As many of the people that read my articles know, I read a lot. I also write a lot about the books I read. I have talked about why I read, how I read, but I haven’t talked about what I read. 2016 was an interesting literary year for me. In late 2015, I rediscovered my passion for literature. This love carried over into 2016. This love also became a mild addiction. Mild is an understatement.
What you read tells a lot about you. And what you don’t read says even more. In 2016, I read 127 books of varying lengths, subject matter, etc. My original goal was 52 books.
The longest book was 706 pages long. The average book length was 236 pages. I read on average 83 pages a day. I read a total of 30,007 pages (not including introduction pages, books I started and stopped, etc.).
How did I read so much? For longer books I set daily quotas such as 10% a day. I also devoted a large part of my time to reading. As a journalism student I need to constantly be practicing my writing. Who better to learn how to write from than the greatest writers of all time?
That is enough of boring statistics. From seeing those numbers you must be thinking, “This guy has no life” or “he's a show off.” But in reality I have a lot of faults when it comes to what I read. Of the 127, only 8 books were written by women, 3 were written by non-white people (this number would be larger if my definition of white wasn’t so encompassing), and about 21 books were written by confirmed members of the LGBTQ community. In 2017, I need to diversify my reading habits. I need to read books that aren’t written by white, straight men. Another habit I need to fix is the “starting a book and then stopping it, and never picking it up again.”
But this reading year I learned a lot about myself from the books I read. I learned through David Foster Wallace’s essays that nonfiction can be interesting. David Sedaris taught me that writing can and should be funny. The Magic Mountain reminded me to listen to other’s arguments but still remain true to your beliefs (and also why you should keep up on current events).
I believe all students should read at least a book every 2-3 weeks. The book can be about anything, but it is always nice to read something that coincides with your extracurricular interests or major. The more you read the classics, the more you will see where modern shows and movies found their inspiration. For example, I bet you didn’t know Clueless was based on Emma by Jane Austen from 1815!
Will I read as much in 2017? Definitely. When you love reading as much as I do, you can't go back. That being said, I am trying to read more contemporary books. All suggestions are greatly appreciated.
But remember, read what you want, life is too short. Remember that what you read will affect you for years to come.
