fabled_librarian

This is my blog post to keep track of the books I've read in 2023. I am participating in the Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge for the sixth year in a row. There is no sign-up for it this year. But there is an optional spreadsheet you can use this year, which I'm very grateful for. I am also going to include sections in this post for books I read in 2023 that don't qualify for this year's Beat the Backlist for various reasons. *


*Liquor by Billy Martin (published as Poppy Z. Brite) reread started on 3/27/23 finished on 3/28/23

*Prime by Billy Martin (published Poppy Z. Brite) reread started on 3/28/23 finished on 3/29/23

*Soul Kitchen by Billy Martin (published as Poppy Z. Brite) reread started on 3/29/23 and finished on 3/31/23

*The Atlantic Coast: A Natural History by Harry Thurston start date 2/22/23 finished on 4/11/23

*Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey (reread) started on 4/25/23 and finished on 5/27/23

*Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey (reread) started on 5/27/23 and finished on 6/7/23

*Kushiel's Justice by Jacqueline Carey (reread) started on 6/7/23 and finished on 6/16/23

*Kushiel's Mercy by Jacqueline Carey (reread) started on 6/16/23 and officially quit reading sometime in June 2023, then then picked up again where I had left off sometime in June or July 2023 and finished reading on 7/23/23

*The Wood Wife by Terri Windling (reread) started on 9/9/23 and finished on 9/14/23

*Empty Cauldrons: Navigating Depression Through Magic and Ritual by Terence P. Ward (ebook and physical copy) I started reading in 2022 or 2023 as an ebook edition, quit in 2023, and then picked up where I had quit in the ebook on 9/13/23 and then picked up where I stopped in the ebook in a physical edition on 9/15/23. I finished reading it on 10/10/23.

*Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende (reread) started on 9/19/23 and finished on 10/9/23

*Starless by Jacqueline Carey started on 11/9/23 and finished reading on 12/1/23

*Dark Currents by Jacqueline Carey started on 12/16/23 and finished reading on 12/19/23

* On Whale Island -- (reread; mostly physical copy, but part audiobook edition) started on 1/?/21 and finished on 2/16/21

* Summer Sisters by Judy Blume (reread) started on 1/?/21 and finished on 2/18/21

*How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis, LPC started in 4/2021 and finished on 4/27/21

*Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (reread) started in 4/21 or 5/21 and finished on 5/19/21

*Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (reread) started on 5/19/21 and finished on 5/22/21

*Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (reread) started on 5/22/21 and finished on 6/2/21

*Harry Potter and the Goblet of  Fire by J.K. Rowling (reread) started on 6/2/21 and finished on 11/10/21

*Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (reread) started on 11/27/21 and finished on 12/11/21

*Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (reread) started on 12/11/21 and finished on 12/12/21

 I'm not sure if Novel Knight is running a "Beat the Backlist" reading challenge in 2020, but regardless I find them helpful, so I'm planning to do something like it again, even if only on my own. It's also just over two months before next year, so my reading list isn't solidified yet. For one thing, so far, I've changed it more than I planned to each year, but for another, I'm hopeful that by the time 2020 begins I will have already finished reading at least some of the books on this list. But I want to prepare as much as possible in advance, and I'm also spending more mental resources than I'd like thinking about it without having it written down. So without further ado:

Books I began reading in 2019 or before:

*Kushiel's Mercy by Jacqueline Carey *finished*

*The Path of Paganism by John Beckett *finished*

*The Poetic Edda (I may restart this from the beginning)

*Unf*ck Your Habitat by Rachel Hoffman *finished*

*A Pine Barrens Odyssey by Howard P. Boyd (I may restart this from the beginning)

*The Healing Terrain by Jesse Hardin, Kiva Rose, and others (I'll probably restart this from the beginning)

*The War of Art by Steven Pressfield *finished*

*The Right to Write by Julia Cameron

*The Mindfulness Solution for Intense Emotions by Cedar R. Koons *finished*

*Surviving a Borderline Parent by Kimberlee Roth and Freda B. Friedman

*Hard to Love by Joseph Nowinski

*Calling to Our Ancestors edited by Sarenth Odinsson (I may restart this, and I only have it as an ebook and would like to have a physical copy)


Books Coming Out in 2020:

*Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire (publication date 1/7/2020) *own and finished*

*Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs (possibly -- I like the series, but I disliked the last book enough to stop reading it) (publication date 3/17/20)

*Pagan Portals Loki: Trickster and Transformer by Dagulf Loptson (publication date 6/1/2020)

*Building a Life Worth Living by Marsha Linehan (publication date 1/7/20)

Books I Already Own:

*The Prose Edda by Snori Sturluson *finished*

*Greenmantle by Charles de Lint (I may have to replace my copy with a different one -- the I ordered was falling apart when it came) *finished*

*Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey *finished*

*Naamah's Curse by Jacqueline Carey *finished*

*Naamah's Blessing by Jacqueline Carey *quit*

*Uprooted by Naomi Novik *quit*

*The Joy of Less by Francine Jay (I think this is the minimalism book I already own)

Books I Don't Own Yet:

*Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire *own and finished*

*In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire *own and finished*

*Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

*The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

*Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith *ow*

*The Complex PTSD Workbook by Arielle Schwartz

*Circe's Cauldron edited by Rebecca Buchanan (maybe)

*Her Hidden Children by Chas S. Clifton

*Triumph of the Moon 2nd edition by Ronald Hutton

*Blood and Mistletoe by Ronald Hutton (maybe)

*The Witch by Ronald Hutton (maybe)

*The Sentimental Person's Guide to Decluttering by Claire Middleton

*A Witch's Book of Silence by Karina Blackheart *own*

*Elements of Magic by Jane Meredith and Gede Parma

*Magic of the Iron Pentacle by Jane Meredith and Gede Parma

*All Acts of Love and Pleasure: Inclusive Wicca by Yvonne Aburrow

*The Jotunbok by Raven Kaldera *own ebook copy*

*Holistic Tarot by Benebell Wen

*Tarot Elements by Melissa Cynova

*They Walk With US by John T. Mainer

*Stranger Skies by Katje Van Loon

*The Fairy Queen of Spencer's Butte and Other Tales by Jolene Dawe

*By Earth by T. Thorn Coyle *own ebook copy*

*A World Full of Gods by John Michael Greer *forgot I own ebook copy*

*Evolutionary Witchcraft by T. Thorn Coyle

*Sacred Gifts: Reciprocity and the Gods by Kirk S. Thomas (maybe) *forgot I own ebook copy*

*Living Between Two Worlds: Challenges of the Modern Witch by Chas. S. Clifton

*Weave the Liminal by Laura Tempest Zakroff

*Sigil Witchery: A Witch's Guide to Crafting Magick Symbols by Laura Tempest Zakroff

*Circle of Eight: Creating Magic for Your Place on Earth by Jane Meredith

*Be Thou My Hearth and Shield edited by Elizabeth Vongvisith

*The Apple Branch: A Path to Celtic Ritual by Alexei Kondratiev

*Horns of Honor by Fredrick Thomas Elworthy

*Feeding the Flame edited by Galina Krasskova

*Honoring Your Ancestors: A Guide to Ancestral Veneration by Mallorie Vaudoise *own audiobook copy*

*Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing by Daniel Foor

*It Didn't Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle by Mark Wolynn

*Queer Magic: Power Beyond Boundaries edited by Lee Harrington and Tai Fenix Kulystin

*Queer Magic: LGBT+ Spirituality and Culture from Around the World by by Tomás Prower

*Hermaphrodeities: The Transgender Spirituality Workbook by Raven Kaldera (own an ebook copy, partially read before)

*Outside the Charmed Circle by Misha Magdalene and Michelle Belanger


Realistically, this list is probably way too long and will need to be whittled down. Additionally, I probably can't afford to buy all the books on it that I don't own yet over the course of a single year, but I'll probably want to keep most of them -- and many libraries are unlikely to have them, anyway. I also might be forgetting some books, and I might decide not to read others. Also, other than the books I listed, I mostly want to try to focus my fantasy reading for a while on books with fictional depictions of Paganisms, pollytheisms, animism, and/or ancestor veneration in them. 


Finally, there is a very small list of authors whose stories I like enough, or have enough of a sentimental attachment to that, when they publish a new book, I'll usually try to buy it and read it as soon as possible. The authors in that category I can think of are: Tamora Pierce, Charles de Lint, Terry Windling, Holly Black, and Billy Martin (Poppy Z. Brite). That said, I'm not always successful in those desires, and I don't expect Billy Martin or Terry Windling to publish any new books any time soon. I'm also way behind on Holly Black books and would like to catch up first, which I probably won't focus on too much next year. And there are still books by almost all of those authors I haven't read -- all if you include books that Windling edited and had short stories in.

I'd like to possibly add a few books on chronic illness, disability, and BPD to this list, too, but not right now.

 This is a list of the books I want to read in 2018, with some caveats:

1. Other than the first five or six books, which are the ones I'm currently reading as I initially type this post, the books are in no particular order. Actually, they are in order -- other than the ones I'm reading now, they are in four stacks, with each stack arranged from larger books at the bottom to smaller books at the top (one of my partners, who is great with visual-spatial stuff, kindly organized them for me, who is...not). So after the books I'm reading, I'll start the list with the books on the top of the stack closest to me, and work my way down and then out. After the initial list is complete, I'll just add any books that I add later onto the bottom of the list.
2. It may take me more than one sitting to type up all the books on the initial list.
3. The initial list is not my complete list. There are so many books that I want to read, that they won't all fit on the stacks, and I'm already pretty intimidated because it's a lot of books and I don't read nearly as fast as I used to, nor are my comprehension and retention great anymore. Just as I'll remove books to add to my list of books I read and possibly to my list of books I quit reading, I'll also add books to the list throughout the year. Most of them will either be books that I already own and are on my agenda to read, but that aren't added to the stack yet, or that were temporarily taken off to make more room and to make me less overwhelmed -- or books that I want to read, that I don't own yet, but that I buy later in the year.
4. I'm only going to list books that I own, that I've borrowed from a library or person, or possibly that I've ordered and that have shipped, but that haven't arrived yet.
5. In an effort to keep myself from getting overwhelmed, exhausted, and frustrated, I'm not going to categorize the books on my to-be-read list. I'm already getting frazzled because so many of the books on my list fit in so many categories and it has been/will be hard to decide how to categorize many of them for my "finished reading" list.
6. For the same reason as number 5, I'm going to list series as one entry, with the name of the "book" being the name of the series, along with the number of books in the series (if I know/remember), unless I have a really good reason not to.
7. For similar reasons, I don''t think I'm going to number the list, even though I might find it helpful later. It's just too daunting of  prospect right now, and numbers give me difficulty, even in numerical order.
8. I'm not going to include audiobooks in this list. I'm usually reading far less audiobooks at a time than I am hard copies. I am also really bad at multi-tasking, so pretty much the only thing I can do at the same time as listening to an audiobook is knit. I do that sometimes, but usually when I'm listening to audiobooks, I'm in really bad shape mentally, emotionally, physically, or some combination of all three. A disproportionate number of my audiobooks are re-reads, And they don't take up any space when they are off the shelves. So for all of those reasons, I'm not usually in any particular hurry to finish audiobooks. I will include them on my "read" list, though, when I finish any that weren't released this year.
9. I'm also not going to include ebooks on this list, though, again, I'll mark down any that I finish on my "read list". The same thing applies as to audiobooks, about them taking up less space. But the main reason is that I don't buy a lot of audiobooks, and when i do, it takes me forever to finish them because I can't look at screens for a very long stretch at a time -- which is probably not what most people would consider a long stretch, though what I can handle does vary somewhat. When I over-do it, I get headaches that often become migraines, extreme nausea, eye pain, disorientation or a "fuzzy brain" feeling, and can even have seizures. It seems to be a genetic thing, as an immediate relative has the same problem. I usually wind up debilitated for anywhere from hours to days. However, I love reading, and sometimes I get caught up in it and lose track (which I sometimes do with a small handful of videogames I really like, too) -- so I usually try my best to avoid the problem entirely, especially because reading a book on a screen takes away from me doing other stuff on screens that can't be done or can't be easily done on paper like reading blog posts and watching television shows and movies. There are exceptions, though -- I do buy audiobooks if it's a book I want that doesn't have a physical or audiobook version. I also sometimes buy audiobooks that are books I really want to read and that are drastically cheaper than the physical copy. If I like them, I usually buy a physical copy, too, and if not, I don't. Kindle and authors also occasionally have promotional free ebooks and if I find out about them and they're fantasy or a subject I'm interested in, I usually download them and, again, if I like them and there is a physical or audiobook copy, I buy that.
10. If I don't get to any of the books, I'll probably add them on to next year's list.
11. Because I'm participating in Novel Knight's Beat the Backlist Challenge for 2018, I'm not including any books I want to read that were released this year on this list. I have a separate blog post with the list of those books on it.

Okay, here we go:

Planescape Torment by Ray and Valerie Vallese
The Earth Path by Starhawk
The Alchemy of Illness by Kay Duff
Unf*uck Your Habitat by Rachel Hoffman
The Mindfulness Solution for Intense Emotions by Cedar R. Coons
Christy by Catherine Marshall
A Pine Barrens Odyssey by Howard P. Boyd
Casting a Queer Circle by Thista Minai
Dahlia Season by Myriam Gurba
Playing With Fire by Dagulf Loptson
Lou Sullivan by Brice D. Smith
On Divination by Galina Krasskova
The Cauldron Cill Brighid Devotional by Cauldron Cill
A Naturalist Along the Jersey Shore by Joanna Burger
Between the Worlds by Sarah Kate Istra Winter
Trans Homo..Gasp! edited by Avi Ben-Zeev
Brilliant Imperfection by Eli Clare
Walt Whitman's America by David S. Reynolds
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce
The Book of the Great Queen by Morpheus Ravenna
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Edgar Allen Poe A Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance by Kenneth Silverman
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
The Inner Sky by Steven Forrest
Paint It Black by Janet Fitch
You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay
Spiritual Protection by Sophie Reicher
Animism Respecting the Living World by Graham Harvey
Kharis by Sarah Kate Istra Winter
Planescape Pages of Pain by Troy Denning
Planescape The Blood War Trilogy by J. Robert King (3 book series)
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
The Poetic Edda translated by Carolyne Larrington
The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturlson
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende
The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King (7 book series)
Facing the Darkness by Cat Treadwell
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson
The Drifters by James Michener