Reading reading reading

A year ago, I was determined to read more and social media less. Last year was definitely a year of extremes and one thing that kept me sane was keeping my nose in a book. This year I plan to read as much as possible while again limiting social media.

Looking back 2017

In 2017 I finished 205 books! A good chunk of that number was rereading favourite series and authors.

Many were NetGalley titles that actually resulted in reviews, though I’m net yet near the desired 80% review rate. I even had a few reviews published in Knitty! (Issue 60, First Fall 2017 and Issue 61, Deep Fall 2017)

What were my favourite reads of 2017?

It’s really difficult for me to choose! Every book I completed was one at the right time for me, if it wasn’t I set it aside.

For fiction, I think it’s important to read different viewpoints. To that end, Everfair by Nisi Shaw, The Reader by Traci Chee, and Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor are important to read. If you haven’t yet read anything by NK Jemisin you should! Her Broken Earth trilogy is a must read.

I absolutely loved David Tanis Market Cooking and it’s made me really miss being able to easily and regularly get to the Union Square Green Market. While many friends published amazing knitting books this year, I’m going to cite Kate Atherley‘s Knit Mitts: Your Hand-y Guide to Knitting Mittens & Gloves as my favourite book, but it could be the extreme cold snap we’re experiencing. I’m working on a pair of gloves in Anzula Gerty. I also know that without a doubt, Clara Parkes‘ A Stash of One’s Own: Knitters on Loving, Living with, and Letting go of Yarn arrived at the absolute right time for me to read as did Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert’s Story by Debbie Tung.

For fun reads I really enjoyed Kevin Hearne‘s A Plague of Giants. David O’Malley’s The Rook and Stiletto. I also found, to my surprise, that I greatly enjoyed The Merchant Princes series by Charlie Stross.

Looking forward to 2018

As always my hope is to complete at least 52 books. I have no idea what the coming year will bring and that number feels reasonable.

I am trying to spend less of my free time in front of screens, including my tablet. For a while I entertained the deluded idea that the way to do this was to buy and use an eink reader again. My thought was that I would be limited to books and not tempted by social media while I was reading. Thankfully a good look at my book cases reminded me I have lots of books to read and there is no need to buy something new. In addition since I’m so far behind on book reviews, many of those eARCs from Net Galley are now titles I can check out from my library!

Is there a book you think I should read? Please, let me know.

• Category: books