{"id":1860,"date":"2020-12-31T09:43:47","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T17:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1860"},"modified":"2020-12-31T09:43:47","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T17:43:47","slug":"knock-knock-did-you-say-who-youve-come-for-books-read-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1860","title":{"rendered":"\u201cKnock, knock, did you say who you’ve come for?\u201d: Books Read in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Untitled\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m halfway into Steve Hyden’s This Isn\u2019t Happening<\/em><\/a> and a few dozen pages into Kim Stanley Robinson\u2019s The Ministry for the Future<\/em><\/a>. So, as usual, here\u2019s my breakdown of my reading for the year of hindsight:<\/p>\n

Books read in 2020: 141
\n<\/strong>Comics and graphic novels included in reading total: 28
\nBooks of poetry included in reading total: 11
\nBooks reread included in reading total: 3
\nAcademic & Education related books included in reading total: 17
\nYA and Junior Fiction books included in reading total: 9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some thoughts (as usual, here are my posts on books read in 2019<\/a>,\u00a02018<\/a>,\u00a02017<\/a>,\u00a02016<\/a>,\u00a02015<\/a>,\u00a02014<\/a>,\u00a02013<\/a>,\u00a02012<\/a>,\u00a02011<\/a>,\u00a02010<\/a>, and\u00a02009<\/a>):<\/p>\n

The pandemic hit me as a reader. I didn\u2019t feel as into<\/em> the reading that I did. I didn\u2019t have the same reading highs as I have had in previous years. I chalk that up to the damping effect of sheltering in place with low-key high levels of anxiety for the majority of the year. Maybe I made some poor reading selections, but reading wasn’t the respite I could have used this year. Sure, I read fewer books, too. That\u2019s not really the point; I do think I might have read a few more books in a non-pandemic year, but I think this is close to my reading capacity while still trying to be a present dad that no longer has weekends\/afternoons for selfish page-turning right now. (Side note: Ally pointed out that we read a ton<\/em> of board books everyday with the kids. If Besos for Baby<\/em><\/a> was included on this list, my reading count would be straight-up astronomical.)<\/p>\n

I almost<\/em> hit my goal of averaging a book of poetry a month. The books I did read were great. The Danez Smith collection<\/a> (mentioned here<\/a>) and Hanif Abdurraqib’s most recent collection<\/a> were easy highlights.<\/p>\n

I read two books by Olivia Laing this year, The Lonely City<\/em><\/a> and Funny Weather<\/em><\/a>. They were both wonderful and sent me down a spiral reading about a handful of artists I didn\u2019t know much about like Chantal Joffe<\/a> and Louise Bourgeois<\/a>. The Lonely City<\/em> also got me to listen to a bunch of Klaus<\/a> Nomi<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n

I flew through all Martha Wells’ Murderbot<\/a> series. As quick, fun sci-fi, it was my ideal semi-conscious, falling-asleep series of books for a chunk of the year. Likewise, Susanna Clarke\u2019s long awaited follow-up novel, Piranesi<\/em><\/a>, was short, engaging, and made me hope she\u2019ll put out more work more frequently.<\/p>\n

Charlie Kaufman\u2019s debut novel, Antkind<\/em><\/a>, is the most Kaufman-y thing he\u2019s made and the funniest book I read all year. Also the most tedious. It\u2019s not worth trying to summarize the plot about a film critic trying to write an academic book about the greatest film ever made of which only one person has seen and of which only a single frame still exists and so this critic uses hypnosis (and other methods) to attempt to recreate the reclusive filmmaker\u2019s opus in his mind. It\u2019s that kind of book. There\u2019s a tangential plot line around a U.S. president named Donald Trunk who falls in love with a robot of himself. There\u2019s nerdy film humor that made me enthused about rewatching Symbiopsychotaxiplasm<\/em><\/a>. There\u2019s a bunch of complaining about the films of Charlie Kaufman. You get it.<\/p>\n

A Third University Is Possible<\/em><\/a> was such an inspiring read at the beginning of the year that I ended up folding it into a class I was teaching, inviting K. Wayne Yang to close<\/a> the Speculative Education Colloquium<\/a>, and riffing on it in my own writing for future publications. I also really enjoyed Alex Rosenblat’s\u00a0Uberland<\/em><\/a> as representative of the possibilities of ethnography in the era of social infatuation with \u201calgorithms\u201d (ahem<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Comic books: I really liked Carmen Maria Machado’s horror story, The Low Low Woods<\/em><\/a>. Tillie Walden continues to be one of my favorite comic creators and Are You Listening<\/em><\/a>\u00a0was no exception. Ines Estrada\u2019s Alienation<\/em><\/a> was confounding and I hope others read it so we can talk about it.<\/p>\n

Finally, earlier this month a colleague recommended Maria Konnikova’s\u00a0The Biggest Bluff<\/em><\/a>, a book I missed in the middle of **all of this.** I flew through it. It made me miss poker, think about how I assess professional risk, and consider how limited information occludes some of my decision making.<\/p>\n

The last concert that I attended was seeing Destroyer in San Francisco at the end of February. I consistently listened to his most recent album (contributing to this post\u2019s title) throughout the year.
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