Every single book I read in 2019 (and I’m not done yet)
I read a lot of books. I’m in the book trade so I have an advantage (and I spent six weeks in Spain reading books), but you can read regularly if you want to. The benefits to mental health and cognition are great, but I think we should read for pleasure. Want to read more?
1. Spend less time scrolling aimlessly through your social media feeds and pick up a book. If you’re new to this, don’t be ashamed to ask for reading recommendations. One quick way to pick up a reading habit: Detective series. My friends recommend Tana French and Michael Connelly, and of course there’s the grande dame, Agatha Christie.
2. Watch a movie based on a book, and then pick up the book. Greta Gerwig’s Little Women is coming up—see it, then read Louisa May Alcott. Or watch Henry Cavill in The Witcher, then read the books.
3. Join our book club, the Bibliophibians Reading Group. We assign a book every month, then meet on the last Saturday to discuss it and have drinks. For January we’re reading Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. We meet on January 25, 4-6pm at Tin-aw Art Gallery in Somerset Olympia, Makati Avenue beside the Peninsula. Everyone who’s read the book is welcome. There is no charge, but if you want to bring a bottle or chips we won’t decline.
4. Turn off your devices three hours before you go to bed and read instead. You’ll sleep better.
Books by Kate Atkinson
Transcription
Not the End of the World (stories)
Books about the Czech Republic
I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal
Melmoth by Sarah Perry
NYRB Classics
Once and Forever (stories) by Kenji Miyazawa
Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg
The Pilgrim Hawk by Glenway Wescott
The Goshawk by T.H. White
You’ll Enjoy It When You Get There (stories) by Elizabeth Taylor
The Haunted Looking Glass (stories) chosen by Edward Gorey
Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz
Randall Jarrell’s Book of Stories
Books about Spain or by authors writing in Spanish
Franco’s Crypt by Jeremy Treglown
Collected Poems by Miguel Hernandez
Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli
A Heart So White by Javier Marias
Roads to Santiago by Cees Nooteboom
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
Granta 113: Best of Young Spanish Novelists
Tristana by Benito Perez Galdos
For the Bibliophibians Reading Group
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (re-read)
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger (re-read)
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (re-read)
Circe by Madeleine Miller
The Farm by Joanne Ramos
The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch
Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill (re-read)
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
For the Iris Murdoch centenary
The Sea, The Sea
A Severed Head
Comics
I Was Their American Dream by Malaka Gharib
Building Stories by Chris Ware
Books about Venice
The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell
Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
About Face by Donna Leon
City of Fortune by Roger Crowley
Doctored Evidence by Donna Leon
Books recommended by friends and book reviewers or picked in bookshops because I liked the cover
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
The Fran Lebowitz Reader
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
A Doll for Throwing (poetry) by Mary Jo Bang
The Only Story by Julian Barnes
Exhalation (short stories) by Ted Chiang
Collected Poems of Rolando Tinio
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (re-read)
Twilight of the Superheroes (stories) by Deborah Eisenberg
If Cats Disappeared From the World by Genki Kawamura
Paris Nocturne by Patrick Modiano
Tell Them of Battles, Kings and Elephants by Mathias Enard
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Break It To Me Gently (essays) by Richard Bolisay
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
December 16th, 2019 at 13:22
Happy holidays, Jessica!
I will be reading Cormac McCarthy’s No Country For Old Men and Cities of the Plain during the holidays haha.
December 16th, 2019 at 19:58
Hi Jessica, I’ve always wondered if you have a silent narrator in your head while reading. I think this is one of the reasons why my reading pace is slow (or maybe I’m just making an excuse).
December 17th, 2019 at 19:52
What are you talking about, you read more books than I do.
I have a chatty narrator in my head while reading and writing. Is it schizophrenia?
December 17th, 2019 at 19:54
Good plan. Just not Blood Meridian, which requires a support group because it causes nightmares. But what a book goddamnit.
December 18th, 2019 at 14:24
My project for 2020: reduce my NYRB TBR pile by at least half. I’ll do like Pat, who has a special Instagram account for book reviews, & create an account devoted to the reviewing of NYRBs. Wish me luck.
December 19th, 2019 at 18:57
You’re just creating a new chore for yourself haha. Focus is the thing.
December 23rd, 2019 at 10:32
Books I read from your list include Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, Circe by Madeline Miller, Normal People by Sally Rooney, and Paris Nocturne by Patrick Modiano. Thanks for posting your book lists yearly; they are an encouragement to me. (Ang galing ni Sally Rooney—and so young, too!).
Do you go about a reading plan, or do you pluck a book from your shelves on a whim? My reading plan is non-existent, but I want to be more intentional in including more Filipino writers in English.
Your advice on veering away from social media is spot on. I’ve realized that the number of books I read is inversely proportional to my time on Facebook.
Merry Christmas, Jessica!
December 23rd, 2019 at 10:56
I have no plan, I just pick up books according to my mood. That’s what having a backlog is for, so if you feel like modern retellings of Greek myth you have something.
When I resolved to read more women writers I just bought more books by women. Everything gets read eventually. Have a good reading year!