How Many Books Did You Read In 2020?

2 thoughts on “How Many Books Did You Read In 2020?”

1. While I tried to read 20 books this year, I made it to the respectable number of 15. Topics ranged from climate change to systemic racism to how to be a more virtuous person to … you get the picture, a range of topics.

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2. I keep a spreadsheet of all the stuff I finish — books, movies, plays, concerts, magazines, TV shows, etc. So I know exactly how many books I read in 2020 — 40, and I’ll finish at least one more before January 1st.

   That’s a bit down for me, as I try to average a book a week. I guess I’ve had trouble concentrating during the pandemic. But I made up for it a bit, I suppose, because I also read 68 graphic novels over the course of the year.

   Most of the books I read over the last year have been anthologies of one sort or another: I’m a big fan of the “Best American” series of books put out on an annual basis, and I read a handful of those. I also read the latest volume of the “Censored” anthology, listing the top 25 news stories of the year that were ignored or under-reported by mainstream news outlets.

   I read four collections of Isaac Asimov science essays, as well as three (and a half, although it won’t count until next year) chronologies of a particular area of study. The three I read were “The Biology Book”, “The Engineering Book”, and “Artificial Intelligence: An Illustrated History” (and I am working on “The Law Book” now).

   Plus there is “Speeches of Note”, a collection of speeches that have been given over the course of human history that are historically significant or meaningful in some way. In addition, I polished off two anthologies edited by John Brockman: “This Idea Must Die” and “Possible Minds: 25 Ways of Looking at AI”.

   Plus a handful of other random anthologies. In hindsight, maybe my attention span was too short for many longer books.

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