A Mediocre Reading Year
I realize “mediocre” is not a ringing endorsement of my last year’s reading. After all, mediocre means “of moderate quality, not very good.” To be honest, that is a fair description of my entire year. Two surgeries and a back injury definitely put a damper on the year. However, I actually am happy with my mediocre reading.
Some people might have decided that if they were going to be housebound for a large portion of the year then that would be the perfect time to read all the books they have been meaning to get around to. That is a perfectly valid life choice but it was not mine. I have a healthy fear of wasting a good book on a bad day and there were, sadly, quite a few bad days this year. So I read mediocre books.
Now, what do I mean by a mediocre book? I mean the ones where you enjoy them but only vaguely remember the plot a month later. The ones where you binge an entire series of detective novels in 6 weeks. The ones where everything ends in a happily-ever-after ending you could see coming from page one. The ones where the writing is adequate but not amazing. I am not denigrating these books. I thoroughly enjoyed my year of reading them. They were the equivalent of eating a box of middle-of-the-road chocolate. You know there is better chocolate out there; chocolate you should savor and appreciate. However, you are not in the mood to savor and appreciate. You are in the mood to eat one piece after another in a vaguely gluttonous fashion.
I track my reading the old-fashioned way by writing the titles down in a notebook. I read a lot of books this year. I’m not going to say how many because I have mixed feelings about the whole reading goal thing. However, I do use the list to look back over the year’s reading and pick out the highlights of the year. This year I didn’t have many highlights. Probably the stand-out book was Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World by Irene Vallejo. It is one of the few books I actually reviewed. Most of the rest of the books fell into an “enjoyable but forgettable” category.
What are my plans for this year’s reading? Well, I don’t really have any. I don’t do well with set lists and tasks. I want to enjoy my reading; mediocre or otherwise. I want to get lost in books. And yes, it would be nice to read a few that are so amazing I feel I must force them on everyone I encounter. I will see where the wind takes me and what books land in my lap.
8 Comments
Claire (The Captive Reader)
Mediocrity has its time and place! I do hope you find some amazing books in 2025 but even without them I hope you have a wonderful year.
jllee656
Thank you! I hope you have a great year too with lots of books and travel.
Lisa
I think of those books sometimes as “popcorn books,” satisfying in the moment but not a sustainable diet. I had a Kindle Unlimited subscription for a while, and I read (voraciously sometimes) a lot of popcorn books.
jllee656
I did the same thing with Kindle Unlimited. It has been a few years. I wonder if they have anything good again.
Lucinda
I totally understand your need to read mediocre books. They fill a need. And your metaphor using chocolate is perfect. Sometimes you just want Cadbury dairy milk, nothing fancy. Hope your back is better and stronger.
jllee656
Cadbury dairy milk definitely hits the spot sometimes! My back is very slowly improving. At least it gives me lots of time to read.
Joan Kyler
I know how you feel. Seems like we’ve been living parallel lives. In the past two years, I’ve had failed foot surgery, a hip replacement, a broken wrist, and diagnosis of a chronic and unwanted disease. The recovery has / is the worst. I, too, read through a light mystery series and stuck to ‘feel good’ books. One of my pleasures has been reading your blog. I hope we all feel better in 2025, although I’m not holding my breath.
jllee656
I am so sorry that you have had a rough year and I hope 2025 is much better for you.