This Year 365 songs: update

 In a development that isn't entirely surprising to me, I had a few stumbles for daily updating part of the project, and then fell off of daily reading/posting pretty much entirely.

This is not an unfamiliar pattern for me (I do well with structure, but if the structure is too rigid, and I have enough misses, my brain just shuts off of wanting to follow the structure even a little bit).

The real barrier was posting, for me, because I often felt like I didn't have anything to say, which made some of the posts a chore, rather than just.a part of the routine. I'm planning to catch back up soon, and then continue reading the book day by day, but probably won't be posting about it (or at least, not in a daily post type of way).

Reading Updates

 Having an app for tracking my reading is nice, because I would 100% forget things if I were just listing based on my memory.

My 2026 reading thus far is about to hit the goal that I set for the year (24 books).  This is in part because the goal was somewhat modest, but mostly because pressure to read libby ebooks before they have to be returned and the use of the reading tracking app conspired to substantially increase how much I am reading.

Here's what I've read this year:

January:

1. Piranesi (Susanna Clarke) reread
2. The Loop (Jeremy Robert Johnson)
3. Ship of Fools (Richard Paul Russo)
4. Far from the Light of Heaven (Tade Thompson)
5. The Last Astronaut (David Wellington)
6. The Keeper (Sarah Langan)
7. Mysterium (Robert Charles Wilson)
8. The Deep Sky (Yume Kitasei)
9. As The Earth Dreams (Terese Mason Pierre, ed.)
10. The Surviving Sky (Kritika H. Rao)

February:

1. I'm Glad My Mom Died (Jennette McCurdy)
2. Semiosis (Sue Burke)
3. Seven Taoist Masters (Eva Wong, trans)
4. The Stardust Grail (Yume Kitasei)

March:

1. Moonbound (Robin Sloan)
2. Shroud (Adrian Tchaikovsky)
3. I Who Have Never Known Men (Jacqueline Harpman)
4. Light From Uncommon Stars (Ryka Aoki)
5. Roadside Picnic (Arkady & Boris Strugatsky)
6. There is no Antimemetics Division (qntm)
7. The Neverending Story (Michael Ende)

Of these, the ones that stick with me the most are: Piranesi, Ship of Fools, Shroud, I Who Have Never Known Men, Roadside Picnic, and There Is No Antimemetics Division.  You may notice a sort of theme in the things that I respond to.

The ones that stuck with me the most in a not quite so complimentary way are Light From Uncommon Stars and Mysterium. Uncommon Stars was just too busy and, to steal an observation from ambyr , unconcerned with morality. Mysterium I posted about previously, but it was such a waste of a great premise.

Anyway, if you can think of books that seem like they'd be right up my alley, based on that reading list, please do recommend in the comments.