A year ago I made a resolution to read more. I succeeded. I completed thirty-eight books in 2019, twelve more than in the previous year. Looking back on what I read last year, the most pleasing thing was the exceptionally high quality of pretty much every book I chose. There was only one outright dud, The Flight Portfolio (which I abandoned early on). Everything else was a delight to read.

Just as in previous years, I read more fiction than non-fiction in 2019, but not overwhelmingly so. The fourteen non-fiction titles I finished included my “book of the year”, Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe. I read a lot about art and that surprises me because it wasn’t a particular intention of mine at the beginning of the year. It just happened somehow.

I read and occasionally re-read some wonderful novels. Hold my feet to the flames and force me to choose my favorite story of 2019 and I’ll probably go for Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley,  but Sarah Moss’s Ghost Wall, A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr, and Reunion by Fred Uhlman were other highlights of the year.

Looking at the pile of books waiting to be read, 2020, or the next few months in any case, is shaping up to be much like 2019. I can’t wait to get started.