I have made a grand decision! I am going to read 100 books in the year 2023. I am unsure if this is a reasonable goal to set for myself, especially since I only started half way through April…but deciding to do something makes it real, and putting it on the internet sets it in stone. I could make this easier on myself and give myself a full 12 months, April 2023 to April 2024, but I have never in my life made anything easy for myself, so I’m not going to do that. January 1st 2023 to January 1st 2024 it is.
For those who can math, its pretty clear that I have some serious catching up to do. If I were to evenly distribute all of the 100 books between 12 months, I would have to read about 8 books a month, which is reasonable. However, in order to catch up with where I would be if I had started in January, in the month of April I would have to read 33 whole books. As I write this at the end of April, having spent all of my free time reading so much that I have words seared into my eyeballs, that’s not going to happen. It is important that I do not sacrifice reading comprehension in my mad dash to the finish line. Also due to the absolute soul crushing capitalist hellscape we life in, I cannot just sit around and read all day. I have to “pay my bills,” and “leave my house.” It sucks.
As a child I was a ravenous reader. I remember reading whole series in a weekend, and all the bruises from refusing to put a book down and walking directly into a wall, pole, or other blunt object. Working on my history degree, I read myself to exhaustion in college, but I rarely had time for books that fell outside my area of study. I know a LOT about 19th century American medical history. After college I was so burnt out I didn’t even want to think about picking up a book for any purpose other than propping up the TV cabinet. But its been a couple years, and honestly I miss being able to zone out of my life for hours at a time in a way that doesn’t land me in therapy.
People usually advise “taking it slow,” when getting back into an old activity, but I’ve never once in my life followed anyones advice, so I’m not going to do that. 100 books 9 months it is. I have no illusions that this is going to magically make me smarter, or radically change my life. I do think however that it will make me feel better. I sustained a severe concussion about 5 years ago now, and while the symptoms have almost entirely disappeared, with the exception of the migraines, tinnitus, and occasional jumbled words, I still feel like I’ve lost something fundamental about myself. It feels like someone else has been driving my body around for years, looking like me and talking like me, but completely empty on the inside. I am hoping that this project will help me recapture something of who I used to be, bring me closer maybe to the child who kept running into poles (but more aware of my surroundings, my brain is delicate).
The books I read will be all over the place. I will not limit my reading to a particular genre. The only rules are that most of the books must be new to me, or at least not something I remember reading. Up to 10 of the books are allowed to be rereads, just because I’m not sure if my mental health could survive not reading The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for a whole year. Books that I read over ten years ago are also fair game and do not count as rereads since I have absolutely no recollection of them whatsoever. I will be posting reviews of as many of the books as possible here. If anyone is reading this, please send book recommendations!
Best,
Tillie
Tillie's Void 