In thinking about the year just past, my first thought was that it was a boring year. Not bad as such, but I felt like I went through the whole year without a satisfactory answer to the perennial question: "How have you been?" In other words, I constantly had nothing new to report. Whenever I responded that I'd been "good", I meant it literally rather than as a polite non-answer.
2018 provided plenty of change in significant areas of my life so 2019 was certainly dull in comparison. And really in comparison to the whole previous decade of my life, which barely saw me doing the same thing for more than a year.
But I don't want to be ungrateful. If I pause to ponder the last 12 months a little more, I'm able to find a few highlights. They may seem simple, but they have nonetheless enriched my life and I am thankful for these little things.
This year, I made a few resolutions, a couple of which revolved around writing. I committed to writing weekly for the novel I’ve wanted to write since I was 13, and for this blog.
I also realised that it had been years since I’d been much of a reader - how I used to love it! - and that my writing was struggling to flow as a result. So I committed to reading a book a month in 2016. I’ve read 30 and will probably get a couple more in before the year is out.
Setting this reading goal has helped me enjoy reading again, as well as pushing me to reflect on the kind of writer I would like to be.
So for you readers out there, here are the books that impacted me this year: