(Sidebar: Audra just co-launched a new nonfiction comics outfit called Crucial Comix with one of my very favorite human beings, Shay Mirk.)
Tag: library
I was hanging out with some new friends recently and the conversation turned, as it inevitably does, toward books. Someone asked me to guess who read the least out of the assembled company. (Weird move, but okay.) I guessed that one person had grand bookish intentions, but really only read one “big ideas” book a quarter, another escaped into lengthy fantasy series, and the third was a wild card bouncing between fiction and pop psych. Not far off, it turned out. But that’s subject matter, not quantity. Someone said they had a hunch I went through books “like food,” which is true. “A book a month?” someone suggested. I looked shifty. “A book a week?!”
I had to pull up this list to check. It feels off to make that claim when I read so many graphic novels, but it’s true. I love books. I love devouring them. I love thinking about them and talking about them and letting them change and shape me.
Interesting that so many of my top favorites this year were comics! Getting back into working on Seacritters has me wanting to explore the medium more than I usually do, and I found some real gems. I love looking over the list and remembering where I was while reading each of these. It’s a strangely vivid experience. Getting lost in Hilary Mantel at Christopher’s was otherworldly. Plowing through Aidan Truhen at home was a riot. Being bewitched by Trung Le Nguyen’s lines on a beanbag in the Ojai Library kids’ section was nostalgic and peaceful.
I look at these lists and struggle to explain to new people what and how I read. In some groups it’s a shorthand for belonging—in others it’s a gateway to somewhere else.
(Previously: 2022 in Reading, 2021 in Reading, 2020 in Reading)
| Legend | Rough Guide to Ratings |
|---|---|
| 🎭 – Plays 📝 – Poetry 📖 – Books (Fiction) 📓 – Books (Nonfiction) 💬 – Graphic Novels 🔄 – Reread 🎙️ – Audiobook | ❤︎ = Yes ❤︎❤︎ = Oh Yes ❤︎❤︎❤︎ = Oh Hell Yes |
- 📖 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin ❤︎❤︎
- 📓 The Quiet Eye – Sylvia Shaw Judson
- 📓 Soundings: the Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor – Hali Felt
- 🔄 💬 Diary Comics – Dustin Harbin
- 🔄 📖 This is How You Lose the Time War – Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📓 The Wisdom of Insecurity – Alan Watts
- 📓 Also a Poet – Ada Calhoun ❤︎❤︎
- 💬 The Well – Jake Wyatt, Choo
- 💬 The Magic Fish – Trung Le Nguyen ❤︎❤︎
- 📝 The Wrecking Light – Robin Robertson ❤︎
- 📓/💬 Solutions and Other Problems – Allie Brosh
- 💬 Snapdragon – Kat Leyh ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📝 Four Reincarnations – Max Ritvo
- 💬 It’s Okay That It’s Not Okay – Christina Tran ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 💬 Queenie: Godmother of Harlem – Elizabeth Colomba & Aurélie Levy
- 💬 Garlic and the Vampire – Bree Paulsen
- 💬 Garlic and the Witch – Bree Paulsen
- 💬 Lightfall Book 1: The Girl & The Galdurian – Tim Probert ❤︎❤︎
- 📓 A Sacred Shift – marlee grace
- 💬 The River – Alessandro Sanna
- 🔄 📖 The End of Mr. Y – Scarlett Thomas
- 💬 Skim – Mariko & Jillian Tamaki ❤︎❤︎
- 💬 Lightfall Book 2: Shadow of the Bird – Tim Probert ❤︎
- 💬 Grass of Parnassus – Kathryn & Stuart Immonen
- 📓 Facing the Wolf – Theresa Sheppard Alexander ❤︎
- 📖 Hamnet – Maggie O’Farrell ❤︎❤︎
- 🔄 📖 A Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula K. Le Guin
- 📖 White Cat, Black Dog – Kelly Link ❤︎
- 📓 Recollections of my Nonexistence – Rebecca Solnit ❤︎
- 📓 Art + Faith – Makoto Fujimura
- 💬 Ducks – Kate Beaton ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 💬 I Thought You Loved Me – MariNaomi
- 💬 Dear Sophie, Love Sophie – Sophie Lucido Johnson ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 💬 The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil – Stephen Collins
- 📖 Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
- 📖 Bring Up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel ❤︎
- 📓 The Old Ways – Robert Macfarlane ❤︎❤︎
- 💬 Tales of a Seventh-Grade Lizard Boy – Jonathan Hill
- 💬 Equinoxes – Cyril Pedrosa ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 💬 Feeding Ghosts – Tessa Hulls ❤︎❤︎
- 📖 The Mirror and The Light – Hilary Mantel ❤︎
- 💬 Hoops – Matt Tavares
- 📓 The Book Lover – Ali Smith ❤︎
- 📖 /📓 Kick the Latch – Kathryn Scanlan
- 📖 The Big Over Easy – Jasper Fford
- 💬 Himawari House – Harmony Becker ❤︎
- 💬 Always, Never – Jordi Lafebre ❤︎❤︎
- 📖 Just Like Home – Sarah Gailey
- 📖 The Fourth Bear – Jasper Fford
- 📖 To Rise Again At a Decent Hour – Joshua Ferris
- 📓 Giving Up the Ghost – Hilary Mantel
- 🔄 📖 Thief of Time – Terry Pratchett
- 🎙️ 📖 A Magic Steeped in Poison – Judy I. Lin
- 🎙️ 📖 A Venom Dark and Sweet – Judy I. Lin
- 📓 Enchantment – Katherine May ❤︎❤︎
- 📖 Fugitive Telemetry – Martha Wells
- 🔄 🎙️ 📖 Thud – Terry Pratchett
- 📖 System Collapse – Martha Wells
- 🔄 📖 Carpe Jugulum – Terry Pratchett
- 📖 The Price You Pay – Aidan Truhen
- 📖 Seven Demons – Aidan Truhen
- 📓 Mending Life – Nina and Sonya Montenegro
Back at it and even less able to provide commentary than I was this time last year, but hot damn I love books.
(Previously: 2021 in Reading)
| Legend | Rough Guide to Ratings |
|---|---|
| 🎭 – Plays 📝 – Poetry 📖 – Books (Fiction) 📓 – Books (Nonfiction) 💬 – Graphic Novels | ❤︎ = Yes ❤︎❤︎ = Oh Yes ❤︎❤︎❤︎ = Oh Hell Yes ❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎ = Priestdaddy |
- 💬 Five Worlds: The Sand Warrior – Mark Siegel, Alexis Siegel, Xanthe Bouma, Matt Rockefeller, Boya Sun
- 📖 Pirate Freedom – Gene Wolfe
- 💬 Thirsty Mermaids – Kat Leyh ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 🔄 📖 Going Postal – Terry Pratchett ❤︎❤︎
- 📖 A Dark and Starless Forest – Sarah Hollowell
- 📖 Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
- 🔄 📓 The Do-it-yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfuckin’ Sad — Adam Gnade
- 💬 The Daughters of Ys – M.T. Anderson, Jo Rioux
- 📓 How to Live, or A Life of Montaigne – Sarah Bakewell
- 🔄 📓 Burnout – Emily & Amelia Nagoski
- 🔄 📖 Small Gods – Terry Pratchett ❤︎❤︎
- 📓 At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life – Fenton Johnson ❤︎❤︎
- 📖 A Psalm for the Wild-Built – Becky Chambers ❤︎❤︎
- 📖 Luster – Raven Leilani ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📓 A Primer for Forgetting – Lewis Hyde ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📓 The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📓 Tiny House Living – Ryan Mitchell
- 💬 Amulet Book 1 – Kazu Kibuishi
- 💬 Amulet Book 2 – Kazu Kibuishi
- 💬 Amulet Book 3 – Kazu Kibuishi
- 💬 Amulet Book 4 – Kazu Kibuishi
- 💬 Amulet Book 5 – Kazu Kibuishi
- 💬 Amulet Book 6 – Kazu Kibuishi
- 💬 Amulet Book 7 – Kazu Kibuishi
- 💬 Amulet Book 8 – Kazu Kibuishi
- 📖 Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak
- 📖 River of Teeth – Sarah Gailey ❤︎
- 📓 The Four Agreements – don Miguel Ruiz
- 📖 The Echo Wife – Sarah Gailey ❤︎❤︎
- 📓 When Strangers Meet – Kio Stark
- 📖 Sing, Unburied, Sing – Jesmyn Ward ❤︎
- 🔄📓 The Sabbath – Abraham Joshua Heschel ❤︎
- 📓 On Imagination – Mary Ruefle
- 📓 The Timeless Way of Building – Christopher Alexander ❤︎
- 🔄 💬 Mighty Jack – Ben Hatke
- 💬 Dancing at the Pity Party – Tyler Feder
- 💬 Zita the Spacegirl – Ben Hatke
- 📖 A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles ❤︎
- 📖 The Decagon House Murders – Yukito Ayatsuji
- 💬 Salt Magic – Rebecca Mock & Hope Larson
- 📖 Lies Sleeping – Ben Aaronovitch
- 🔄 💬 Mighty Jack & Zita the Spacegirl – Ben Hatke
- 💬 Making Comics – Lynda Barry ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📖 A Master of Djinn – P. Djèlí Clark
- 💬 Coyote Doggirl – Lisa Hanawalt
- 🔄 💬 Mighty Jack and the Goblin King – Ben Hatke ❤︎
- 💬 Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? – Roz Chast ❤︎❤︎
- 📖 Fair Play – Tove Jansson ❤︎
- 📖 Plus One – Christopher Noxon
- 💬 Berlin – Jason Lutes ❤︎❤︎
- 💬 Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe – Yumi Sakugawa ❤︎
- 📖 Matrix – Lauren Groff ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 💬 Belonging – Nora Krug ❤︎❤︎
- 💬 My Depression – Elizabeth Swados
- 💬 This Woman’s Work – Julie Delporte ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📖 Shadowshaper – Daniel José Older
- 💬 Genderqueer – Maia Kobabe
- 📖 Full Dark House – Christopher Fowler
- 📓 Polysecure – Jessica Fern
- 📖 Spear – Nicola Griffith
- 💬 Dying for Attention: a Graphic Memoir of Nursing Home Care – Susan MacLeod
- 📓 300 Arguments – Sarah Manguso ❤︎
- 📓 More Than Two – Franklin Veaux & Eve Rickert
- 📖 Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls – Alissa Nutting
- 📓 Notes from Walnut Tree Farm – Roger Deakin ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📓 Unmastered, A Book on Desire, Most Difficult to Tell – Katherine Angel ❤︎❤︎
- 📖 Maxwell’s Demon – Stephen Hall
- 📖 Magic for Liars – Sarah Gailey
- 📖 A Prayer for the Crown Shy – Becky Chambers
- 🔄📓 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek – Annie Dillard ❤︎❤︎❤︎ (last read in 2017)
- 📓 Everybody: A Book About Freedom – Olivia Laing ❤︎❤︎
- 📖 Detransition, Baby – Torrey Peters ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📓 The Joy of Small Things – Hannah Jane Parkinson
- 📖 Fisher of Bones – Sarah Gailey
- 📖 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John le Carré
- 🔄📓 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write – Sarah Ruhl
- 📓 Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again – Katherine Angel ❤︎
- 📖 Toad – Katherine Dunn ❤︎
- 📖 No One is Talking About This – Patricia Lockwood ❤︎❤︎
- 📖 The Impossible Us – Sarah Lotz ❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 💬 Sheets – Brenna Thummler
- 📓 Priestdaddy – Patricia Lockwood ❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎
- 📖 Upright Women Wanted – Sarah Gailey ❤︎
- 📖 When We Were Magic – Sarah Gailey
- 📓 Emergent Strategy – adrienne maree brown ❤︎❤︎
- 📖 The Daughter of Time – Josephine Tey
- 📖 Fantasian – Larissa Pham ❤︎
- 📓 A Handbook of Disappointed Fate – Anne Boyer ❤︎
- 📓 Love – Leo Buscaglia
- 📓 Delight – J.B. Priestley ❤︎❤︎
Stumbled onto this page on my local library system’s website while looking for a way to request a graphic memoir about care homes and learned about something magical: ZIP BOOKS.
It does my heart good when I yell about library stuff on Twitter and lots of people share the tweet. The Internet being hot for libraries gives me faith in society. Although it’s also rough that the library’s website is so labyrinthine that I had to stumble onto this program by accident. I wish every library had a website as functional and fancy as a startup meditation app.
(I really liked The Library Book by Susan Orlean.)
Haven’t been blogging because my brain is really excited about thinking in images right now and also I can’t seem to muster the follow-through, so this is one of those “done is better than perfect” posts.
Last week, in a moment of Peak Bellwood Weakness I signed up for an online class/study group called Literature at Sea: A Brief History of Existence. The facilitator shared something in today’s intro call that I can’t believe nobody sent me when it was released back in July. It’s called An Ocean of Books and it looks sort of like this:
This “poetic experiment” was made by Gaël Hugo during his time as an Artist-in-Residence at the Google Arts & Culture Lab. It pulls from the entire Google Books library and uses a bunch of (I’m waving my hands vaguely here) technology to generate a chart of Author Islands whose distance from each other is determined by their relationships on the web.
The site’s a little awkward in places, but I find the whole concept delightful. The weird aesthetic mix of pixelated game art and old nautical chart elements!1 The playful mechanism for revealing keyword searches within a bank of fog! There’s also little factoids beside various islands, like this gem about Maurice Sendak:
Anyway, I spent a lovely afternoon poking around in here, but what it really got me hungry for was a similarly attractive way to organize one’s own library for others to explore. The trouble is that I’m just not moved by reading lists—even ones curated by subject. I’m a visual thinker, and I need to make a big mess and tack a lot of red string to the wall before I can truly understand how all these ideas are contributing to the electric pinball machine.
I don’t want the map to be dictated by an algorithm; I want to play cartographer.
I rediscovered a piece of technology this week that might hold the key, but I’m saving it for now. You’ll just have to wait.
1. Fun pedantic terminology fact: if it’s to do with the ocean, it’s a chart, not a map. Yes, there will be a quiz on this later.↩