I finished reading 122 books in 2025

Many of them short. Many more yet in progress.

View the whole list at https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2025/7975528.

Books I Finished Reading in 2024

According to Goodreads, I read 120 books in 2024. I actually read more if you count a handful that are not yet published and therefore not listed on Goodreads. And then there are the largely and barely read books, the ones I'm still in the middle of.

For the full list of the books I finished reading in 2024, click here.

Lost Only $102.38

The pandemic has been very tough on indie authors and small press publishers. In my case, running Crisis Chronicles Press in addition to buying and selling my own books (both those I've written and the used ones I buy cheap and sell online), with almost all of my paid gigs and book fair/reading events for this year cancelled, I'm lucky it hasn't been worse. This week, I did the math. From 1/1 through 11/11 of 2020, the "business" (I use that word very loosely) has lost only $102.38. Thank goodness for faithful poetry lovers, buyers and donors. It can't happen without you.

If you wanna help us break even (always a goal), we still have books to buy.

View the whole Crisis Chronicles Press catalog here. Email me at jc@crisischronicles.com for bulk deals. You can find a Donate button in the right sidebar of this blog. You can also follow us on Facebook or rate/review our books at Goodreads. Every jot and tittle of support is greatly appreciated.

I Misc You Again

Here are a few of the things I wanted to blog about in recent months but never did.

I have poems forthcoming in three places:
Pudding Magazine: The Journal of Applied Poetry #67
Missouri is a Ghost-Shaped Thing: Gasconade Review 2
BEAT-itude: National Beat Poetry Festival 10-Year Anthology

On April 2nd, Marcia Epstein interviewed me for her Talk with ME podcast.

In May, I was interviewed on video for Sundress Publications' CookBook project.

My poem "Unfounded" was a finalist (3rd place) in Goodreads' June 2018 poetry contest.

There are new reviews of my 2018 chapbook Loss and Foundering [Nightballet Press] here and here.

And Diane Kendig recently wrote a clerihew about me.

More soon, including a video clip from my performance at the National Beat Poetry Festival on June 2nd in New Hartford, Connecticut.  Stay tuned....

I'm giving away 4 of our recent Crisis Chronicles Press titles at Goodreads

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Special Watch

by Richard M. O'Donnell

Giveaway ends March 31, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Goodreads Book Giveaway

xx poems

by Jennifer MacBain-Stephens

Giveaway ends March 31, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Fractured Fairy Tales

by William Merricle

Giveaway ends March 31, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Goodreads Book Giveaway

When You Don't Know Who You Are

by Alinda Dickinson Wasner

Giveaway ends March 31, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

54 in progress

I know I'm always in the middle of reading several books at once. But after counting them this morning, I'm surprised it's so many: 54 books in progress.

Click here to see what they are.  (I'll probably finish one of them today.)

Eight books I read in March 2015

Okay, so it's fewer than I read in January (12) or February (19).  But I read seven of these eight during the first 14 days of the month. Then I decided to read a couple longer books that took more time.  They're not on this list because I haven't finished them yet (probably will in April).  Also, you'll note that three of the eight books I finished reading in March are books I published.  I've read those more than once since they were submitted, as you might imagine.  But I don't count books I publish as officially read until they're officially a book (i.e. published), when I do my final read through.

Without further ado, here are March's eight:

Cutting the Möbius by Jonathan Thorn [2015, Crisis Chronicles Press]
The Green World by Andy Roberts [2014, NightBallet Press]
Lipsmack! A Sampler Platter of Poets from NBP Year Two 2013 [2013, NightBallet Press]
Literary Sexts: A Collection of Short & Sexy Love Poems, Volume 1 [2014, Words Dance Publishing]
On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt [2005, Princeton University Press]
Thunderclap Amen by Dianne Borsenik [2015, Crisis Chronicles Press]
I Left My Wings on a Chair by Karen Schubert [2014, Kent State University Press]
Bookmobile: From the Library of Jesus Crisis by David S. Pointer [2015, Crisis Chronicles Press]

https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/2067883

Nineteen books I read in February 2015

The silver lining to having to spend so much time in doctors' offices and the hospital with loved ones this past month is that I was able to knock a few books off my ever growing to-read pile.  The silver lining's silver lining is that most of these were pretty darn good.

Mutant Neuron Codex Swarm by Juliet Cook & Robert Cole [2015, Hyacinth Girl Press]
The Paris Notebooks by R.A. Washington [2015, NightBallet Press]
Captain Head by Dustin Holland [2013, Kleft Jaw Press]
Personal Myths by Howie Good [2012, Writing Knights Press]
Android by Lek Borja [2011, Plan B Press]
The Slop of Giving In, The Melt of Letting Go by Nikki Robinson [2009, P2B Press]
So Damn Sure of Us by Bree [2015, NightBallet Press]
Fortune Cookie by Dianne Borsenik [2012, Kattywompus Press]
The Ides of March: An Anthology of Ohio Poets edited by Hannah Stephenson [2013, Columbus Creative Cooperative]
dueling poets / poets dueling by Russell Vidrick & Jim Lang [2014 reprint, Jim Lang]
Disturbing the Peace by Erren Giraud Kelly [2012, NightBallet Press]
Selected Regions of the Moon by J.E. Stanley [2013, NightBallet Press]
Hurricane Mouth by Amanda Oaks [2014, NightBallet Press]
Prayerbook Bouquet by Zach Fishel [2013, NightBallet Press]
Poems for Explosion by John G. Hall [2015, Crisis Chronicles Press]
Hotel Room by Bradley K. Meyer [2013, Vostok East]
Meditations: a suite for John Coltrane by John Sinclair [1967, Artists' Workshop Press]
congregations by David Highsmith [2009, Plan B Press]
Jerry in the Bardo by Tsaurah Litzky [2014, NightBallet Press]

https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/2067883

The 61 books I read in 2014

56 were poetry or mostly poetry.
Most were under 100 pages and published by small presses.
12 were books I published via Crisis Chronicles Press.

Click here to see the full list at Goodreads.

I'm aiming to read 100 in 2015.