Much as I love #MustRead lists and much as I love the #MustRead community, I told myself I was going to sit 2017 out. After all, I have a dismal record when it comes to actually reading the books on my annual #MustRead lists. I think it has something to do with my resistance to all assigned reading–including reading I assign myself. This is a serious and inconvenient character flaw in an English professor (though I have a workaround in the two literature courses I teach most frequently: reading workshop! Everyone chooses his or her own reading material, and believe me, we are all much happier and read exponentially more as a result.)
But then I started reading other people’s lists, and there were so many books that I, too, want to read in 2017. And I realized something about my reading life: it’s all about community. So many of the wonderful books I read each year are first blogged about by my favorite teacher bloggers. And so I hatched another workaround: what about a #MustReadin2017 list made up entirely of books on other people’s lists? Would it be possible to find at least one book on each list that I could (theoretically) commit to reading in 2017? Yes! And in some cases, I wanted to copy entire #MustRead lists: literally every book on the list is on my TBR list too. But I limited myself to just one book from each list, keeping in mind my larger reading goals of diversity of format, genre, and point of view.
My crowdsourced #MustReadin2017 list of 20 titles, with many thanks to the #MustRead community and to Carrie Gelson, for hosting and organizing:
the dirigible plum 
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