{"id":1560,"date":"2024-02-29T19:17:54","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T00:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/?p=1560"},"modified":"2024-02-29T19:17:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T00:17:54","slug":"2023-another-year-in-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/?p=1560","title":{"rendered":"2023: A(nother) Year in Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m not going to be too defensive about my count this year. Twenty-five books is a perfectly acceptable number of books to read. Far more than most people read in a year or even a lifetime, no doubt. Nevertheless, I will point a few things out. One: several of the books were long, and I\u2019ve noted the page counts of the three longest. Two: There were some graphic novels, which I\u2019ve included separately at the end but could\u2019ve totally counted. And three: Toronto\u2019s library system was hit by a huge ransomware attack, throwing my whole reading plan into chaos!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, that last part is a half-truth\u2026 which is to say the part about the ransomware attack is true. But all it really disrupted for me was my plan to get through all the A books on my holds list. (The decision was made because I always add new books onto the list as I take others out, and consequently, it never feels like I’m making any progress! And while I mostly accept that I will always have more books that I want to read than books I have time left in this life to read, it was nice to create some semblance of progress!) Of course, as I write this, the website has been down for something like five months (curse you, hackers, and I mean that!), so it\u2019s possible my holds list is gone forever! But at least I got through all of the A section but ONE BOOK\u2026 which I remember, so I\u2019ll still get to it either way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, that did get a little defensive\u2026 so I’m also going to add in some self-criticism. Looking at the list, I\u2019m realizing it\u2019s a lot more homogenous in terms of authors than I would like. Something to keep an eye on again next\/this year. But for now, without further ado (or as a certain someone said many times this past year to my amusement, \u201cwithout further adieu\u201d), here\u2019s what I read in 2023:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. We Don\u2019t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland<\/em>, Fintan O\u2019Toole<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Dune<\/em>, Frank Herbert<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Joan<\/em>, Katharine J. Chen<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. This Is Big: How the Founder of Weight Watchers Changed the World (and Me)<\/em>, Marisa Meltzer<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. My Dark Vanessa<\/em>, Kate Elizabeth Russell<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. The Crying of Lot 49<\/em>, Thomas Pynchon<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Antkind<\/em>, Charlie Kaufman (705 pages!)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told<\/em>, Douglas Wolk<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. American Prison: A Reporter\u2019s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment<\/em>, Shane Bauer<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. King: A Life<\/em>, Jonathan Eig (557 pages!)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. Autopsy of a Boring Wife<\/em>, Marie-Renee Lavoie (translated by Arielle Aaronson)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  12. The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees<\/em>, Ben Mezrich<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  13. All This Could Be Yours<\/em>, Jami Attenberg<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  14. The Fake<\/em>, Zoe Whittall<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  15. Cloud Cuckoo Land<\/em>, Anthony Doerr (626 pages!)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  16. The Marriage Portrait<\/em>, Maggie O\u2019Farrell<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  17. Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America<\/em>, James Poniewozik<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  18. Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater\u2019s Dazed and Confused<\/em>, Melissa Maerz<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  19. Who Gets In: An Immigration Story<\/em>, Norman Ravvin<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  20. The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet<\/em>, John Green<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  21. All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia<\/em>, Simon Garfield<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  22. The Adversary<\/em>, Michael Crummey<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  23. How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question<\/em>, Michael Schur<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  24. Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America<\/em>, Elizabeth Wurtzel<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  25. How Basketball Can Save the World: Thirteen Guiding Principles for Reimagining What\u2019s Possible<\/em>, David Hollander<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Bonus (comic) materials:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl<\/em> (I can\u2019t remember offhand which ones \u2018cause the library system is still down, but several!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Daredevil: The Man Without Fear<\/em>, Frank Miller & John Romita Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Daredevil: Born Again<\/em>, Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy<\/em>, Jody Houser & Adriana Melo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I\u2019m not going to be too defensive about my count this year. Twenty-five books is a perfectly acceptable number of books to read. Far more than most people read in a year or even a lifetime, no doubt. Nevertheless, I will point a few things out. One: several of the books were long, and I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1560"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1562,"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions\/1562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scatteredflurries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}