How Did I Do? 2021 Reading Challenge

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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)?

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