Books & Audiobooks
I started 2024 with The Audacious 400, my goal to read between 365-400 books in the year. It started with 20 titles and grew to 377 books in total. It wasn’t just a goal, but the gateway to a transformative year. I also wrote about a book that summarizes much of the things I’ve learned this year: Loving Corrections by adrienne maree brown.
As the year’s reading list progressed, it wasn’t how much I necessarily learned from all the books I read, but appreciating how little I know. It gave me a renewed appreciation for working at the library, where looking out at the stacks feels like looking out at the horizon of an ocean of possibility. There is so much knowledge and context at each of our branches that no one person could ever learn it in an entire lifetime (not for lack of effort).
Rather than a list of the things I’m sure of, having read so much, here are a list of a few things I’m less certain about now that this year’s reading challenge is complete (aka: all the stuff those books taught me):
- I’m less certain that something is urgent because it feels uncomfortable.
- I’m also less sure that the future is terrifying (though anxiety might make it feel like life is an overpriced avocado about to go bad).
- I don’t know if there is any one good answer to questions (math notwithstanding).
- I’m less inclined to believe that more is better (unless it’s books of course).
- I’m less certain that certainty is the remedy for anxiety.
Equally so, here are a few things I have more faith in:
- That “No Winter lasts forever; every Spring takes its turn” (seen on a school sign in Guelph).
- That the power of stories and storytelling make the future less terrifying.
- Libraries are among the most peaceful places (indoors, anyway) on the planet.
- The power of celebrating people’s humanity and humanness; What celebrate is what we remember of it, as the world moves in increasingly AI-influenced ways.
- The ability of the world to keep on spinning even if I don’t make a detectable mark on it today; That I am here and able to savor the day is often enough.
I do plan for another reading challenge in 2025, so stay tuned for my post about that. In the meantime, below are my Top 5 books (old and new) of the 377 (not including the books I reviewed through the year).