10 Years of Reading: Each Year Has a Story

2023 marked the tenth year that I kept track of every single book that I read.  I read 2,015 books during those 10 years.  As I reflected on my 2023 reading in December, I realized that my reading from each year tells a story about that particular year.  This post contains quotes from my 2014 through 2023 posts about the books that I read.

2014:  262 books read - I use books as escapism.  (2014 post)

I have always used reading as escapism, and I become an unusually voracious reader during times of great stress, particularly when the stress is caused by a physical ailment.  I didn't realize as 2014 began that it would be a year of great stress and illness and that I would use books as escapism to a greater degree than I ever have in my entire life. 

2015:  231 books read - I realize that I like boys' series books.  (2015 post)

I have never cared for boys' series books.  That is... I didn't think that I cared for them.  The only boys' series I had read were the Hardy Boys, Perry Pierce, and Ken Holt.  While I overall enjoyed the Hardy Boys books, I did not like certain aspects of them, such as some of the boisterous behavior of the boys.  I enjoyed Perry Pierce more than the Hardy Boys, but I also didn't care for similar situations.  When I read Ken Holt back in 2010, I struggled with the great detail and some of the qualities shared with the former two series.  Based on those experiences, I concluded that I didn't like boys' series books very much.

In the last year I have read the Three Investigators, Brains Benton, the Power Boys, Rick Brant, Roger Baxter, Troy Nesbit, and Biff Brewster.  I greatly enjoyed most all of the books in most of the series.  I read the Ken Holt books again, and I liked them better than I did in 2010.  Since I responded quite well to most of the books in these boys' series, I can now conclude that I do in fact like boys' series books.  This is quite a revelation for me, since I thought that I didn't like boys' books.

2016:  355 books - I explain my reading pace.  (2016 post)

As I updated my reading progress this year, a few people had trouble grasping how I read so many books.  Reading is my favorite activity. That should be enough explanation, but here's some more.  I read instead of watching movies.  In fact, I believe that I watched not even one movie in 2016, which may be the first time that has ever happened.  Think about how much time you have spent watching movies, and there you go.  There's nothing surprising about watching lots of movies, and there shouldn't be anything surprising about spending that same time reading lots of books.

I also watch very little television.  That's more time freed up.

I don't read every word of every book.  I don't need to read the obligatory explanation of how Frank is older than Joe, their father Fenton is a detective, and so on in every Hardy Boys book.  I skim or skip over those paragraphs.  That saves time.

I am reading children's books.  Most of them do have at least 150 pages, but they are nowhere near as long as the average book for adults.  This means that I can read more children's books than I could adult books.

In "How to read 462 books in one year," Sarah Weinman explains her reading technique.  "What also seems to happen is that I read a page not necessarily word by word, but by capturing pages in sequence in my head. The words and phrases appear diagonally, like I'm absorbing the text all in one gulp, and then I move on to the next sequence I can absorb by paragraph or page."

I can't do what Sarah describes, but I do sometimes read individual paragraphs diagonally.  It considerably speeds up reading.

2017:  403 books - I attain my goal of reading an average of one book per day.  (2017 post)

The idea of reading one book per day appeals to me, even though it is a daunting task.  I set myself a goal of reading 365 books by the end of 2017.  I have some significant doubt as to whether the goal is reachable, and it depends upon the length of the books I read.  Indeed, I have set the goal at 365 to force myself to keep reading as many books as I can as quickly as I can. 

I have approximately 500 books on my "to read" list.  These are books that I truly want to read very soon, but even at one book per day, I will need around 1 1/2 years to get to all of them.  It's a bit overwhelming and even a little depressing.  By having a goal of one book per day this year, I will make good progress on my reading list.

2018:  315 books - I begin to grow tired of writing reviews.  (2018 post)

You will also notice that I did not review all books that I read.  Sometimes I do not review a book simply because I do not feel like it.  When I read a single volume by an author, I am less likely to write up a review.  The motivation to write the review is lower when the book is not part of a larger set.

I also balk at writing reviews when I did not enjoy books that were highly recommended to me or that were mentioned as having been someone's childhood favorite.  I read several such books this year.  Those books weren't bad, but they didn't do anything for me, either.  I hardly want to write up a review of one of those books saying that it wasn't very interesting to me.

2019:  185 books - I get really annoyed about people criticizing my reading choices and how I spend my time.  (2019 post)

There are books that I had purchased that I had never read.  I had a feeling that reading them would not be very satisfying but I had to try the books at some point in time.  A time with no reading goal and no strong interest in reading seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Some readers might not understand my reasoning, but it made sense to me.  I wasn't going to read much, so I figured that I should just make a task out of it and force myself to read certain books kind of like I was reading them as part of a job.  Does that help?  If not, don't worry about why.  It worked for me.

So I proceeded through one book after another.  I had to decide whether I could read the books, as in whether I could ever in my entire life manage to read the books.  If I couldn't force myself to read them at a time when I didn't care if I enjoyed what I read, then I would never be able to read them.  I wanted to list the books for sale if I couldn't read them.  I didn't want to sell them and regret it later, wondering if I would have enjoyed the books if I had tried them.  I had to try.  And try I did.

For those who think that I shouldn't be reading books that I don't enjoy... I didn't read all of them.  I read a couple dozen books partway through and quit.  Some books were read halfway.  Some books were read for only a few chapters.  The very first page or two of some books scared me off.  Never worry about me wasting my time and energy on bad books.  I know when to stop.

I must have between 8,000 and 10,000 books in my house.  I am very satisfied that I have cleared out books that took up a length of at least six feet on my shelves.  Some books have already been listed and sold.  I am very pleased to have made headway with books that were taking up place and had never been read.  That is why I forced myself to try all of those books that I found boring.

Also, some of you might be wondering why I purchased a bunch of boring books.  At the time I purchased the books, they wouldn't have been boring.  I already explained in my previous post that my taste in books has changed in the last 10 years.  If I had read the books 10 years ago, I might have enjoyed most of them.  Reading lots of boys' series books since 2014 has changed me as a reader.

2020:  106 books - I fear for my life.  (2020 post)

I am not myself at all.  I'm too worried about school starting and about everything having to do with the pandemic.  I go back to work five weeks from today.  School starts six weeks from tomorrow.  Yikes.  I feel like I'm trapped on the Titanic headed for a disaster.

I have decided that my listings on eBay and Etsy will come down regardless of how we do school.  I just don't need to be packing books or answering buyer's questions in the evenings.  I expect that both of my stores will be closed from around August 3 through at least late August.  I will have to see what happens and assess my stress level.

I keep pushing my fears into the back of my mind, but August 5 creeps closer with each day.  And of course, everyone is deeply worried about school, not just the teachers but also the parents and children.  This is a such a mess. 

With all that is on my mind, I don't get much out of reading anything.

2021:  60 books - My reading output further declines.  (2021 post)

I want to read, but most all books are unappealing to me at present.  I find that the only kind of books I currently find remotely appealing are ones about an apocalypse of some kind.  I don't need it to make sense, but I do want it to have occurred in the world we know, involve very little fantasy, and be written in an engaging fashion without a bunch of boring content.  Most of the books I try fail on one or more points.  I abandoned a number of books this year since they didn't end up meeting those conditions.

and 

I have kept quite busy, so it should be understandable why I didn't read as many books.  For a time, I thought that I wouldn't even make it past 50 books, so I'm pleased that I ended up reading 60 books altogether.  One study found that Americans read an average of 12 books per year with the median American reading just 4 books per year.  Reading 60 books is just fine.  

In closing, I want to express that I do not need any advice.  While most books do not interest me right now, I read as fast and with as much interest as ever when I come across a book that does interest me.  I haven't changed, but I have other concerns and interests right now. 

2022:  47 books - I read online content instead of books.  (2022 post)

I am constantly reading, but these days what I read tends to be on Reddit and Quora.  I love reading online discussions about anything and everything and spend a significant amount of time each day doing so.  I just haven't been very motivated to read actual books.

As I've stated before, I don't need any advice.  I'm not disappointed in my reading output.  The pandemic has taken a lot out of me and continues to do so.  While the pandemic itself is waning, the impact continues.  Much of my stress this last year was caused by events that came about due to the fallout of the pandemic.  

2023:  51 books - I obsess over the Keeper of the Lost Cities series.  (2023 post)

The story of 2023 is my obsession over the Keeper of the Lost Cities series.  It's impacted me profoundly.  This sort of thing doesn't happen often.  When it does, I never forget my initial exposure.

I didn't mention in my post that my obsession stems from my hunt for clues to the protagonist's past and to something else.  I discovered early in my reading that clues are present in anagrams formed by some character's names.  Some of the anagrams are hard to decode, and I'm proud that I figured them out.  My search for clues and anagrams has been great fun.