4451moana
- Dec 29, 2021
- 4 min read

2021 on Goodreads by Various

211227: not quite the end of the year but not likely to read much more. big decision this year was that when i reached an arbitrary number of total books read, i would buy laptop, thus be able to write as well as read at coffeehouse and at home. did this, radically cut down the number of works read so i could concentrate on my own writing. this is why total is 5 023 and only 118 books read this year. was able to write more, but as aunt a told me once, you might want to write all the time but it is not possible... so i will still be reading...

by now i have read enough/rated enough to comment on my own process of evaluation. when first beginning goodreads in 2010 i read a lot of books that were 'ok', that served as basis, history, for the genres that interested me, so the average rating was probably low threes. in time, over the years, there has been some average increase partly because i then had a better idea of what i wanted to read, partly through natural inflation, recognition that i must have at least 'liked' so many works to read them...

my editor told me a three counted as 'algorithmically negative' so soon i found myself giving out fours. i do not want to be negative. and so discovered more and more works i could honestly assess as four. in time, it became clear to me that virtually every book i wanted to read was somewhere between three and four and even rare fives. distinction came only according to which books it followed and their ratings, genre expectations met or subverted, surprise or disappointment, any engaging stylistic or meta textual aspects etc. most books are read 'according to' their genre and i rate them according to that, not to some hypothetical 'universal book'...

it is not difficult for me to rate work four: i really like to read, i read all the time, i have wide-ranging tastes. in nonfiction most work start off automatically four, after all i know what it is about, i know what i want to read. this is certainly the case in most all the philosophy i have read. fiction is another case. here i am guided by previous readings, reputations, word of mouth, recommendations, but all the same i can be pleasantly surprised or shocked and dismayed. on the other hand, i have come to rarely give out twos anymore because if the work is just 'ok', there are so many more i want to read... so i just stop...

as far as reviews go, i try to give reviews to anything i rate a five and sometimes a four. it surprises me i have written so many reviews, particularly philosophy, but however amateur they are quite sincere and product of a lot of independent thinking. i have not studied philosophy in years (decades...) but certainly have read a lot. i never wanted to be 'captured' by one or the other way of particular thinkers, but have in the eventual been drawn to continental thinkers and more recently to Indic thought...

then 11 are philosophy, some new (long) that i really liked [book:The Awakening of Intelligence|74456], [book:The Meaning of Anxiety|22253782], [book:Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment|32895535], some new (short) that i really liked [book:Saving Beauty|36656180], [book:A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity|156639], [book:Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism|295000], some philosophy i must reaffirm fives like [book:Phenomenology of Perception|18279] and [book:Jainism as Meta-Philosophy|34729893], or increase [book:Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Husserl and the Cartesian Meditations|403013]...

then some nonfiction [book:Consent: A Memoir|53327897], [book:Know My Name|50196744]... do not know if he admits it is philosophy, but i enjoyed [book:A Brief History of Time|17351]... great cookbook [book:Made in India: Recipes from an Indian Family Kitchen|23848312] and book between fiction and non- [book:Artemisia|179335]...

then fiction, some of which are very long and i really liked [book:The Count of Monte Cristo|7126], some of which are very short [book:The Rope is the World|13632384], [book:Birthday|40553910], some i put on this year though read decades ago at university [book:The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1: The Middle Ages through the Restoration & the Eighteenth Century|47164], [book:The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 2: The Romantic Period through the Twentieth Century|47163], mainly because they seemed worthy of the five thousand mark...

really enjoyed [book:Childhood|43685219], [book:Youth|15836839], [book:Dependency|43685224] by tove ditlevsen, all three of her autobiographical works: poetic, spare, concise in contrast to [book:A Death in the Family|15705460] (3 books shorter than 1...)...

enjoyed [book:The Passenger|49672276] for vision of horror of losing everything you thought you had safe... then read bilingual version [book:Gatsby le Magnifique|59933489]...

enjoyed china mieville, whom i had put off too long (long books) [book:Embassytown|9265453], [book:Perdido Street Station|68494], [book:The Scar|68497]... also read some banks i have been meaning to [book:Matter|886066], [book:Surface Detail|7937744], and great hellenic pomo [book:A Thousand Ships|53487148], [book:Fifteen Dogs|23129923]...

overall, a good year reading. this coming year i want to get something published (more than on website...). so happy new year and good reading to everyone!

2021 on Goodreads by Various

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