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I read two more books this year than I did last year, and this was with spending the first third of this year (or so) reading (mostly) just the Proust (which was so, so worth it).

Seems like I read more books about programming last year than this year but I certainly wrote a lot more code this year, so.

My reading feels more scattered; there was maybe a little more focus last year in terms of the books read and their progression, but also this feels fine. I have a "project" for 2024, so next year (this year?) will be maybe a little more aligned, and also maybe not: I kind of love that I just went with what suited me, or more often, what was "available now" as an audiobook on Libby (the library app).

Speaking of audiobooks, of the above (let me count…​) 10 of the above were read in that format, especially in the latter half of the year. Largely this was circumstantial: the time I had for "reading" was often driving or cleaning (esp. during the post-bike season deep clean of the house), and so it was nice to, say, stretch my usual topic graph a little and learn about, say the Medici (though that book’s politics — by which I mean the author’s — did leave a little to be desired; the actual history was great though).

I was happy to get to a few books I’d been meaning to for years. Shout out to the Proust, the Stein, the Bulgakov, and the Doctorow, all of which were well worth the effort to finally make space for.

Unintentionally, I appear to have read more women than men this year. Neat!

Speaking of the women I read, special shout out goes to MFK Fisher (and to Alia for introducing me to her): so, so wonderful. There should have been a third on here for this year but I’ve been savoring it and so haven’t finished her translation of The Physiology of Taste yet.

My reading accelerated greatly in the second half of the year. Partly this appears to be the case because I spent so long with Swann’s Way, but partly too it reflects the turn I managed to make in late July so far as my own writing work was concerned, the renewed seriousness and focus (and joy) of which carried over to my reading also. I don’t remember the guy’s name at all, but once, in grad school, we had some alumni from the program who’d published books come and talk and I sat with one of the guys afterward on the bus to the T station, and I think I must have asked him for advice (or maybe somebody else did) but I remember him saying that you should "always be reading," and this has stuck with me. In fact, I think he said that during the talk, and maybe I just saw him reading on the bus: money where the mouth is, and all of that.

Gerald’s Party by Robert Coover

Ladies' Lunch and Other Stories by Lore Segal

The Physiology of Taste by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, trans. MFK Fisher