In 2017, I read 70 books, 18 fewer than in 2016. That’s not as big a drop as from 2015 to 2016, but I was pretty sure my book count was going to come out lower this year, and I was right. Perhaps I could graph the decline over the course of grad school. I’m simply not spending as much time reading as I used to, but I still read some great books this year. (Also this year I kept track of the short stories I read, since I continued the new habit of reading more short fiction online, but I don’t think I’m going to do a Short Stories I Read in 2017 post.)

Anyway, here are the books, rereads bolded, with links for books I blogged about:

To Hold the Bridge Garth Nix
The Braided Path Donna Glee Williams
The Stuff of Thought Steven Pinker
Océan Mer Alessandro Baricco, translated by Françoise Brun
Difficult Women Roxane Gay
Possession A. S. Byatt
Breath, Eyes, Memory Edwidge Danticat
Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat
Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang
Every Heart A Doorway Seanan McGuire
Some Kind of Happiness Claire Legrand
Gemina Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Of Fire and Stars Audrey Coulthurst
The Passion of Dolssa Julie Berry
La cantatrice chauve suivi de La leçon Eugène Ionesco
Électre Jean Giraudoux
Caligula suivi de Le Malentendu Albert Camus
Maisons de la colère P. M. J. Plouvier
La chanson de Roland translated by Joseph Bédier
Song for the Basilisk Patricia A. McKillip
Alcools suivi de Le Bestiaire et de Vitam impendere amori Guillaume Apollinaire
Midnight Is a Place Joan Aiken
We Are Okay Nina LaCour
Wolf Hollow Lauren Wolk
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Benjamin Alire Sáenz
The Queen of Attolia Megan Whalen Turner
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street Natasha Pulley
Blindness José Saramago translated by Giovanni Pontiero
On a Sunbeam Tillie Walden
The Waking Land Callie Bates
The Hate U Give Angie Thomas
L’absence Anna Boulanger
Ninefox Gambit Yoon Ha Lee
Footnotes* from the World’s Greatest Bookstores Bob Eckstein
Symptoms of Being Human Jeff Garvin
Crooked Kingdom Leigh Bardugo
Sunday in the Park with Boys Jane Mai
I, Coriander Sally Gardner
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children Kirstin Cronn-Miller
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet Becky Chambers
The Thorn and the Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story Theodora Goss
The White Snake Mary Zimmerman
The Serpent King Jeff Zentner
A Closed and Common Orbit Becky Chambers
everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too jomny sun
Shadowshaper Daniel José Older
For Today I Am a Boy Kim Fu
The Walled City Ryan Graudin
The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley Shaun David Hutchinson
Code Name Verity Elizabeth Wein
Rose Under Fire Elizabeth Wein
Tess of the Road Rachel Hartman
Burial Rites Hannah Kent
Phyla of Joy Karen An-Hwei Lee
Too Like the Lightning Ada Palmer
The Swan Riders Erin Bow
Scythe Neal Shusterman
Monstress Volume One: Awakening Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
Monstress Volume Two: The Blood Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
The Book of Dust Volume One: La Belle Sauvage Philip Pullman
The Pearl Thief Elizabeth Wein
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue Mackenzi Lee
Updraft Fran Wilde
Spinning Tillie Walden
A Line in the Dark Malinda Lo
The Secret in the Wings Mary Zimmerman
Juliet Takes a Breath Gabby Rivera
A Universal History of Iniquity Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley
Musiques de la frontière Léa Silhol
Fairy Tales Hans Christian Andersen (translated–and adapted?–by somebody…)

The Numbers:

• Total books read: 70
• Books in French: 9 (13%) (the good influence of Isabelle continues–also there was that French book sale on campus)
• Books that were not novels: 19 (27%) (Goodness! Non-fiction: 2; Short story/fairy tale collections: 7; Poetry: 2; Plays: 5; Not easily categorized: 3; also Monstress Volumes 1 and 2 and everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too are graphic novels and On a Sunbeam is a webcomic)
• Books read in translation: 5 (7%) (Italian to French: 1; Old French to Modern French: 1; Portuguese to English: 1; Spanish to English: 1; Danish to English: 1)
• Books read for the first time: 63 (90%)
• Books read not for the first time: 7 (10%)
• Books written by women (where at least one co-author is a woman): 48 (69%)
• Books by authors of color (obviously, how someone identifies can’t always be deduced from a name and an author photo, so this isn’t guaranteed to be 100% accurate): 17 (24%)
• Books by category (as decided by me): Adult: 35 (50%–Wow!); Young Adult: 27 (39%); Middle Grade or Younger: 6 (9%); Indeterminate: 2 (3%)

And finally, my favorite books of 2017 (I did not include rereads, and I didn’t set out to choose a certain number of books):

• The Braided Path Donna Glee Williams
• Océan Mer Alessandro Baricco, translated by Françoise Brun
• Possession A. S. Byatt
• Wolf Hollow Lauren Wolk
• On a Sunbeam Tillie Walden
• Ninefox Gambit Yoon Ha Lee
• Sunday in the Park with Boys Jane Mai
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet Becky Chambers
• Tess of the Road Rachel Hartman
• Too Like the Lightning Ada Palmer
• The Book of Dust Volume One: La Belle Sauvage Philip Pullman
• The Pearl Thief Elizabeth Wein

Twelve! That’s an auspicious number. May your 2018 be filled with wonderful books!