This is a Traditional Blog about Book Reading

    It's been a while. Let's just jump right in.

    2020 was one of the toughest years in the last 100 for the global community. Countries affected (or effected, gosh I don't know!) by war have had it worse of course. Many older generations can surely tell of us of harder times like the Great Depression, World War 2, and living through fully and blatant racist laws, among other horrible things and different epidemics. Once we begin to think of it, it seems like human existence is marred by, and with, death on a large scale everywhere.

(Click Read More to continue)

    So maybe the statement should be abridged & instead saying this is one of the toughest years in the Global community... in the 21st century. We have seen war on each continent, the racial protests here in the US, the Arab Spring in North Africa and even the fighting in the Congo, Russia vs Ukraine, and even the Rhoyinga Muslims are down bad. We've had anthrax, Swine Flu and ebola, and yet, nothing quite compares still to the global shake up Covid-19 has given us. My heart goes out to everyone affected (or is it the 'e' again, damnit) by Covid personally. I know only so well how difficult it is to be dealt a shitty hand by Death, one that is unfortunately still required to be played. 

    I also hope that this small post, though mostly irrelevant and certainly not the grandest or most poignant, may break up a little bit of your current monotony. that, or at the very least, I can just share some books I read in 2020.

    We learned, in an age where we are assuredly glued to our devices and technologies, that we are addicted to these things. Many of us learned - when we could - to try other, more analog things. Some people have learned crafts and even used them as supplemental income to replace lost wages (and yes, our government has failed us providing wages). Some people learned to appreciate the outdoors in a new and unique way. Some people took to protesting, and standing up for those who have died callously and horribly at the hands of what we recognize as a pole state. Some learned new games, some completed puzzles, and some read.

    As our world began to change and shut down, I realized I had more time than ever, but still had so much to do. I am a solopreneur (not my word originally), and running a business was becoming more and more overwhelming. I was about two minutes and a foolish decision away from being jobless in one of the most expensive cities in the US, certainly the most expensive in Texas. I was isolated, feeling so terribly alone. So I came up with an idea to begin reading again in earnest.

    My mother helped inspire me to read. She read voraciously, and when I was a child, she would read aloud to me from books like, The Tiger Who Wore White Gloves. My father was a great encouragement though. In my life, he had probably read 10 books that weren't apart of his studies for a degree. However, I owe him thanks for the majority of my book collection; he bought me books ranging from Rowan of Rin to Brisingr from places like Borders to Half Priced Books. He really encouraged me to read and continued to do so, even though the books were mostly fantasy.

    I read nearly voraciously, even giving myself a 'record' to break when I read a 400+ page book in 7 days or less. Some of the books I've read that quickly are The Goblet of Fire, The Half-Blood Prince, The Dealthy Hallows, Mattimeo, Mossflower, Blade of Fire, and a few more. I also read the Percy Jackson books super fast, all within 2 days (books 2-3 I read within one day). All YA titles, but I was proud of this as a teenager. I kept this pace up for years, from around 10 years old until around the time I was 20 years old. Life was difficult; school was hard, money was tighter, and I just had much more to do than I had time. I read a decent bit in 2014,  with books like A Working Theory of Love, The Narrative of Frederick Douglass ,East of Eden, World War Z, and even the Blood of Olympus. 

    After that, reading took a huge dive for me from about 2015-2019. In 2015 I reread the Inheritance Cycle. In 2016, I read Sword of Angels by John Marco and the beginning of the Earthsea Cycle. In 2017, I finished the Earthsea Cycle, read World War Z again(such a great book) , and had a chance to read Tortilla Flat while on a military mission. In 2018, I read nothing but the Draconis Memoria series, and pretty quickly too. Each book I consumed in less than a week concurrently. In 2019, I read some pretty good books including Thunder and Lightning by Laura Redniss, The Left Hand of Darkness, Hyperion, and Fall of Hyperion.

    There was a point in mid 2020, when the stay at home orders were still being heavily enforced that I got a little intoxicated. I was up until 4am looking at the 100+ books we owned, and I realized I'd only read about 15 on the bookshelf. Obviously I've read more across my lifetime, but I had not read the books with us in Austin. So I resolved change that, and in mid 2020, I gave my self the goal of reading 11 books. I figured I could read about one book for each month of the year, then I subtracted one month to account for any lull times; book fatigue, work scheduling, potential travel to where I'm from, and to also account for it being my first year getting back into reading books at such a volume. I hadn't read quite so much since maybe 2010 (although 2014 was truly quite the year, in addition to the others I read The Red Pony, Starfinder, The Fauly in our Stars, Divergent, and I think A Long Way Home). This goal of reading turned out to be a success, and I nearly read 12 books in 2020.

    This story is cathartic in a way. It is an explanation of some of my relationship to reading, and chronicles some of my late teens and early twenties. Maybe for whoever is reading, it can be a motivator that no matter what it is, even reading, that you can come back to what you enjoy. This is advice is a kind of ham handed, but there may be some validity about getting to enjoy the things that you have before enjoyed. I am also proud of the accomplishment of reading that many books in a year, and I'd like to share some of what I gleaned from these books, spoiler free of course.