2015 in books!

In December of 2014 I was mortified by the lack of reading I had done. Yes, the summer had been dedicated to writing a novel, but after years of horror stories about teachers losing themselves in their classroom work, I vowed to not lose myself in my work completely, and reading for fun is among my favorite activities. With that in mind, I set a goal to read two books a month in 2015. The goal was not to read 24 books, but read two books a month, so it might sound crazy to find out, while I read 41 books this year, I actually failed in my goal to read two books a month. There were two months, March and April, where I did not manage to set aside enough time to read two books. I am not bummed about it in the least because, well I read 41 books in a year where I also got married, went on a honeymoon and taught full time. In 2007 I began keeping tabs on the amount of books I read in a given year. In 2013, where I did not have a full time job for half the year, I read 43 books. That is the most in a year since I started tracking it. I imagine in my younger and more vulnerable years, I read more than that at least once. I am sure I read a book a week in my early or mid twenties when I was wasting my life away at dead end jobs. I am going to list every book here in a bit, with a rating out of 1-10, 10 being the best. If you would, for some reason, like a longer explanation, feel free to reach out on FB, or here in the comments. I have been keeping track of my books on FB and IG, though I do not intend to do that in 2016. I will probably go back to Goodreads. A few notes:

I read six non-fiction books, the most in any given year.
Only Four Young Adults books this year, and none of them were very good.
Three were re-reads for school, including two of my all-time favorite books.
I did not count the plays I read (Death of a Salesman, Hamlet)
Night Circus is single best book I have read in probably a decade, if not longer. (not counting books I was re-reading)
I read trendy books for pretty much the first time.
Five books I read this year ended up on suggested reading lists for my AP Lit class, for a variety of reasons.

Okay, here is the list of the 41 books I read in 2015:

1. Wild- Cheryl Strayed- 8
2. Big Brother- Lionel Shriver- 3
3. The Martian- Andy Weir- 8
4. Both of Me- Jonathan Friesen - 2
5. The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald- 10
6. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan- 8
7. How I got skinny, famous and fell madly in love- Ken Baker- 5
8. The Love affairs of Nathaniel P- Adelle Waldman- 7.5
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in night-time- Mark Hadden- 9
10. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil- John Berendt- 6
11. Cartwheel- Jennifer Dubois- 7
12. The House of sand and fog- Andre Dubus- 8.5
13. Candy Girl- Diablo Cody- 7
14. Comeback love- Peter Golden- 7
15. The Imperfectionists- Tom Rachman- 4 (This book took me forever to get through)
16. Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury- 10
17. Life of Pi- Yann Martel- 9
18. Night Circus- Erin Morgernstern- 10
19. Girl on the train- Paula Hawkins- 8
20. Miss Peregrine’ school for Peculiar children- Ransom Riggs- 6
21. How to build a girl- Caitlin Moran- 7.5
22. The Dinner Herman Koch- 5 (might have been the most disappointing read of the year)
23. Lost in the Meritocracy- Walter Kirn- 6 (great concept, poorly executed)
24. The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath- 9
25. The Book of Speculation- Erica Swyler- 7 (an 8 for the first half)
26. Station Eleven- Emily St. John Mandel- 8
27. Brutal Youth Anthony Breznican- 7.5
28. All the Light we cannot see- Anthony Doerr- 6
29. Is everyone hanging out without me?- Mindy Kaling- 7
30. Blindness Jose Saramago- 8
31. A visit from the Goon Squad- Jennifer Egan- 6
32. & Sons David Gilbert- 7 (my most torn on a rating. Some of it is brilliant)
33. This is how you lose her Junot Diaz- 8
34. Big Magic Elizabeth Gilbert- 7
35. Admission Jean Hanff Korelitz- 6
36. Someday, Someday, Maybe- Lauren Graham- 7.5
37. Lexicon Max Barry- 7
38. The Devil in Silver- Victor Lavalle- 4
39. Diary Chuck Palahniuk- 5 (8 for the first 2/3, 3 for the last 1/3)
40. The Average American Marriage- Chad Kultgen- 6.5 (If I had known it was a sequel, I would have read the first one first.)
41. Me & Earl & the dying girl- Jesse Andrews- 5


I admit, the end of my reading year was not so great. In 2016 I am starting grad school in literature, so not sure how much outside reading I will be doing. I am thinking of tackling longer books in 2016. Books that I can read little bit at a time. Or maybe I will just re-read Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and call it a year.