Books I Read in 2020

2020 was a wild year for me as far as reading goes. I had always wanted to read more but never lived up to what I wanted for myself. This last year I found the advice of Scott Adams extremely helpful. Never set goals for yourself (or at least don’t pay too much attention to them) it is more important to set up a system that you can work every day. Eventually the daily system will lead you to a larger goal if you calibrate it correctly. This list is living proof of this method (one of the many for me this year). I decided to read 30 pages as my daily system, which roughly translates into an hour of reading. With this system in place, I read more books this past year than I have in the last decade and I plan to increase my yearly goal for 2021. Here’s to the end of a wild year and to more success in the next!

1. The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome
   by Susan Weise Bauer (Audible)
2. The Wheel of Time Book 4: The Shadow Rising
   by Robert Jordan
3. Carnival Row
   by Stephanie K. Smith (Audible)
4. Elizabeth II: Life of a Monarch
   by Ruth Cowen (Audible)
5. Mere Christianity
   by C.S. Lewis
6. Cari Mora
   by Thomas Harris (Audible)
7. The Happines Hypothesis
   by Jonathan Heidt (Audible)
8. The Wheel of Time Book 5: The Fires of Heaven
   by Robert Jordan
9. Magna Carta
   by Dan Jones
10. Congo
    by Michael Crichton
11. The False Promise of Single Payer Healthcare
    by Sally C. Pipes
12. The Last Wish
    by Andrej Sapkowski
13. The Madness of Crowds
    by Douglas Murray
14. Sword of Destiny
    By Andrej Sapkowski
15. The Keys of Prolific Creativity
    by David V. Stewart
16. The Wheel of Time Book 6: Lord of Chaos
    by Robert Jordan
17. Loserthink
    By Scott Adams
18. Blood of Elves
    by Andrej Sapkowski
19. #Blackprivilege
    by Charlamagne Tha God
20. The Wheel of Time Book 7: A Crown of Swords
    by Robert Jordan
21. Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity and Why That Harms Everyone
    by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay
22. Dune
    by Frank Herbert
23. The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land
    by Thomas Asbridge (Audible)
24. Lose the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America
    by John McWhorter
25. The Wheel of Time Book 8: The Path of Daggers
    by Robert Jordan
26. The Go-Giver
    by Bob Burg and John David Mann
27. The Wheel of Time Book 9: Winter’s Heart
    by Robert Jordan
28. Charter Schools and Their Enemies
    by Thomas Sowell
29. A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, and The Cricket on the Hearth
    by Charles Dickens
30. The Law
    by Frederic Bastiat
31. Brave New World
    by Aldous Huxley

Best Non-Fiction book of 2020: This was a difficult decision to make…I read a lot of great books this year, but I think the best of them was Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay. The book was packed full of information often citing or quoting original materials from the subject matter they were discussing. This gave me more confidence in the conclusions they were reaching in their overview of the Critical Theories that we see invading our current culture. I definitely recommend picking up this book if you are interested in philosophy or want to understand the craze of calling everything racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic.

Best Fiction book of 2020: I have to go with Dune for this pick. I originally listened to Dune on audiobook a couple of years ago and couldn’t enjoy it. The vast universe that Frank Herbert created is almost too obscure in audiobook form because you can’t see how the strange terms the characters use are spelled and you don’t get the appendices at the end of the book that explain so much. This year, inspired by the Denis Villaneuve film that was SUPPOSED to come out last month, I decided to pick up the physical copy and give the story another shot. Upon the second reading, with the appendices for help, this book really stood out to me as a testament to fantasy and sci-fi storytelling.

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