So I started one of these last year and never got through it. Got hung up on some of the stats not adding up, went back trying to find where things were off, got too deep in the weeds until it seemed too late. Now here we are in February 2020 and I’m in danger of the same fate, so this will be a quick and dirty recap.
The big news: I am the 2019 winner! Aw yeah! Shannon is a formidable opponent though. I had a big lead for a while, but she closed out the year with power and would have caught me if I hadn’t kept my game strong all the way to the end.
You wouldn’t think that the guy reading 57 books a year would be the tortoise in a reading race, but I definitely am. I don’t tend to have as big of slumps, but when she gets going…look out. Meanwhile I just try to knock out a book every week. Sometimes two if I’m lucky.
One thing that really helped me was that I got in the habit of going to a coffee shop on Sunday morning and putting in some solid reading time with minimal distractions.
Speaking of which, I’m already way behind. 2020 is not looking like my year. But I will persevere. Even if it means just trying to match or exceed last year’s tally.
A few assorted notes:
Male/female author split: 45 male, 12 female.
Fiction vs non-fiction: 30 fiction, 27 non-fiction
Number of genres covered: 15 (as classified by Shannon)
Number of books classified as Politics: zero, despite being a political science major. (I did read 6 that counted as Social Issues, which can overlap.)
Re-reads: 0
Most books in one genre: 8. This was a tie between “Mystery/Thriller” and “Science Fiction/Speculative fiction/dystopian future.” Perennial favorites that got a solid boosts this year thanks to Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins mysteries and Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries.
My musical reading gives away my fondness for a bit of volume:
- Smash!: Green Day, The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and the ’90s Punk Explosion
- The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock ‘n’ Roll
- Official Truth, 101 Proof: The Inside Story of Pantera
- Bring It On Home: Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin, and Beyond–The Story of Rock’s Greatest Manager
- No Quarter The Three Lives of Jimmy Page
Eye openers (Books that changed my perspective or made me consider new ideas):
- Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia
- An Economist Walks Into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk
- The Unbanking of America: How the New Middle Class Survives
- Moneyland: The Inside Story of the Crooks and Kleptocrats Who Rule the World
- Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties
- Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress
- SprawlBall: A Visual Tour of the New Era of the NBA
- Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy
