In a sentence, 2022 is what I would call a good book year. In a more elaborated form, it was a year in which I very much enjoyed nearly all the books I read (just one clunker) and there was enough material that I truly forgot three or four of them happened this year.

Let’s get right to the list:

–Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
–Black Wave by Kim Ghattas
–Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
–Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come by Jessica Pan
–Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
–How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
–Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri
–Falling Man by Don DeLillo
–The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
–K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches by Tyler Kepner
–Exhalation by Ted Chiang
–A Russian Journal by John Steinbeck
–Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
–The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
–Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
–Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
–Nice Try by Josh Gondelman
–Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
–4321 by Paul Auster

A few random bits about how some of these arrived in my hands. Two (Burnt Sugar, Falling Man) were left over from my so-far successful, late-2020 decision to give a bookstore some money and have them send me a mystery box of books. Three (K, Invisible Cities, Fever Pitch) I picked up on random journeys to the used book store down the street. One (Nice Try) had been sitting on my e-reader since the day I got it and impulsively used the included free book credit.

With that said, these were my favorite reads of the year (in chronological order): Anxious People, Black Wave, How the Word is Passed, The Splendid and the Vile, Exhalation, Gods of Jade and Shadow, and 4321. This is a mix of fun and character rich stories, intensely researched deep dives into contemporary geopolitics, inventive short stories I’m still thinking about months later, vivid and immersive world building and a unique take on the idea of roads taken and not taken.

In retrospect, I would have skipped: Falling Man. I read this quite a long time ago, but my lasting impression is that I just felt bad the whole time. There are books that deal with sad periods and situations and somehow still light up a whole range of our human emotions, such as All The Light We Cannot See. This was not one of those reads.

In terms of statistics, I furiously worked to finish the last book in time to get to 19 total books for the year compared to my goal of 18.

As you can see, I have now hit 15 years of keeping track of my reading in this way. This year was above average in total pages, total books and number of days to read those books. And in most categories, a pretty middle of the pack year in terms of the historical record.

The longest book this year both in pages (970) and in reading time (45 days) was 4321. The shortest book (132 pages) was Pedro Páramo, while the quickest reads went to both Whereabouts and Nice Try (4 days).

I read one book in Spanish (Pedro Páramo) and five books from the library on my e-reader. And I only arrived at the end of one book completely thrown by the lack material I truly thought the book was about (Orchid Thief). I have not been able to figure out how I got it in my head that this book was about some major, unsolved robbery from a Boston museum (I did watch the Netflix series about the Boston art museum heist). Next year I will judge books solely by their covers and not invent possible plot lines.

On to 2023! Previous yearly roundups here.