Our public libraries remain open for curb-side pick-ups, which I’m grateful for, because many of these projects rely on borrowed materials.
After they’ve been returned, however, the library keeps materials in quarantine for 6-8 days, so they are not removed from a borrower’s record for that length of time, which means I am perpetually hovering near my borrowing limit because I’ve been borrowing in chunks to reduce excursions.
In other words, it makes my library addiction appear to be an even more serious affliction than it is. (A lovely “problem” to have.)
Here and Elsewhere
Throughout 2020, I enjoyed the seemingly random incentive to explore a new place on the page each month, by taking the illustration on my desk calendar as a prompt.
Simmering beneath was a deeper curiosity about how we move between spaces, and how our views of the world are shaped by how we do and do not move, whether we can choose to stay or are compelled to leave.
My “here” is another person’s “elsewhere”. A simple idea that feels impossible. Akin to trying to remember that winter is peaking on the other side of the globe while you are sweltering.
Reading allows us to play with other “heres”, other “elsewheres”. This year I plan to read more about moving between them. (Some of my favourite books on this theme are here.)
Short Stories
Through the year, I read 25 collections of short stories along with some memorable singles in magazines and journals: Winter 2020 | Autumn 2020 | Summer 2020 | Spring 2020. And because I’ve so enjoyed reading through the short stories of Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant, I have some new short story projects in mind. Up first, mid-March, is the work of Alistair MacLeod. That name might not be familiar, even to Canadian readers, but he is recognized as a master of the short story and would be welcomed by anyone who’s appreciated Munro or Gallant, Adichie or Li, Paley or Trevor.
280898 Reasons
Like my Here and Elsewhere reading, books about slavery, historical and contemporary, have appeared regularly in my reading stacks.
My formalizing the effort is partially inspired by the fact that 280,898 people residing in one American state voted, last November, to keep slavery on the books.
In Canada, people like to talk about the Underground Railroad and Freedom, more than slavery. But slavery has endured and the injustices perpetuated by that system have endured. We don’t read about it because it’s more comfortable to pretend that’s not true.
Nonetheless, many writers and poets create narratives and art to reveal the truth: tell me if you have a favourite.
#ReadtheChange
Last year I read about the ocean and about bonobos; I don’t know, yet, which books will fit into this category for me in 2021.
One that’s in my stack now is Nina Lakhani’s Who Killed Berta Cáceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet.
What interests me is how hard some writers are working to confront the kind of change that many of us feel too afraid to even look at.
There’s a note in my calendar for this year, that the five people we spend the most time with influence us more than we know.
So I’m putting some courageous writers/thinkers/doers in my stack, in hopes that they rub off on me.
The Writing Life
Last year I planned to read a longtime shelfsitter, The Habit of Being, a collection of Flannery O’Connor’s letters, and I ended up reading more about Flannery O’Connor than I read about any other single author in 2020.
Now, I’m delving into Langston Hughes. A few years ago I found a copy of The Ways of White Folks at a college library sale (the Trinity sale, well-known and -loved by other Torontonians) and I loved it. Browsing in the North York Central Library branch a couple summers ago, I spotted a trove of letters and biographies. So far, it’s shaping up to be a great project too.
Great reading plans for 2021. I think the highest priority of 2021 for me is getting to some of these backlist books on my shelves and trying to make more of an effort to try books in genres that I love, which aren’t normally suited to my reading tastes.
When things are stressful, I just naturally want more of the same, whatever “the same” is, with TV series and books; but, at the same time, it doesn’t improve my spirits. So I make lists and schedules (and I stick to SOME of them LOL) to make sure I stretch and I definitely had that in mind for 2021. Ironically, I am SO excited about the books in my stack now, that I think it was the right move for me. (But I’m def in a rut with my viewing and not making any move to escape it!)
Great reading plans! I think part of what excites me about 2021 reading, is just to hear the bookish plans others have. I feel like I learn so much from everyone and books I may not have thought of before and now front and center. I do have some reading plans like reading more in Spanish and reading from my stacks. I also have a big plan to catalogue my library again but haven’t even started that. Anyway, looking forward to hearing about where your reading takes you this year!
That’s true: I just love reading about other people’s reading. Writers’ reading plans and readers’ reading plans alike. My French reading is still plodding along but it takes so much effort to read that I usually opt for English instead. Maybe it’s the same for you with Spanish. What if instead of thinking about it as cataloguing your library, you think about cataloging one shelf? Maybe it would be more enjoyable that way, taken in small bits?
Some super reading plans there. I really want to read more diversely this year, while still allowing time for the kinds of books I love best. I love your constant commitment to your library. Glad you are still able to use it.
Whenever one works to change habits, I think there is an awkward time of exploring, where you’re looking for new favourites and there’s a lot of time spent looking and less time finding, but eventually you have more things (stories and storytellers, in this case) to love, and that’s the best feeling.
On your migration theme, Bernadine Evaristo’s Mr Loverman is brilliant on Caribbean families in the UK, and the two The Good Immigrant books are also highly recommended.
Thank you! Like James (above in Laila’s recommendation), she’s become incredibly popular and her backlisted books are harder to access (four copies in a city with 100 library branches!), but I’ll keep trying. And interestingly enough The Good Immigrant books are almost as popular (but I should be able to get them in a couple months’ times).
Thank god for libraries indeed! They are certainly a life-line for many right now, here in Calgary they are still open for curbside pick up too.
Question re: the American state vote you referenced; when you say they voted to keep slavery on the books, what do you mean? Like, people wanted to erase it from history, or the record of it happening?
Having just picked up another chunk, I’m feeling extra lucky. I’ve always loved the library, but the long closure in 2020 highlighted it for me.
No…apparently this isn’t uncommon, for government statutes to have preserved enslavement as an option under specific circumstances, so I didn’t necessarily want to call out this state when it’s happened/ing in other places too. But that link to my project page goes into more detail, and also contains a second link to the statistics from the election results. (And I also recommend the Ava DuVernay doc on NF, 13th, for an understanding of the link between slavery and mass incarceration and disenfranchising a population.) Maybe it’s one of those instances in which it’s simply archaic and nobody actually intends to employ the option, but, if so, then it would be simple to have it removed.
For your migration theme you might like to read Turbulence by David Szalay, linked short stories each named after a particular flight path. A short and enjoyable read.
I just this evening started reading a novel of slavery, The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. I hope it lives up to the hype!
My library system has been very flexible about borrowing limits, hold periods, and fines during the pandemic. I’m often above the technical limit of 15 (though I had accidentally found out that the self-issue machines don’t cut you off until 30), but I also use my husband’s card to double the allotment. Here they only keep things in quarantine for 72 hours.
Janet Frame is looking like my author focus for at least the early months of the year. It’ll take me an age to work through this biography of her, which I’ll supplement with a novel and a volume of selected short stories.
Oh, right, that’s a quintessentially “between” book, isn’t it. I did read it, and so quickly that I’m not sure if I ever posted about it.
I would LOVE to read The Prophets. Everything I’ve read makes it sound like it’d be a great match for my reading taste and particularly for this project. LMK what you think!
I thought that, by this time, they might start rushing it a little, but they’re sticking regimentally with the week-long sequestering. There are no fines collected here either (but I still try to return them “on time”, although that means they get held another week there, even so). And now that you mention it, my holds list has gone about 10 over the “old limit” (?) so maybe they’ve lifted that here, too, and I’d just not noticed. Hmmmm. gleam in eye But I know the check-out limit is the same. coughs
When I went through my Frame phase, I wish I’d read more. I’d always planned to return, but now she’s less available than she once was. (And mostly reference-only here, which doesn’t work these days, of course.) Otherwise, I’d’ve happily joined you.
Marlon James’s Book of Night Women is one of the best books about slavery I’ve ever read – have you read it?
Good luck with all your reading plans!
I haven’t, although I did find A Brief History of Seven Killings last year, which only left me wanting to read all the rest. There is a regular queue of people waiting for his older books, though. I just checked again, and there is an audio version of Night Women available; I have the feeling it’s the kind of book I’d rather read than listen to. Any thoughts on that?
I agree – read rather than listen.
TY. This made me think of the audiobook of James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird, which I loved more as an audiobook than on the page. But that hardly ever happens for me…
What wonderful plans! Have you read Claudia Rankine’s newest book Just Us? It came out in the fall and is all about race and whiteness in a powerful multi-media format. Blew me away. I also recently finished reading The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter and did I ever learn a lot about how the concept of white was constructed to begin with. Looking forward to seeing where your reading takes you in 2021!
What excites me about 2021? Reading the rest of Alistair MacLeod’s short stories with you! Yay!! 🙂
Your other reading also sounds so interesting. I love the idea of putting courageous books in our stacks in the hopes that they rub off!
Have you seen the NFB video (or can you borrow/watch it through the library? I can’t decide whether to watch it again before, or wait ’til after…or both.
So far, it’s all been really good and incredibly interesting. The only complication is that there are already some which I borrowed that I would love to have copies of at home. (Another “nice problem” to have.)
NFB video?
“Reading Alistair MacLeod” 2005 – Maybe your library has a copy?
Oh, yes! Duh. I got that out a year or two ago, I think through ILL.
Hi Stefanie! Didn’t mean to post my comment as a reply to yours! It always seems to happen when I’m on my phone! 🙂
That happens to me on my phone too!
I’m glad to hear that the new Rankine impressed you; I had been surprised to find Citizen so accessible and am now looking forward to the new one even more (coincidentally, I just picked up my hold so I’ll get to it in a week or so). And now I’ve added the Nell Invin Painter to my holds list! It sounds like the kind of book I was looking for last year, when I read David R. Rodiger’s Working Towards Whiteness: How America’s Immigrants Became White (2005; revised for 2018)–it was interesting, too, but with a different focus.
Great plans which I look forward to following. I am very intrigued by Langston Hughes – a writer I need to explore myself!
He’s written so much…really, I had thought it was mostly poetry. (But, then, that often happens once one heads into the stacks, doesn’t it.)
Happy reading!
Thanks, Emma!
I started reading The Habit of Being and got a bit worn out on it, as I have with every collection of letters I’ve attempted, including Langston Hughes’s (his litters have little context, so they get confusing quickly and require several footnotes per letter). I do have a collection of Zora Neale Hurston’s letters that I’m looking forward to and hope that her personality alone will carry me through, even if the letters lack context.
Maybe we just approach the collections differently? I’m not expecting to understand all the details and be able to fit them into a context. Mostly I just enjoy the tone and style and the way information and sentiment are exchanged (how, more than what). Sometimes I don’t even read the end/footnotes, especially if I haven’t read the writer’s work and they’re discussing specifics about revisions (because I want to avoid spoilers), but I just enjoy the sense of being inside their perspective in a more personable (sometimes seemingly more intimate, if it’s a longtime friendship) way. One that I love, though, is the collection of letters between Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman: such passionate and intelligent letters, but also very loving. Maybe you just haven’t found the right match yet?
I’m mostly keeping it down to about 20 books from the library at a time…
Were you unable to get a new calendar, though? I liked the graphics from that calendar as part of the feature.
I’ve liked the Langston Hughes I’ve read–a fair amount of the poetry and Simple stories. Maybe one or two other things.
Let’s see if this comment goes through–I haven’t had any luck commenting here lately.
Yay! It did.
Small victories!
I’m borrowing about 20-24 each time, so that both “sets” can fit on the card simultaneously, and now that they’ve extended the time holds can wait for pick-up, it’s getting easier to manage.
They didn’t produce a calendar this year; I’d bought it at One of a Kind, so I’m guessing that they’ve changed things, now that shows aren’t an option for them, for sales.
The Simple stories are fun., aren’t they? I’d like to add those collections to my shelves, but for now I’m enjoying the library copies.
Fascinating and provocative planning for the year Buried. I look forward to seeing how you approach this year’s Here/Elsewhere theme, but your idea is a good one.
I have read one novel by Alistair McLeod, but a long time ago. I liked it. I didn’t know he was also a short story writer.
I wish I could come up with something as interesting as you have for 2021 but I think my plan is just to survive and read what I can – and, as always, to try to increase my TBR reading (and, thus, my reading older books). I would also like to up the ante re translated fiction. We’ll see. First I have to survive. (No, I’m not meaning I think I’m not going to be here by the end of the year, but that the demands on my life right no are such that I really have not much opportunity for planning anything.)
I’ve recently watched one of Ai Weiwei’s films and have just started to read one of the accompanying books: it’s amazing work.
No Great Mischief. I’ve heard good things, but I think I’ll save it now, for the end of this project. The success of the novel did reignite some interest in his short fiction, but he’s still (like Gallant) only well-known in certain circles.
That’s understandable. Likely wise to not pile on a list of reading responsibilities in your year ahead. Just enjoy what you are able to focus on, when and how that fits for you.
I’m beginning to think that the evidence shows that I am a homebody. Yes I get around for a living but only to places that are the same as each other. And, 3 overseas work trips totalling less than 2 weeks, one European holiday. So I get all my elsewhere from reading, and a lot of it from reading blogs. I’m waiting for Naomi to tell me how Toronto got flooded (in a dystopian novel); I go running around Birmingham (UK); visit bookshops in France; discuss life and politics with Melanie in mid-west USA.
I like the idea of 280898 reasons, that’s more than enough. I try and publicise slavery and Indigenous massacres in my own patch – after nearly two centuries they’re only slowly being acknowledged; I read US anti-racist Lit for the light it shines on similar problems in Australia. I’ve read Tracey Chevalier’s Underground Railroad book, but also the life of abolitionist Sarah Grimke; and Melanie keeps pointing me towards African American classics of which I was previously unaware.
Time now I started on Canada and Canadian Indigenous Lit in particular.
Some people who travel actually inhabit a very small world, but we homebodies can use a bookbag instead of a suitcase (if we’re fortunate to have books and libraries). It is ironic, though, that you are on the road to pay the bills, but stay close to home otherwise. It’s hard to face up to who we are and what we do, and who our ancestors are and what they did, whether directly or complicitly; there are so many more resources in the U.S. but pretending that that’s because “those” problems only exist “over/down there” doesn’t mend the gaps at home, like you’ve said. If you’re interested, I’m planning to reread Thomas King’s An Inconvenient Indian this year, possibly for July; there is an illustrated and annotated edition that’s been released since I first read it. (He lives outside of Toronto now, but he’s lived on both sides of the current border, and the book considers bands/tribes on both sides.)
Pleased to see that you’re continuing with Here and Elsewhere. I’m also interested to see where Read the Change will take you. Happy reading!
I’m pleased too: I just realised, over the weekend, that I’ve added more than a hundred books since December to my library list, with only this theme in mind!