Reading 2020

2020 saw me add 2 works of fiction to my incredibly impressive list. Still, I’m proud of myself for no reason other than doubling my 2019 total. Seriously: I’ve read a grand total of ~10 novels since reading has not been required for a class. Considering that this makes for a fiction/non ratio of ~0.0083, it really is pathetic. I’m trying though, OK? If one includes The Communist Manifesto in the fantasy/fiction total, which I re-read every few years, it was 3. So there.

Anyway, my total count of 40.175 books for 2020 was 1.35 more than 2019 but 237 fewer pages. Avg 2020 page count was 316 vs 338. None of this approaches my 2018 annus horribilis with 62 books and 23,042 pages, avg(397) but I’ve already confessed that I was never doing that marathon again.

I spent $927.58 this year which is slightly more than the 836.01 last. It took me an average ~14 days to finish a book this year compared to 19 last. Bottom line is that I have entertained myself all year for an average of $5.03/day. Beat that with your modern movie club subscription. Um…wait…

If you’re still here, you are prob skimming for the greatest hits. I will not disappoint. They are: (in order of my reading them)

Murray, Charles: Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class

Kiddo Murray (actually Dr. But it’s only in polySci so...) is hugely unpopular these days and I don’t care. I did find his self-indulgence a little off-putting but I got over it. So should you. I think the more the world requires indulgence of other people’s delusions, the more important it will be to read reality.

Shellenberger, Michael: Apocalypse Never

Given how shrill the voices of enviro-alarmism have become, books like this offer a needed balm. Most often, the shrillest of the voices call for immediate action which simply means YOU, dear reader, sending money TO THEM…NOW, a happy portion of which they will probably keep for administration fees.

As suspected, the author is not without enemies. Yale Climate published what I’m sure they think is a thorough debunking of Apocalypse and critique of supposed “straw-man” arguments – if, that is, one giant straw-man is supposed to debunk another. If even I accepted the straw-man premise which I don’t. Shellenberger has been a patient, rational voice against the climate hysteria and pie-in-the-sky renewables. (He calls them “unreliables”.)

It’s an excellent book against the panic prophets and also in favor of the only reasonably acceptable solution to future energy needs: nuke-you-lar. 

Hanson, Thor: Feathers

Mammals have fur. Reptiles have scales. And birds have...You guessed it! Of the surviving vertebrates our lovely planet hosts, birds are by far the most diverse and populous class. I am personally not a fan and would often wish they would shut the flock up while I sleep in on a Sunday but they’re right and I’m wrong and they can keep doing as they are. In addition to the thorough examination of the structure and evolution of this miracle of nature, this book is a wonderful summation of why there are quite so many humans this interested in corvids. Humans still use feathers in so many aspects of our lives that I was surprised. Let’s remember that Charles Darwin was an ornithologist far before he was CHARLES DARWIN.

Crenshaw, Dan: Fortitude

I don’t know why I picked up Fortitude as politicians rarely interest me. Perhaps because some days I blow more than the $16.89 it cost on coffee but I’m delighted that I did.

During Hell Week of S.E.A.L. training, Rep. Crenshaw broke his tibia. He was ferried off to hospital on a helicopter and obviously could not finish. So...He went back and did it AGAIN. He did S.E.A.L. training twice. If that is not the personification of his book’s title I don’t know what is.

This is an excellent work by a person who knows the definition of the title. Timely and relevant. Say I as I am about to melt from a cross glance this guy gave me at the smith machine rack.

Shrier, Abigail: Irreversible Damage

Along with Murray, Shrier has been cancelled. I could not even get her book for weeks after its release due, I’m sure, to politics. Luckily I have more than 1 source for my literary opium and so should you.

Are you also mystified as to why a child barely old enough to know there is no Santa Clause is definitely old enough to know that they are, in fact, the wrong gender/sex/assignment/whatever? And parents/teachers/adults who question the proclamations of their tiny charges are then seared as XYZ-phobic? Hate-mongers? Racists? Nazis? I sure do. As does Mrs. Shrier which she then explores in detail. That along with the social media contagion driving so much ill besides. It’s a great read and very relevant. Get it while you can as you sure can’t borrow mine.

The Fiction winners of the year are: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

I re-read the latter because in 2018 I read the newly published Barracoon by ZNH and was blown away by its eloquence and general excellence and wanted to see if her work improved any since I last read it…IN EIGHTH GRADE. It did. I am finally old enough to understand why adults reread great works. But I’m working hard just to let fiction into my life without being forced by way of grades. Baby steps.

We is by a relatively unknown Russian author who, being published in 1924, served as inspiration for both Orwell and Huxley in their works about dystopia. I was also afraid that Adam Neumann might sue for trademark infringement but luckily that hasn’t happened. (Yet.) The beautiful part about stories from the Union of Socialists nirvana is that it’s technically not fiction. All the stuff you read and cringe about happened there with regularity. 

...aaaand, the full report card. What other irrelevant data can we calc along the lines of $/pg?