Ambling Along the Aqueduct: The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2022

Our annual Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening series will begin tomorrow. 2022, that is to say, is nearly over. For me, it went by fast. In some ways, I experienced it as more of the same as the previous year. COVID19 is still here, extremities in weather continue to ramp up, the line between politics and ethics has become even more blurred, and the right-wing's war on women an the non-cisgendered has inflicted significant damage with a promise of even worse to come. & yet, the struggle continues, especially in our youngest generations, and I'm hopeful for the changes I'm seeing in the way we're thinking about the world.

As a writer, critic, and publisher, I'm dismayed that so many people I know tell me they don't have what it takes to read novels any longer--even when they themselves are continuing to write them. Still, our aesthetic pleasures can take many forms, whether stimulating or comforting, and continue to nourish our moral imaginations. For me, this is always a reason for hope, however thoroughly entangled with our neoliberal economy they may be.

This series in past years has shown, repeatedly, that reading, viewing, and listening pleasures vary widely. (Another reason for hope!) I'm pleased to announce that this blog's annual series of posts on reading, viewing, and listening is about to begin. Once again I've solicited pieces from a bevy of writers and critics to tell us what they particularly enjoyed reading, viewing, and listening to in the last year. This year's edition will include posts by Eleanor Arnason, Andrea Hairston, Lisa Tuttle, Christopher Brown, Nisi Shawl, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Cheryl Morgan, and others. As usual, I'll be adding links below as I upload each new contribution, to provide a list for convenient reference.

I hope you'll enjoy reading these as much as I have, and that they'll swell the presumably always growing list of titles you want to read. Sometimes it seems that the volume of books published is so tremendous that it's no surprise that really wonderful work often slips below one's personal radar.

3. Xian Mao

6. Suzy McKee Charnas

7. Elizabeth Clark-Stern

8. Tansy Rayner Roberts

9. Lisa Tuttle

10. Gwynne Garfinkle

11. Lesley Wheeler

12. Holly Wade Matter