Resolutions Revisited: 2020

Time to dust off this long-dormant page to continue my annual tradition of public self-evaluation, and to revisit the goals I set at the beginning of this year. Of course, these goals were written 2 months before the world changed irrevocably in a million different ways – but a post where I just write “HA!” after each aspiration that failed to anticipate a global pandemic seems cruel to my past self, and the things we all did to survive this year. So I will do my best to be kind and generous to my selves, past and present. This year, at least, we deserve it.

Looking Back

Hindsight truly being 20/20 (sorry), here is how I did this year:

10. Delete Facebook.

I did this! For the first 6 months of the year, I removed myself from Facebook and deleted the app from my phone. It had become unconscionable to continue to support the ad revenue of a company that, from where I am standing, poses one of the greatest threats to democracy (and society writ large) in the 21st century. Facebook has absolutely done more ill than good to global institutions, mental health, and data sovereignty, and it was a joy to leave it. No, I didn’t leave Instagram as well. Yes, I know that Facebook owns Instagram, and that if I truly wanted these lofty words to matter I would have had the gumption to do both. But addiction is hard, and withdrawal is real.

Of course, I also said that I left Facebook for the first 6 months of the year. Eventually, and begrudgingly, I had to rejoin in order to take on some social media responsibilities at work – but I am happy to report that I have since passed those on to others, and am once again off the blighted platform.

9. Eat less meat.

I won’t lie, I completely forgot that I had set this goal. That is to say nothing of its worthiness – I still feel strongly that I need to reduce my meat consumption for environmental reasons. But when the world turned upside down, and food scarcity and financial stability were suddenly on my radar in ways they had never been before, dietary goals simply became secondary. So I didn’t keep track. Colloquially, I think I likely did eat less meat this year than others. We had my vegetarian mother-in-law staying with us for the first months of the pandemic, so we ate meat-free meals a lot. But I cannot truthfully claim that I did it with this goal in mind.

8. Reduce phone screen time from 10% to less than 5%.

In retrospect, this seems laughably naïve. But again, we had no idea what was coming. But no, this did not happen. Suddenly, our phones and computers went from being screens we hid behind to avoid social interaction to being our only portal to social interaction. Who knows what the long-term effects of this year’s reliance on technology will be for mental and emotional well-being. But as I said, we did what we had to in order to survive.

7. Spend no money on books – read what I already own, or use the library.

I did this! This may be the one goal which I unequivocally and intentionally stuck to, all 12 months of this year. The only new books which entered my collection were gifts from other people. I read books from my own shelves that I have been meaning to get to for years. I renewed my library card, and used it often. True, I have not read as much this year as in years past. While I had an unexpected wealth of time, I also had a growing toddler who is far more interesting than anything I have ever read. And there are some books which it will be hard to continue not to buy – works by favourite authors, conclusions to series I own the rest of, that sort of thing – but I am certainly going to try to continue being more selective about buying books versus supporting one of the true miracles of organized society: the free public library.

6. No sugary drinks.

Yeah, I didn’t do this. I do try to order sugar-free soft drinks when I am getting takeout (boy, has this been the year for takeout); but I still put sugar in my coffee, I still order from Starbucks, I still drink cans of pop by the case. I shouldn’t, but I do. Maybe next year.

But probably not.

5. No video games Monday-Thursday.

This one is truly laughable. Video games played a huge role in keeping me sane this year, and I don’t apologize for it. In fact, video games have factored into many of the brightest memories I have of this blighted year. Early on in the pandemic, our family did what everyone was doing – connecting with people we could no longer see in person by playing Jackbox and House Party games virtually. In those first few months, Angela and I rediscovered the joy of playing couch co-op games, something we had not done in ages. While Ophelia napped, we chopped and served our way through Overcooked 1 and 2, whisper-yelling at each other so as not to wake the baby. Then, for Father’s Day, Angela surprised me with a Nintendo Switch (the generosity and awesomeness of which still astounds me), and every day since we have enjoyed the sweet escapism of Animal Crossing. Video games really and truly got us through this year. No regrets.

4. Go to the doctor.

I didn’t do this. Not because I didn’t want to – when the year began, I had absolutely every intention of following through on this one. But then it became inadvisable and a waste of resources for healthy people to visit the doctor, and so I put it on hold. Next October I turn 30. Hopefully by then the world will be sane enough that I can make good on this one. Who knows, maybe pigs will fly and I will go to the dentist too.

3. Finish a major writing project.

This one hurts a little bit. I don’t regret how I spent this year, as we shall see when we get to the bottom of this list. But I cannot help feeling, as I look back at the unexpected gift of time that I was given this year, that I must have done something wrong. Year after year, I add to the pile of writing projects I have begun but not finished. Novels, poetry chapbooks, short stories, blog posts. All sit in digital purgatory, waiting to be resumed. And I cannot imagine another year where I will have more time that I could, with self-discipline and determination, have spent writing.

In my head and in my heart, I am a writer. It is what I tell myself I would do if money was immaterial, if I didn’t have to keep a job to house and feed my family, if, if, if. But a writer writes. I, as evidenced by this blog alone, do not. Perhaps it is as simple as that.

2. Rid myself of gamification.

Hey, 2 out of 9 ain’t bad. Looking back at my post from last year on the many gamified apps and experiences I was plugged into, I have now excised all of them! I really feel that I have made progress shifting my brain from objective-based reward seeking to process-based enjoyment. It is an ongoing battle, but I do make a conscious effort to interrogate my motivations in reading a thing or buying a thing or doing a thing. Am I reading/buying/doing in order to score a dopemine dump from some ultimately meaningless system of badges and achievements and rewards? Or am I doing/buying/reading because I enjoy it? Will it fulfill me in some deeper way? Will it make me or my family happier? Ultimately, am I in control?

Of course, this blog may be the last remaining exception. I think I write it for me, but I will still check back 100 times in the next few days to see how many people have read it.

1. Prioritize family time.

This was going to be my hardest goal to accomplish, and yet it became the easiest. Nothing has been good about this year. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in a global pandemic, nationalism and racial violence have continue to become more mainstream, wealth disparity has grown wider, and RBG died. But in the midst of all that suffering, I received an incredible blessing. I got laid off. From April to June, I was off work – and because I live in Canada, my government made sure I received a benefit sufficient to cover my family’s needs. As a result, I got to be home every single day while my daughter grew from 8 to 10 months old. I got to see her learn to take steps, to babble and speak, to explore the world around her. I got time with my wife in as beautiful a spring as I can remember. I got to slow down for a while, to be present for moments I would otherwise have missed. So I didn’t write a book. I didn’t change the world. I didn’t do much of anything at all. I was exactly where I needed to be.

Looking Ahead

Having looked back, it is time to (foolishly, probably) set some goals for 2021. How does one set goals in a year like this, when the worst may yet be ahead? Just call me Don Quixote.

10. Get vaccinated.

9. Reply more promptly.

8. Walk every day.

7. Write another crossword.

6. Catch up on some zeitgeisty media.

5. Reduce the number of apps on my phone.

4. Create more.

3. Cook more.

2. For real this time, finish a major writing project.

1. Focus on mental health.

Healthy Reading Checkup: Q3 & Q4 2019

Who could have predicted this? Who would have guessed that having a child would mean that my pace would fall from 21 books in the first half of the year to a measly 8 in the second half? And that instead of posting a quarterly update some time around the beginning of October, I would instead be pushing two quarters together for one end-of-year update? It is almost as if becoming a parent changes your whole life or something. Nevertheless, with what reading I was able to do in the second half of 2019, I still made a conscious effort to read in a way that expands my horizons, reduces stress, challenges me, and improves my mental health. As I said in June, this was never going to be about volume read, but the quality of my reading choices.

So, what were the final books that rounded out my reading this year? Why did I chose the books I did? Were they helpful, healthy, diverse reading choices? What does my reading future look like?

22. Stories From the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean

Why?: This was my annual camping read; and while it was not as profound an experience as other books I have brought to read in the great Canadian wilderness, it was a purposeful choice. I have been working for about a year now on a large research and writing project about my grandparents. My granddad has been a devotee of Stuart McLean as long as I have known him, and I looked to this early collection of stories to find a new way to connect with my grandfather.

Health check: While Stuart McLean was an older white male author, and therefore among the most overrepresented demographic in publishing, he was (and will always be) a Canadian icon. His viewpoints may not be groundbreaking, nor open me up to ideas which are foreign to my own experience. Nevertheless, his storytelling echoes with a warmth and nostalgia that cleanses the soul. The simple truths he speaks are universal, despite being cast in hegemonic white suburbia, and there is comfort in going back home to a place that never existed.

23. Caring For Your Baby and Young Child by Steven P Shelov et al.

Why?: Because Angela and I had a baby! Parenthood has been the most indescribably wonderful experience of our lives, but looking at it from the outside was terrifying. I wanted to read everything I could to be best prepared for every challenge we may face. Of course, all of that reading and preparation goes out the window when you are faced with the very real and daunting task of caring for an actual human baby, but I am glad I did my homework anyway.

Health check: Disappointingly, this book was also written by an old white man. On one had, I wish I had tried harder in our prenatal days to seek out other voices on childbirth and parenting. On the other hand, I am much more interested in fact- and science-based approaches to these subjects, and it seems from my own observation that many more white men have been given the opportunity to write those types of guides than the next closest group.

24. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Why?: This book has been on my list to read since it was released to wide acclaim. I waited as long as I could for a paperback release (not because of the price but because I hate owning hardcover books for shelving purposes). Eventually, when the paperback showed no signs of coming, I went and renewed my long-lapsed library card specifically in order to take out and read this book.

Health check: Little Fires Everywhere joins Fifth Business on a very short list of perfect books I have read in my life. I have since bought Ng’s first novel, the similarly-acclaimed Everything I Never Told You, and can’t wait to read more from her. The breathtaking realism and devastating truths in this book held me rapt to the final word. An Asian-American woman wrote the best book I read this year, and that makes me quite happy.

25. Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind

Why?: I was leant a copy of this book ages ago, when I was sampling a number of other epic fantasy series to try to find a new obsession. I picked it up and put it down many times before actually committing to getting through it.

Health check: This was the first outright poor reading decision since starting the year with After James. Especially knowing that I have yet to read N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth series, slogging through a tired and derivative first chapter of a gargantuan epic written by – you guessed it – an old white guy was a complete waste of time in retrospect. I am still surprised I finished this one at all, and I don’t like what it detracts from my attempts to diversify.

26. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

Why?: I have been casually making my way through all the Bond movies for the past year or so, and so I figured I would pick up the first of the original Fleming novels to give them a try. This turns out to have been an error of unfathomable proportions.

Health check: There is nothing to be found in this book of the charm, wit, and fun of Bond on film. Instead, his innuendo is replaced with aggressive chauvinism; his charm is replaced with cold malice; his ingenuity is replaced with dumb luck. The casual racism and overt sexism make this an abysmal read, and I will go out of my way to never read another. Love the movies, hate the book. An uninspired white male saviour written by a white male author. Shame on me.

27. City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

Why: Having heard her speak and be interviewed many times, I have deep admiration for Elizabeth Gilbert. She is a wonderful writer, thinker, and human being. Naturally, I could not wait to check out this foray into fiction!

Health check: Liz Gilbert is as remarkable in fiction as she is in memoir, and her unabashed celebration of womanhood and female sexuality in the 20th century left me in tears. The vision she conjures of seedy theatre life in WWII-era New York City is salacious and delicious. The audiobook narrated by Blair Brown is highly recommended.

28. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

Why?: I have become obsessed with Malcolm Gladwell’s engrossing podcast, Revisionist History, and I have heard him discuss some of the case studies from this book in other interviews. The way he makes the obscure both fascinating and accessible is unmatched by any other public intellectual I have encountered.

Health check: Gladwell is a Canadian treasure, and that rare celebrity who has not jumped ship on their home and native land as soon as the spotlight found them. He represents multiple ethnic backgrounds, and somewhat epitomizes the Canadian spirit of fairness, openness, and inclusivity. This book is also of a genre (sociology/anthropology/social studies generally, though it is also more than the sum of those parts) that I have rarely explored. I am glad that I read this one.

29. Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber

Why?: If I remember correctly, I first heard of this book when it was mentioned on Dax Shepard and Monica Padman’s excellent podcast, Armchair Expert. I don’t even remember the context now in which it came up, but I remember being intrigued. Ever since reading Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, I am always eager to read these sorts of broadly digestible essays on deeply interesting topics (in Harari’s case, a grand unified theory of anthropology and human history; in Graeber’s case a fundamental reimagining of the origins of money and economic systems).

Health check: Another book by another white guy was not how I imagined this year of conscious reading would end, but the horizon-expanding and preconception-challenging which this one prompted makes me feel less guilty about it. This was a fascinating look at what seems, from the outside, to be among the world’s most boring subjects: economic history. The audiobook was hugely helpful in making it digestible for me, and kept me thoroughly engaged for many commutes.

***

Summary

Books read: 29

Books by Canadian authors: 5

Genre diversity: 

• Fiction (General) – 14
• Narrative nonfiction – 3
• Children’s Fantasy – 3
• Nonfiction (General) – 6
• Young Adult – 2
• Western – 1

Gender breakdown (Authors):

• Women – 10
• Men – 19
• Nonbinary – 0

Ethnic breakdown (Authors):

• White – 21
• Black – 3
• Indigenous – 2 (disputed; Joseph Boyden’s claim to Native Canadian ancestry has been questioned)
• Latin American – 1
• Jewish – 1
• Asian American – 1

Here at the end of the year, I would be lying to say I am ecstatic with my results. I certainly underestimated how drastically my reading time would be reduced after having a child, which meant that the long list of books by non-white, LGBTQ+, and other underrepresented authors simply didn’t get finished. But I did have time to read 8 books in this latter half of the year and I chose 5 by white men, so I have no one to blame but myself. Ultimately, I am glad that a quarter of the books I read this year we’re by non-white authors, and more than a third were by women – I don’t have the stats, but I have to imagine this is better than my lifetime average. And I truly feel the way that I choose books has changed. Looking at what has already made it into my TBR pile for 2020, I see the fruits of the efforts I made this year to overcome my biases. Reading with more awareness for my prejudices, seeking out marginalized voices, and broadening my horizons have made me a better reader – and just as importantly, have contributed greatly to my enjoyment of reading this year. And that, at least, is a success.

Amazon’s “100 Books to Read in a Lifetime”

This is the last of the four “Top 100” book lists I am measuring against my own reading history. I am planning to put together a short summary post to compare my findings across the four lists, and to see whether we can make any overarching observations about literary journalism as a result. But first, we have one more list to examine! As with the TIME, PBS, and Guardian lists, this is a list put out by a major media organization (Amazon); however, unlike those other lists, nowhere do the Amazon Books editors use a superlative. There is no “best” or “greatest” or “most-loved” being claimed here. This list, according to its title, is simply a group of experts’ recommendations on the 100 books one should read in their lifetime. The value of this list will rest squarely on that word “should.” My hope, at the outset of this list, is that they have taken the liberty of subjectivity to curate a list representative of the world we live in today. I hope Amazon believes people “should” read widely and diversely – from every genre, by authors from every part of the gender and racial spectra. Let’s take a look at how their list breaks down, and how many books I have left to read in my lifetime:

• 68 of the books on this list were written by men, versus 32 by women. This is only better than The Guardian’s list in terms of gender parity; both TIME and PBS have more women represented. This is a bit disappointing – again, given the loose parameters of “books you should read,” my hope was that Amazon would recommend something close to an even split. Better yet, I would have loved to see some non-binary representation this time around.
• Of all four lists I have examined, the Amazon list has the most culturally (if not racially, as we will see) diverse representation yet. 69 of the books were written by American authors, which is still high in the scope of all literature ever written; however, I have come to accept that lists published in America will always lean American. What is more encouraging is the cultural diversity of the other 31: writers are represented from Britain (15), continental Europe (6), Canada (2), Africa (2), Latin America (2), Asia (1), Australia (1), the Middle East (1) and the Caribbean (1). The other three lists saw combinations of these, but no other list represented such a broad spectrum of cultures. Good on you, Amazon.
• The chronology of the books on this list are encouraging to me, in that they reinforce an idea that I have argued many times before – that the classics, while great, are not the only books worth reading. Only 3 books written before the 20th century make the cut; and the closer you get to the present day, the more books Amazon thinks you should read. This is refreshing, when compared to so many must-read lists and high school English syllabi. Here is how the numbers look:
  • Pre-1900: 3
  • 1900-1939: 8
  • 1940-1959: 15
  • 1960-1979: 22
  • 1980-1999: 22
  • 2000-present: 30
• Finally, 85 of the 100 books were written by white authors. This is second best of all the lists we have examined, behind only PBS’s Great American Read; that being said, 15 books written by people of colour is not enough. I resolved at the beginning of this year to read more diversely, and to contribute in any small way I could to help more diverse voices be heard and recognized. This is where I think Amazon came up short. They gave themselves all the license in the world with a title like “100 Books to Read in a Lifetime”; they had no obligation to include so many of the old standards. They had an opportunity to say something about the importance of empathy, of differences in perspective and experience. Instead, they played it safe. So let me say unequivocally what Amazon did not: representation matters, and people of colour write words worth reading. Read them.
  

Here is the list in alphabetical order. How many have I read?:

Title	Read?
1. 1984	Yes
2. A Brief History of Time	No
3. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius	No
4. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier	No
5. The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events)	Yes
6. A Wrinkle In Time	Yes
7. Alice Munro: Selected Short Stories	No
8. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass	Yes
9. All the President’s Men	No
10. Angela’s Ashes	No
11. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret	Yes
12. Bel Canto	No
13. Beloved	No
14. Born to Run	No
15. Breath, Eyes, Memory	No
16. Catch-22	Yes
17. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Yes
18. Charlotte’s Web	Yes
19. Cutting For Stone	No
20. Daring Greatly	No
21. Diary of a Wimpy Kid	No
22. Dune	Yes
23. Fahrenheit 451	Yes
24. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas	Yes
25. Gone Girl	No
26. Goodnight Moon	Yes
27. Great Expectations	Yes
28. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies	No
29. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	Yes
30. In Cold Blood	Yes
31. Interpreter of Maladies	No
32. Invisible Man	No
33. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth	No
34. Kitchen Confidential	No
35. Life After Life	No
36. Little House on the Prairie	No
37. Lolita	Yes
38. Love in the Time of Cholera	Yes
39. Love Medicine	No
40. Man’s Search For Meaning	No
41. Me Talk Pretty One Day	No
42. Middlesex	No
43. Midnight’s Children	No
44. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game	No
45. Of Human Bondage	No
46. On The Road	Yes
47. Out of Africa	No
48. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood	No
49. Portnoy’s Complaint	No
50. Pride and Prejudice	Yes
51. Silent Spring	No
52. Slaughterhouse-Five	Yes
53. Team of Rivals	No
54. The Age of Innocence	No
55. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay	No
56. The Autobiography of Malcolm X	No
57. The Book Thief	Yes
58. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao	Yes
59. The Catcher in the Rye	Yes
60. The Color of Water	No
61. The Corrections	Yes
62. The Devil in the White City	No
63. The Diary of a Young Girl	Yes
64. The Fault in Our Stars	Yes
65. The Giver	Yes
66. The Golden Compass	Yes
67. The Great Gatsby	Yes
68. The Handmaid’s Tale	Yes
69. The House at Pooh Corner	No
70. The Hunger Games	Yes
71. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks	No
72. The Liars’ Club	No
73. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson series)	No
74. The Little Prince	Yes
75. The Long Goodbye	No
76. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11	No
77. The Lord of the Rings	Yes
78. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat	No
79. The Omnivore’s Dilemma	No
80. The Phantom Tollbooth	No
81. The Poisonwood Bible	Yes
82. The Power Broker	No
83. The Right Stuff	No
84. The Road	No
85. The Secret History	No
86. The Shining	Yes
87. The Stranger	No
88. The Sun Also Rises	No
89. The Things They Carried	No
90. The Very Hungry Caterpillar	Yes
91. The Wind in the Willows	Yes
92. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle	No
93. The World According to Garp	No
94. The Year of Magical Thinking	No
95. Things Fall Apart	No
96. To Kill A Mockingbird	Yes
97. Unbroken	No
98. Valley of the Dolls	No
99. Where the Sidewalk Ends	Yes
100. Where the Wild Things Are	Yes

I have read 40 of the 100 books Amazon believes I should read in my lifetime. If I maintain my current pace, I should finish them all by the time I’m 65. Of course, there is a good chance that more books will have been written between now and then that I should probably read as well… Oh well. All I can do is my best. A big thanks to the women at Thrice Read for inspiring this project, and Perfectly Tolerable for putting the Amazon list on my radar. Now to take a step back and see if we have learned anything over the course of 4 lists…

What do you think of this latest “Top 100” list? Let me know in comments how many YOU have read!

The Guardian’s “100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time”

This is the third of four posts I am writing to examine the composition of “Top 100” lists in literary journalism. Be sure to go back and check out my analysis of TIME’s 100 Best Young Adult Books and PBS’s list for their Great American Read competition. Inspired by tags on Thrice Read, I wanted to measure my own reading history as compared to these sorts of “all time” lists. Of course, terms like “best” and “greatest” are entirely subjective, as opposed to measurable factors like copies sold – thus, each of the lists I am examining are shaped by their compilers, their media outlet or publication, and the society from which they are written. But subjectivity cannot be allowed to excuse prejudice, or ignorance, or laziness. As I have written many times this year, in today’s polarized world, it is more critical than ever that we are critical of the things we consume. Our media, our time, and even our reading habits should be put under the microscope. The loudest voices are not always right. In fact, Dunning-Kruger would suggest the exact opposite. So when a major media source like TIME or PBS, or in this case The Guardian, puts out a list of the “Top 100” books in a given category, I think we all owe it to ourselves to look deeper at the way these lists challenge or reinforce our biases. I am still interested in how well read The Guardian deems me to be, and I will take a tally below; but first, some numbers on “the 100 best nonfiction books of all time,” according to The Guardian:

• 83 authors represented are men, 19 are women. Tales From Shakespeare was written by both Charles and Mary Lamb, and The Elements of Style was written by two men – hence the total of 102. This gender disparity is the worst of any list I have looked at so far, but as we are about to see, diversity was far from the methodology here.
• It is pointless, in this case, to look at the cultural and linguistic diversity of the list; all of these books are written in English. The notable omissions of sacred texts from non-Christian religions, or other hugely influential books like The Diary of Anne Frank, The Art of War, On the Interpretation of Dreams, Discourse on Method, or The Kama Sutra, or any of the great works of Greek philosophy make the entire enterprise somewhat suspect. If The Guardian had wanted to make a list of “the 100 Best Nonfiction Books in the English Language,” they should have said that. Implying that your list contains the greatest books of all time, and only including works written in English, is deceptive and demeaning to countless intellectual traditions outside of Britain and America.
• A look at the chronology of the books (again, the fact that no book on the list was written before 1600 C.E. brings into serious question the “All Time” aspect of things):
  • 21st Century: 2
  • 20th Century: 51
  • 19th Century: 20
  • 18th Century: 16
  • 17th Century: 11
• Finally, 93 of the 100 books were written by white authors. A mere 7 books in the history of nonfiction written by people of colour were worth mentioning here, according to The Guardian. Again, the focus on English language works creates much of the problem here, as people of colour have only been viewed as people and not property for 150 years in much of the English speaking world. But if multiple collections of poetry make the nonfiction list, surely there is a place for Maya Angelou or Langston Hughes? Representation matters, and this list is bad at it.

Here is the list in reverse chronological order. How many have I read?:

Title	Read?
1. The Sixth Extinction	No
2. The Year of Magical Thinking	No
3. No Logo	Yes
4. Birthday Letters	No
5. Dreams From My Father	No
6. A Brief History of Time	No
7. The Right Stuff	No
8. Orientalism	No
9. Dispatches	No
10. The Selfish Gene	No
11. North	No
12. Awakenings	No
13. The Female Eunuch	No
14. Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom	No
15. The Double Helix	No
16. Against Interpretation	No
17. Ariel	Yes
18. The Feminine Mystique	No
19. The Making of the English Working Class	No
20. Silent Spring	No
21. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions	No
22. A Grief Observed	Yes
23. The Elements of Style	Yes
24. The Affluent Society	No
25. The Uses of Literacy: Aspects of Working-Class Life	No
26. Notes of a Native Son	No
27. The Nude: A Study of Ideal Art	No
28. The Hedgehog and the Fox	No
29. Waiting For Godot	Yes
30. A Book of Mediterranean Food	No
31. The Great Tradition	No
32. The Last Days of Hitler	Yes
33. The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care	No
34. Hiroshima	No
35. The Open Society and Its Enemies	No
36. Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth	No
37. How to Cook a Wolf	No
38. Enemies of Promise	No
39. The Road to Wigan Pier	No
40. The Road to Oxiana	No
41. How to Win Friends and Influence People	No
42. Testament of Youth	No
43. My Early Life: A Roving Commission	No
44. Goodbye to All That	No
45. A Room of One’s Own	Yes
46. The Waste Land	Yes
47. Ten Days That Shook The World	No
48. The Economic Consequences of Peace	Yes
49. The American Language	No
50. Eminent Victorians	No
51. The Souls of Black Folk	No
52. De Profundis	No
53. The Varieties of Religious Experience	No
54. Brief Lives	No
55. Personal Memoirs (Ulysses S Grant)	No
56. Life on the Mississippi	No
57. Travels With a Donkey in the Cévennes	No
58. Nonsense Songs	No
59. Culture and Anarchy	No
60. On the Origin of Species	Yes
61. On Liberty	Yes
62. The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands	No
63. The Life of Charlotte Bronte	No
64. Walden	Yes
65. Thesaurus	Yes?
66. London Labour and the London Poor	No
67. Household Education	No
68. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave	Yes
69. Essays (Ralph Waldo Emerson)	Yes
70. Domestic Manners of the Americans	No
71. An American Dictionary of the English Language	Yes?
72. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater	No
73. Tales From Shakespeare	Yes
74. Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa	No
75. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin	No
76. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman	No
77. The Life of Samuel Johnson LLD	No
78. Reflections on the Revolution in France	Yes
79. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano	No
80. The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne	No
81. The Federalist Papers	Yes
82. The Diary of Fanny Burney	No
83. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire	Yes
84. The Wealth of Nations	Yes
85. Common Sense	Yes
86. A Dictionary of the English Language	Yes?
87. A Treatise of Human Nature	Yes
88. A Modest Proposal	No
89. A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain	No
90. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding	Yes
91. The Book of Common Prayer	No
92. The Diary of Samuel Pepys	No
93. Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, or A Brief Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns Lately Found in Norfolk	No
94. Leviathan	Yes
95. Areopagitica	No
96. Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions	No
97. The First Folio	Yes
98. The Anatomy of Melancholy	No
99. The History of the World	No
100. The King James Bible	Yes

28 out of 100 – and I am shocked it is that high. I fully expect that my reading percentage on this list will be the lowest of the four. Nonfiction has never held the same sway over me as fiction, and some of the books on this list are, though deserving of their place, fairly unapproachable in 2018. Also, there are two dictionaries and a thesaurus here – I counted myself as having “read” them, in that I have used them. I certainly have NOT read them cover-to-cover. Most of the nonfiction I read these days is narrative nonfiction or biography, neither of which is heavily represented here. Looking at the ones I haven’t read, and keeping in mind my goal of reading more diversely, I don’t think my number is going to go up much from here.

What do you think of this latest “Top 100” list? Let me know in comments how many YOU have read!

PBS’s “The Great American Read”

Last week, inspired by Thrice Read, I took a look at the composition of TIME’s “100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time”. I crunched some numbers on the composition of the list, and took a look at how many of the 100 I have read. Since then, PBS has announced their list of 100 books entitled “The Great American Read“. They will be profiling “America’s 100 most-loved books” in a miniseries beginning in May, and then America will have a chance to vote on which book is “greatest”. As a Canadian, I don’t know that I will be able to vote – but I enjoyed reviewing TIME’s list so much that I thought I would do the same here! First, the numbers on PBS’ “The Great American Read”:

• 67 of the books were written by men, 33 by women
• 62 of the books were written by American authors, 21 by English-speaking Europeans, 4 by Canadians, and 1 by an Australian. That leaves 12 books written by authors in Africa (2), Latin America (4), and non-English-speaking Europe (6). This distribution is slightly better than the TIME list, though of course it is still heavily skewed towards books written in English. Since this list is compiling “most-loved” books instead of “best,” I think that is understandable.
• A look at the chronology of the books:
  • Pre-1900: 17
  • 1900-1939: 10
  • 1940-1959: 14
  • 1960-1979: 13
  • 1980-1999: 27
  • 2000-present: 19
• Finally, 83 of the 100 books were written by white authors. 17 books on PBS’ list were written by people of colour. Again, this is a slightly higher number than on TIME’S list of YA books, but still does not nearly represent the diversity of American readers. I am recommitting myself to reading more diversely – the more people who buy books by diverse authors, the more diverse authors will be given the opportunity to publish. Or at least the hope in me believes so.

Here is the list in alphabetical order. How many have I read?:

Rank and Title	Read?
1. 1984	Yes
2. A Confederacy of Dunces	Yes
3. A Prayer For Owen Meany	No
4. A Separate Peace	No
5. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn	Yes
6. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer	Yes
7. The Alchemist	Yes
8. Alex Cross Mysteries (Series)	No
9. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland	Yes
10. Americanah	No
11. And Then There Were None	Yes
12. Anne of Green Gables	Yes
13. Another Country	No
14. Atlas Shrugged	Yes
15. Beloved	No
16. Bless Me, Ultima	No
17. The Book Thief	Yes
18. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao	Yes
19. The Call of the Wild	No
20. Catch-22	Yes
21. The Catcher in the Rye	Yes
22. Charlotte’s Web	Yes
23. The Chronicles of Narnia (Series)	Yes
24. Clan of the Cave Bear	No
25. Coldest Winter Ever	No
26. The Color Purple	Yes
27. The Count of Monte Cristo	Yes
28. Crime and Punishment	No
29. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time	Yes
30. The Da Vinci Code	Yes
31. Don Quixote	No
32. Doña Bárbára	No
33. Dune	Yes
34. Fifty Shades of Grey (Series)	No
35. Flowers in the Attic	No
36. Foundation (Series)	No
37. Frankenstein	Yes
38. Game of Thrones (Series)	No
39. Ghost	No
40. Gilead	No
41. The Giver	Yes
42. The Godfather	Yes
43. Gone Girl	No
44. Gone With the Wind	Yes
45. The Grapes of Wrath	Yes
46. Great Expectations	Yes
47. The Great Gatsby	Yes
48. Gulliver’s Travels	No
49. The Handmaid’s Tale	Yes
50. Harry Potter (Series)	Yes
51. Hatchet (Series)	Yes
52. Heart of Darkness	Yes
53. The Help	No
54. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy	Yes
55. The Hunger Games (Series)	Yes
56. The Hunt for Red October	No
57. The Intuitionist	No
58. Invisible Man	No
59. Jane Eyre	Yes
60. The Joy Luck Club	No
61. Jurassic Park	Yes
62. Left Behind (Series)	No
63. The Little Prince	Yes
64. Little Women	Yes
65. Lonesome Dove	No
66. Looking For Alaska	Yes
67. The Lord of the Rings (Series)	Yes
68. The Lovely Bones	Yes
69. The Martian	No
70. Memoirs of a Geisha	No
71. Mind Invaders	No
72. Moby-Dick	Yes
73. The Notebook	No
74. One Hundred Years of Solitude	Yes
75. Outlander (Series)	No
76. The Outsiders	Yes
77. The Picture of Dorian Gray	Yes
78. The Pilgrim’s Progress	No
79. The Pillars of the Earth	No
80. Pride and Prejudice	Yes
81. Ready Player One	No
82. Rebecca	Yes
83. The Shack	No
84. Siddartha	No
85. The Sirens of Titan	No
86. The Stand	Yes
87. The Sun Also Rises	No
88. Swan Song	No
89. Tales of the City (Series)	No
90. Their Eyes Were Watching God	Yes
91. Things Fall Apart	No
92. This Present Darkness	No
93. To Kill a Mockingbird	Yes
94. The Twilight Saga (Series)	Yes
95. War and Peace	Yes
96. Watchers	No
97. The Wheel of Time (Series)	Yes
98. Where the Red Fern Grows	Yes
99. White Teeth	No
100. Wuthering Heights	Yes

54 out of 100 – more than half! This is an… interesting list. PBS outlines on their website that the list was compiled using a survey of about 7,200 Americans, asking them simply to name their most-loved novel. There are a few inclusions here that baffle me (Mind Invaders is hardly even findable on Google) and leave real questions as to the diversity of their sample size. But again, framing the conversation in terms of “most-loved,” a completely subjective measure, gives them a lot of license to be unscientific.

What do you think of this latest “Top 100” list? Let me know in comments how many YOU have read!

TIME’s “100 Greatest YA Books”

Inspired by the awesome women over at Thrice Read, I thought I would take a look at my own reading history stacked up against TIME’s 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. But first, in the spirit of mindfulness I laid out in one of my first posts of the year, I want to take a look at the list as a whole. What can we say about TIME’s selections? Here are some statistics:

• 57 of the books were written by men, 43 by women
• 68 of the books were written by American authors, 24 by English-speaking Europeans, 2 by Canadians, and 2 by Australians. That leaves only 4 books written by non-English European (3) and South American (1) authors. As far as I can tell, only 4 books were not written in English. Perhaps a better name for the list would have been the 100 Best Young Adult Books in the English Language?
• In terms of chronology, 26 books were written before 1960, 20 were written from 1960-1979, 13 from 1980-1999, and 41 have been written in the 21st century. This maps to the list’s preamble that, “We’re living in a golden age of young-adult literature.”
• Finally, and disappointingly, 90 of the 100 books were written by white authors. Only 10 books on the entire list were written by people of colour. I am not really sure what to make of this fact – whether it reflects poorly on the compilation of the list or the history of YA publishing. I am sure the right answer lies somewhere in the ambiguous middle.

As with any subjective list, the inclusion or absence of any book below should be taken with a grain of salt – in this case, perhaps a large one. But let’s take a look at how my reading history stacks up:

Rank and Title	Read?
1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian	No
2. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	Yes
3. The Book Thief	Yes
4. A Wrinkle in Time	Yes
5. Charlotte’s Web	Yes
6. Holes	Yes
7. Matilda	No
8. The Outsiders	Yes
9. The Phantom Tollbooth	No
10. The Giver	Yes
11. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.	Yes
12. To Kill A Mockingbird	Yes
13. Roll of Thunder, Hear Me Cry	No
14. Anne of Green Gables	Yes
15. The Chronicles of Narnia	Yes
16. Monster	No
17. The Golden Compass	Yes
18. The Diary of a Young Girl	Yes
19. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler	Yes
20. Looking for Alaska	Yes
21. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time	Yes
22. Little House on the Prairie	No
23. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane	No
24. Wonder	No
25. The Sword in the Stone	Yes
26. The Catcher in the Rye	Yes
27. Little Women	Yes
28. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	Yes
29. The Hobbit	Yes
30. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz	Yes
31. Lord of the Flies	Yes
32. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Yes
33. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland	Yes
34. Bridge to Terabithia	Yes
35. The Call of the Wild	No
36. A Separate Place	No
37. Harriet the Spy	No
38. The Chocolate War	No
39. Jacob Here I Loved	No
40. A Series of Unfortunate Events	Yes
41. Hatchet	Yes
42. The Lord of the Rings	Yes
43. Feed	No
44. The Alchemyst	No
45. The Princess Bride	Yes
46. Beezus & Ramona	Yes
47. Tarzan of the Apes	No
48. Johnny Tremain	No
49. The Westing Game	Yes
50. The Wind in the Willows	Yes
51. Speak	No
52. Mary Poppins	No
53. The Faults in Our Stars	Yes
54. A Northern Light	No
55. The Yearling	No
56. The Hunger Games	Yes
57. For Freedom	No
58. The Wall	No
59. A Monster Calls	Yes
60. Percy Jackson & the Olympians	No
61. The Illustrated Man	No
62. A Wreath for Emmett Till	No
63. Every Day	Yes
64. Where Things Come Back	No
65. Number the Stars	No
66. Blankets	No
67. Private Peaceful	No
68. The Witch of Blackbird Pond	Yes
69. Dangerous Angels	No
70. Frindle	No
71. Boxers and Saints	No
72. The Graveyard Book	No
73. City of the Beasts	No
74. American Born Chinese	No
75. The Lost Conspiracy	No
76. Dogsbody	No
77. The Pigman	No
78. Alabama Moon	No
79. Esperanza Rising	No
80. The Knife of Never Letting Go	Yes
81. Boy Proof	No
82. Fallen Angels	No
83. A High Wind in Jamaica	No
84. The Tiger Rising	No
85. When You Reach Me	No
86. Saffy’s Angel	No
87. The Grey King	No
88. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH	Yes
89. The Thief Lord	Yes
90. The Mysterious Benedict Society	No
91. The Invention of Hugo Cabret	No
92. Sabriel	No
93. Tiger Lily	No
94. Secret	No
95. A Wizard of Earthsea	Yes
96. Tales of Mystery and Imagination	No
97. Whale Talk	No
98. The Chronicles of Prydain	No
99. Danny the Champion of the World	No
100. Twilight	Yes

By my count, that is 43 out of 100! Not bad, and I have added a few more to my never-ending To Be Read pile as well!

Let me know in comments how many YOU have read!