Had to look over my shelves a bunch of times when I noticed: not a single book on this list is without magic or other fantastical elements, modern setting or no. Contemperary SFF is too good to need anything else, ya'll!! (Though I do have a few modern-day-no-magic-or-other-cool-stuff fiction I'll likely get to early next year of course, mostly books in translation.)
All the Books JW Read in 2022
(or the ones I bothered to log, at least)
You know what's better for your reading than working a job that crushes your soul's creative output so thoroughly that the only thing you feel like doing when you collapse at home is open a book? Working at two different library systems at once.
Suffice to say, I managed to read a ton of books this year, waaaayy more than I did in the past, almost double the number of last (30-something in 2021 to 70-plus in 2022). As self-indulgent and quixotic and maybe a little misguided as it is to say, I've felt a lot better about crossing the bridges these authors have made, felt a little more worldly getting a glimpse everything they show in their pages. Compared to all the thrillers and murder mysteries and what have you that gets circulated around the most, at least, anyway...
You can mouseover to view each book's title and author, and those with colored borders will have some extra commentary (as I get to them)—green borders have positive thoughts, and books with red borders have not-so-positive thoughts and/or were DNFed.
Fiction
Comics
Somehow, despite feeling like I didn't read very many comics, this ended up being the most plentiful category, thanks to reading two whole manga series: Boys Run the Riot by Keito Gaku and Silver Spoon by Hiromu Arakawa. Pretty alright year here; although speaking of Arakawa, I am pleased to say that I've got all the hardcover rereleases of Fullmetal Alchemist on my shelves now.
Nonfiction
This was a really good year for nonfiction—which is to say the first year post-undergrad where I had the reign to freely read unburdened by the indifference of college assignments. Recency aside, the final four books have been especially enlightening, with a mix of acerbic irreverence or thoughtful unravelings of topics that are much more complex than the discourse would have you think.
// return //