Yes, Writers Must Read
We all know this. However, sometimes I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to read x number of books or x type of books. What if we were to just read the books that come to us when we need them, when we have the time? I’ve decided rather than making a long arbitrary list (e.g. a war memoir, first book in a series, a romance by a woman over 65, etc.), which I’m just not in the mood to do this year, I’m going to follow what piques my interest. This tends to be YA novels, memoirs, and mysteries. I am still going to make a concerted effort to read more books by queer writers and writers of color, though. I would add women writers, but my interests tend to skew heavily towards books by women.
Pick Lines That Speak to You
Instead of quantity of books, I’ve decided to focus on quality of books. And that’s not to say I’m only going to be reading literary “high art”–just that I’m going to read books this year that feel important for me in that moment. I bought a book over a year ago because I had a read a review of it for a teaching exercise, and recently it floated to the top of the stack of random books on my bedside table. Valeria Luiselli’s nonfiction book, Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions is a haunting meditation on the humanitarian crisis of children trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico and Central America. It could be a very technical book, and at times it does go into the weeds about law and history, but it is so gorgeously written, these elements become riveting. Take this passage, for example: “There are things that can only be understood retrospectively, when many years have passed and the story has ended. In the meantime, while the story continues, the only thing to do is tell it over and over again as it develops, bifurcates, knots around itself. And it must be told, because before anything can be understood, it has to be narrated many times, in may different words and from many different angles, by many different minds.” This book has changed my entire understanding of immigration and what children go through in this process. Though I’ve had it for a while, I think I was meant to read it right now.
Don’t Underestimate Audiobooks
I always talk about them, but seriously, audiobooks have been a revelation for me. Because I have a four-year-old and a baby at home, my time to sit down and read has shrunken considerably. Enter audiobooks! So far I’ve finished a fantastic YA novel called The Sun Is Also a Star (soon to be a movie!), and I’m almost halfway through Tana French’s new book, The Witch Elm (It’s about 21 hours long, though, so I’ll probably have to get back on the library wait list and finish it later!). I also just listened to a sample of a book that popped up as available, and I’m excited to get to that one soon–Michelle McNamara’s true crime book, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer.
I’ll give periodic updates on my non-challenge year of reading, which I’m really looking forward to. Who knows what I’ll end up reading!
What’s on your to-read list this year? Let us know here or on Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook. And don’t forget to enter our first giveaway! You still have until Friday, 1/25 at noon to enter!