2019: The Year’s Reading In Review

Brian J. Noggle

This BRY (Book Reading Year, roughly Christmas to Christmas), I completed, what, 111 books?

I also browsed several collections of June Wayne’s work, but they contained so little text and actual images that I could not in conscience count them in my annual total.

So I am pretty pleased with the selection here. Although I did “read” a large number of art monographs, I did read some smarter works, including (by my quick count):

  • Between 2 and 5 classics; Jane Eyre and The Count of Monte Cristo, but also Siddhartha, Lassie Come-Home, and The Return of Sherlock Holmes which some might consider classics;
  • 12 collections of poetry;
  • 4 plays or collections of plays;
  • 10 Executioner novels;
  • 3 of the Little House novels;
  • 3 martial arts books;
  • 3 horror novels/collections;
  • 1 book I bought to give as a Christmas present (A Blade So Black, given to two people);
  • Probably too many graphic novels for someone with an English degree from the 20th century.

Mostly fiction, and the nonfiction tended to local interest or history. A couple literature textbooks kinds of things (How to Read a Play, How to Read a Poem).

Overall, a good selection, and I feel good about it. I like to put together these year-end lists and take a little time to reflect and review what I’ve read this year. Sometimes, I’m surprised that it was in the current BRY (Book Reading Year, remember) as January or March can seem like so long ago. I get to re-experience a bit of my vacationing as I remember the books I read on vacation (if nothing else from the vacation). And, I am pleased to say, I did read the five books I bought at Calvin’s Books whilst on vacation in May.

So onto BRY 2020 which should see the completion of this Dickens novel I’ve been reading amongst other things for the last month or so.

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