What I read: Jul-Dec 2019
July - December 2019
So, in the second half of last year I didn’t get round to publishing what I’d read. Luckily I still kept the record, so here’s an update. It’s missing a lot of articles but the books are here. Things slowed down quite a lot as I was working again and we had our second daughter in August, two kids doesn’t leave a huge amount of time for reading!
In 2019 I read 21 books, and a lot of New Yorker articles (I’ve put a few stand outs below). Nearly 2 books a month feels a bit ahead of where I’ll get to this year. 2019 is really a year of two halves, 14 books in the first 6 months, 7 in the second (after Lily was born).
Books
- Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan — I read this after loving the excerpt in the New Yorker. It reminded me I’d always dreamed of learning to surf. It was good to start with but I couldn’t finish it. Two reasons: 1. I feel like he never really described whatever was driving him around the world in search of the perfect wave. He touched on family issues, not fitting in, self esteem…but never approached them with emotional honesty. 2. There are only so many times you can read a description of the minutiae of catching a wave.