10 Books Down, ?? to Go

I remember how momentous it felt to turn ten. Double digits. To be clear, you’re still very much an infant at ten, but I felt like I was truly growing up, without all the responsibility and strife ages like 13, 16, 18, or 21 bring.

Ten is a good, round number. It feels strong and significant. So that’s why I wanted to make note of an accomplishment for the Moratorium Library: As of the evening of Thursday, July 14, 2022, I’ve read ten books from the Library.

There haven’t yet been any five-star reads. But at least there haven’t been any one-star reads, either. Only two nonfiction titles so far, on wildly different topics. The first three books all had one-word titles. Four of the ten have been three-star reads, which makes me feel like I’m being a little too wishy-washy. Maybe I’ll get more mercenary with the next ten——love or hate, no in-between. At least two of these books, I’m looking at them now and wondering why I gave them the rating I did (but I’ll never tell which ones I’m second-guessing).

I look at my crowded shelves and ten books feels like a drop in the bucket. But it feels better when you stack them up or look at them in a list. Ten books! Hundreds of thousands of words, written by so many different people. Real stories and imagined ones. Liked or disliked, each of these books is an important part of the journey, and they now each have a space reserved in my heart and mind.

Ten books down (and I’ll list them for you below). But there are many months left until we hit the one-year mark, and many books still waiting. So here’s to ten more, and then another ten, if I’m lucky.

The First Ten Books of the Moratorium Library

1. Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson ★★★☆☆

2. Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde ★★★★☆

3. Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld ★★☆☆☆

4. Unnatural Causes by P.D. James ★★★★☆

5. Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen by Alix Kates Shulman ★★☆☆☆

6. Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell ★★★☆☆

7. Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid ★★★☆☆

8. The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler ★★★★☆

9. Devil House by John Darnielle ★★☆☆☆

10. Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson ★★★☆☆