A Year in Books: An Overview

It's the end of the year, and time to think about what I read over the past 12 months.

This year I was a little slower about reading books. The problem was, I discovered the world of fanfiction in the spring, and that sucked up a lot of book time over the summer. Some fanfic is really bad, but some is really, really good, and held my interest. Also, those stories tend to be shorter and easier to read. So I was read a lot, but not books, and generally nothing deep.

As a result, my total book count for this year sits at 80 books (if I finish that last one today, and that is my plan). It's split pretty much perfectly between fiction and nonfiction (which is also a change, since usually I read more nonfiction). The most interesting fact, for myself at least, is that nonfiction is pretty much a 3:1 ratio between biographies and everything else.

It was, then, a pretty light year for reading, both in terms of numbers and content. It was fun, but I think I missed out on a lot by not focusing my reading better. I find that when I'm reading deeper and focusing more on ideas and bigger thoughts, I feel better about things. I need to keep my brain going or I get sluggish and then it's easier and easier to be lazy about my reading and thinking.

The plan for 2020 is to get back on track with reading more deeply (although I'm not giving up fiction; I just want to knock it back down to no more than a third at most of my overall reading). One way is to pick up the Challies reading challenge again (found here). That way, I'll be deliberately seeking out different genres and authors. I also plan to go back to planning reading; generally, I go with "this week, I will read these chapters of these books" to keep on track. Having goals works.

Over the next couple days, I'll give you my annual lists of fiction and nonfiction.