For about a year and a half, the stats page has only had one stat! That seems like a scam.
So, in my pursuit of internet grandstanding, I have now added a secondary stat, that is succintly called “books”. Similar to the other stat, Song of the Week, books is supposed to be an archive of everything I’ve read (fully on my own initiative, e.g. not schoolwork, internships, etc.) since January 2020. Similar to Song of the Week, I’ll add a bit of commentary about each book.
To be honest, I really wish I started this earlier. Like, much earlier. I read much less frequently than my “miracle run” of reading in Grades 4-8, where I easily averaged 3 or 4 books a week. In that time frame, I read so many books - and while some of them I’m more than happy to forget (e.g. the Deltora Quest series), many of them made a profound impact in my understanding of Western culture, English language, and well, life.
I can remember most of these books, at least on a relatively broad level. At the same time, I felt like going back too retroactively isn’t the correct methodology: it’d be less of reflecting on the book as I read it, and more of reflecting on the book as where I am now. In my eyes, that’s cheating, which is why I capped the start of this series at 2020.
That being said, a new mini-goal of mine is to re-read books that I first read a long time ago, in the hopes that I’ll learn more from them as more grounded, mature, and knowledgeable reader (lol but is that actually true?). I’ve always made a habit to do this with 1984 (and my next re-read is due soon), but I also want to take another look at Capital, Brave New World, Farenheit 451, Homegoing, and Watchmen (among many others). And honestly, as long as it’s not Atlas Shrugged, I usually really enjoy re-reading books at a later time.
Anyways, that’s enough brief rambling for now. Wish me luck on my quest to really (and I mean really) delve back into reading full-length books again. And if you have any book recommendations (or vehemently disagree with my characterizations), feel free to let me know.
Until next time!