The prompts:
1. How many books have you read so far this year? Do you have a yearly reading goal? If so, how are you doing with it?
I’ve read 63 books so far this year. I don’t set yearly goals — I never really have. This year started strong, and I just kept the momentum going. Long commutes and quiet office hours created a lot of space for reading, and I took full advantage of that. I don’t care much for tracking numbers; it’s the quality that matters to me.
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2. What have been your most read genres so far this year?
Mostly fiction, but I’ve also read a fair share of non-fiction and poetry. I enjoyed moving between forms this year.
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3. Have you noticed any changes in your reading (how you read, format, etc)?
Definitely. I’ve been reading more classics, more non-fiction, and increasingly, more poetry. There’s a shift toward depth.
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4. Do you have any projects in progress?
Reading? None. Nothing structured, but I’ve been writing. I actually wrote a poem just last night. There are two novels I’ve been trying to write — though they’re stuck in limbo at the moment.
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5. Have you discovered any “new” authors (new or new-to-you)?
Yes — though not all are brand new to me.
- Percival Everett: I finished one of his more powerful works recently.
- Matthew Hollis in non-fiction, especially for The Waste Land biography.
- Paul Durcan in poetry.
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6. Have you had any stand-out books?
Yes, quite a few:
- The Crossing – Cormac McCarthy ★★★★★
- All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy ★★★★★
- No Country for Old Men – Cormac McCarthy ★★★★½
- Light Years – James Salter ★★★★★
- The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis – José Saramago ★★★★★
- Blindness – José Saramago ★★★★★
- Early Indians – Tony Joseph ★★★★★
- The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem – Matthew Hollis ★★★★★
- Shattered – Hanif Kureishi ★★★★½
- Careless People – Sarah Wynn-Williams ★★★★½
- Purappettupoya Vakku – T. P. Rajeevan ★★★★★
- Blankets – Craig Thompson ★★★★★
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7. Have there been any disappointments?
Yes — ഓർമ്മയിൽ നിന്ന്, the autobiography of Jayaseelan. I gave it ★★★½. It reads like a glorified checklist of events, more of a personal log than a memoir. It felt like someone (MB or KGS?) pushed him into writing it. As a reader, I felt talked at, not talked to.
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8. Are there any books you’d like to read in the second half of the year?
Too many to name, but a few are already lined up:
- KOK’s new novel in the Morning Star series
- The rest of Proust
- Doctor Faustus
- A new Antunes I’ve just begun
- Limberlost by Robbie Arnott
- A couple of Ursula Le Guin novels I’ve been meaning to return to
- and of course, the Arundhati Roy Memoir
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9. Do you have any other yearly goals you want to update?
Not really. As I said earlier, I’m not a “goals” person. I’d rather keep reading and writing as living, organic things — not tasks to be measured.