Some things are ending for me, some things are beginning, and some have just rolled over into this new year without any disconnect.

I have half of being 44 behind me, and half ahead of me (today’s my half-birthday). So today is a day right in the middle, a day to talk about what is behind and what is ahead.

In 2023, based on the list I made as the year progressed, I read 45 books, plus 4 books of poetry. As I’ve done for the last few years, I made another list at the end of that list of my five favorite books of the year.

And of course, I made a list of the books I plan to read in 2024.

1. Lost & Found - Kathryn Schulz

2. On Writing - CS Lewis

3. Savor - Fatima Ali

4. The Art of Memoir - Mary Karr

5. The Private Life of Spies - Alexander McCall Smith

6. Unusual Uses for Olive Oil - Alexander McCall Smith

7. Your Inner Hedgehog - Alexander McCall Smith

8. The Indigo Girl - Natasha Boyd

9. The Marriage Portrait - Maggie O’Farrell

10. Somehow - Anne Lamott

11. Sparrow - Jan Richardson

12. The Shepherd’s Life - James Rebanks

13. Mystery & Manners - Flannery O’Connor

14. The Gifts of Imperfection - Brené Brown

15. Bittersweet - Susan Cain

16. Under Magnolia - Frances Mayes

17. Bonhoeffer - Eric Metaxas

Seventeen is a good number to start with. I made a short list of poetry books I’d like to read as well:

1. What Kind of Woman - Kate Baer

2. Living Things - Anne Porter

3. Mules of Love - Ellen Bass

4. Something by Richard Jones

Some other books I’m thinking about reading but haven’t committed to the book queue yet are: Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri, Better Days by Neal Allen, Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, and several books by Marisa de los Santos.

As is me, to make things count, I counted things. Tallies of Tandem and deer and waterskiing were fun records to keep.

I skied 106 times last year, and those 83 times at Tandem were with 41 different friends, not counting my immediate family (I went with some combination of my family ten times).

I wrote down all my running and walking times for the year, but I won’t bore you with any of that data.

I wrote 98 letters (the kind you send in the mail).

Strangely, I can’t find where I wrote the exact number of shark teeth I found, but if memory can be trusted, I found around 380 when we went to the beach in July.

I made a list of all the Kathryn / Katherine / Catherine / and Cathryns in my life (IYKYK).

I did not count how many omelets I made or how many butternut squash I roasted, but those are two numbers I wish I knew.

I also did not count how many figs I picked, but blueberries, yes!

Apple Music counted for me how much Taylor Swift I listened to:

We had people over 35 times for dinner in 2023. TJ probably doesn’t want to know how many times he took kids tubing. I could also tell you (by you, I mean me) what I cooked all 35 times. I like to serve new meals to old friends and old meals to new friends.

I am not nostalgic. Case in point: I’m in my seventh year of writing in a five-year journal (so yes, I had to buy a new one). Each night before bed when I write that day’s entry, I look back and see what I did in previous years on that same date, but I never have a feeling of wanting to go back in time to relive a day from the past. (The only exceptions are my 40th birthday party and the Taylor Swift concert this past April.) But for some reason, I think it’s very fun and interesting to collect various data of my choosing and to reflect on it once the year is done.

I wish I knew data like this on my friends too but I don’t think any of them count deer or care about waterskiing. I wonder what their tally marks would reflect. What did they read? What did they eat? What did they listen to? What did they pick or write or lose or find? I’ll meet you at Tandem and you can tell me if you want to!

[To be continued in Part 2 soon]