It’s been some time since I’ve updated, but such is the case with final exams, work, and holidays! Speaking of the holidays, my family spent copious amounts of time watching Hallmark Christmas movies on TV, and there are many things I failed to recognize as common staples of these films that my sister pointed out to me. I guess that means I’ll be able to make a more in depth post this December, so be on the lookout.
2020 seemed to creep up on me, and I didn’t register that this was a new decade until I started seeing articles online about the “best things in the 2010’s” etc. I was browsing these articles and Twitter posts when I got to wondering about John Green (as one does) and I questioned what had happened to him. I hadn’t seen anything from him on any of his social media platforms, and since he is one of my favorite authors, I wondered whether he was working on another book. My search turned out to be fruitful in a way I did not expect. The reason I hadn’t heard from John Green in what felt like a long time was because he took a break from all social media for a year. In this youtube video, he explains what he did with his year offline, and it was eye-opening for me. What stuck out the most though, were Green’s comments on long form reading. He mentioned that he felt he had lost an appreciation for reading novels because of how much time he spent on social media. This started my thinking of how many books I’d actually finished in 2019, specifically books I’d bought to read for fun, not books required for school. The number was startlingly low. While I was able to finish a few books, I didn’t read at near the pace I did when I was in 8th grade, a time when I practically lived between the pages of novels. Why? Just like John Green, I got swept up in social media, spending sometimes hours per day on platforms like Instagram, twitter, Facebook, and pinterest (that last one was like a vortex for me, especially with all the writing advice and prompts).
A common advertising tagline used by Duolingo, a language learning app, is “15 minutes of Duolingo can teach you a language. What can 15 minutes of social media do?” It’s a valid question worth asking if you spend a lot of time on social media. What does it really do for you? I think there are a lot of positive aspects of social media, don’t get me wrong. But the amount of time I was spending on it was not equal to those positives. In other words, I wasn’t gaining enough.
I decided to take on a similar endeavor to my role model and abstain from using social media in 2020 and use my time to read books instead. The last week or so of my 2019 was spent curating a list of 36 books on Goodreads that I aimed to read this year. Once I have completed all 36 books, I will allow myself access to social media apps that have since been deleted from my phone. Perhaps, at the end of 36 books I will find that I have no desire to return to social media at all. Or maybe I will find some sort of balance between reading and scrolling, but I guess we’ll just have to see!
36 books means I have to read just 3 books a month to complete my goal by the end of the year. That’s about 1 book every 10 days. That doesn’t sound too bad in theory, but there are several books on my list over 500 pages. Fortunately, I’m excited to read all the books I’ve selected, so I’m hoping my interest will make up for any reading speed I’ve lost over the years.
So far, I’ve already completed 2 books on the list, and I’m working on two others. I anticipate I will finish the third with plenty of time left in the month, though once classes start again, I may find myself with less free time than I expected. Another plus to be expected from this experiment is 36 book reviews for the blog, and I’m excited to share all about the books I’m reading this year. Without further ado, here is the list of all 36 books I plan to read this year, and I challenge you all to set your own reading goal for the year.
- The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (This one is actually 5 novels in one, but I’m counting it as a single book)
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
- Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Symptoms of a Heartbreak by Sona Charaipotra
- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
- Past Perfect Life by Elizabeth Eulberg
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
- Endgame: The Calling by James Frey and Niels Johnson Sheldon
- Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
- Havenfall by Sara Holland
- Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
- The Institute by Stephen King
- The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu
- A Fire Sparkling by Julianne MacLean
- One of Us is Next by Karen M. McManus
- Renegades by Marissa Meyer
- Circe by Madeline Miller (which was actually recommended by a reader!)
- A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
- Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds
- The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
- The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater
- Sadie by Courtney Summers
- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
- It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
- The Martian by Andy Weir
- If I’m Being Honest by Emily Wibberly and Austin Seigmund Broka
- Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters
- Cross-Section of a Human Heart: A Memoir of Early Adulthood by Abi Wurdeman
- Goodbye Days by Jeff Zetner
- Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak
The list holds several different genres, both fiction and nonfiction books, and only one repeat author. I’m hopeful these books will restore my appreciation for recreational reading and improve my writing as well. Time will tell. In the meantime,
Happy Reading!
Amelia is Literate 
I’ve only read one of the books on your list. (The first one.)
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I’ve read 3 – LIttle Women, Fahrenheit 451 and And Then There were None. My mother read a lot of LM Alcott’s books to us. I read science fiction vociferously in college and it was the equivalent of social media now – I would binge on reading – read a whole thick book of science fiction stories in one night and then I couldn’t sleep. (I did the same with “Gone with the Wind” when I was in HS – read it in one day and then disliked the ending so much that I couldn’t sleep). I read all of Dame Agatha’s books that I could get my hands on, and also other mystery books – bingeing on them when I was a young mother in the same way I did science fiction in college. All of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe books, all of Dorothy Sayers etc. I liked the latter two better than Agatha Christie. I was reading when I should have been changing diapers, cooking or playing with my kids. If you talk to Aunt Debbie, she will tell you all about it. When I was a kid, I read all the Oz books. My mother would have to insist that I leave the house because I would prefer to sit inside and read.
I find that social media is much better for me – I don’t get that involved in it like I do with books. And I can’t allow myself to read meaningful books because I get so involved in the story that I can’t come back to reality. It disrupts my life too much. It is similar to the reason that I can’t watch anything with a plot on TV. I’ve never watched any Star Wars or Harry Potter or the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
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