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submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Think of this thread as a mid year review:

How many have you read and are you on track?

Favorite reads of the year so far?

Least favorite reads of the year?

Any new releases you are looking forward to?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Here's my year in a spreadsheet.

At 22 books, shooting for 40 so I'm barely on track.
Favorite reads: Definitely Demian by Hermann Hesse and Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I knew I was going to like Grapes, as I loved East of Eden and I'm a leftist so Grapes is a match made in heaven for me. But Demian was a big surprise at how much I loved it. It just... scratched a certain itch in my soul I didn't know I had. It also kind of reminded me of The Picture of Dorian Gray is a weird way? Which is one of my favorite books of all time.
Least favorite reads The Unbearable Lightness of Being was not a great read for me. Occasionally there were moments of philosophical profundity and some pretty prose but for the most part I found the themes a bit pretentious, the characters all awful, and a non-engaging plot. Shoutout to Anthem. I despise Ayn Rand as a person, and The Fountainhead was the worst book I've ever read, but Anthem wasn't terrible? It was probably bottom 5 for the year, no doubt, but I didn't hate it.