Books Read in 2020
I think the last four blog posts on this site have been about books I have read in a given year. I’m not sure. I kinda hit “create” without giving it too much thought, intending to paste in the list of books I read this year, hit “save draft” and worry about finishing later. I’ve done this frequently in 2020–get halfway through something and abandon it–and I’ll try not to beat myself up too much about it, but I really don’t blame the pandemic for this lack of focus and completion.
I skip around quite a bit with my reading. You’ll notice I’ve read a lot of James Baldwin, Lee Child, and Ali Smith, which is a peculiar trifecta. Also, lots of baseball books, which is my go-to reading right before I fall asleep at night. It’s hours before midnight, and I’m pooped, so I don’t have a lot of coherent thoughts on this last at the moment, but perhaps over the long weekend, I’ll add more to this. Or not. We’ll see.
Anyway, here is the list:
Another Country by James Baldwin
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell
Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America by Christopher Leonard
Jay-Z: Made in America by Michael Eric Dyson
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
Autumn by Ali Smith
Winter by Ali Smith
Spring by Ali Smith
Summer by Ali Smith
Chances Are by Richard Russo
No Name in the Street by James Baldwin
Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding by Bobby Duffy
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas
Adult Teeth by Jeremy T. Wilson
Smart Baseball by Keith Law
A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher
How to Walk on Water and Other Stories by Rachel Swearingen
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
We Inherit What the Fires Left: Poems by William Evans
The Vexations by Caitlin Horrocks
Baseball Meat Market: The Stories Behind the Best and Worst Trades in History by Shawn Krest
The Cactus League by Emily Nemens
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration Paperback by Isabel Wilkerson
Slade House by David Mitchell
Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business by Paul Jarvis
A Short Move by Katherine Hill
Killing Floor by Lee Child
Severance by Ling Ma
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
No Middle Name: The Collected Jack Reacher Stories by Lee Child
Lot by Bryan Washington
The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
Personal by Lee Child
Summer of ’49 by David Halberstam
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife by Brad Balukjian
You Might Also Like: Taste in an Age of Endless Choice by Tom Vanderbilt
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs by Caroline Knapp
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty by Jeff Pearlman
Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land
Split Season: 1981: Fernandomania, the Bronx Zoo, and the Strikes that Saved Baseball by Jeff Katz
The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism by Howard Bryant
Summer by Ali Smith
Like Love by Michele Morano
The Big Three: Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and the Rebirth of the Boston Celtics by Michael Holley
Why We’re Polarized by Ezra Klein
There are also of course the books I didn’t finish, which I never include on this list, or the books that I partially read. There are also the hundreds–probably well over a thousand, maybe two, I honestly don’t know–individual pieces I read for Story, which should count for something but I’m not sure what. In addition, I get the Sunday Times, the New Yorker, and six to eight literary magazines as well, so there has been plenty of reading this year, even if (and this makes no sense) 48 books feels like a disappointing figure.
I’ve been tracking the books I’ve finished since 2009, however, and 48 books are actually right about normal. Off the top of my head, I’ve been as low as 27 and high as 62, but I don’t think the best way to determine a good reading year is the sheer number of books read to completion. I do find it interesting to look back and see how I have navigated from one title to the next, but I imagine going through this for you would be awfully tiresome and not that interesting.
Every year, I wish I read more, and I wish I had specific books that I have not yet gotten to, but hopefully will. Tonight, I’m reading Jazz by Toni Morrison, and I have sixty pages to go. Just maybe it’ll be the last book I read in 2020. More likely, it’ll be the first book I finish in 2021.