andrewreads 75 books in 2021

Hello! Last year I was very bad at updating my thread. This year I will probably still be bad, but I'll try and be better.

In 2020 I only managed 58 books, which was definitely a down year in terms of volume. I thought being at home so much more often due to the pandemic would lead to an uptick in readin'... but that didn't turn out to be the case. A lot of days it felt tough to concentrate so I ended up just going for walks around the neighborhood, listening to music, or scrolling mindlessly on my phone (deleting Twitter in September definitely helped me cut down on this, though).

Luckily, even though the quantity of books I read was fairly low, the quality (especially in the back half of the year) was pretty good! Here's a list of my favorites that I read in 2020, in alphabetical order:

Flying at Night: Poems by Ted Kooser
Night at the Fiestas: Stories by Kirstin Valdez Quade
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay
The Dark Dark: Stories by Samantha Hunt
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
The Magical Language of Others: A Memoir by E.J. Koh
The Seas by Samantha Hunt
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

A good mix of stories and poems, essays and adventures. And plenty of literary fiction. My favorites were probably The Spinning Heart and The Seas. I definitely look forward to reading more books by Hunt and Ryan in 2021.

I don't really have any specific reading goals this year. Read more and read more diversely. Maybe I'll find a challenge that appeals to me as the year goes on. We'll see! Happy reading, y'all.

*Denotes a BOMB (a book off my bookshelf)
^Denotes a re-read
#Denotes an audiobook
~Denotes an e-book

First quarter!

January
1. Turning Japanese by MariNaomi - finished January 1st, 228 pages
2. A Children's Bible* by Lydia Millet - finished January 3rd, 240 pages
3. A Memory of Light#^ by Robert Jordan - finished January 5th, 912 pages
4. Tokyo Ueno Station~ by Miri Yu - finished January 7th, 192 pages
5. Sharks in the Time of Saviors~ by Kawai Strong Washburn - finished January 14th, 384 pages
6. I Hold a Wolf by the Ears~ by Laura Van den Berg - finished January 16th, 224 pages
7. The Space Between Worlds~ by Micaiah Johnson - finished January 23rd, 327 pages
8. Earthlings by Sayaka Murata - finished January 24th, 247 pages
9. Man V. Nature~ by Diane Cook - finished January 28th, 288 pages

February
10. A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter - finished February 1st, 226 pages
11. New Spring#^ by Robert Jordan - finished February 2nd, 336 pages
12. Lot: Stories~ by Bryan Washington - finished February 6th, 240 pages
13. The Sound of Stars~ by Alechia Dow - finished February 13th, 432 pages
14. Passion by June Jordan - finished February 15th, 100 pages
15. Calamities by Renee Gladman - finished February 16th, 130 pages
16. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin - finished February 20th, 197 pages
17. The Colour of Magic#^ by Terry Pratchett - finished February 21st, 277 pages

March
18. James Acaster's Classic Scrapes by James Acaster - finished March 1st, 320 pages
19. Beloved^ by Toni Morrison - finished March 7th, 360 pages
20. The Light Fantastic#^ by Terry Pratchett - finished March 13th, 288 pages
21. Little Constructions by Anna Burns - finished March 14th, 296 pages
22. Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong - finished March 17th, 203 pages
23. Trust Exercise by Susan Choi - finished March 21st, 257 pages
24. The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada - finished March 25th, 116 pages
25. Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq - finished March 27th, 193 pages

*Denotes a BOMB (a book off my bookshelf)
^Denotes a re-read
#Denotes an audiobook
~Denotes an e-book

Second quarter!

April

26. The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld - finished April 9th, 362 pages
27. Equal Rites#^ by Terry Pratchett - finished April 12th, 240 pages
28. Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho - finished April 16th, 371 pages
29. There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura - finished April 30th, 405 pages

May

30. Wintering by Katherine May - finished May 2nd, 242 pages
31. Mort#^ by Terry Pratchett - finished May 9th, 304 pages
32. Be Holding by Ross Gay - finished May 15th, 109 pages
33. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro - finished May 17th, 320 pages
34. The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade - finished May 25th, 419 pages
35. Children and Other Wild Animals by Brian Doyle - finished May 31st, 163 pages

June

36. Real Life by Brandon Taylor - finished June 5th, 327 pages
37. Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi - finished June 13th, 256 pages
38. Sourcery#^ by Terry Pratchett - finished June 15th, 336 pages
39. Meet Me in Another Life by Catriona Silvey - finished June 25th, 309 pages
40. First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami - finished June 27th, 245 pages
41. The Intangibles by Elaine Equi - finished June 27th, 99 pages

*Denotes a BOMB (a book off my bookshelf)
^Denotes a re-read
#Denotes an audiobook
~Denotes an e-book

Third quarter!

July

42. So Big by Edna Ferber - finished July 2nd, 252 pages
43. Are Prisons Obsolete?* by Angela Davis - finished July 4th, 128 pages
44. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - finished July 5th, 272 pages
45. Wyrd Sisters#^ by Terry Pratchett - finished July 8th, 368 pages
46. Brood by Jackie Polzin - finished July 11th, 222 pages
47. Cosmic Powers: The Saga Anthology of Far-Away Galaxies edited by John Joseph Adams - finished July 19th, 339 pages
48. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers - finished July 31st, 325 pages

August
49. Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda - finished August 3rd, 271 pages
50. Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water by Vylar Kaftan - finished August 4th, 109 pages
51. Fauna by Christiane Vadnais - finished August 7th, 144 pages
52. Pyramids#^ by Terry Pratchett - finished August 8th, 368 pages
53. How to Order the Universe by Maria José Ferrada - finished August 9th, 176 pages
54. The Summer Book* by Tove Jansson - finished August 14th, 172 pages
55. Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin - finished August 19th, 241 pages
56. Bad Friends by Ancco - finished August 20th, 176 pages
57. Migratory Birds by Mariana Oliver - finished August 25th, 136 pages

September
58. Igifu by Scholastique Mukasonga - finished September 4th, 110 pages
59. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers - finished September 9th, 147 pages
60. Guards! Guards!#^ by Terry Pratchett - finished September 10th, 416 pages
61. Fish Soup by Margarita García Robayo - finished September 13th, 213 pages
62. Tunneling to the Center of the Earth* by Kevin Wilson - finished September 17th, 208 pages
63. Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford - finished September 20th, 212 pages
64. Ennemonde* by Jean Giono - finished September 25th, 171 pages
65. Eric#^ by Terry Pratchett - finished September 29th, 160 pages

*Denotes a BOMB (a book off my bookshelf)
^Denotes a re-read
#Denotes an audiobook
~Denotes an e-book

Fourth quarter!

October
66. Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson - finished October 7th, 445 pages
67. Spring Garden by Tomoka Shibasaki - finished October 10th, 154 pages
68. Autumn by Ali Smith - finished October 15th, 264 pages
69. Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung - finished October 18th, 257 pages
70. Moving Pictures#^ by Terry Pratchett - finished October 21st, 416 pages
71. Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven - finished October 23rd, 304 pages
72. The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez - finished October 24th, 208 pages

November
73. Reaper Man#^ by Terry Pratchett - finished November 21st, 352 pages
74. Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune - finished November 24th, 376 pages
75. Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette - finished November 26th, 273 pages

December
76. We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry - finished December 6th, 366 pages
77. Matrix by Lauren Groff - finished December 19th, 260 pages
78. Witches Abroad#^ by Terry Pratchett - finished December 22nd, 352 pages
79. Island by Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen - finished December 23rd, 164 pages
80. Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin - finished December 25th, 243 pages
81. How to Wrestle a Girl by Venita Blackburn - finished December 28th, 209 pages
82. The Terrible Stories by Lucille Clifton - finished December 30th, 72 pages
83. The Ghost Variations* by Kevin Brockmeier - finished December 30th, 267 pages

6 BOMBs read so far in 2021
15 re-reads so far in 2021
14 audiobooks "read" so far in 2021
7 e-books read so far in 2021

Welcome back!

Happy reading in 2021, Andrew!

And keep up with my friends here, Andrew. Have a great 2021.