2022: The Year In Books

As we wrap up 2022, my second full year of remote working, I managed to surpass my previous records by completing a whopping 55 books, an increase of one book over last year and my second consecutive year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I surpassed last year’s total with a mere three days remaining in 2022.  I read (or listened) to 19,328 pages, by far my highest total of all time and only the third time I’ve passed 10,000.

Of those books, fifteen were non-fiction and, of the remaining 40 novels, only two were tied to a TV show, either as the source material or as a tie-in.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, with 44 e-books and three audiobooks.  I continued to take advantage of my library card, which helped me procure 37 of the books I consumed throughout the year.

A little more than half of the books I read this year were by authors I had read before. The 31 authors that I read for the first this year were:

Adam Nedeff Kelsey McKinney Simone St. James Laura Dave
Jeff Warren Carlye Adler Matt Paxton Jordan Michael Smith
Alyssa Milano Alex Finlay Taylor Jenkins Reid Emily Ratajkowski
Samantha Downing Dave Grohl Mary Lynn Rajskub Stephanie Perkins
Michael Schur Joseph Henrich V.E. Schwab Brianna Madia
Jimmy Piersall Richard Whittingham Richard Osman Colleen Hoover
Jenette McCurdy Sally Rooney Josh Malerman Alice Sebold
Katie Mack Penn Jillette Elin Hilderbrand Nita Prose

Alex Finlay, Simone St. James, Karin Slaughter, Megan Goldin, Jeffery Deaver, and Richard Osman were the only authors that I read multiple titles from during 2022.

16 of the books I read were released this year, while only two of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1953.

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Book 30 (of 52) – The Woods Are Always Watching

The Woods Are Always Watching – Stephanie Perkins

Two high school best friends go on a camping trip as a last fling before they go their separate ways for college.  An argument the first night puts them on edge, but the events of the second day draw them back together, thanks to a sinkhole, a broken ankle, dead bodies, a missing hand, and a duo of murderous men who hunt them individually and, eventually, together.  In order to escape, they will need some help from mother nature.

The Woods Are Always Watching, a young adult thriller from Stephanie Perkins, entered my household as a birthday gift for my nearly 70-year-old mother.  Now, you may be asking yourself “who would buy a young adult thriller for an old lady?”  A valid question, dear reader.  When all you know about your co-worker is that they like to read, and you head to the local bookstore with your pre-teen child and have them pick out the book, this is the result.  So why did I read it?  It was there.  Perkins tells a tale.  An unlikely tale, but a tale none the less.  Nothing really happens for the first half of the book, other than the big argument that nearly drive the girls apart but pick up considerably in the second half.  The ending is so ludicrous that you won’t even bother questioning it.