You would think that library workers would eventually get tired of books due to overexposure. That’s not the case with our Social Media Team! We thought it would be fun to look back at all the books we’ve read in the past year using our Goodreads challenges (check out Amber’s, Darius’ and Sara’s challenges if you want to see what they read).
I used to read so many leisure books as a child, but once I entered high school and college I didn’t have much time to read for fun. Now that I’m out of school and have more free time, I decided to test myself in 2022 to see if I still could read as quickly as I did when I was younger. I set the bar at 52 books, or one book a week. It literally took me until 5 minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve (I’m not exaggerating, I finished Black Hole Survival Guide at a party), but I managed to complete the challenge!
My tastes in books lean heavily into speculative fiction—primarily fantasy at any reading level and “smart” sci-fi—but you’ll see that I was outside that comfort zone a good bit this year. My wife enjoys audiobooks and convinced me to give them a chance this year. While I still greatly prefer paper books, I guarantee you audiobooks are the only reason I finished this challenge.
In total, I read 16,312 pages. My shortest book was Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie at 32 pages, and my longest book other than the Bible was Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin, topping out at 969 pages.
It’s clear to me what my favorite books of the year were…
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan: Probably the clearest indicator of my tastes in literature is that The Lord of The Rings is my favorite book. My father read all three volumes aloud to me when I was a boy, and it was the first series I re-read after graduating from college. After that, I was left craving more detailed, deeply crafted magical worlds full of rich symbolism and engaging narrative. Surprisingly, I did find what I was looking for in The Eye of the World — the first volume in Robert Jordan’s 15-book-long fantasy epic series, The Wheel of Time. Jordan’s style is not as mythic as Tolkien’s; this means the tone feels less legendary, but the characters are also allowed to be more flawed, personal, and relatable than the heroes of Middle-Earth. The Eye of the World seems like the beginning of a series that adeptly bridges the gap between classic and contemporary fantasy. Look for this book to be hitting our Recreational Reading shelves soon!
Spy x Family by Tatsuya Endo: 2022 was also the year I started watching Japanese anime, particularly a popular show called Spy x Family. An adorable slice-of-life comedy, Spy x Family is about (you guessed it) a spy who must create (you guessed it again!) a fake family to complete an important mission in a world inspired by the Cold War era. He adopts a telepathic girl, enters a civil marriage with a ditzy-yet-overpowered enemy assassin, and rescues a fluffy dog that can see the future . . . but only the daughter knows everyone’s secret. Hilarity ensues. Each member is using the family for the convenience of their hidden identities, but they can’t help but grow closer to each other in the process. Once I finished the current season of the show, I sought out the manga it was adapted from and read everything that’s come out so far. It’s sweet, wholesome, and I can’t wait to find out what happens next.
The Lovecraft Investigations by H.P. Lovecraft and Julian Simpson: Every autumn, I like to dip my toes into the genre of horror, and this year my wife and I decided to listen to The Lovecraft Investigations, a modern retelling of some of H.P. Lovecraft’s works. A BBC Radio show, the short stories adapted are presented by a fictitious pair of true crime podcasters who decide to pursue an odd case of a missing man and soon find themselves in over their heads. It’s quite good, and well-produced to boot. Don’t listen to it alone at night. The podcast format allows for some truly chilling audio effects, and the twists and turns (and unfathomable eldritch horror) kept my nerves on edge. To my surprise, Goodreads has entries for all 3 seasons, so I was able to count them in my challenge.
Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey: The stellar (hah!) conclusion to The Expanse, the best science fiction series I’ve read yet. This is “hard” science fiction at its finest: impeccably researched, logical, critical, and prophetic. The universe that Corey creates is extraordinarily realistic and could quite believably come to pass, even if we don’t discover the ruins and tools of an ancient alien civilization. If you like science, technology, astrophysics, social commentary, sci-fi thrillers like Alien, three-dimensional characters and relationships, mysteries, gunfights, political intrigue, large explosions in space, apocalyptic literature, etc. . . . seriously, I could keep going. The Expanse has set my expectations for science-fiction/fantasy so high that it’s ruined most other works in the genre for me. Give it a try.
The God of the Garden by Andrew Peterson: One of the first books I read this year, and it stayed at the top of my list. Through personal stories and profound theological ponderings, Peterson paints a compelling picture of God’s faithful work in caretaking His Creation and how we can participate in that work by caring for our communities and cultures and the creation we inhabit. Literal and figurative trees are prevalent throughout Peterson’s writing, harkening back to what we lost in Eden, recognizing what we can replant and reclaim through our lives, and anticipating what we will regain in the life to come. This book made me cry several times, and it’s the one I’ll recommend everyone read, no matter what your taste in books.
I’m glad I stuck with it and finished my challenge last year, but I also felt like I had to read some shorter books just to stay on track and thus I couldn’t get to some of the longer fantasy novels I wanted to read. For this year, I’ve reduced my book goal down to 30, but I’m aiming to still hit above 16,000 pages total. That way I can work on those longer books without worrying about falling behind. I’ll report back this time next year!
Micah Rhodes’ reviews reflect his personal opinions and not necessarily those of the library or university.
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