Butterfly Mind

Reading in 2019

Last year was a big year for my reading life. After reading a few phenomenal short story collections, and because I dared to try writing fiction, I wanted to study short stories. I subscribed to The New Yorker for a weekly dose of curated short fiction. I started with a 12-issue trial, and when in the 10th issue of my trial there was a new Olive Kitteridge story from Elizabeth Strout, I bought a 6-month subscription. Each week when a new issue arrives, and my husband deposits the mail on the kitchen table, I say “ooh!”, pick up the magazine, and flip to the page 2 table of contents to see who the fiction author will be. Sometimes I even read other parts of the magazine, and I have been delighted to come across surprises like personal essays from David Sedaris or Anthony Lane’s “The Intoxicating History of Gin,” which honest-to-god used the word “recharché.”

I also subscribed to a quarterly magazine called Offscreen. It’s beautifully designed, independent, and takes an unvarnished, thoughtful view of technology with the hopes of helping us steer it in humane directions. I enjoy quiet time away from a screen reading and thinking about the tech world we live and work in.

Those subscriptions are novelties in my reading life, and I enjoy their fresh differentness compared to my usual long-form reading. But by far the most significant reading I did in 2019 was to complete my Andrea Reads America project (with a few detours). Oh! And I read two Tolstoy novels! After six years of American literature, I now get to move into the wide open world of reading without rules. If my tracking in Goodreads is to be trusted, I read 60 books in 2019:

Thanks to Matt Mullenweg whose 29 Books in 2019 post inspired me to reflect on my reading life in 2019. I was particularly struck by his comment about how little books cost for how much they give. Looking through my list above, I think I purchased fewer than 5 of them; the rest I was able to borrow from the library.

Andrea Badgley

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5 responses to “Reading in 2019”

  1. Great job. I planned to read 12 books. but other things got in the way. I still did a lot of reading but it was more educational purposes rather than recreational. Won’t set any goal this year but I plan to read more books than I did last year.

  3. I haven’t read the Chabon you mention, but I’ve read a few of his and liked a couple quite a bit. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was a particular favorite. I’ve added this one to my to-read list.

    I read The Art of Fielding and thought I remembered liking it a lot, but on looking back at my review, I’m reminded that I felt more meh about it — it was a good book that to me fell short of being the great book it had the promise to be.

    You’ve piqued my interest in the Dickens book, but I’m a little iffy, as the sort of whimsical fictionalization of a public figure that it sounds like tends to fall flat for me.

    I liked John Henry Days a lot and like Whitehead a lot (though he’s a bit uneven). The Underground Railroad is well worth a read if you’re not turned off to his work.

    My senior high school English teacher, who I reconnected with 20 years later through an unlikely late connection via my Dad, recommended Where’d You Go, Bernadette, and I liked it but didn’t love it. I sort of suspect it’s a better movie than it was a book.

    I’ve been an on-again-off-again subscriber to Harper’s in part for the monthly short story and in part for the current events and longer thoughtful articles and in part for the book reviews. I always wind up feeling guilty for not reading it cover to cover every month and let it lapse, though. I can’t imagine confronting a fancy magazine like The New Yorker weekly!

    • > I can’t imagine confronting a fancy magazine like The New Yorker weekly!
      But the font is so pretty! I just like to gaze at that even if I don’t read the words.

      I don’t think you’d like the Dickens book. It’s whimsical and takes a lot of liberties, I think you’d probably roll your eyes a lot.