Let Me Explain...

An introduction to this reading project

Hi Y’all! Glad you’re here—

I’m starting this newsletter because I want to embark on a new project and needed more space than an Instagram post. Starting in January of 2022, I plan to read every book ever longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction. It’s a goal I’ve had for almost a decade—starting back to when I thought reading award-winning books made you smarter and more cultured—and while my reason for pursuing this goal has changed, it’s something I’m just as passionate about ten years later. I’ve spent the last few years sharing all of my bookish thoughts with you lovely people on the internet, and it seems only right to take you all on this journey with me now.

There’ll be a free newsletter sent out at the end of every month with a brief wrap-up of everything I’ve read, a few bookish thoughts that are on my mind, and what I plan to read the following month. For anyone interested, I’ll have a paid newsletter starting in 2022 that will be weekly—posted every Friday—and will include in-depth reviews of the National Book Award books I’ve read that week, whether or not they hold up, what those books say about the year they were published, and why they might have been chosen. It’ll also be how I connected with the books personally, what was happening in my life as I read them, and how that could impact my own personal reception of the books. The best way I can describe my approach is something along the lines of Amy Adams in Julie & Julia, except I won’t be crying into French cuisine, only the pulp of trees.

If any of this sounds of interest to you, I hope you’ll follow along. Maybe you’ll even join me, if you think it sounds fun. The first post goes out on Friday, so stay tuned!

Until then,

Hunter <3.