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What I Read In January 2023
We did it, we’re here, it’s February in this, the Year of Our Lord 2023? As I write this, it is also 20 degrees below zero. That’s not great! Let’s think about books and not the weather, shall we? You can still say hi anytime. You can still follow me on The StoryGraph. And we’ll all still be here in March.
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Black (Sabbath) Thoughts
Can I make a confession? I’m a bit of a Black Sabbath hipster. I’m not one of those people who will tell you that Born Again is one of their best records, actually. I promise I’m not that far gone. I just happen to think that the band’s best work was done with Ronnie James Dio on vocals, not Ozzy Osbourne. The Dio-era material may not have had the same influence as Black Sabbath’s seminal work with Osbourne, but it benefits from sharper songwriting, better production, and a few slices of grade-A fantasy cheese.
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The Golden Enclaves, by Naomi Novik
I read Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education because I wanted Harry Potter without the baggage. Magical school? Check. Wizarding community living in parallel to our own? Check. The death of children on a massive scale? …check? So, yes, superficially A Deadly Education and its sequels (The Last Graduate and The Golden Enclaves) bear some similarities to the Harry Potter books. Really, though, the similarities stop at the magical school and the wizarding community. Novik’s books are really more about murder at a societal scale.
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My Reading Goals for 2023
In 2022 I:
- Read 134 books.
- Read 40,0005 pages.
- Escaped from a school-imposed reading drought. In 2023 I:
- Want to read at least 52 books.
- Want to read at least 20,000 pages.
- Want to do a better job tackling some of the books I keep meaning to read and not getting to.
- Finish all the books I’ve started and left somewhere around the house. As I discussed in my post on what I read in 2022, last year was a great reading year for me. Given the amount I read last year, I know that 52 books and 20,000 pages might seem conservative. I get that. It’s important to me, though, that reading not feel like something I’m forcing myself to do. If I make my reading goal, great! If not, that’s just fine, too. The most important thing is to enjoy the books and the time I spend with them. It’s probably also important to finish some of the books I have scattered around the house? That, too! Anyway, I’m looking forward to this year’s reading. I finished Naomi Novik’s The Golden Enclaves yesterday (more on that soon) and started Ann Leckie’s The Raven Tower this morning. Next up? I’m not sure! I’ll figure it out.
If you’d like to follow along with my reading this year, I’m on The Storygraph. You can also say hi anytime. I’d love to hear from you!
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A Few Songs I Loved In 2022
Spotify tells me that the album I listened to most this year was Iron Maiden’s Senjutsu. That doesn’t really surprise me, though the album came out in 2021 and I do usually try to spend a significant amount of time with new music every year. I love Iron Maiden and Senjutsu (which I really do think could have been great if 4 tracks had been dropped — ask nicely and I’ll tell you which ones) got me through a winter that felt VERY long. I promise, though, that I have been trying to branch out past Senjutsu. I loved so much music this year, including albums by artists who didn’t quite crack my songs list. The Mountain Goats sound revitalized on Bleed Out, which has a little more energy than their last two records. Beach House’s Once Twice Melody is an amazing sustained mood piece. Pusha T put out a perfect record. Mdou Moctar’s Niger EPs showcase some wonderful guitar playing. Charlie Griffiths made the best traditional prog metal album in years. Zach Bryan dropped a country record that another artist might have released as four albums. All of these albums (and so many more) made the year great, but the songs I’ve listed below are the ones I couldn’t stop coming back to. Except the ones from Senjutsu. Those belong to 2021.