Year in Review: 2017

[bibliogramma]

And thus ends 2017.

Yet another year in which medical issues rendered me incapable of reading for large periods of time - being in pain, and being on serious pain medication that doesn’t fully counteract the pain but nonetheless makes one not quite fully present, is not good for my brain.

This was a year in which I did some concentrated reading on social justice issues, a project which I intend to carry forward into the coming year. I also started two other reading projects which are as yet incomplete - a reading of some of the more well-reviewed and regarded books about the AIDS epidemic, and a rereading of the works of Robert Heinlein, in preparation for the anticipated publication in late 2018 of Farah Mendlesohn’s critical study of Heinlein’s oeuvre. And there’s the yearly Hugo reading, which sometimes exposes me to works I would not have chosen to read otherwise - sometimes for the good, sometimes not so much.

I don’t think I’ll take on any additional intentional reading projects this year, at least not until I finish the AIDS and Heinlein readings, but one never knows.

I also continued my quest to read more short fiction. Not counting stories in published collections or anthologies, I read 76 short stories or novelettes, most of them from various online magazines.

I’m not sure what my reading will be like in the coming year - I’m still dealing with multiple medical issues that could affect my interest and ability to read, but I hope to manage at least as much in the coming year as I did in this one.

My list of the best books I read this year:

Keeanga-Yamahtta ​Taylor, From ​#BlackLivesMatter ​to ​Black ​Liberation
Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom
Ellen ​Klages, ​Passing ​Strange
N. K. Jemisin, The Obelisk Gate
Joy Kogawa, Obasan
Cassandra Khaw, A Song for Quiet
Matt Ruff, Lovecraft Country
Eleanor Arnason, Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens



On to the statistics:

In 2016, I read 100 books or novellas - 67 fiction and 33 non-fiction; 7 of these were re-reads.

A total of 8 of these were anthologies or edited non-fiction collections, and so have been excluded from the demographic analysis of authorship, although I will note that among these works, 6 were edited or co-edited by women, and 6 were edited or co-edited by people of colour.

By gender:
Works written by women: 60 percent
Works written by men: 40 percent
(One work written by collaborators of different genders)

By author's nationality:
American: 78 percent
British: 10 percent
Canadian: 6 percent
Other: 6 percent

"Other" nationalities included: Chinese,South African, Indian and Ghanaian.

Works by writers of colour: 33 percent