Next year, I’ve decided I’m going to ditch the GoodReads challenge, stop obsessively compiling a to-be-read list and just pick up and read whatever catches my fancily, on the go. Organically. The hyper-curation has made my to-be-read list so long and unwieldy, it’s almost intimidating. And I’ve missed out on reading things as and when they’ve cropped up and struck a chord. By the time I get to said book in the list, the moment of inspiration has passed and the impact is lost.
Things that didn’t go to plan this year: finishing 40 books, finishing every book I started (I abandoned and/or didn’t read continuously about 5 books this year — including the one in this picture) reading on holiday (I read nothing in Europe and nothing this time around in Goa). Things that did: read more fiction. Which further tells me to let go of the plan, in general. And flow with the flow.
That’s my plan what I’m looking for next year. But for now, here’s a list of all the books I read this year. A list like I did last year and the year before last. I’m aware this is still a reflection of an obsession for completion making me do this, but I also do this for myself and for anyone else who might want to pick a book up from something they’ve stumbled on somewhere in this blog, but it’s impossible to find at a late date.
Here goes.
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Mark Manson
- I’ll Give You The Sun, Jandy Nelson
- Ravan and Eddie, Kiran Nagarkar
- Eleanor Oliphant is Absolutely Fine, Gail Honeyman
- The War of Art, Steven Pressfield
- Us, David Nicholls
- The Rules Do Not Apply, Ariel Levy
- Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell
- The Desire Map, Danielle LaPorte
- What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami
- Reasons To Stay Alive, Matt Haig
- Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty
- Still Writing: The Pleasures and Perils of a Creative Life, Dani Shapiro
- Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
- Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, Roxane Gay
- What I Know For Sure, Oprah Winfrey
- An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
- Standard Deviation, Katherine Heiny
- The Language of Baklava, Diana Abu Jaber
- Ballad for a Mad Girl, Vikki Wakefield
- Landline, Rainbow Rowell
- All the Good Parts, Loretta Nyhan
- Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home, Jessica Fechtor
- Not That Kind Of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned”, Lena Dunham
- Conversations with Friends, Sally Rooney
- Barbara the Slut and Other People, Lauren Holmes
- The Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, Tishani Doshi
- French Milk, Lucy Kinsley
- The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle
- All the Bright Places, Jennifer Niven
- Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way through Great Books, Cara Nicoletti
- Cyber Sexy: Rethinking Pornography, Richa Kaul Padte
- A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf
- Born a Crime, Trevor Noah
- Gachar Gochar, Vivek Shanbhag (Translated from Kannada by Srinath Perur)
- Normal People, Sally Rooney
- 60 Indian Poets, Jeet Thayil
- Sultana’s Dream, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
All the books: 2016
All the books: 2017
Two years ago: Day 364: Redemption reading
I agree about the Goodreads reading challenge turning in an obsessive ‘to complete’ list and activity. I find myself in a state when I don’t want to read,especially after having compulsively read nearly 60 books and abandoned some in the last 10 months. I want my 2019 reads to be about the joy of reading and less the leader board.
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OMG you said it — leaderboard is so right. Ive actually enjoyed reading to a list, and truth be told, it does help keep track of things I want to read. But I think somewhere along the line I teetered over the edge and let the tool control me, rather than the other way around. Which is my general woe with all social media. So Im thinking its me? And not the tool? Anyhow it was the only form of social networking I was using online, and I think I can give it a rest. Just to see how it works out.
Oh, happy new year to you!
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Happy New year to you too!
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