“… in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.” 
~ C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism

2021 was, I must admit, a very difficult year. I just never felt like I could get ahead of my work, with to-do lists and unfulfilled requests and unfinished tasks on every desktop–physical, digital, and mental. When it comes to reading, 2021–like 2019–was a tonic year, where reading was a salve for the soul, an attempt at recovery and quiet while still feeling the drive forward. I spent many summer hours by campfires and in living room chairs with a book in my lap. Unfortunately, I also spent many hours of nighttime mental roaming trying to cure summer insomnia with a story or biography. Though much of my 2021 reading was “work” in one way or other, there was a lot of rest there, a good deal of play, and some degree of distraction.  

I had a few goals for 2021:

• This year, I had a goal of reading 132 books for the year, an average of 11 books/month–a stretch, but not impossible
• This year, I was not that attentive to how long they were (I suspect they would average 310-320 pages/book)
• Among book reading, I aimed for:
  • 2 C.S. Lewis or Lewis studies book/month
  • 1 L.M. Montgomery book/month as part of a chronological reading of Montgomery’s fiction and letters
  • 1 theological or devotional book each month
  • 1 Black writer or author of colour/month
  • 1 Shakespeare play/month
  • Always be reading a pre-20th-century “classic” (beyond Shakespeare)
  • Continue reading through the catalogues of J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula K. Le Guin
• In this reading, I aimed for a 1:1 female:male ratio of authors–stretching myself beyond a 1:2 ratio that would much more naturally represent the kind of research and reading I do (a ratio I aimed for and hit in 2018 and 2019, and I came fairly close to 1:1 in 2020)
• To do that, I was going to read through all of N.K. Jemisin’s books that I could get a hold of (this goal switched in the spring)
• Read 75 articles, shorts stories, essays, or other short pieces
• Listen to or watch 10 lectures series or classes

These goals for this year were really about:

• reading for course prep in the Winter and Fall terms;
• extending my reading of L.M. Montgomery‘s catalogue and secondary sources for a major research project, for a research grant, for my 2022 conference paper, and for my work as producer and host of the MaudCast;
• reading a number of classical Western texts that I have never read or only read as a student;
• increasing the voices of my reading–which is very invested in white male authors that I love (Lewis, Tolkien, Shakespeare, the classics, and authors like Stephen King) to include more women voices and BIPOC authors (BIPOC is what we use in Canada for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour); 
• enjoying books by reading what I wanted to read.

So, how did I do?

I did well in 2021, reading 138 books (my spreadsheet shows 139) and hitting most of my goals (but not all). 

I can certainly see a pattern emerging, where a natural rhythm for me is not 154 books (as in 2019, my final PhD season), but 117-138 books per year. Indeed, the average is 128.4 books (whether tallied for the whole 7 years or leaving out high and low, 2019 and 2015, which is kind of cool, mathematically speaking). 

Reading-wise, I have come to discover that I am lazier than I would wish. I yearn for that dynamic, all-engrossing ability I had as a young adult to simply immerse myself in a book! Do you remember that time of your life? Part of my goal for 2022 is to look for bedtime readings that enthrall me.

I have discovered that I tend to use the book list and page number count to spur me on. In 2021, I was up a bit in terms of books (138) and sheer page numbers (43,285), though, I saw a tiny drop in the size of books, down to 313 pages/book (from 315 last year). That is still more books than I aimed at, and though I have read fewer short pieces, overall it is still a strong year.

2021 was a much more focussed and goal-oriented year than 2020–where I realize I was making it up as I went along. I feel like I met most of my individual goals for 2021, with a couple of grand exceptions and one great switch.

Between teaching schedules and research projects, my reading was seasonal in 2020, as it usually is based on these patterns: Winter/Spring teaching session, a May-June research-focused writing period, summer projects and reading, and fall teaching.

Winter and Early Spring

• Reading and Teaching Reading: Following my Signum University “Vampires and Big Bad Wolves” course in Fall of 2020, in January I turned my reading focus to teaching “The Fantasy and Fiction of C.S. Lewis” at the King’s College (NYC)–along with my local Greek class, my local foundation-year course, and supervising thesis students. From C.S. Lewis’ catalogue, I read through the Ransom Cycle and Screwtape, The Great Divorce, Till We Have Faces, and the Four Loves broadcast.
• Research and Theological Reading: In early winter, I was doing the final draft of my paper “Befriending the Darkness: L.M. Montgomery’s Lived Theodicy in Anne’s House of Dreams” (published later in 2021, in November). In January, I read through a number of Montgomery books of the WWI period–for Anne’s House of Dreams is deeply invested in a WWI context–some Montgomery studies, and some theodicies–particularly Mark S.M. Scott’s Pathways in Theodicy and N.T. Wright’s Evil and the Justice of God.
• Thinking Theologically and Literarily about Race: This reading worked well with the new edition of Miroslav Volf’s (for me) life-changing Exclusion & Embrace, Willie James Jennings’ The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas’ The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games, which I reread in June, and Toni Morrison’s powerful lecture series-née-book Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (and also my first review of 2021).
• SFF Reading: I also began a read-through of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings that I finished in the summer–and paired with some Tolkien studies books and essays. Early winter included some leftovers from the previous year–continuing Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and finishing Harry Potter–and enjoying some fantasy and SciFi fun books (which was a big part of my year).
• The Shakespeare Challenge: Of Shakespeare in this first season of the challenge, I read The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and The Taming of the Shrew.
• Finding the Classics: Other classics include Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World, The Brothers Grimm, Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, Jane Austen‘s Northanger Abbey, and James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough.
• Other L.M. Montgomery Reading: I also read some of L.M. Montgomery’s work in the 1920s, with a focus on her poetry and letters–partly because I was being interviewed for a podcast on The Blue Castle. 

Late Spring and early Summer

• Research Reading: In this intense period of research, I read a number of things for two spring presentations on C.S. Lewis, including The Discarded Image, The Personal Heresy, An Experiment in Criticism, A Grief Observed, Christian Reflections, and God in the Dock. For another project, I read much of his early work, including “The Quest of Bleheris,” Spirits in Bondage, and Dymer (along with the Splendour in the Dark volume, which I review here).
• The Year of Ursula K. Le Guin: In May, I began reading Ursula K. Le Guin, starting with the Hainish Cycle, going roughly chronological (which, by the way, was lovely).
• L.M. Montgomery: I continued L.M. Montgomery reading with the focus on poetry and short stories.
• The Shakespeare Challenge: I read Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Othello.
• Finding the Classics: I continued with Homer–as well as Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad and some writing by Auerbach. 
• SFF Reading: I read Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow for a video podcast discussion, but haven’t had the courage to read the sequel yet. Unusual for me, I only read one Stephen King book, The Institute, a Christmas gift.

Summer

• The Year of Ursula K. Le Guin: My summer reading continued the Le Guin project, and I finished the Hainish Cycle in September.
• C.S. Lewis Reading: It was a quiet Lewis summer, but I read the Marvel Comics adaptation of The Screwtape Letters–as well as the Watchmen graphic novel. I also read The Abolition of Man with Michael Ward’s helpful guide, After Humanity. 
• The Shakespeare Challenge: For Shakespeare, I read King Lear and Twelfth Night, before losing Shakespeare in fall reading prep.
• SFF Reading: And I read Frank Herbert’s Dune and most of Dune Messiah this summer–preparing for the film (which I loved). I also finished my 2021 LOTR reading.
• Finding the Classics: I intensified my classics reading with Gilgamesh, the Iliad, Lysistrata, Plato’s Symposium, Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, Virgil, The Aeneid (including some of Lewis’ translations), Ovid’s Metamorphoses, as well as bits and pieces from the ancient Mediterranean world. Atwood’s adaptation of Homer was not the only one I read, but I read and blogged about Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles (see here and here).

Autumn and Early Winter

• The Year of Ursula K. Le Guin: In the fall, I began teaching an Ursula K. Le Guin class at Signum, and so completed her Hainish Cycle, read her other science fiction novels (The Lathe of Heaven is brilliant), and then read through the entire Earthsea Cycle (including the short stories) and her YA trilogy, Annal of the Western Shore.
• The Shakespeare Challenge: Finishing my Shakespearean year a little short, I read Richard II and Henry IV Part 1.
• Finding the Classics: In terms of classic authors, I read Beowulf, The Inferno and Paradiso, The Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and, unfortunately, Machiavelli.
• L.M. Montgomery Reading: I read Montgomery’s Emily trilogy in September as part of my presentation and discussion in a roundtable on Emily of New Moon (which might be my favourite work of Montgomery’s). This fall, I also read a couple of Montgomery-inspired books, Melanie J. Fishbane’s novel Maud and Julie A. Sellers’ chapbook Kindred Verse (which closed my year on Goodreads). 

• Blogging the Hugos: A big part of my fall reading was for my “Blogging the Hugos” series, which meant reading 10 novels this year, including N.K. Jemisin (which I blogged about here and here), Martha Wells; murderbot novel (which won the novel Hugo), Mary Robinette Kowal’s latest Lady Astronaut novel, Rebecca Roanhorse (who perhaps deserved a win), Tamsyn Muir creepy Locked Tomb sequel, and Susanna Clarke. In 2021, I read Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel and Piranesi.

• The Nightmare Alley Series: I finished the year reading William Lyndsay Gresham’s carny horror novel, Nightmare Alley in preparation for the “Nightmare Alley Series”–add read a number of short pieces connected to Gresham’s work.

The missed goals included my Shakespeare reading. I only managed to read 10 Shakespeare plays–plus one biography by Peter Ackroyd, as well as some individual lectures of interest. Really, it was my fall reading that threw me off, which connects to the second missed goal and the “great switch.” I intended to read N.K. Jemisin’s catalogue. However, I joined an Ursula K. Le Guin book club in the spring, and then taught the course in the fall. I ended up reading 22 Le Guin books (mostly novels)–including rereading two of them. My Jemisin reading was set aside–though I did read her 2021 Hugo-nominated The City We Became (and blogged about it here and here), and half the stories in How Long ‘Til Black Future Month. As a result, however, I missed reading one BIPOC author a month (I read 8 books by BIPOC authors, I believe). 

Besides teaching for reading and research–including reading Lewis (18 books, and 1 read twice) and Montgomery (17 books, and 1 read twice)–my other big reading challenge this year was a late idea. I read through all the Hugo nominees, including Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse, The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, Harrow The Ninth and its companion Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, Network Effect by Martha Wells, The Relentless Moon and 2 other Lady Astronaut books by Mary Robinette Kowal, and Susanna Clarke’s beautiful and evocative Piranesi. This also encouraged me to read, for the first time, Clarke’s Regency-era fantasy, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. While I did not love every feature of these Hugo-nominated books, they are global-class writers–and Piranesi was such an astounding work of fiction that I am reading it for a second time, this time with a rich audio reading by Chiwetel Ejiofor.

In terms of other goals, I read 68 short pieces (rather than the goal of 75), and I fell short on my lecture series! That does not really worry me, frankly. I reach for that resource when I need it.

Throughout the year I had a few projects and some nice unintended consequences:

• For only the second year, science fiction, speculative fiction, and fantasy are the largest category–and this time by a long shot. I blame Le Guin. 
• Actually, this was a light year for C.S. Lewis reading in terms of Lewis studies, but fairly similar to the previous year. Intriguingly, I did not reread Narnia in 2021–though I am deep within Edmund’s nighttime forced march right now.  
• Once again, I increased my reading of Montgomery’s books (supplemented by a number of studies).
• Though I only did 10 of the 12 Shakespeare plays I intended, this is my biggest year ever for the “classics” category, with 16 non-Shakespeare books (and quite a few short pieces). 
• Although I did read one theological or devotional book a month, I intended to be a bit more intentional about that than I was (half my theology reads are in other categories).
• Other than Tolkien, it was a light Inklings year–and even then, I had wanted to do more of the Legendarium. I still have Barfield’s Poetic Diction at my elbow for a re-read. 
• It clear wasn’t a self-help year! There is one book that fits that category, plus a Shakespeare biography, 2 literary studies, and 2 literary histories (all these being books that don’t fit in other categories). 

Here’s a pretty version of the same thing:

My final goal was to achieve a 1:2 ratio of women and men authors. This is tough to do when your primary author is male (C.S. Lewis), his primary partners are male (Tolkien and the Inklings), and my field has been largely male (theology). As I was extending more deeply into Montgomery studies, and reading through the catalogues of Ursula K. Le Guin, N.K. Jemisin, Octavia Butler, Marilynne Robinson, J.K. Rowling, Flannery O’Connor, and Anne Rice, I was confident I would surpass that ratio this year. Indeed, I set a goal of gender parity. And I met that goal … and then in the last month I tilted much further toward women writers. In 2021, I flipped my female:male ratio, so this year 53% of the books I read had women authors, and 47% had male authors. Including my reading as a whole, it was 52% women to 48% men. 

There are limits to how effective tracking of reading by gender (or other categories) can be, but it is a helpful reminder for me. In 2021, I intentionally set a goal and I achieved it.

The Goodreads app is kind of limited, though you can check out my 2021 infographic. They have a thousand possibilities for creating infographics including gender, language, geography, genre, and popularity, yet they choose not to give us that power. So, in my limited way, this year I also tracked books by era. As I have upped my classic reading, you can see that reflected in my analysis. , with some mixed results. Last year, almost 3/4 of my book reading was from titles since WWII–despite studying figures that were active in the “modernist” period. This year, that has dropped to 62%. Intriguingly, my reading falls into 4 fairly neat batches:

• 28% of my reading is before WWI
• 17% of books I read were published in the WWI to WWII period (the second 30-years war)
• 30% of my book reading is of titles published after WWII and before the end of the century
• And about the same proportion of 21st-century volumes (32%)

Comparing my 2021 and 2020 charts shows a much more even distribution. 

What does 2022 look like? 

Next year, I am setting my reading goal for 132 books, once again. It is a difficult level to reach and feels right to me. I am in the midst of a number of small books right now, so perhaps the average word length will drop from 315 in 2020 and 313 in 2021 down to about 310 pages/book. For my book-reading goals, it is sort of an echo of 2021:

• 2 C.S. Lewis or Lewis studies book/month (I am teaching two C.S. Lewis courses this winter, including a new Narnia course on leadership, communication, and culture)
• 1 L.M. Montgomery book/month as part of a quasi-chronological reading of Montgomery’s novels, poetry, nonfiction, short stories, and letters
• 1 theological or devotional book each month (which can include work in other categories)
• 1 BIPOC author/month (from any category)
• 1 Shakespeare play/month, including finishing the History Cycle (2 series of 4 plays); I’m also teaching The Merchant of Venice and Macbeth
• Always be reading a pre-20th-century “classic” (beyond Shakespeare)–especially in this winter season
• Read through all of N.K. Jemisin’s books that I can get a hold of
• I am tempted to keep reading through Octavia Butler’s work, who I missed in 2021
• Continue reading through J.R.R. Tolkien, including The Fall of Sauron (which I didn’t finish last year) and a couple of other Middle-earth collections
• Finish the major parts of the Ursula K. Le Guin, including Lavinia and Language of the Night (and I may read some of the realistic fiction, which I don’t know well)
• I believe that I will reread the Hugo-nominated novels this year … I just don’t know if I can blog about them again
• I also intend to keep up with the Mythopoeic Award for Inklings Scholarship shortlisted books

I am not certain if I will achieve a 1:1 female:male ratio of authors. Now that I have met and exceeded that goal, I feel comfortable with how I am finding books. I am reaching for comfort books this coming year–especially for nighttime reading, catching up on a couple of graphic novels, and being open to more contemporary Canadian literature. Two of those three categories are more male-dominated. A lot of 2022 will depend on my choice of a major research project to begin July 1st, which will no doubt tilt the year. I also have no idea what I am teaching this coming fall. I will still aim for a rough parity of authors–which is really what happened in 2020 and 2021.

I also have the goal to read 72 articles, shorts stories, essays, or other short pieces (down from 75) and listen to or watch 6 lectures series or classes (down from 10).

Until next year, check out my brand new “discoveries” section in the 2021 infographic write-up. And here is my old-fashioned reading excel sheet list. I wish I was infographically-inclined, but I do like lists! Thanks to all of you novelists, poets, critics, bloggers, historians, reviewers, and editorialists who fill my year with great reading!