Why I Tracked Every Book I Read in 2017

This year, I decided to track all of the books I read to see what was making it’s way into my mind. As part of my year of devotion and paying more attention to where I spend my mental energy, I kept a running list of all of the books I read. I also tracked the order I read the books, as well as a short summary of each on my website. Today, I want to talk about what I learned by doing this, the best books I read this year, and then I’ll share the complete book list of all of the books I read at the bottom. 

My goals were to

• Read 34 books in 2017.
• Read more books by women and by people of color, specifically at least 50% and 25%, respectively. 
• Write a short summary for each book I read.

Why I tracked the books I read

The act of tracking what I consumed each month gave me data about what I was reading, as well as what I was remembering. Some books I wanted to read for enjoyment, in the moment. Other books I wanted to be able to recall and articulate, and add them to my self-learning. I also wanted to make sure that I was reading a wide variety of sources, and not just reading one point of view. I dig deeper into this in my annual report, if you’re curious, and I’ll continue to track what I’m reading in 2018.

What changed when I started tracking my reading list

Perhaps the most notable change from 2016 to 2017 was that I began finishing books again. For a while, I was only reading a few chapters from a book before I’d move to another book, getting distracted, and reading a half-dozen books at a time. The biggest habit shift that focused my attention was two-fold: first, by deciding to track the books I read, it became a priority to finish books.

Second, I took several social media sabbaticals. During the month of July, when I took a month away from social media, I read more books than I’d read in entire years past. Our attention is going somewhere, and often we’re not aware just how much time reading the news (and newsfeeds) takes up. I’m no longer advocating for getting rid of social media entirely, but for me, the antidote is taking prolonged, repeated, deep time away. Because of my experimentation around social media, and taking nearly two full months without access to social, I ended up reading far more books than I expected.

The stats: 53 books

• Total number of authors: 58
• Total number of books: 53
• Women authors: 39 (67%)
• POC authors: 14 (24%)

Note: in some cases books were by multiple authors, and so I calculated the total reading diversity by the number of authors, not the number of books. 

Overall reading recommendations

The top three stand-out books of the year for me were Between The World And Me, A Uterus Is A Feature Not A Bug, and When Breath Becomes Air.

Captivate and Braving the Wilderness gave me new ways to show up in the world in my behavior and conversations. Simple Matters kept me focused on keeping my house spiritually and physically peaceful. And for the second time, The Artist’s Way led me through a 12-week writing journey.

Deep Work, Essentialism, and The ONE Thing were deeply influential in how I thought about my work and my habits, although the major drawback for me was how many of the references and anecdotes were linked to other male authors. Deep Work, for example, had fewer than five percent female authors or references, which, given my new focus on reading more books by women, lends me to wonder if the research truly applies to me, or if it’s missing part of a bigger picture.

Books that changed my understanding of the world: Roots, for continuing to teach me about our history of slavery and colonialism; The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian look at what our world could quickly become; and The New Better Off, a reframing of what we might understand as The American Dream.

The parenting books that inspired in more than just how I show up as a parent, but how important children are in our lives and the importance of their psychological development were Montessori: A Modern Approach, which made me rethink how much adults need children, How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen, which could also be a management book, and Nurture Shock, a book I describe as “Freakonomics for parenting.”

Eminently practical books were The Coaching Habit (I reference the questions all the time), and The Fifth Trimester (a book I send to almost every new parent I meet).

Now let’s get into the complete list of books I read.