Keeping track of my yearly reading is now, three years in, one thing that I am continually happy to do, and looking back at the end of the year is something that I very much look forward to. Particularly with books, for some reason, it feels remarkably satisfying to reflect, to think about what I learned, the stories I enjoyed, and the worlds that I temporarily inhabited.

This year I was successful in meeting my goal of 100 books, which I am still more than a little bit surprised by–and actually I exceeded my goal by one, for a grand total of 101 in 2018. Truthfully, if it weren’t for Kathleen pushing me towards the end of the year I’m not sure that I would have finished, honestly. I had 92 books coming into the last couple of weeks of the year, and her enthusiasm for my goal was really what pushed me over the edge–and I’m very grateful for her encouragement and especially for the book suggestions she had that helped bring me to the end (and which introduced me to an incredible series). I was tired at the end of the semester and thought about taking things a bit slower, but Kathleen’s fervor was catching and helped me find a lot of comfort and relaxation in reading that I had worried maybe wouldn’t be there after a long semester’s worth of reading and writing.

For this year’s wrap-up, I decided (like last year) to highlight one book from each month that left an impression on me. This isn’t necessarily my vote for the best book that I read that month, per se, but more the book that I’d like to call attention to. Instead of putting the complete list of books at the end, though, I’ve decided to list each book I read for the month before my monthly highlight.

Same as last year – I hope this can function maybe as a place for recommending some of my favorite books; and if anyone would like to hear more about any book in particular, or is curious about anything, please feel free to reach out!

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January

1. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
2. Zona: A Book about a Film about a Journey to a Room by Geoff Dyer
3. Danse Macabre by Stephen King
4. Streaming, Sharing, Stealing: Big Data and the Future of Entertainment by Michael D. Smith & Rahul Telang
5. A Short Guide to Writing About Film by Timothy Corrigan
6. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman
7. Doctors: The Biography of Medicine by Sherwin B. Nuland
8. Portals: A Treatise on Internet-Distributed Television by Amanda D. Lotz
9. Life, Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back by Douglas Rushkoff
10. Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss
11. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
12. The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness: a Guide for Students by Donald D. Opitz & Derek Melleby
13. Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier by Mark Frost

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Without a doubt, reading East of Eden was one of the most profound, moving experiences I have ever had with a novel. I came into the book with high expectations supplied by a great friend of mine, and everything about the novel exceeded what I had been told. The most remarkable thing about the novel is how quickly its characters take on lives of their own, to the degree that you feel that you are living your life alongside them, and each of their travails hurts you just as much as it hurts them, and each of their hopes is one of your hopes. Steinbeck knows these characters intimately, and his writing makes you feel that you know them, too. There are passages of gorgeous description here, alongside some of the barest, plainest heartbreak will ever read. Steinbeck’s stark simplicity lends these characters and events a gravity and reality that I am still in awe of, even nearly a whole year later. Not a single page went by that did not mean something profound and real to the book’s characters and, as a matter of consequence, to me, the reader. Maybe Steinbeck isn’t for everybody, but if there is one of his novels that most effectively makes the argument that he should be for everyone–it’s this one.

February

14. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas
15. Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture by William D. Romanowski
16. Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication by John Durham Peters
17. David Fincher: Interviews Edited by Laurence F. Knapp
18. On Disney by Sergei Eisenstein
19. The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement by David Brooks

Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture by William D. Romanowski

Thinking about the relationship between popular culture, film, and my Christian faith is something that occupies a significant portion of both my personal and professional lives–and of course I am by no means the only person to constantly be thinking about these topics. Romanowski’s book is a great guide to thinking through the ways that God uses and transforms popular culture artifacts, while also navigating the trickier elements and questions of morality that come along with living in a fallen world. There are no clear, direct answers to such lines of questioning, but what this book does is introduce the most salient questions alongside interpretations and ideas that are helpful in thinking through how Christians ought to approach such works. Interpretations are offered, but mostly this book guides you through the process of thinking about culture in a way that is directly linked to the practice of one’s faith. Things like films and popular music are simply unavoidable in contemporary culture, and so developing a theological perspective on such things is, effectively, imperative for Christians today; this book goes a long way towards helping develop this kind of mindset for those willing to engage with it. I can acknowledge that the first time I owned this book it was because it was a required text in a college class, and I did not give it the attention or consideration that it deserved. The second time around, however, I’m happy to say I gleaned a significant amount, and will very likely return to its pages for help and encouragement in the future.

March

20. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
21. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
22. The Complete and Essential Jack the Ripper by Paul Begg
23. Videocracy: How YouTube is Changing the World with Double Rainbows, Singing Foxes, and Other Curious Trends by Kevin Allocca
24. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
25. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Dîaz
26. Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
27. The Ethics of Authenticity by Charles Taylor
28. The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses by Juhani Pallasmaa

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Audiobook narrated by Mike Hammer)

Just like East of Eden, I was blown away by how astoundingly great Steinbeck is at making his characters come to life in the minds of readers. That such a poetic, caring, attentive voice is turned to such remarkable characters as George, Lenny, Candy, and Slim is a major testament to the gift that Steinbeck had not only as a novelist, but as a witness to the lives, thoughts, cares, and hopes of real people. What Of Mice and Men does is offer a glimpse into the fundamental heart attitudes that so many of us carry around with us in our everyday lives and dealings with people, for good and for ill. But not only does Steinbeck give us here a remarkable cast of characters to connect with, care for, and love, he also gives them a tense, sometimes even seemingly understated plot to live within, one filled with surprises, joys, and heartbreak. I never read this novel in high school, and I was glad to experience it now, as the journey here was devastating and utterly riveting the whole way through.

An additional note here that is quite significant: Kathleen and I listened to this as an audiobook narrated by a reader named Mike Hammer. I cannot recommend experiencing the book this way enough, truthfully. Hammer’s voice was a perfect companion to Steinbeck’s prose, and his voices for George, Lenny, and the rest of the gang are inextricably tied to those characters in my mind now. I’ve looked, and Hammer did not record any other of Steinbeck’s works, which is truly a shame–though Steinbeck himself was talent enough to make these characters and this world come to life, Hammer’s involvement was a treat to behold and enjoy. Seriously–if you’ve never read the book, or even if you have and are interested in going back to it again, do yourself a favor and seek this recording out. I promise, you will not be disappointed.

April

29. Horror: The Film Reader Edited by Mark Jancovich
30. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
31. A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Karen Armstrong
32. Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film by Alexandra Zapruder
33. Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem by Kevin DeYoung
34. Bioshock and Philosophy: Irrational Game, Rational Book Edited by Luke Cuddy

Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film by Alexandra Zapruder

I, along with countless other Americans, have long been fascinated with the assassination of JFK–in part for the elements of mystery, confusion, and conspiracy, but also for the incredible trauma of the event in the national psyche. Another element of this interest has also been the involvement of media in both the Kennedy presidency and the Kennedy assassination, particularly the involvement of the infamous Zapruder film. Last year I read a book called Shooting Kennedy by David Lubin, about the visual culture surrounding JFK’s life and presidency, and the Zapruder film was examined in some detail there, providing an artistic reasoning behind its visual resonance (beyond its depiction of a President’s death); that piece is an intriguing companion to this book, which traces the specific history, uses, and misuses of the actual Zapruder film as an artifact and as a cultural force. From the vantage point of being Abraham Zapruder’s granddaughter, Alexandra Zapruder gives unique insight into how the film affected her family, while also tracing the iconic film’s steps from the camera of her grandfather on into the national spotlight and infamy on the world stage. This memoir does a truly fine job walking the line between being personal, historical, and technical all at the same time, and is immensely readable as a tale of nostalgia, loss, and love at both the interpersonal and national levels. What I most appreciated was that this was a remarkable and unique story, something that seems nearly impossible at this point with regard to Kennedy’s assassination. For all the theories that have been advanced, for all the evidence that has been picked over and examined time and time again, what this memoir provides is a new look at familiar ideas, but with a very unique aim in mind. Zapruder does not set out to solve the mystery of the assassination here, just as her grandfather never set out to capture one; instead, she wishes to humanize the story not only of her grandfather but of Kennedy. In some senses, it almost seems as if her wish is for us to weep for Kennedy anew, not as an icon or a figure, but as a person who was gunned down in the streets. There’s an empathy and kindness to her treatment of the film and its subject matter, and to how her grandfather treated it, that is admirable and remarkable particularly in today’s age of political media. In short, I think we could all learn some important lessons from the Zapruder family.

May

35. The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
36. A Companion to the Horror Film by Harry M. Benshoff
37. The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America by Daniel J. Boorstin
38. The Idea of a Christian College by Arthur F. Holmes
39. Writing on the Wall: Social Media–The First 2,000 Years by Tom Standage
40. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
41. Two Treatises of Government & A Letter Concerning Toleration by John Locke
42. Open Wide: How Hollywood Box Office Became a National Obsession by Dade Hayes & Jonathan Bing
43. The Pearl by John Steinbeck
44. Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Mormons by Ron Rhodes
45. Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity by Douglas Rushkoff
46. My Life in Pictures by Charlie Chaplin
47. Christine by Stephen King

The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America by Daniel J. Boorstin

The Image could almost be described as the cantankerous ramblings of someone who just doesn’t like the direction things are heading in society and wishes that everything could perpetually stay the same since he seems to think he knows best how people ought to live their lives. The reason I say the book could almost be described this way is because nearly every prediction that Boorstin makes, and every trend that he identifies, has turned out to be true. Boorstin’s work here is a critique of technology in society, specifically as it relates to the way that “images” are created, here meaning both images as a phenomenon in print and photography and images such as the reputations of corporations or the flashy hype surrounding events and “happenings” in culture. Written in the early 60s, what Boorstin’s book really does is predict the rise of postmodernism as an ethos, complete with describing the disconnected nature of a postmodern society and the alienation of individuals from one another through technological means. Boorstin’s view here is pessimistic, yes, but also prescient and remarkable in its accuracy. I am still willing to find myself on the fence of the technological determinism/social shaping of technology debate, at least for the time being, but it’s hard to maintain that mindset when you read a dead-on description of your own era and its way of thinking about and through technology, only to find that it was written over 50 years ago. Personally, I think that this turns Boorstin’s cantankerousness into a kind of prophetic vision that simply can’t be ignored. In some senses The Image is not a particularly fascinating book to read in today’s era because we know these things already; what is fascinating is to think that none of the technologies that we enjoy today existed when Boorstin wrote, yet he nails our attitude perfectly. In this sense the book can maybe help shake people out of a certain apathy that we often develop about our technology, and can cause some serious self-reflection on our tech, how we use it, and how it uses us.

June

48. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
49. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
50. A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
51. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
52. The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt
53. Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity by David Foster Wallace
54. Living the Cross-Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing by C.J. Mahaney
55. The Ethics of Rhetoric by Richard M. Weaver
56. Exploring Religious Community Online: We Are One in the Network by Heidi A. Campbell
57. Romancing the Difference: Kenneth Burke, Bob Jones University, and the Rhetoric of Religious Fundamentalism by Camille K. Lewis

A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash

This book was just one of the many phenomenal reads that Kathleen sent my way over the course of the year and is one that left a significant impression. Set in a rural community and dealing with themes of religious fanaticism, love, and forgiveness, A Land More Kind Than Home is a truly gorgeous novel, made all the more impressive by the fact that it was Cash’s first. The story is rather simple: a boy with special needs witnesses his mother having an affair with their snake-handling pastor, who then uses his power over the congregation to convince them that they can use their snakes and faith to pray away the boy’s disability. Only, of course, the boy dies, and the resulting fallout and the complexities of family drama and love are what fill the remainder of the novel’s pages. Cash’s prose is evocative and paints a very tangible picture of his characters and their world, and the depth of feeling that each person displays is remarkable. Also compelling is the book’s explorations of faith and forgiveness. The Pentecostal, snake-handling church serves as the backdrop for the drama of the plot, but Cash knows that for real people faith runs much deeper than the mere institutions they are involved in, and he shows this in subtle ways throughout the book, sometimes articulating the beliefs that people hold and other times letting them show their faith or lack thereof through their actions. In the end, the novel is an incredible picture of Christian redemption and forgiveness, filtered through a story that is somehow both fantastic in its conceit and yet relatable in the core values of its characters. For a debut novel, I was astounded at Cash’s command of language and theme and I am still very grateful for Kathleen sharing this book with me.

July

58. I and Thou by Martin Buber
59. Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds by Heidi A. Campbell
60. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
61. The Faithful Citizen: Popular Christian Media and Gendered Civic Identities by Kristy Maddux

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson is low key the subject of an intense fascination and admiration for me. His novels are so long and their subject matter sometimes so arcane and minute on the surface that they seem like they should be boring, or at the very least difficult. Yet the little that I have read of Stephenson always manages to make the arcane exciting, such that reading even a descriptor of one of his novels is always engaging–you can’t wait to dig in and find out how he makes things like currency exchanges exciting. Cryptonomicon doesn’t quite fall into this exact category since it markets itself as dealing with the intriguing subject of cryptography in the context of a World War II-related treasure hunt, but where it does fall into this descriptor is how extended passages relating to math and game theory are somehow vividly drawn and incredibly engaging in the midst of this sprawling adventure story. Stephenson’s plot is wild and unbelievable yet grounded so well in reality and in his characters that you can’t help but be pulled along and loving every moment of its absurdity–because it never feels absurd. That Stephenson is also able to maintain the tension of the adventurous treasure hunt across such a big book is no small feat, and that he makes following along with everyone so fun is important to note. The book looks intimidating from the outside, but inside is humor and romance to rival the technical and philosophical aspects of the story, and Stephenson expertly delivers it all. Cryptonomicon is a long book, and requires some effort and commitment, but its disparate elements really do combine into an engaging experience with a wide-ranging appeal that I think many would find enjoyable.

August

62. Room to Dream by David Lynch & Kristine McKenna
63. The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School by Neil Postman
64. The Peripheral by William Gibson
65. The Politics of Sacred Rhetoric by Morgan Marrietta
66. The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
67. Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
68. Film and Values by Jordi Sanchez Torrents
69. The Last Days of Socrates by Plato
70. Moonglow by Michael Chabon
71. Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Robert F. Kennedy

Room to Dream by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna

I have a tremendous admiration for the art and films of David Lynch, in part because they are (as many critics and scholars have noted previously) a unique form of cinematic experience almost more than anything else. His films are truly more than the sum of their parts, and what makes them so fascinating is that they are so weird and yet so relatable. This conundrum essentially paints Lynch as a hauntingly enigmatic figure, with his mind as the black box (or black hole) from which these incredible visions and juxtapositions emerge. Any insight into the workings of that mind are a treat, then, particularly as Lynch himself is just as strange and relatable as his films; he is charming in his almost disconcerting average-ness, a man of true artistic talent and commitment who also seems like a fun person to be around and listen to. This combined biography and memoir is at its best in the sections that Lynch himself authored, where he just reminisces about his life and loved ones. He sometimes responds to the blurbs that McKenna wrote, but more often just riffs on his memories from a particular time in his life, giving us lots of fun observations and anecdotes that really do little to illuminate his artistic process or filmmaking techniques but are just a joy to hear about. The one fault of the book is that there simply isn’t more: Lynch himself acknowledges that every story just reminds him of a thousand more, and there is never enough room to tell everything he wishes he could. I definitely felt that in this book–I never wanted it to end. For any fan of Lynch, experiencing this book in some way is a must. I read it but know several people who have listened to the audiobook, and that may actually be the ultimate way of experiencing it–Lynch’s distinctive voice carries through the written passages but hearing him talk about his life and memories directly could only be an even greater experience, I’m sure.

(Bonus: if you’re at all interested in reading some more of my musings on this book, another review I wrote will be published in the Journal of Popular Culture sometime in 2019–I think in either the Spring or Summer issues)

September

72. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
73. The Professor and the Madman: A tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
74. Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life by Tish Harrison Warren
75. Mythologies by Roland Barthes

Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life by Tish Harrison Warren

One of the things that I love most about this book is that it very much delivers on the promises of its title: it really does help to point out and remind the reader of the sacredness of everyday life and provides important and relatable advice for how to worship in everything. Warren’s engaging perspective and clear writing help to knock down the dualisms that so often pervade our lives in terms of keeping the sacred distinct from how we live our everyday lives. As Christians we know that this attitude is simply untenable and wrong, but it is often a struggle to see how the little things in our lives contribute to our status as Christ-followers. This book helps to show how such a divide is pure fiction and provides helpful tools for seeing God’s influence in the little things in the world, and tips for how we can use those same little things for His glory. I honestly can’t emphasize enough how much I loved this book. Raised Baptist all things liturgical or even vaguely “ritualistic” were viewed with suspicion and even outright condemnation, but experiences in college have shown me how much I desire and love liturgy in church–and Warren’s book convinced me even more of my love for such things in my everyday life. After reading this, I was (am?) ready to go full Anglican and just dive into liturgical practices with my whole self. But what is remarkable and helpful is that Warren’s message really is that you don’t have to be a particular denomination or anything to achieve this same goal: liturgy and sacred practices of worship are all around us, and all we need to do is engage them.

October

76. Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy by Max Van Maanen
77. The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul
78. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch
79. Popular Culture: Introductory Perspectives by Marcel Danesi
80. Elements of Semiology by Roland Barthes
81. Life on the Screen by Sherry Turkle

The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul

The word “holy” means, simply, “set apart,” and is often used in the Bible and in church to talk about the distinction between men and God, or to describe how Christians ought to act or behave in relation to the sinful world around them. But what does it mean to be “set apart?” What does it mean for God to be holy? And, thus, what does it mean for Christians to be holy as God is holy? These questions are significant and show just how much can be glossed over by the adoption of a simple phrase or mindset in the church. Often the idea of holiness is taken as a given, as something that is easily grasped, and yet Sproul argues in these pages that holiness is something that we rarely give as much thought to as we should. Through examining the word and idea of holiness, Sproul’s book emphasizes over and over again the incredible nature of God’s relationship with mankind. For God to be holy is for Him to be so remarkable, so incredible, so powerful that we cannot even fathom His character and the ways that our sin has made us so unlike Him. Our sense of holiness is but a pale imitation of true Holiness, and this is something that we must reckon with at all stages of our Christian walk. But what is amazing is how this emphasis on the unattainable standard of holiness more radically illustrates the grace and mercy that God has displayed in sending Christ and providing a way for salvation. That is the core message of this book: how God’s holiness provides us with the correct perspective on ourselves, our actions, our salvation, and, ultimately, the character of the God who has provided all of these things to us. This is a convicting book that puts faith and life in perspective in an extreme and moving way–it can be a bit philosophical at times and maybe isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but even for this maybe disinclined towards such books I would heartily recommend giving it a try: there’s simply too much good to be found in here to ignore it.

November

82. Qualitative Communication Research Methods by Thomas R. Lindlof & Brian C. Taylor
83. The Presence of the Kingdom by Jacques Ellul
84. The Modern Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida by Lawrence E. Cahoone

The Presence of the Kingdom by Jacques Ellul

Ellul is one of my favorite writers because he has a talent for getting at the heart of significant issues. Here, he turns his attention towards one of the fundamental conundrums of the Christian life, namely how we manage the knowledge of theology in our everyday lives that so often seem far removed from such ideas. Basically, how do Christians marry theory and practice in their faith. Ellul’s answers are not simple, and essentially require acknowledging and living in a somewhat paradoxical mode, recognizing that the world has been given over to Satan and so the work that Christians can do here is limited in its worldly results, even as we are nonetheless commanded to do such work as a natural outgrowth of our faithfulness. I can say with confidence that I do not fully grasp Ellul’s arguments or even the farthest implications of his ideas in this book; but what I can say is that there is much here to digest and think about, and Ellul very effectively identifies questions that Christians need to think about. Though written some 50 years ago, these questions have not gone away or diminished in their importance. If anything, I would argue, such questions have become more essential and less addressed in modern times. In this way, The Presence of the Kingdom brings us back to a discussion of the fundamentals of our faith, one that ought to be more comprehensive and consistently present than it often is in today’s churches.

December

85. Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood by Karina Longworth
86. Going Steady: Film Writings, 1968-1969 by Pauline Kael
87. Seven Men: And the Secret of Their Greatness by Eric Metaxas
88. Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks Edited by Douglas M. Kellner & Meenakshi Gigi Durham
89. A Farewell to Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK’s Assassination, and the Case That Should Have Changed History by Joan Mellen
90. A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold
91. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference by Thom S. Rainer
92. I Am Dynamite!: A Life of Nietzsche by Sue Prideaux
93. Existential Technics by Don Ihde
94. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)
95. Rhetorical Criticism: A Study in Method by Edwin Black
96. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)
97. Reading Digital Culture Edited by David Trend
98. The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology by Kenneth Burke
99. Start With Amen: How I Learned to Surrender by Keeping the End in Mind by Beth Guckenberger
100. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
101. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)

Kathleen got really into the Cormoran Strike series of novels earlier this year after struggling with The Cuckoo’s Calling for some time, and ever since has been an ardent evangelist for the series. With some more time to spare after the end of the semester, and with Kathleen’s ardent encouragement to reach my 100-book goal, I was finally able to dive into the series that she had lauded for so long–and I was blown away. For all its intricate plotting and world-building, Rowling’s Harry Potter series shines most in its attention to characterization, and this skill is on full display in the Cormoran Strike novels. For as interesting and macabre as the plots are (and they are most certainly both of those things), the real draw is the subtlety with which Rowling details the relationship between her hero and his emerging assistant, Robin. The two of them are quite a pair, and the slow, measured development of their relationship is the through-line of interpersonal drama that the series needs to continue across several books, which Rowling well knows and explores to full effect particularly in this second entry in the series (and, Kathleen tells me, on into the other two books that I have yet to read). These are characters who are fun to know, who you wish the best for, and who you want to see succeed in everything they do–and watching them work together (and apart) through an intriguing and mystifying murder case is just, well, fun. These books are straightforward detective stories (meaning their plots are not straightforward at all) that constantly cause you to wonder at Rowling’s inventiveness, theorize wildly as to the eventual resolution, and mistrust everyone and everything–they are whodunits of the best kind, with truly wonderful characters at their heart, causing them to transcend any classification of them as “merely” detective stories or mysteries. The Silkworm shows that Rowling is operating on a whole different level no matter what genre or style she engages in and got me just incredibly excited to read the last two entries in the series just as soon as I can in the new year.

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Next year I’ve decided to set my goal at 75 books. This isn’t quite a “quality over quantity” type move (since I would argue I read mostly quality books this year, too), but I do hope to diversify the types of reading that I do, using some other reading challenges/lists to guide me in different directions than I would maybe normally go. One thing that I do aim to maintain is a healthy balance of fiction and non-fiction. I don’t have statistics for my previous years in front of me right now, but this year 22 of the 101 books that I read were fiction, and I’m pretty happy with that number, given that my job and stage of life right now has me so focused on non-fiction and scholarship. If anything, I’d maybe like to see that number increase, if not the actual ratio of fiction to non-fiction, though as doctoral work gets a bet more hectic who knows if I’ll be able to keep that up. Here’s hoping, though!

• Graduate School
• Reading