Dana Goldstein (2014)
The Road to Jonestown (audio) … Jeff Guinn (2017)
A Colony in a Nation … Chris Hayes (2017)
A Thousand Splendid Suns (audio) … Khaled Hosseini (2007)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (audio) … Ken Kesey (1962)
The New Odyssey (audio) … Patrick Kingsley (2017)
The Lathe of Heaven (audio) … Ursula K. Le Guin (1971)
The Radium Girls (audio) … Kate Moore (2017)
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer … Siddhartha Mukherjee (2010)
Born a Crime (ebook) … Trevor Noah
ZeroZeroZero (audio) … Roberto Saviano (2013)
What Happened was difficult, personally, but definitely worth it. I have had The New Jim Crow and Hunger on my list for far too long… I really need to get to them. And I’m intereted in Janesville, now. I think this one was also on President Obama’s favorites list.
Yes, Janesville was on Obama’s list, as well as Evicted by Matthew Desmond, which I read last year. Excellent complementary books about poverty and economics in working class America right now. Hunger can’t have been on your list that long, it practically just came out! 🙂 Here’s to a great year of reading in 2018!
I loved Hunger – I read that one last year. I plan to read Killers of the Flower Moon at some point since so many people have spoken highly of it. I’m also hoping to reread The Glass Castle since I read it years ago and remember loving it. I kind of want to watch the movie but want to reread the book before doing so. The only fiction book I have on my TBR is Sing, Unburied, Sing and I’m also going to try and get the John Boyne book from the library. Great picks!
Thanks! The Glass Castle movie was very good, I was satisfied with the adaptation. I have to read Alias Grace soon because I’m dying to watch the Netflix version!!