Every year, I look back on the books I’ve read and create a loosely ranked list. Here’s what my reading list looked like in 2017.
Random stats
My 2017 reading list was…
- 27 books long
- 22% non-fiction, 78% fiction
- 7% audiobook, 93% traditional book
- An average of 319 pages per book
- An average of 3/5 stars
- 90% of my 30-book goal
- 78% Caucasian, 22% non-white
Superlatives
Best for listening on a long drive: Born a Crime
Most likely to get really weird: Bonita Avenue
Stood up to the hype: The Hate U Give
Didn’t stand up to the hype: The Girl on the Train
Most thankful I didn’t put it down when I wanted to: Winter Garden
Non-fiction
- Born a Crime – Trevor Noah
- Hillbilly Elegy – J.D. Vance
- The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion – Jonathan Haidt
- So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed – Jon Ronson
- Make Your Bed – Admiral William H. McRaven
- Half a Life – Darin Strauss
Fiction
- The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas
- The Unseen World – Liz Moore
- Winter Garden – Kristin Hannah
- The Book of Catches – Robert Atkinson
- A Beautiful Poison – Lydia Kang
- Our Souls at Night – Kent Haruf
- Room – Emma Donoghue
- Love Letters to the Dead – Ava Dellaira
- Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi
- All the Names They Used for God – Anjali Sachdeva
- Bonita Avenue – Peter Buwalda
- The Good Liar – Catherine McKenzie
- A Tangled Mercy – Joy Jordan-Lake
- Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty – Ramona Ausubel
- A Spool of Blue Thread – Anne Tyler
- Almost Missed You – Jessica Strawser
- World Made by Hand – James Howard Kunstler
- There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce – Morgan Parker
- My Name is Lucy Barton – Elizabeth Strout
- Two by Two – Nicolas Sparks
- The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins
2018 reading goals
My biggest goal for 2018 is to read lots of good books! Aside from that, I’d really like to read more from non-white authors and/or authors from communities dissimilar to my own. Good writing transports the reader into a new world. I love hearing others’ stories, so why not make an effort to travel to worlds I don’t already know?
Plus, fiction is scientifically proven to increase our empathy. I can only imagine that reading stories about people who aren’t like us helps even more. Some of my favorite reading experiences of 2017 — Born a Crime and The Hate U Give — took me into an unfamiliar place and taught me something new. Even Bonita Avenue, set in the Netherlands and translated from its original Dutch, stretched my brain into a new place and culture.
What was your favorite read of 2017?
Leave a Reply