You can tell a lot about someone from the books they read

No matter how well I think I know a person, I'm always surprised by the books they read. The stories they choose to spend time with reveal who they are and how they think. (Same thing for authors and the stories they choose to write.) And that’s what reading is all about really for me at least, the opportunity to see and experience the world from someone else’s perspective.

So this post is for the books that keep you up too late, the ones you can’t stop thinking about in the shower or when you’re walking to the office in the morning. And for the books you love so much that you obsess over every last detail: the dust jacket, the colour of the spine, the font, the weight of the paper stock, how the pages smell.

When I look at this list now, I realize how hard it is to see something clearly when you’re living in the middle of it. The pandemic. The self-isolation. What it’s like to reconnect with people after a long silence. If the books below were a reading section in a bookstore, it would be about the end of things: post-apocalyptic dystopias, confronting past versions of yourself, and what new worlds reveal themselves when all seems lost.

The books that follow below are organized in the order that I read them. I’ve bolded the ones that stuck with me. What were your favourite books this year? Send me a note or leave a comment!

FICTION

HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE by Souvankham Thammavongsa

SOMEDAY EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM WILL BE DEAD by Emily Austin

ALEC by William di Canzio

MOFFIE by Andre Carl Van der Merwe

SWING TIME by Zadie Smith

THE LISTENERS by Jordan Tannahill

MOTHERHOOD by Sheila Heti

LESS by Andrew Sean Greer

SWIMMING IN THE DARK by Tomasz Jedrowski

EVENING by Susan Minot

STATION ELEVEN by Emily St. John Mandel

LIE WITH ME by Philippe Besson

DARRYL by Jackie Ess

GET IN TROUBLE by Kelly Link

BATH HAUS by P.J. Vernon

CROSSROADS by Jonathan Franzen

THE POWER OF THE DOG by Don Winslow

ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac

COMA by Alex Garland

WHAT STRANGE PARADISE by Omar El Akkad

THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai

ASK AGAIN, YES by Mary Beth Keane

THE SYMPATHIZER by Viet Thanh Nguyen

AN AMERICAN WAR by Omar El Akkad

THE PERIPHERAL by William Gibson

NON-FICTION

PUNCH ME UP TO THE GODS by Brian Broome

GAY BAR by Jeremy Atherton Lin

POSTCARDS FROM PALM SPRINGS by Robert Julian

MICHELLE REMEMBERS by Michelle Smith and Lawrence Pazder

THE SATANIC PANIC by Jeffrey Victor

AN FBI AGENT’S JOURNEY by Ken Lanning

SATAN'S SILENCE by Debbie Nathan and Michael Snedeker

HOLA PAPI by John Paul Brammer

KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL by Anthony Bourdain

THOUGH THE GARDEN by Lorna Crozier

YEARBOOK by Seth Rogan

OPEN by Andre Agassi

WE ARE SATANISTS by Blanche Barton

MY MESS IS A BIT OF A LIFE by Georgia Pritchett

WHY WE SLEEP by Matthew Walker

BEDSIT DISCO QUEEN by Tracey Thorn

BOYS KEEP SWINGING by Jake Shears

WITNESS FOR THE DEFENSE by Elizabeth Loftus

RUN TOWARDS THE DANGER by Sarah Polley

MISS MEMORY LANE by Colton Haynes

THE DISCOMFORT ZONE by Jonathan Franzen

FORGETTING: THE BENEFITS OF NOT REMEMBERING by Scott A. Small

POETRY

THOU by Aisha Sasha John

MEADOWLANDS by Louise Gluck 

SHORT TALKS by Anne Carson

So a funny thing happened last May. Our film about the Satanic Panic took over my life. Long story short: this is how I ended up ghosting Ghost From The Past. But instead of telling you why this happened, how about I show you instead? Starting in January I’ll have some new stories and posts about that experience. Until then, I’ll be getting my writing chops back this month with some posts about books and movies and shows from 2022. Thanks, as always, for reading. Looking forward to hearing what you think.