Featured image by Debby Hudson from Unsplash. Edited in Affinity Designer.
Last year, I participated in The Calm Scribe’s Reading Challenge for 2021. Today I’m looking back to see how I did.
From the List
I read seven of my 26 originally planned books. I read two more that were substitutions:
- Instead of I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown, I read Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis.
- Instead of As You Wish by Cary Elwes, I read The Onyx Door by Kenneth Baldwin.
My Additions
I finished reading All About Love by bell hooks and So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo, as I had hoped.
I also read several books that came into my life throughout the year:
- Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery by Na’im Akbar
- Me and White Supremacy (with workbook) by Layla Saad
- Unsettling Truths by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah
- Humankind by Rutger Bregman
Unfinished
Totally on brand for me (and my ADHD), I started a few books that I didn’t finish. Some of them were too heavy to read straight through, so I took a break and never went back, some I just didn’t have the time to read all the way through. (Bright side, I’m off to a great start for 2022!)
- I made it to page 142 of Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi before deciding I needed a break … then kept reading the same kind of stuff. Whoops.
- I started The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin, which I’m enjoying, but it’s on my Kindle, so I keep forgetting about it (versus the physical books on my nightstand, which i can see every day). I’m on chapter 5, and am eager to keep reading.
- I didn’t even make it to the end of chapter 4 in The Forging of the American Empire by Sidney Lens before I decided to start writing about colonization, and I haven’t returned to the book yet.
- I’m working my way through Rage Becomes Her by Soraya Chemaly (which I have a feeling I will be highly recommending when I’m done). The difficult thing with this book is it reminds me how angry I am, and why. But there’s so much good information in here, and I’m positive I’ll be better equipped to express and deal with my anger when I’m done.
How I Did
Challenge books: 26 (plus a bonus)
I read: 15
If this were a graded assignment, I would have failed. But I read way more in 2021 than I did in 2020, so I consider that a win. How did you do on your reading goals (if you had any)?
Comments are closed.