2022: My Year in Books
A year is a long time- a lot of hours, a lot of days, a lot of weeks. Too long to be seen in review without some kind of editing tool, which is why there are so many ‘Best of…’ lists. I will use books as my tool, because they are all around me, like fallen leaves in various states of decomposition.
So here are some books I read this year that have made an impact on me:
The Selected Melanie Klein, edited by Juliet Mitchell
Tea with Winnicott by Brett Kahn
Iris Murdoch, Philosopher by Justin Broackes
Bertrand Russell’s autobiography
The Aims of Education by AN Whitehead
The Courage to Create by Rollo May
Eleanor Marx by Yvonne Kapp
A Book of Days by Patti Smith
Night Haunting by Virginia Woolf (specifically the first essay ‘How should one read a book?’)
I didn’t read as much fiction this year. I enjoyed The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald and reread some excellent childrens/YA books- Harriet the Spy and it’s sequel The Long Secret, Kill All Enemies by Melvin Burgess, Wolf by Gillian Cross. I read a couple of ace new ones too- Let’s Chase Stars Together: Poems to Lose Yourself In by Matt Goodfellow, Shades of Scarlett by Anne Fine. I tried to read Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf (my husband’s favourite book) but gave up after reading the first few chapters over and over and feeling just as rudderless and apathetic each time. Same with Stevie Smith’s The Holiday. I find a lot of postmodern writing irritating, to say the least. I also gave up on Penelope Fitzgerald’s biography by Claire Tomalin because I just wasn’t interested enough. One grown-up novel I devoured was ‘School for Love’ by Olivia Manning, which led me to her biography, which I passed on to my grandmother before I’d finished because I was finding the detailed coverage of her experiences during the Second World War too grim. My granny is tougher than me.
This year I’d like to read more fiction, but I don’t plan my reading- I just follow my interests and see where it takes me. I have gaping holes in my literary education (I’ve never read any Jane Austen, for example) but I don’t really care. I chose not to study English because I don’t like being told what to read. Reading brings me pleasure, it helps me think, it makes me grow, and it connects me with other people’s experiences and perspectives in a way that I find frankly miraculous. But it’s my own business, and I will only rarely read a book I’m told to read unless I happen to be super interested. Not hard to see why I’m a big believer in self-directed education, hey? Or, as Whitehead called it, ‘living knowledge’.
I also reread my own diary last night. I used to find this painfully embarrassing but now I’m a whole lot better at self-compassion, I find it quite sweet and sometimes funny.
Some of my fave entries from 2022-
‘Ice ice, frost frost, freezing mist, black ice, air that eats away at you, red orange pink streaks of sky’
‘Putin being a massive twat’
‘Without prayer, purpose and reflection, life can feel strangely flat… like a long, slow denouement that reveals… nothing. But that is deceptive. Because with effort one can remember that we, and all that is, are very far from nothing. We are miraculous and beautiful and brief and vulnerable and evanescent (!)’
‘Beautiful day today. The light was rich and buttery. Everything seemed to glow.’
‘The old church bell chiming the hour’
‘Feeling eye-hurty’
‘Rest. Meditate. Breathe. Sleep.’
‘Ain’t life a peach!’
..and with that profound thought I bid you all a happy new year! Thanks for reading. Xxxx