reader: Bailey Vandiver
Today I finished reading my 200th book of 2025.
I have never before reached 200 books in a year; my previous record, from 2024, was 178.
There is plenty of discourse about whether the number of books read matters. I believe a book holds great value whether it’s one of one or one of one thousand. But I do love to keep track of my books, not least because it helps me remember what I’ve read and what I thought of a book at a certain point in time. As a longtime diarist, I consider my book lists to be a sort of journal.
With my “one wild and precious life,” I want to read as many books as I can. Reading is my favorite thing to do, and there will always be more books that deserve to be read. That’s the primary reason I am excited each time I finish a book.
You can think me tacky, but I do get excited by the numbers — like when I read 24 books in one month (January 2025) or know I’m going to blow the previous year’s total out of the water (we still have 1.5 months in 2025). I’m competitive with myself — I want to beat the Bailey of last month and last year and (I’ve been keeping track since 2017) last decade. My prize: more reading, as a better reader.
I’ve said before that reading is one of my greatest loves, and it is undoubtedly the longest lasting. This week, I was lucky enough to use my reading as an expression of and for love.
My friends Arden and Rick — we all met at the Kentucky Kernel as University of Kentucky students — got married this past Friday in a gorgeous celebration. A little over a month ago, Arden asked if I would read something during her wedding ceremony. Honored, I said of course.
Arden asked me to choose what to read, which was an exciting and daunting task. I read books of poetry, asked former Kentucky poet laureate Silas House for recommendations, and scoured Kernel archives — eventually curating a collection of readings that I thought fit Rick and Arden’s love story.
Shortly before the ceremony started, I saw the printed program. I didn’t know I would be included and was touched that I was — and I was even more pleased at how perfectly it described me.
After the parents and flower girl and officiant, I was listed as “reader.”
Perhaps it’s fitting that this is a short newsletter, since I’m feeling more like a reader than a writer today. But I did write two stories published this week, if you’re interested in reading: