The end of the year is a good time to reflect on the events and activities of the year. Since my retirement from academia, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and writing. Fortunately, Goodreads keeps track of books I’ve read for the year and issues an annual report.
According to Goodreads, I read nearly 20,000 pages in 2017, almost doubling the number of pages I read last year. I had set a personal goal for myself of reading 50 books with 30 of them by women authors. I completed that goal in mid-September. In all, I read a total of 63 books, 41 of them by women authors. And I haven’t stopped.
I began writing book reviews after joining Goodreads in 2016 to help me remember what I’ve read. My reviews are posted on Goodreads and on my website. I have now posted over 100 book reviews on my website.
I am pleased with the eclectic nature of books I’ve read over the last two years: books on feminism, literary criticism, and social commentary; books about mythology and fairy tales; books about ancient cities, figures from ancient history, and translations of ancient texts; and books about the monotheistic traditions.
Primarily, however, I’ve been reading a lot of fiction. My taste in fiction ranges from classics to historical fiction, to mythic retellings, to contemporary fiction. The authors I’ve read are a diverse group from all over the world: Sudan, Egypt, Turkey, the U.S., Australia, India, Indonesia, Britain, Ghana, Sweden, Lebanon, Mexico, Alaska, Palestine, Ireland, Pakistan, Russia, Canada, Argentina, Albania, Kenya, American Indian, and Iceland.
I am looking forward to 2018. I plan to set a new reading challenge for myself, exceeding the number of books and pages I read in 2017.