Like a tourist tossing out a guidebook once they reach the shore of their travel destination, I'd chucked my ambitious January 1 reading docket in theLike a tourist tossing out a guidebook once they reach the shore of their travel destination, I'd chucked my ambitious January 1 reading docket in the trunk by March. I didn't read nearly as much as I wanted to, but these were my most memorable reading experiences of 2022:
1. Robin Yeatman's debut novel Bookworm (coming February 2023). Thank you to everyone who's supported Robin with an ARC review. Writing a book is hard work and unlike accomplishments we're thrown celebrations for--birthdays, graduations, marriages--no one sends new authors a card or sings us a song.
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2. The Making of Alien by J.W. Rinzler. When I'm stuck creatively and questioning whether being a writer is worth it, I'll go back to the books, movies or music that inspired me to get started as a content creator and get my battery recharged. That's what this book--a monumental history of my favorite film, commissioned by 20th Century Fox--did.
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The L.A. Times Festival of Books was back to an in-person event this year for the first time since April 2019 and I had an opportunity to not only have several books signed by authors, but talk to most of them for a few minutes. Those brief conversations recharged my creative battery as well.
I wasn't going to submit one of these reports, but have half an hour to spare before going for a reflective New Year's Eve walk and in case I get attaI wasn't going to submit one of these reports, but have half an hour to spare before going for a reflective New Year's Eve walk and in case I get attacked by a mountain lion, I don't want anyone deprived of my literary thoughts for 2020.
I spent January and February 2020 volunteering my spare time for the U.S. presidential campaign of Elizabeth Warren and as a result, got little reading done. Nearly the moment Warren suspended her campaign in March, California went into lockdown, along with much of the U.S. that isn't still fighting the Civil War. I found I didn’t want to read much.
Instead, I bought an annual subscription to MasterClass. David Mamet, Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates and Malcolm Gladwell are among the writing instructors and I had to see what a magic class taught by Penn & Teller would be like. David Baldacci--whose material is totally not for me--instructs a fantastic course on mystery and thriller writing. Baldacci's course motivated me to come up with an amateur detective of my generation who solves mysteries I'd want to read.
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Thus, the rest of 2020 was almost completely devoted to reading detective mysteries and thrillers, or books about filmmaking, or memoirs that I also thought would help with my novel. I'm looking and see two or three novels I read for leisure. Everything else was in some way studying.
Books Read In 2020: 43
Fiction: 35 Non-Fiction: 8 Books By Male Authors: 35 Books By Female Authors: 8 Re-Reads: 3 Memoirs: 3 Biographies: 1 Audiobooks: 1 Short Story Collections: 1 Abandoned: 11
Novels by Raymond Chandler: 2 Novels by John D. MacDonald: 5 Novels by Stephen King: 4 Novels by Michael Connelly: 4
5 favorite reads: I couldn't wait to come home and finish reading these
1. A Bullet For Cinderella by John D. MacDonald (1955) 2. Angels Flight by Michael Connelly (1998) 3. The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis (1983) 4. Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused by Melissa Maerz (2020) 5. You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, & Other Mixed Messages by Carina Chocano (2017)
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5 least favorite reads: I abandoned all of these
1. Joyland by Stephen King (2013) 2. IQ by Joe Ide (2016) 3. Follow Her Home by Steph Cha (2016) 4. Crashed by Timothy Hallinan (2012) 5. Shaker by Scott Frank (2016)
Magic 8 Ball Answers To Various Questions:
1. Would I recommend an annual subscription to MasterClass? "Yes--Definitely"
2. Will I finish my novel in 2021? "Signs Point To Yes"
3. Will I read an audiobook in 2021? "Don't Count On It"
Thank you to Julie Grippo for asking me if I was planning on contributing one of these and to Robin Bree for demonstrating how therapeutic it was.
Thank you to everyone who made it this far. I wish you all another year enjoying the aesthetic pleasure and artistic delight of reading. Beware of big cats on nature walks.
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