Some books read in 2022

For a lot of people, January is the Monday of the year and for a lot of people Monday is the bluest day that there is so I hope you're all enjoying and making the most of these early days of 2023. 

I've stated before that reading is a huge and important part of writing and well, here I am saying it again. 

I don't really follow New Year's resolutions, but I do like to try and increase my reading each year and that's exactly what I did last year and what I hope to do this year. 

In today's post I'm going to share with you some of the books I read last year and again, like previous posts - take it or leave it!

I want to point out that today's post isn't a Top (insert number here), but it is just to give you an idea of the content this amateur writer checked out in the year 2022 and it is also worth mentioning that almost every book I read in the past year was not even from that year, but that's neither here nor there.

I would also like to say that this isn't a review post.

In 2022 I stepped out of my reading comfort zone and I explored a little bit of the world of the graphic novel. Two which I checked out were Sapiens (the actual book version was a bit of a snooze-fest for me and this big child needed the one with the pictures) and also the Pulitzer prize-winning Maus; both entertaining and highly educational. If you don't really know where you're going (well, does anyone), but are keen to know where you came from, then Sapiens is for you and if you want to see more of the horrors of the Holocaust from a very unique and original perspective then you should get your paws on Maus.

2022 also saw me read some more content from fellow-Irish writers, (not that that matters - I'll give it a go if I think I am going to like it so I couldn't care if you're from Ireland, Timbuktu or the moon) Roddy Doyle and Sebastian Barry. Two a piece. I had read many of Doyle's before, but last year I read his then-latest novel, Love as well as a collection of short stories, Life without Children, which he wrote during the pandemic. The two Barry books were Days Without End and A Long, Long Way. Again, I am not going to review these books or give my two cents, but as I have mentioned them, it is because I enjoyed them in some way. 

Last year was a mixed bag for me: graphic novels, a few classics, a few short stories, a few about psychology, politics and sports. 

I could go on and on and write down a detailed list of the books I read and even the number of books I read last year, but I really don't see the point in being that pretentious because one thing that we must remember is: books only enhance what's already there.