“The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.”
The ticking over of a new year may be a contrived fresh start, but it’s obvious that many of us feel a sense of a fresh slate, that our past inadequacies have been wiped clean and that we’re now able to move forward to a brighter future without even having to atone for the mistakes of the past. We’ll be healthier, more productive—somehow just better—because we can drop all that messy baggage at the foot of 2016 and climb into a crisp, pure 2017.
At the end of each year, we tally what we’ve spent our days reading, what we missed out on, what we didn’t jam in and what we’re still dying to dive into. We look for a shape for the next reading year so that the latest new thing doesn’t simply pull us along (though that’s fun, too, of course) or comfort ourselves by what we already know.
Our collective reading resolutions include crossing more borders and milling between more genres, reading more nonfiction and poetry, taking more chances on debut novels, reading books we already have on the shelves.
With that last resolution in mind—and with the excitement of children on Christmas morning—we’ve made stacks of those we’re vowing to enjoy this year. The only thing more fun than choosing our own treats has been looking longingly and with delicious jealousy at the stacks of our friends. In that spirit (and with the hope that you’ll share your own), we’re inviting you to browse our 2017 reading lists, in stack form.
Kevin Rabalais, Reading list 2017.
Adult books to read in 2017, Rebecca Hutcheson.
Children's books to read in 2017, Rebecca Hutcheson, children's book specialist.
Books to read in 2017, Daniel Stephensen, writer and contributing editor of Sacred Trespasses.
Books to read in 2017, Jennifer Levasseur.
Books to read 2017, Luke Terbutt, proprietor of Alice's Bookshop.