KB Ranch

A couple years ago I started doing a personal annual review in the style of Chris Guillebeau. Basically, it’s an end of year reflection on what went well and what didn’t over the year, followed up by setting some goals for the upcoming year. I’ve found it a useful process, especially as I’ve diversified the way I spend my time such that the normal professional measures don’t apply as much.

While I don’t publish all of this publicly, I did want to share one part this year.

Last year, I set a goal to read more. I didn’t have any idea how many books it would be reasonable for me to read in a year, but I set a goal of 50. Mid-year, I realized this was a pretty high goal that I most likely wouldn’t get close to. But then as the year went by, my reading rate accelerated, in no small part due to the fact that I was actually keeping track.

In the end, I read 51 books in 2015. The list is below, with those I’d especially recommend in bold. (And most of the books on the list are quite good; really, there are only a couple I wouldn’t recommend.)

Reading was one of several things I turned to this year when things weren’t going well otherwise. Other things included baking bread, gardening, sitting in the sun, walking, and writing letters. So when the depressing world news got to be too much or a conference call that had been difficult to schedule was cancelled at the last minute or someone said something mean or I just otherwise felt bummed, I tried to turn to one of these things. I think my overall health benefited from this.

And I read some great books.

1. Everybody Matters by Mary Robinson
2. Mindfulness by Mark Williams and Danny Penman 
3. The Importance of a Piece of Paper by Jimmy Santiago Baca
4. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
5. Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
6. Border Patrol Nation by Todd Miller
7. A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
8. The Professor’s House by Willa Cather
9. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
10. Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather
11. Sycamore Row by John Grisham
12. Legal Research Explained by Deborah E. Bouchoux
13. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
14. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel
15. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
16. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
17. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
18. How to be Both by Ali Smith
19. To Animas With Love by Carol Smith
20. Lost and Found by Brooke Davis
21. The Bestseller by Olivia Goldsmith
22. Perfect by by Rachel Joyce
23. A Year and a Day on Just a Few Acres by Peter Larson
24. The Stranger by Harlan Coben
25. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler 
26. The Love Song of Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce
27. Curriculum Integration: Designing the Core of Democratic Education by James A Beane
28. The Half Brother by Holly LeCraw
29. Wit’s End by Karen Joy Fowler
30. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
31. The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan
32. The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
33. Reamde by Neal Stephenson
34. Cherry by Mary Karr
35. The Fourth Hand by John Irving
36. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
37. Junkyard Dreams by Jeanette Boyer
38. Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capo Crucet
39. The Last Theorem by Arthur C Clarke and Frederik Pohl
40. African Air by George Steinmetz
41. Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
42. Tribes by Seth Godin
43. The Last Juror by John Grisham
44. In Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
45. All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
46. God Help the Child by Toni Morrison
47. Kitchens of the Great Midwest by  J. Ryan Stradal
48. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
49. A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
50. To a Mountain in Tibet by Colin Thubron
51. Let Me Explain You by Annie Liontas