Back in January I put together My Reading Plan for 2018. My follow-through has been mixed: I overly fulfilled some intentions but failed woefully in others.
Reading Challenges
Goodreads Challenge
I crushed my Goodreads challenge to read 45 books by knocking off 63.
Here, according to Goodreads, are my additional statistics for 2018:
- I read 22,380 pages across 63 books.
- The longest book I read was A Column of Fire by Ken Follett, at 927 pages.
- The average length of my books was 355 pages.
- My average rating was 3.7.
- The most popular book I read was Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, which was read by a total of 659,539 people.
- The least popular book I read was Cash McCall (1955) by Cameron Hawley, which was read by a grand total of 51 people (and I’m surprised the number is that high).
- Of all the books I read, the one with the highest overall rating on Goodreads is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, with a rating of 4.56—which doesn’t surprise me at all. It was THAT good.
Finally, a number of the books I read every year are unabridged audiobooks. I’m not sure whether their page equivalents are included in Goodread’s algorithm for total pages read or not.
Off the Shelf’s 18 Reading Resolutions for 2018
(1) Read more books by women
Although this intention leads off this challenge, I didn’t much worry about it or even track the titles I read that fulfill it because I always read a lot of books by women—not by conscious intention, but because many women write in the fictional genres that I primarily read, mysteries and psychological thrillers.
(2) Read more diverse books
- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
I need to do much better on this one in the future.
(3) Read a book more than 500 pages
I am not afraid of Big Books.
- A Column of Fire by Ken Follett, 927 pages
- Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy, 703 pages
- Penmarric by Susan Howatch, 704 pages
- The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons, 624 pages
- Lethal White by Robert Galbraith, 647 pages
(4) Read a book written by someone under the age of 35
- My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
- The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
(5) Read a book written by someone over the age of 65
- A Column of Fire by Ken Follett
(6) Read a collection of short stories
None
(7) Read more nonfiction
I find it hard to believe, but I read only one work of nonfiction this year: Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann.
(8) Read a novel based on a real person
- A Column of Fire by Ken Follett, based on the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth and some of her supporters
(9) Read a collection of poetry
- Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters
(10) Read a book about an unfamiliar culture
- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
- A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
(11) Read a book from a genre you might not normally read
- Madam, Will You Talk? by Mary Stewart (romantic suspense)
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (science fiction)
- The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Claire North (fantasy, or at least some variety of speculative fiction)
- The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons (ditto)
(12) Read a book by a local author
- The Twilight Wife by A.J. Banner
- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
- The Writer by D.W. Ulsterman
- The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
(13) Read a book about mental health
- Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
- Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay
(14) Read a “guilty pleasure” book
- My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart
- Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
- Penmarric by Susan Howatch
(15) Read a book with an LGBTQ theme
- Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy
(16) Read a book to learn something new
Most people would assume that this category refers exclusively to nonfiction. But I gained a lot of factual knowledge from fiction this year:
- A Column of Fire by Ken Follett taught me about the Elizabethan era, particularly about the origin of espionage and the political machinations involved in acquiring and maintaining power.
- The epic Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy taught me about World War II, especially the French Resistance.
- A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra taught me about the Russian invasion of Chechnya, about which I had known almost nothing.
(17) Read an inspirational memoir
Alas, I didn’t read any new memoirs this year, although reading Dorothy Allison’s autobiographical novel Bastard Out of Carolina felt like reading a memoir.
(18) Read a book you’ve had on your shelf for years but haven’t gotten to yet
- Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler
- Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
Personal Reading Goals
In an effort to read outside of my usual comfort zone (primarily psychological novels), I planned to read some of these types of books in 2018:
translations
- My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, trans. by Ann Goldstein
- The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante, trans. by Ann Goldstein
science fiction
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
biography
None
fantasy
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (at least it’s speculative fiction)
- The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Claire North (ditto)
- The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons (ditto)
- The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (talking dogs are fantasy, right?)
plays
None
poetry
- Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters
The Classics Club
I had planned to tick off six items this year, but I only managed three:
- I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
- The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
- Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters
© 2019 by Mary Daniels Brown
