As I write this, it is New Year’s Eve 2023. It is also the deadline for the Happy Poems issue of Poemeleon. This has been a rough year for many and historically I’m not good at looking at these things head on (I cover my ears and close my eyes, both literally and figuratively) so reading and encouraging happiness felt like the right move.
My health has been generally stable (yay to no significant migraines!) but I did find the 30 lbs I had lost last year and my walking routine has all but disappeared. I love the twinkle of the holidays, but even more, I like putting it all away afterwards and the turning over the page into a New Year. With that in mind, I’ve signed myself up for a chair yoga program and hope to make some changes to my diet that will hopefully leave me feeling healthier and with greater stamina for things I love, like my two story house and freestanding high-sided bathtub that is getting harder and harder to step into. I also have a pretty intense case of carpal tunnel syndrome so early 2023 will include surgery to get some relief.
On the work front, Inlandia (and I) will not be at AWP this year. Inlandia also will not have a booth at the LATFOB. These are both a relief and a regret. We’ve had to tighten up the purse strings, but just as importantly, it is a LOT of work to haul things back and forth.
Where will I be? I am excited to be reading for UCR Writers Week this year! A bucket list dream. I’ll also be reading for Verse Virtual in February. And I intend to work hard at writing and submitting this year while coordinating 100 Rejections Club.
If you follow me anywhere else, you know that this is the first year that I’ve imbibed in audiobooks. Compared with most years prior, aside from completing the Sealey Challenge, I’ve not completed many books. This year, while I didn’t do the challenge, I did consume a lot of books for pleasure. I’ve had the occasion to ask myself, Does an audiobook count as ‘reading’? The general consensus is yes.
With the closing of Inlandia’s Upland office (I am quite sad about this but it’s necessary), I’m wondering if I’ll have the same level of dedicated listening time in 2024. I’m hoping to continue to keep up the pace. I’ve listened to about 150 hours of audiobooks. (Harder to measure accurately, though, when I speed it up toward the end of a book I’m impatient with!) I’ve also read in physical form two complete books (plus several started but unfinished) and two e-books.
And it might not break out the way you would expect.
Five poetry collections. Four memoirs (two in essays). One biography. Nine novels (literary, fantasy, science fiction, and autobiographical). One short story collection (horror). One novella (sci fi). One long short story (literary fiction). And one nonfiction self-help book.
Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff by Sara Borjas • Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki • We Are Bridges by Cassandra Lane • The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler • Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler • Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng • Brown Album by Porochista Khakpour • Brown by Kevin Young • Red Comet by Heather Clark • The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath • Bold Move by Dr. Luana Marques • Sick by Porochista Khakpour • Requeening by Amanda Moore • Nature Poem by Tommy Pico • Ordinary Beast by Nicole Sealey • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen • Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi • Parsnips in Love by Porochista Khakpour • Ghost Summer by Tananarive Due • To the Woman in the Pink Hat by LaToya Jordan • Places I've Taken My Body by Molly McCully Brown • The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
italics = e-books bold = audiobooks regular = physical books
Would I have read Pride and Prejudice if I hadn’t been listening to it on my commute? Probably not. Poetry, unless read by the poets themselves, is pretty terrible on audiobooks. I don’t really care for the experience of reading e-books because the format is too small and unwieldy. But for BIG books that would ordinarily be a chore to get through? Audiobooks are AMAZING. I got through the Sylvia Plath biography, Red Comet, that way. And I’m working on Plath’s unabridged journals as well as Jorge Luis Borges’ Labyrinths, both hefty books. All three have been on my nightstand, unread, for years—until I bought them on audiobook and could finally move them.
Though there is no replacing having the physical book to thumb through helps when there are pictures and indexes and other things to reference. And then there’s my addiction to buying and having the physical books, and supporting authors by buying books at readings, my bookstore tourism adventures, and so on.
I guess the answer is:
Why buy only one (version of a book) when you can have two for twice the price?
I didn’t realize (or didn’t remember) that the Upland office is closing. 😢