year 25 book

the year is over. i have read books. i read 35 books, which was my goal. good for me.

of course the average number of pages per book was only around 200. so i actually read not as many pages as other years. oh well. it seems i read a lot compared to the average american. 40% of american adults read 0 books this year. how sad.

of the books i read this year, i of course had some favorites and made some new discoveries. so why shouldn’t i post them here? where else?

book:

i read my first knausgaard this year, ‘a time for everything’ and i liked it a lot. it was one of my favorite reads of the year in fact. i read it because i am going to see knausgaard (karl ove) give a talk in a couple weeks and i’d not yet read any of his books.

the book is presented at first as being about a 16th century writer, Antinous Bellori, and a research book he wrote about angels. through most of the book i thought this character was a real person who really wrote a real book about angels, but it was only well crafted fiction.

though the book does have some focus on angels, it is mainly composed of retellings of biblical stories. mainly two stories: cain and able, and the story of noah. these are done so incredibly well that it’s hard to overstate. the depth and care that is put into creating each of these characters and making them real and full people, is beyond impressive. to take such iconic stories and try to make them your own is a task that one might think hubris, but he succeeds wildly at it. the story of noah in particular was done so well, and he spent so much time making all the characters into real people, that i was horrified when the waters started rising, and i thought over and over ‘he can’t really kill all these people can he? can he??’ to make me feel such suspense and emotional impact with a story where i already know what happens was a real accomplishment.

book

i was going to write about more books, but im tired, and they are fading away, and i struggle to maintain a grasp on the point of this, or of anything.

so there you have it, a book i read last year.