For the fourth year in a row (2018, 2019, 2020), I logged my book reading for all of 2021. Here's the list, followed by some reflection. Re-reads are indicated by an asterisk*.
Rewriting Composition — Bruce Horner (2016) - 01.05
At the Existentialist Café — Sarah Bakewell (2016) - 01.19
Sorry I Haven't Texted You Back — Alicia Cook (2020) - 01.29
The Night of the Virgin — Elliott Turner (2017) - 01.30
Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri (1472) - 01.31
Scientific Communication: Practices, Theories, and Pedagogies — Han Yu & Kathryn M. Northcut (E) (2018) - 02.02
The Lost Girls of Paris — Pam Jenoff (2019) - 02.06
Wellness and Care in Writing Center Work — Genie Nicole Giaimo (E) (2021) - 02.21
Scientific and Medical Communication: A Guide for Effective Practice — Scott A. Mogull (2018) - 02.22
Happiness: A Novel — Aminatta Forna (2018) - 02.26
Passing — Nella Larson (1929) - 02.28
Love — Roddy Doyle (2020) - 03.10
Democracy in Chains — Nancy MacLean (2017) - 04.15
Survivance, Sovereignty, and Story: Teaching American Indian Rhetorics — Lisa King, Rose Gubele, & Joyce Rain Anderson (2015) - 04.21
The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race — Jesmyn Ward (E) (2016) - 05.07
An Illustrated Book of Arguments — Ali Almossawi (A), Alejandro Giraldo (I) (2014) - 05.08
The Peregrine — J. A. Baker (1967) - 05.14
The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed — Shea Serrano (2015) - 05.19
Outline — Rachel Cusk (2014) - 05.22
Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist — Linda Skeers (A), Marta Alvarez Miguens (I) (2020) - 05.31
Zikora: A Short Story — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2020) - 05.31
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance — Hanif Abdurraqib (2021) - 06.01
The Night Country — Melissa Albert (2019) - 06.05
The Glamourist — Luanne G. Smith (2020) - 06.12
The Atlas of Literature — Malcolm Bradbury (E) (1996) - 06.16
The Conjuror — Luanne G. Smith (2021) - 06.20
In Defense of Ska — Aaron Carnes (2021) - 06.25
Slouching Towards Bethlehem — Joan Didion (1968) - 06.28*
The Murmur of Bees — Sofía Segovia (A), Simon Bruni (T) (2015) - 07.08
A Writing Center Practitioner's Inquiry into Collaboration: Pedagogy, Practice, and Research, by Georgianne Nordstrom (2021) - 07.09
Resurrecting the Shark — Susan Ewing (2017) - 07.15
The Last Best League: 10th Anniversary Edition — Jim Collins (2014) - 07.24*
Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer (2014) - 08.05
Basketball (and Other Things): A Collection of Questions Asked, Answered, Illustrated — Shae Serrano (2020) - 08.21
The Pricing of Progress — Eli Cook (2017) - 09.25
The Overstory — Richard Powers (2018) - 09.30
Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School — Mica Pollock (E) (2008) - 10.01
100 Fathoms Below — Nicholas Kaufmann & Steven L. Kent (2018) - 10.09
Border & Rule — Washa Harlia (2021) - 10.19
The Complete Wilderness Training Book — Hugh McManners (1994) - 10.31
Race, Rhetoric, and Research Methods — Alexandria Lockett, Iris D. Ruiz, James Chase Sanchez, & Christopher Carter (2021) - 11.06
The Lord of the Rings — J. R. R. Tolkien (1954-1955) - 12.08*
The University in Ruins — Bill Readings (1996) - 12.09
Witch, Warlock, and Magician Historical Sketches of Magic and Witchcraft in England and Scotland — W. H. Davenport Adams (1889) - 12.11
Asgard Stories Tales from Norse Mythology — Mabel H. Cummings, Mary H. Foster (2015) - 12.20
Macbeth — William Shakespeare (A), Jesse M. Lander (E) (1623, 2007) - 12.31*
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet — John Green (2021) - 12.31
Maybe it’s because I read multiple books at a time, but when I consider what I read over the past year, what sticks with me are parts of books and moments while reading.
Poems 30, 43, 61, 81, 89, 4, 21, 25, and 85 in Cook’s Sorry I Haven't Texted You Back. Doyle’s, “Advice for the agein’ man.” Any part of Powers’s The Overstory that focuses on the arboreal rather than the human characters, especially this line: “By the time an ash has made a baseball bat, a chestnut has made a dresser.” Comparably, when Forna leaned into the foxes, and contrastingly, when Baker reflected on people. Collins’s The Last Best League was even better while sitting in the stands at Wareham Gatemen games because it reified the personhood of the named players, while other rereading allowed for recognition of humanity of near-universally reviled characters (Tom Bombadil, Lady Macbeth).
Perhaps my most important realization: A book about vampires on a submarine absolutely delivers if you go in expecting to read a story about vampires on a submarine.
Some other observations, by the numbers:
Five books were written by people I know or have met. That’s not rare, given my line of work. In fact, a cool dozen of the books listed here could reasonably be considered for work, including one I read as a review assignment. Writing about the books I read, and reading in order to write about them, was something I used to dedicate time and find enjoyment with, and I’m considering ways to make that more of a habitual practice, blending popular and academic genres.
Four of the more enjoyable/insightful books I read were actually new for this year, which is rare, for me: Border & Rule, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet, Race, Rhetoric, and Research Methods, and A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance. I've already got a shelf of books I'm eager to read next, which likely means any 2022 releases will have to be added to the back of the queue.
Two of the books were recommended by my daughter, a dedicated and joyful reader. She shared her own annual list with me just the other day, with each physical book spread out on the floor, and noted her top five for the year. Outside of the classroom, or formal group arrangements, reading is mainly a solitary act. But moments of shared reflection with family, friends, and colleagues (Survivance, Sovereignty, and Story: Teaching American Indian Rhetorics) illuminate the value of reading as a communal experience, too.
Finally, less than I set out for. Not included on this list is a great deal of other reading: scholarly journals, comics, online content; The New York Review of Books and Texas Monthly; Ploughshares and The Boston Review. That said, a goal in the upcoming year is to read exactly as much as I recommend whenever someone asks me how much they should read: “more.”
