Reading Q4H2 2023

 I may as well end the year with three fiction books by some of my favorite authors and one non-fiction book that put me to sleep. I barely reached my goal of 36 books for the year, finishing the last one (Holly) on December 30.

I started using the website Goodreads back in December of 2019. I like it because it allows me to keep track of books I have read, books I want to read, and follow friends and authors to see what else might be out there to read. It also keeps statistics and you know how much I love that.

For instance, I have read 36 books this year and read 38 last year. I had 17 in 2021, 37 in 2020, and 19 in 2019. But, I read 14,511 pages this year compared to only 14,440 last year.  More pages this year by 71, which I guess is not that many. The novel War and Peace probably helped this year's page count. My record is 15,948 pages in 2020. If you want the page counts to be accurate, you need to make sure you have the correct edition of the book. The local library has a large print section, great for us older people, but obviously a large print novel will have more pages than same normal print novel.

So here are the final four books I read in 2023.

John Irving has written 15 books and I have read nine of them, and all are on my bookshelf at home. His latest is The Last Chairlift and was published in 2022. This is his first novel in seven years — a ghost story, a love story, and a lifetime of sexual politics. His books always seem a little auto-biographical and this one takes place mostly in New Hampshire, Vermont, Colorado and New York City. This book made me laugh out loud with tears in my eyes, and then made more tears of sadness. Being a skier, we always talked about the Last Chairlift - he has an interesting take on the meaning. I give the book a 3.5 (Great to Excellent) and even added it to my bucket list at #63. I enjoy John Irving.

John Grisham has written a lot more than 15 books, and I own 11 of his novels (including this one from B&N) and I have read them all. The latest, published in 2023, is the novel The Exchange: After the Firm, and follows the story of couple Mitch and Abby McDeere fifteen years later. Ironically, The Firm is not one of the books I read, but I had seen the movie with Tom Cruise playing Mitch and Jeanne Tripplehorn playing Abby. It was easy for me to see (and hear) those portrayers as I read this latest book. The book takes place in 2005, but I am not going to share the plot here. I give the book a 2.5 (Good to Great) because he has done better. I checked and I normally give Grisham a 3.0 (Excellent). 

Trying to count how many Stephen King books there are is no easy task. My rough count is that he has written 56 novels, 12 collections of short stories, and five Nonfiction books. I know my collection has 30 books with just three unread. This novel is titled Holly and was published in 2023; another B&N buy. The story is about Holly Gibney, a character King introduced in Mr. Mercedes  and the follow-up novels Finders Keepers and End of Watch. She was also a major supporting character in The Outsider which was made into a 10 episode miniseries for HBO. I give the book a 3.0 (Great) because it was a great read.

And now for the non-fiction book that put me to sleep. One of my finds from Goodreads, I checked this book out from the Eau Gallie Library. The title alone may induce sleep but it is a interesting read. The stress on many research sleep studies is the reason why we sleep and the effects on the brain. They are also finding many effects on the body too. If you are not getting seven to nine hours of sleep each night, I suggest that you start trying. Read this book, it's both an eye-opener and an eye-closer (see the pun). And will also make you think about your daily habits. the author, Dr. Matthew Walker, is currently the director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in neuroscience and psychology. In the book, Walker discusses about the importance of sleeping, the side effects of failing to do so and its impact on society.

So, a new year has begun and a new goal needs to be set for how many books I read. 36 seems good, three books a month, and 36 is a perfect square 6x6, and also 4x9, 3x12, 2x18...Happy New Year!