Books for 2024
I used to be a very aggressive reader. One part was a love of story and language, one part was the crippling insecurity I had about my lack-luster public education. I felt like I needed to take things into my own hands. But these days I feel like life and work are serious, sad and hard enough. The books I read should not be. I don’t want to plow through Russian Literature after a 14 hour work day. Do I need to independently research the historical context of the work for it to make sense or be fully appreciated? Nope, not happening. I want to read something with saucy fairies. Mary Sue gets her happy ending; It’s fluffy, yummy, brain candy.
I used to read books to better myself. I used to (…uhhh) be insufferably snooty. See me in 2007 riding the A train reading Infinite Jest, The Brother’s Karamozov, and a lot of Murakami. And Ioved it. Not only did I love being an elitist asshole showing off my moderately fancy literature on the train, but I also really really loved the books. Then as I grew up and got more responsibility and the world got scarier, I just wanted to get away and hide in my books. Is blatant escapism healthy? Unclear.
So this year I’m going to dip my toe in some trickier reading. I’m going to keep reading all the saucy fairie books I want (I see you Maas). But I’m also assigning myself 12 books that are, in one way or another, a challenge to me. Many are ones that have been sitting untouched on my bookshelf. Like those, a few others fall in the the ‘should read’ category. Some are books that friends have recommended that I always meant to read but never did. None of them are Russian. I’m making a bookshelf in my Goodreads for my 2024 Reading List. Feel free to read along.