I'm still here! Thoughts on why this blog exists plus a preliminary Top Ten Books I Read in 2021 list

Life caught up to me these past few months, with things heating up at work at the same time as my non-reading extracurriculars (it can never be just one thing at a time, can it?), but I have been reading through it all and considering what direction I want to take this blog, if any, or if it should just be tabula rasa for me to do with it what I will.

Though I’ve not been posting, I have had some reading achievements since July: I read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (translated by Constance Garnett), read The Odyssey by Homer (translated by Emily Wilson (so good!)), began the Louise Penny Three Pines/Inspector Gamache series, and kicked off two travel reading projects. Along the way I finished my annual Goodreads goal of finishing fifty-two books, and I made a preliminary top ten list of books read in 2021 (I will include at the bottom of this post. The final list comes out in December; I usually post this to social media).

I may be overthinking it, but sometimes I am not sure I have much to add about a subject or a book that hasn’t already been said better by someone else, so I have felt a bit tongue-tied when considering blogging in the past couple months. This is not the first time I’ve opened up this blog since my last post, but it’s the first time I eked out more than a paragraph. I am writing this because I am trying to make sure I am thoughtful about what I put out there, to make sure I know WHY I want to write a blog. Is it to build community? Is it to start a conversation with someone? Is it just to check a box in my list of things I want to do? Is it to have fun? I mean, it can be all of the above or none of the above, I’m sure. Although I think the last question has to always be answered with a “yes” for just about anything for me, or I’m not sure I’ll stay motivated to keep at it.

I’ve considered making the focus of the blog be Reading Projects. I have several ongoing projects at any one time, some that I know will never be completed (Stephen King reading project, for example, unless I dedicate a year to Stephen King books. At this point, his annual output is greater than the number of his books that I read in a year.), some that have a deadline (chiefly revolving around travel plans or book awards ceremonies), and some that are achievable in this lifetime but have no deadline (read all of the Louise Erdrich books). Right now off the top of my head, these are my active projects:

• Stephen King Reading Project (read all books published under Stephen King’s name)
• Louise Erdrich novels (read all books published by Louise Erdrich)
• Quebec travel project (read 6 books either about or set in Quebec/Canada before 11/18 when I go to Quebec City, a trip booked after finishing Louise Penny’s Bury Your Dead, the sixth in the Three Pines Series) 
• Three Pines/Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny (I’m on book 7)
• Sister Fidelma mystery series by Peter Tremayne (I think I’m 2 books behind) 
• The Masquerade tetralogy by Seth Dickinson (all caught up, just waiting on publication of the final installment, but waiting very patiently. These books are all Very Worth the Wait.) 

• Greece travel project (read books on the history of Greece, travel writing in Greece, Greek novels, novels set in Greece or about people of Greek heritage, etc., deadline June 2022 or whenever my Greece trip happens) 
• Japan travel project (read about the history of Japan,  culture of Japan, travel writing in Japan, Japanese novels, novels set in Japan or about people of Japanese heritage, etc., deadline ???? This trip keeps getting pushed back, so more time to read, I guess!)

• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (I will finish this book some day, I swear) 
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (2 more books to go in the series, though I really have to admit that a new understanding of the treatment of French Canadians in the series has made me put these last two off)
• Book club reading (ongoing, neverending!)

I usually pick one or more award each year and try to read through the shortlist of finalists for that award too. One of my favorites has been the Tournament of Books put on by Morning News every year. I did read through a majority of the shortlist this year but could not get through the entire list. In 2020 and 2021, I am giving myself way more grace and leeway than before, because pandemic reading has its ups and downs. I also have read through the shortlist of the National Book Awards for Non-fiction, the shortlist for the Nebulas, and the shortlist for the Hugos, among other lists.

Project reading can be very rewarding, though sometimes I have pushed myself to read through something that wasn’t for me, just because it was on a list. Reading should always be fun to some degree. So as much as I am a completist, I have been training myself to be ok with having projects that will never be finished. I think there’s a metaphor in there for the Self, isn’t there?

Anyway, I guess I don’t know where I’m going with this blog, if anywhere. Perhaps it is still a worthwhile endeavor; perhaps I don’t need to have a destination. A life in books, from what I can tell so far, is a meandering life, but a rich one as well. I’ll have to wait and see what happens next.

As promised:

Preliminary Top Ten Books Read in 2021 (ok, some are series, but I can do what I want with my list, as of 9/14/21)

1. Still Life and A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny

2. Murderbot Diaries (#1-4) by Martha Wells

3. The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

4. The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison

5. Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

6. How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang

7. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

8. Red Pill by Hari Kunzru

9. Luster by Raven Leilani

10. Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Honorable mention: Why Won’t You Apologize? By Harriet Lerner - this was recommended at an implicit bias workshop at work during a conversation about microaggressions, but I have found it useful in so many other situations as well.