A Book A Week - Week 52: I Think We All Learned Something

This week's book:
  A Look Back

  Grade:  A

I know it's a trite trope for the year-end, it's the lazy man's journalism, it's participating in the modern list-ification of things, but I think my exercise in A Book A Week needs a summary.  A recap.   A book-end, if you will.  So here are a few questions, and my answers:

 Which was your favorite book?
   It's hard to say, I read many excellent books.  My overall favorite fiction was A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood.  But that was published before I was born.
  My favorite fiction which was published in the last three years or so... it would have to be a three-way tie, between The Golem and The Jinni by Helene Wecker, The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan, and City of Bohane by Kevin Barry.
   My favorite non-fiction was Detroit by Charlie LeDuff.  I really liked almost all of the non-fiction I read, though.  Almost all. 

Was it difficult reading a book a week?
   Not at all.  Except for a couple of very long books - and a few confusing or enraging ones - I generally finished each book in five or six days.  A couple of hours a day is all it takes.  Turn off the TV and the clock becomes your friend.

Did you discover anything about your tastes?
   Yes.  I surprised myself with how easy it was to move beyond what I thought my type of book was.  I also learned that a good book is a good book no matter where it's shelved.  Same goes for a bad book.

What would you have done differently?
   I think I would have planned the first months better.  I was just flying by the seat of my pants there, kind of reading anything that crossed my path.  After April I tried to look ahead at the lists and see if anything new or exciting was coming out.  I liked reading first novels.

Which was your least favorite book?
   That one's easy, the hands-down winner.  Why I Jump.  Pure garbage.
   My least favorite fiction was another tie, between Ready Player One and Inferno.  Sure, I could have said Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey, but why beat a dead horse?  Everyone knows those books are terrible.
   Aside from 'Why I Jump,' my non-fiction choices were all pretty good.  If I had to pick one least favorite, it's Good To Great.

What did you discover about the business of books?
   Popular does not necessarily mean good.  Or even passable.  And good does not necessarily mean commercially successful.  I think if you chase commercial success you might get it, but you almost certainly won't produce anything good or lasting.  You really do have to stay true to your vision and yourself, let the weasels and bean-counters worry about commercial.  The best books I read were the most honest, the worst were the most obviously commercial.

Would you recommend A Book A Week to others?
   Yes.  Do it.  I bought most of my books, but that's not necessary.  Libraries are fantastic places, and librarians are your quiet, subversive advocates.  They want you to check books out and read them.  They also want you to bring them back on time, deadbeat.

How can I get my kids to read?
   Set the example.  You need to read.  In front of them.  If your kids see you reading, they'll get the idea that reading is what people do.  If they only see sitting on your ass, watching Access Hollywood or Maury, they'll think that's what people should do.  And people really should not. 

Which book surprised you the most?
   As far as for-real twists and psychodrama in fiction, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  I can usually figure out plots pretty quickly, but not with this one.
   For non-fiction it's Undisputed Truth by Mike Tyson.  Surprisingly insightful.
   As far as surprising my expectations, it would have to be The Last Buccaneer by Lynn Erickson.  It's a Harlequin Romance, and nothing at all like I expected.

Would you do it again?
   Absolutely.  Next year I may just post a few more reviews.  Not one a week, though.  That's work.

Next week:
My Book A Week for a year exercise is over.  I think I'm not going to read anything next week.  Or maybe I will.  Just not on a schedule.