What I Read in 2021

It turns out that this was the eighth year that I’ve kept track of at least the book-reading fraction of my entertainment consumption. It’s a practice I encourage, especially if you can jot down a few notes to yourself about your thoughts afterward (I read most of my nonfiction on my Kindle because of the very handy highlight feature, which helps). A fraction of those highlights typically then find their way into my digital brain archive and some eventually become posts on this very site. That and a new daily note habit are part of my ongoing fight against the forgetting curve.

Prior years here: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014.

1. Atomic Habits by James Clear (re-read this for pandemic new year inspiration)
2. The Math of Life and Death by Kit Yates (I’ve long wished people were generally numerate, especially after reading the book Innumeracy in college. This pandemic has only made that desire stronger.)
3. Derelict by Dean Henegar (This is a sub-subgenre of LitRPG called DungeonCore, where the main character is a sentient dungeon. This wasn’t very good, but the genre itself is sorta weirdly engaging, as if a tower defense game were a novel with lots of internal monologue.)
4. Derelict #2 by Dean Henegar
5. A Promised Land by Barack Obama (Obama is a good writer.)
6. Quit like a Woman by Holly Whitaker (Alcohol culture is pretty toxic.)
7. How I Built This by Guy Raz (origin stories of some modern unicorn companies. Honestly less interesting than I thought it would be.)
8. Weird by Olga Khazan (also much less interesting than I thought it would be.)
9. Exo Hunter by Jeremy Robinson (Everything this guy writes is a fast-paced romp. He has the page-turner plotting down to a science. This is one of the worst but still perfectly enjoyable.)
10. Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang translated by Kevin Liu  (The Dispossessed [a Le Guin class] as if written by twenty-something year Chinese man writing in Mandarin in 20xx.)
11. Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar
12. God’s Eye Awakening by Aleron Kong (new series based on The Land; we’ll see…)
13. On Writers and Writing by Margaret Atwood (meh, as far as writing about writing goes, I much prefer Ursula K Le Guin’s and Stephen King’s entries)
14. Life Reset (#1) by Shemer Kuznits (another LitRPG, yes, but in this one, the main character is a monster, so there)
15. Life Reset: EvP (#2) by Shemer Kuznits
16. Life Reset: Hobnobbing (#3) by Shemer Kuznits
17. Life Reset: Human Resource (#4) by Shemer Kuznits
18. Life Reset: Conquest (#5) by Shemer Kuznits
19. Infinite 2 by Jeremy Robinson (solid, but honestly Infinite [1] was probably better off on its own. That was a seriously fun book.)
20. Range by David Epstein (If you ever feel frustrated that we’re all hamsters spending more and more time learning about less and less, this is the book for you)
21. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein (thought I’d return to the classic)
22. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (super duper enjoyable book. This [not Artemis] is the real spiritual sequel to The Martian.)
23. How to Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens (the most academic of the recent takes on the Zetellkasten system of creating a repository of personal knowledge like those facilitated by recent apps including RoamResearch and Obsidian. It is also very repetitive and dry).
24. World Tree Online (#1) by EA Hooper (enjoyable LitRPG; also nice that it’s a trilogy with an actual ending!)
25. Demon Lord (#2) by EA Hooper
26. World Tree’s End (#3) by EA Hooper
27. Backable by Suneel Gupta (written by the brother of the much more famous Sanjay Gupta; meh; made it into some posts about medicine here and residency interviews here.)
28. Adventures in Opting Out by Cait Flanders (thought this might be fun as a quick sequel to her first book, but it mostly wasn’t)
29. The Emergency Mind by Dan Dworkis MD PhD (A book of mental models for decision making in high-stress situations [e.g. an emergency department]. Dan was actually the older brother of a close friend growing up. Super smart dude. Brief post here.)
30. Israel by Noa Tishby (a very accessible whirlwind tour)
31. Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell (It’s refreshing how willing Gladwell is to take the flip side of the coin he popularized in Blink. Brief post here.)
32. Andrea Vernon and the Superhero Industrial Complex (#2) by Alexander C. Kane (not as good as the original)
33. Vanishing Fleece by Clara Parkes (a story about modern American textiles; I find these types of memoir-ish deep dives to be oddly interesting. I knew nothing about yarn–until now.)
34. The Practice by Seth Godin (truly half-baked)
35. Ascension (The Beginning After the End #8) by TurtleMe
36. Metropolitan by Walter Jon Williams (The world-building and characters in this book are extremely vivid.)
37. City on Fire (#2 of 2) by Walter Jon Williams
38. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (This is one of those books that became extremely popular. I get why given the world we live in, but ultimately perhaps too tidy, dry, and predictable.)
39. The Mayor of Noobtown by Ryan Rimmel
40. The Village of Noobtown (Noobtown #2) by Ryan Rimmel
41. Castle of the Noobs (Noobtown #3) by Ryan Rimmel
42. Dungeons and Noobs (Noobtown #4) by Ryan Rimmel
43. Noon Game Plus (Noobtown #5) by Ryan Rimmel
44. The Blade Itself (First Law #1) by Joe Abercrombie (often held up as the best example of Grimdark Fantasy. This was really, really good in addition to being brutal.)
45. Before They Are Hanged (First Law #2) by Joe Abercrombie
46. The Last Argument of Kings (First Law #3) by Joe Abercrombie
47. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy #1) by NK Jemisin (I’m still not sure how I feel about this series.)
48. The Broken Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy #2) by NK Jemisin
49. The Kingdom of Gods (The Inheritance Trilogy #3) by NK Jemisin
50. The Awakened Kingdom (The Inheritance “Trilogy” #4) by NK Jemisin
51. Mirrorworld by Jeremy Robinson
52. Red Shirts by John Scalzi (Hugo Award winner; such a great sci-fi subversion; breaks the fourth wall and then beyond)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (a novel set primarily in the golden age of comics. Won the Pulitzer Prize and has been on my shelf to read for a decade. Truly excellent. Chabon is a master.)
54. Shadeslinger (Ripple System #1) by Kyle Kirrin (I think this is really the last new LitRPG series I expose myself to for a while. All of these LitRPG series are essentially examples of a subgenre called Progression Fantasy, essentially stories focused on character growth like the shonen-style of anime that’s been popular for the past 30 or so years, and–in that way–they’re addictive and soothing at the same time, a balm for the mind in these troubled times.)
55. Life Reset: Salvation (#6) by Shemer Kuznits (another series concluded!)
56. The Hospital by Brian Alexander (a depressing tale of modern healthcare and small-town decline through the lens of a midwestern community hospital. Brief post here.)
57. Everyday Vitality by Samantha Boardman
58. What Happened to You? By Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D Perry MD Phd
59. Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey (some interesting stories but almost painfully self-indulgent)
60. Taste by Stanley Tucci (warning: will make you desperately want really good Italian food)
61. Keep Sharp by Sanjay Gupta (synopsis: exercise, eat right, and don’t retire)
62. Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson (Skyward #3)
63. Will by Will Smith (even more interesting stories but even more self-indulgent)
64. Black Sand Baron by Kyle Kirrin (Ripple System #2)
65. The End of Craving by Mark Schatzker (I really found The Dorito Effect interesting as a look at modern food science, the flavorings industry, etc. I honestly don’t have the background to evaluate the claims this book makes about food additives. Could all be raving pseudoscience for all I know. I can at least recommend his first book. But clearly, in the words of Michael Pollan, “eat [real] food, not too much, mostly plants” would be better for all of us.)
66. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab (This was enjoyable, with echoes of The Time Traveler’s Wife. I preferred the Shades of Magic, but VE Schwab is a solid writer.)
67. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (though this is supposed to be a moving memoir about acculturation, assimilation, family, food, and loss, it mostly made me want to head to our local H Mart to re-stock my freezer and pantry because it’s been a while.)

I didn’t do a very good job keeping track of what I read to my son, but here are some of the chapter books and graphic novels:

1. We eventually finished the 27-volume Magic Treehouse series and read the first five or so of the sequel Merlin Missions.
2. Yeti Files by Kevin Sherry
3. Cat Kid Comic Club by Dav Pilkey
4. Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories by Jeff Kinney
5. The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis (I would really like to continue reading Narnia with him, but he’s more interested in Pokemon and Lego at the moment…)
6. The Forbidden Power (Lego Nexo Knights: Knights Academy #1) by Max Brallier (honestly far better than it deserved to be)
7. Glitch by Sarah Graley
8. The first two volumes in this Pokemon novelization box set, which we are enjoying, um, asymmetrically.