30 Books Challenge - Complete!

Mission Accomplished! I set out to read 30 books this year and I did it! Considering how much I read (at least 20 minutes - if not longer - every day), this doesn't seem to be a challenge YET It's a trickier feat than I expected. I hope to close out my reading year with at least another book...and some blog posts with my reflections. For now, I have a list of those I've finished, and a short reflections on lessons and gains.

In addition to the quantity of books, I wanted to read a variety of stories and ensure I read books inclusive of various cultures, races, and ethnicities. I was also jarred by that first 4 books I read were written by white men, so I wanted to open my list intentionally to more women and more people of color.  I also wanted to read books in a variety of formats based on my whims of fancy - including hardcovers, paperbacks, e-books, and audiobooks(yes, audio books count!). I wanted to see what I would also naturally be drawn to and how my intentions would actually play out as the year continued.


By the numbers

• 30 books
• 15 written by men, 15 by women
• 10 written by people of color
• I read more books by men of color (7) than women of color (3). 
• 12 books that focused on cultures (including ethnicity, faith) different from my own
• 4 non-fiction
• 26 fiction
• 3 young adult/children's
• 11 books with strong female lead/prioritized characters
• 5 hardcovers
• 17 paperbacks
• 4 e-books
• 2 audiobooks
• 2 e-books with audio provided

I am never a reader that plans too far ahead. So much of what I read depends on the 1-3 books I most recently read, and which format I read them in - and what I am in the mood for. So, my list shaped up to be a mix of formats and situations, but I noticed that without my intentionality, I may not have read as many authors that were not white men. I also maybe wouldn't have been exposed to various cultures and perspectives, and so I want to be even more thoughtful in this regard as I continue my reading journey.

I also decided to document my reading year via Instagram (#30Books, #instareading, #instabooks, #mjyearofawesome, #mjreadingchallenge2015 and sometimes #adventuresinreading and #recommendedreading). This was 1) easier than blogging, 2) helpful, at least visually, and 3) affirming. I also stored earmarks in many captions, and short reflections, not only for my own reference but theoretically fodder for future blogs. I also would remark on how I finished the book and how I read it - at my bedside, on a plane, over wine, in between by the pool, during my commute, etc. It's nice to look back and see just how infused reading is in my life.

This made me also think a lot about how much I read how I formed the reading habit. I was an active and social kid, but also read often. I remember days at summer camp when I would take a break from the pool and read my book. I remember weekly library visits, the feeling I had opening a new book, and the reading challenges I completed at school. It made me even more thankful to have a mother and grandmother who encouraged my reading - who didn't let me slide with just telling the story based on the pictures, and let me read aloud to my stuffed animals, our dogs and just generally as dinner was being cooked. I am sure they read to me before I could read, and for all of this I am eternally grateful. The impact reading has had on my life is certainly profound and very much continues, building my perspective and expanding my worldview. It is an incredible privilege and is one I take with both pride and luxury.

I hope to discuss more of which book(s) have stayed with me this year, which I am happy to leave behind and some earmarks. I also am still going to read every day through the end of the calendar year, and listen to an audiobook or two, so the reading year is far from over. I'll also more clearly define my reading goals for 2016 because, reading. Oh, and did I mention that I'm re-reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone via Illustrated Edition? And that the audiobooks are on Audible? HARRY, I CAN'T QUIT YOU.

To books,

~MJ

Books (in order):
hardcover, paperback, e-book, e-book with audio, audiobook

1. "A Sudden Light" by Garth Stein
2. "Ms. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransome Riggs
3. "Looking for Alaska" by John Green
4. "The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace" by Jeff Hobbs
5. "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz
6. "Flight" by Sherman Alexie
7. "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
8. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
9. "The Last American Vampire"by Seth Grahame-Smith 
10. "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt
11. "The One and Only Ivan" by Kathrine Applegate
12. "Paper Towns" by John Green
13. "Everything I Never Told You" by Celeste Ng
14. "Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton
15. "The Invention of Wings" by Sue Monk Kidd
16. "Go Set a Watchman" by Harper Lee
17. "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" by Haruki Murakami
18. "The Martian" by Andy Weir
19. "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel
20. "The Book of Speculation" by Erika Swyler
21. "The Reincarnationist" by M.J. Rose
22. "Beloved" by Toni Morrison
23. "The Sympathizer" by Viet Thanh Nguyen 
24. "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
25. "Euphoria" by Lily King
26. "Yes Please" by Amy Pohler
27. "Sounds Like Me" by Sara Bareilles
28. "Why Not Me?" by Mindy Kaling
29. "The Tiger's Wife" by Tea Obrecht
30. "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks

Relaxing Saturdays

It's Labor Day weekend. Since I had an adventure last weekend (that included an encounter with seed ticks), I'm taking it slow this weekend. It will also be a nice refresher before the busy working month ahead. I started my morning at Barnes & Noble. This is a dangerous, but wonderful place, like most bookstores are. It'd be nice to have a local store, but B&N will do. Booksmart Tulsa is hosting author Salman Rushdie later in September. I'm trying to figure out how to go. The first step was getting tickets, which involved buying his latest book at B&N. That step was easy. It was a low-risk scenario. Yes, it cost me (at a couple of discounts) the cost of a hardcover book. But I got the book and the tickets and regardless of how the tickets work out, I still have the book. Why is it possible that the tickets won't work out? I have a scheduled trip to Denver the weekend before this event, and my return flight leaves Denver 2 hours (considering time zones) after the start of the event in Tulsa. So that's a piece I have to figure out. It may be an eleventh hour decision. Airlines and I are not friends, so the attempt to make this happen may be fraught with futility, especially considering all of the ways one airline could figure out how to make this an even more expensive ticket to see Mr. Rushdie. I have my limits, so we will see.

I did some work at B&N this morning, inspired by some contemplative thinking during a massage last night. I also read up about Design Thinking in Harvard Business Review, some additional research for another project at work. And because I'm in a bookstore, I picked up another book. One that's been on my reading list. "Beloved" by Toni Morrison will be a heavy read, but also an important one. I read the forward and first chapter. The writing is differently structured, but beautiful; and Morrison's way with words is, in the least, fascinating and poetic. Since it is the third of three books I have going at the moment (1, The Book of Speculation and 2, The Magicians), my progress with it may be slow. I also intend to read a Rushdie book by the time of the event in less than a month (either his latest, or Midnight's Children...haven't decided yet). I also have Charles M. Blow's memoir on its way, and I'm eager to get into it. No matter what, it will continue to be a great month of reading. Regardless of how the Rushdie event pans out, I will also be visiting a Booksmart event with author Garth Stein in mid-September. Tulsa has some pretty great stuff going on this month.


Because, books.

~MJ

Because, science.

Nothing beats curling up with a book and a blanket (especially a Hogwarts Express blanket). The Martian by Andy Weir is my latest read (will be Book 18 or 19 of #30Books when it is finished). It had been recommended to me a couple of times this year, and even though it breaks my "no reading white men" guidance for the year, it is a good read. And I prioritized it because a movie based on the book is coming out in October.

This also comes at a time where I supported the Bill Nye film Kickstarter. That's right, the Science Guy. Anyone who knows me knows that science and I - we are not friends. This read, and Bill Nye, may make us reluctant friends, meaning I appreciate you're here but I won't understand you the way I do my best friend, language. There are passages in Martian that I legitimately have to re-read to follow he science-y happenings. But the book itself is thrilling and I'm refreshing some of my knowledge from AP Chemistry in high school. And learning other things for the first time (like, how to make H2O - a novel concept). I also think this would be a great read in a HS science course. This all, of course, depends on whether the science in Martian is real (I am assuming most of it is, but really, what do I know?). 

Bill Nye could confirm or deny the scientific contentions in Martian. He should have a MythBusters special of some kind. His Kickstarter (well, the KS of some fans who won Bill over to their idea) is about making a documentary about him, his career, and you guessed it - science! I got excited! I don't usually get excited about science-y things, but yes, I donated the day I saw it. And then I started reading Martian. I guess you could say that I'm giving science more opportunities to win me over. 

I'm about halfway through the book and I fully expect to finish it soon, likely believing most, if not all of the science-y things inside. 

In other news, Book 16 was Haruki Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage which I've  been eyeing for awhile. I liked it for the most part, because it was so different, but I was somewhat underwhelmed by the ending. I am assuming something was lost in translation. I also think Murakami's writing is generally beautiful - so I have  no real complaints.

I am also back to my work-out reads as I trudge through the first couple of weeks of remembering how to endure a 5k (yes, endure). Since it's still August - and therefore the kind of hot that melts down my temples when I walk outside and constrains my breathing when I get into my car after a long day of it sitting in the parking lot - I am using a treadmill. It also helps with pacing, which is dreadfully slow. 

Nevertheless, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is my gym read - it lives on my iPad and I listen to the audiobook as I go ever-so-slowly through my 1.5 mile walk/jogs (notice how that is only half of a 5k...many weeks to go). It's really good! Depending on the pace of this and Martian, it will be Book 18 or 19 in #30Books. 

It's a dystopian novel about a flu pandemic that wipes out a great deal of the world's population. As a result of this pandemic, we regress back to a time without electricity or modern conveniences; the world is more feudal and disconnected. It ties together the stories of several characters, both before, during and after the pandemic. A main thread connecting the stories together (ever so thinly about halfway through the book) is a traveling "symphony" - or a band of nomads traveling between towns (without technology and through the wilderness, mainly) who stop and perform Shakespeare. A common theme so far in the story is how we tell stories, the stories we choose to tell, the stories that live on and why, as well as the gaps in stories lost over time. On today's excursion, a particularly great earmark came up:

"What the Symphony was doing, what they were always doing, was trying to cast a spell...they lives they brushed up against were work-worm and difficult, people who spent all their time engaged in the tasks of survival." 

I just thought this was a good reminder about how stories help us escape, to find comfort, and to remember, even for a minute, that the world is bigger than us.

So while I have my blanket (or a treadmill) and some books, I'll keep reading.

~MJ