what did i read this year?

 As 2023 comes to a close and I reflect on everything I've read, I'm slightly disappointed. 

One, in myself. Because I set my Goodreads goal at the seemingly attainable goal of 25 books. And for me in January 2023, that seemed easy. Looking back on that now, January me had a big storm coming, which would leave little time and attention span for reading books. The amount of books that I started but did not finish is a bit disheartening. (I blame tiktok. It's not my fault.) 

But I'm really trying to get back into reading more consistently. I joined a book club, I deleted social media off my phone, and I force myself to read in the dining hall instead of being on my phone. 

Furthermore, I'm a little disappointed in the books I did read. My hypothesis for this is that with my attention span and energy run dry, the only books I thought I had the mental capacity to read were ones that were...well...not very well written. I did NOT read a cheesy romance though, and if i ever get that low you ought to start an intervention for me. 

Anyways, in typical blogger fashion, I am missing the point. Just give us the recipe already! I'm going to be yapping about some notable reads of the year. The good, the bad, and the ugly. :)

1. The White Album by Joan Didion: I love Joan Didion, and so I was really excited to read this one. But in reality, it took me a WHILE to finish. And I think this is because I read her most notable collection, "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" first. WOW that book is amazing. The essay "On Keeping A Notebook," is one of my favorite things I have ever read. So, yeah, big shoes to fill. The White Album is another collection of essays by Joan Didion, which is really what she's best known for. According to Goodreads, "Joan Didion's The White Album records indelibly the upheavals and aftermaths of the 1960s." Frankly, some of these essays were just boring. I really, really tried to push through, but it just pushed me into a reading slump. I did pick it up again though, and then finished it shortly after. A lot of the middle essays are simply just dry. Maybe my IQ is too low to understand the deeper meaning, but they weren't the page turning, dread-filling, universal-truth-revealing page turners as seen in STB. However, not to say this was bad! Probably one of the best books I read all year even after all that. I really enjoyed the "Sojourns" section towards the end, especially the essay "In Bed." I thought that one was phenomenal. 

2. Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger: I really went on a Salinger kick this year, I love Catcher in the Rye, and I think this is up there with it. Franny and Zooey are two members of Salinger's fictional Glass Family, which he has numerous short stories about. It's a super quick read, and I highly recommend. Like Catcher, it's one of those stories where nothing really happens, but I think that adds to its profoundness. We often feel the most when nothing is happening. You think about those people, that hurt, those feelings when you' re doing the dishes, lying in bed, driving to work, brushing your hair. All this to say that 100 pages and no plot sure can say a lot. 

3. Bunny by Mona Awad: I read this book for book club and it is absolutely unhinged and insane. It's about a girl who gets wrapped up with these girls with uber-weird vibes who all call each other "Bunny." BUT we also have a case of an unreliable narrator, because she is straight up crazy and very well could be schizophrenic and hallucinating the whole thing herself. The shock factor was a little too much for me, and the major plot twist went straight over my head until someone brought it up at book club. DARE should make kids tempted to try LSD to read this book, because it genuinely felt like a whirlwind hallucination. So while I didn't love this book and it was not my cup of tea, the writing was great which made it kind of bearable. I've really never read another book that you have to pause for a reality check for, because it immerses you in the crazy weird-ness that much. Definitely a great book club read though, because it gives you PLENTY to talk about (: 

 4. The Tempest by William Shakespeare: I'm throwing a Shakespeare in here for kicks and giggles. I read this for AP Lit and I wish we read a different one. I did feel pretentious that I could understand it without the translation but moving on. While it wasn't bad, I didn't think it was great. Plus we had a snow day on the day we were supposed to watch the play-film. >:(  It didn't have that burning romance or tragedy that Shakespeare is so well known for. Which before my AP lit teacher rebuttals and says that "it doesn't need to and that maybe telling a great story without death and suffering is an art in itself," I'm here to say I don't want it regardless. If I'm going to read Shakespeare, I want the heart-wrenching, soul-crushing lines that make you want to fall in love and fall dramatically to the ground at the same time. However, it does have this one great line that does that for me: "Sir she is mortal; but by immortal providence she is mine." *this is me giving a standing ovation to that line*

Honorable Mention: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway: This gets an honorable mention, because I didn't actually finish this. The reason? My book literally fell apart. Literally the first 60 pages came out completely, the cover fell off, and the remaining pages are falling out intermittently. I just find that a little bit funny. It sounds like a lame excuse on behalf of a lazy student who didn't do their homework, but it literally happened. For as far as I did get though, I really enjoyed it. I love Hemingway's style, there's a line that says something along the lines of "we were eating cheese and we got bombed." His writing is so powerful in conveying the disillusionment of soldiers during this time, while still maintaining that sense of dry humor. I don't know whether to laugh or feel like I've been punched in the gut. 

I could sit here and review books all day, but I actually have finals next week. I'm sitting in the library and my eyelids are getting droopy, and in editing these I began to type "I" as "1." Thank you for reading this far if you stuck around, that means a lot. Have a beautiful rest of your day:) <3<3<3

-Amelia