To All the Books I've Loved Before

In January, I set a reading goal for 2024: Fifty-two books, one a week. Seemed lofty yet attainable. I just had to stay on pace. 

Now, facing down the last five weeks of the year, I'm proudly one ahead of schedule. 

I've missed reading. The year prior I read roughly half that. In 2022, I didn't even keep track. But I've always been a reader, since the age of four. I blame working full time, a commute, and a horse I had to feed every night on my way home for my recent slump.

But I now work from home again (zero commute) and the horse lives in the back yard (plus a donkey), so I have time and that time is spent reading. Plus I'm back in a bookclub (a guaranteed book a month, usually) and have a library card, Libby account, and a new Kindle.

Some of my favorite people and places are librarians/booksellers and libraries/book stores. I was on a first-name basis with my school librarians. I raised three readers and together we amassed so many books that when we moved in 2023, boxes of books were donated and barely made a dent in our library. 

In the new house, I pulled out all the children's books and created a library/reading nook in what the builder termed the mud room. When one of my sons surveyed the books, he said, "Don't you believe in libraries?" Yes, I replied. We read there, too.

When I think about all the books I've read and loved, I fondly recall being transported to places I'll never visit, spending time with people I'll never meet—Owen Meany, Eleanor and Raymond, Olive Kitteridge, Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman, Father Tim, Pat and Tiffany, Dex and Emma, Will and Louisa, et. al.

While I'm much more likely to pick up a novel than a work of nonfiction, I've found many memoirs and other books making their way onto my list of recommended titles: Educated by Tara Westover, Open by Andre Agassi, Tiny, Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed, They Cage the Animals at Night by Jennings Michael Burch. 

Reading anything by Carl Hiaasen gives me a greater appreciation for the Florida everglades (and makes me laugh, too). No one masters the twist quite like Harlan Coben. And I'll always remember how I felt getting swept away by Ann Patchett's Bel Canto.

I'm not sure what my goal will be in the new year. Maybe 65 or 70? Something reachable but also aspirational. All it takes is my discovering a new author and hoping he or she has a decent backlist. Like I did this year with Emily Henry, Anabel Monaghan, Mhairi McFarlane, Kristan Higgins, Amy Poeppel, Taylor Jenkins Reid.

What books have you loved before? I'm always up for recommendations.