2020 Reflections and a slow start in 2021

By the end of 2020, I was fairly confident in my interest in sci-fi/fantasy books. This wasn’t entirely a surprise to me, my tastes generally follow a stereotypical trend of a nerdy science guy. But refinement is still possible on this front: why do I like some sci-fi stories but not others? What makes me excited to read one book but bored and tired in another? In addition to developing my knowledge of my favorite genre, I also noticed that I enjoyed nonfiction books that focused on current social issues. I also discovered Audible and wanted to ultilize the auditory version of storytelling especially when trying to absorb more intense topics or books that are just prohibitively long.

This year did not start off perfectly. As I had predicted, the 2 week break in reading I took over the holidays resulted in me starting two books in the first week of January which I promptly stopped after a few days I did not read or think about reading for months. At this point I felt the same about reading as I did other stressful aspects of my life such as my research: I didn’t want to do it. At all. And entirely avoiding reading got easier and easier as the days, weeks, and months went on. Once I recognize I have failed a participatory task (like reading consistently) it’s so easy to continue failing, this is true for other aspects in my life as well. The hardest part about breaking the cycle is engaging or re-engaging with the productive action. It wasn’t until June of 2021 that I was able to start reading again. By that time, I had lost half a year to my procrastination and I no longer knew if it was possible to hit my goal of 14 books read in the year. We’ll see that I do manage to reach and exceed this goal and that a few books in I actually stumble across a self-help book that helped me gain the vocabulary to describe my procrastination.

Sean’s 2021 Reading List

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents - Isabel Wilkerson
What is racism, where does it come from, why does it persist, how deeply embeded is it in the systems and society of America? Isabel Wilkerson explores these questions and I believe more than answers them largely by relating the uniquely sinister brand of American racism to the millenia year old social caste system of India. This is not a history book. While racism’s history is the central narrative focus, the topic and theme is how that history influences and drives the every day lives of Americans today, whether they realize it or not. Often, people cannot see the blight of institutional and societal subjugation, not because they choose to be blind to the state of the world, but because the blight has been so integral to the system itself that it appears natural and blemish-free. Caste is harrowing, amazingly read by Robin Miles, and a must read/listen for any and every American. - 4/5 stars

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V.E. Schwab
This book was recommended to me through Amazon kindle’s algorithm. In the moment, I thought that it actually was a well-informed suggestion, somehow derived from my books I had previously purchased on the platform. In hindsight I now realize the book was just trending and popular among a significant portion of the userbase. So, this is my first dabble into very current pop culture literature! It was uneventful. Addie LaRue certainly has an interesting premise: navigating an immortal life where no one is able to remember you, but the young adult cheesy romance is not my style. I could see a great number of people loving this book, but I just cannot take written romances seriously (perhaps to my detriment). - 3/5 stars

A Promised Land - Barack Obama
Had to get this one on Audible, simply to listen to Barry-O’s pleasant droning for 30+ hours. The book was okay. It chronicles Obama’s life from childhood up until the end of his first term in office (iirc) while focusing mostly on his political life and its effects on his relationships and sense of self. Overall I am very glad I read it, definitely gave some insight into the first president that I was consciencely aware of as an adult. - 4/5 stars

Watchmen - Alan Moore
I’ve of course seen the movie, started watching the subsequent HBO show as well. Figured I might as well read the graphic novel. Admittedly, I did not realize that the TV show was a follow-up to the graphic novel and not the Zach Snyder movie. Double admittedly I had no idea that the movie and graphic novel diverged so significantly towards the end. I actually much prefer the story in the movie, feels much more polished and less random. Cool real, don’t really understand the insane hype around it though. - 4/5 stars

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones - James Clear
Ok, so this was another foray into my Audible experience. Once again, I thought I was slick and that I found an unknown self-help book that would give me some unique insight into the human psyche and how to “hack my brain” to be more productive. But, to my later disappointment, Atomic Habits turned out to be a massively popular product trending on nytimes and tiktok alike. I wasn’t a self-help pioneer after all. The book itself is interesting, I guess. My assumption is that it’s fundamentally identical to other self-helps and ultimately acts as a reflection to the reader, repeating adages that act as almost a type of therapy. Overall, I think I did end up “helped” after my reading. If anything, it allowed me to put words to my behaviors that worked for my productivity or that have failed me in the past, which is certainly useful. Glad I read it, would never read again. - 3/5 stars

The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centerd Planet - John Green
John Green! For most of my adult life knew of this guy as a cringy Youtuber, but apparently he’s an enormously successful writer, podcaster, and I’m sure many other things. I don’t like people like this. Too productive, bad vibes. That being said, Green is obviously very talented and this shows through this book. I really enjoyed the short, self-contained story format, it kept me engaged and always wanting to press into the next topic. The topics themselves where, for the most part, exceedingly interesting. My experience with this book reminded me of my behavior as a kid, always searching for and learning about random facts, reading the Guinness Book of World Records or Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Now that I think of it, the long-winded reviews followed by the abrupt and terribly subjective scoring system is very much inspired by the style of The Anthropocene Reviewed. - 5/5 stars

Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
Good God in heaven I hate this book. If anyone is actually reading these reviews, please heed this: if someone tells you they loved this book, run. Run fast. People who like this book are either dweeby tech bros who can’t help but post on Reddit r/AskScience to regurgitate their high school level understanding of physics, or they are a person with zero self respect and are willing to have an excruciatingly simplistic story spoon-fed to them by the same god damn reddit user I just described. I disapprove of any enjoyer of this book. I’ve seen this described as hard sci-fi. It’s not. It’s a children’s book masquerading as an adult’s under a facade of repurposed I F*cking Love Science Facebook posts. This book is the literary equivalent of a straight to DVD Disney movie, both in it’s pathetic excuse for characters or interesting story and because it clearly was written to be immediately ripped apart and repurposed as a movie screenplay. I don’t know why I rated this a 3/5, it’s a 1. F*CK this book and anyone who likes it. - 3/5 stars

The Three-Body Problem - Cixin Liu
This is hard sci-fi. This is the best science fiction book I have ever read. The concepts are so well thought out they feel more real than reality. I was skeptical at first, the way the imperfect universe problem was presented caught me off guard, and I thought the story was going to be more science fantasy. But I was so wrong, this is exactly what I want to see in science fiction. I love it. It’s unfortunately a bit beyond the average reader who likely has not been exposed to particle physics or cosmology. That’s not the reader’s fault of course, but I just wish more people could read this book. - 5/5 stars

Shards of Honor - Lois McMaster Bujold
Yikes. I started this book because I recognized that nearly all of the authors of my read-books so far were men. I thought it’d be interesting to explore the stories of women in scifi. This was not a good place to start that effort. Shards of Honor and the Vorkosigian saga as a whole has received a healthy amount of adoration and support, but the narrative did not impress me. - 2/5 stars

Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang
Very cool collection of short stories! I picked this up because I rewatched Arrival and was reminded that the masterpiece of a screenplay was based on the short story Stories of Your Life. My favorite short from this collection was “Understand”. - 5/5 stars

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer - Jonathan L. Howard
A weird remnant from my first “free trial” of Audible. I downloaded this 30 minutes before getting on an airplane and proceeded to not listen to a single second. Finally got to it. It was fine, not super well constructed, cute idea, but left me unsatisfied. - 3/5 stars

Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life - Lulu Miller
That’s right, fish don’t exist. At least, the process of calling things that live and breathe underwater “fish” is a classicly example of human efforts to simplify systems into arbirtary catagories to the point where the conflation between distinct creatures and evolutionary mechanisms blurs away any sort of reason. To call the swimming water-breathers “fish” is the same as calling all mammals that live in the mountains “goats”. This book is much more than exploring the faults of humanity’s need to catagorize everything, but I’ll leave that discovery to the reader. Very good read, everyone should check this out. - 5/5 stars

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life - George Saunders
This book operated as a very clean and welcoming introduction to classic Russian literature. It felt exactly like being in a college classroom again. Discuss a story before reading, note what to look for, what to pay attention to. Read. Discuss again. I don’t think I will read something like this again (or any other classic Russian literature for that matter) but it was very entertaining throughout the few weeks I indulged in it. - 5/5 stars

Shorefall - Robert Jackson Bennett
Second book in Bennett’s second series. I was hoping for a big time jump like we saw in the first series, where maybe we focus on some new characters in a new city but within the same world. But no, it’s only been a year or two since the end of the first book and our character cast is identical with no changes in behavior since the last chapter of the previous book. I was a bit disappointed by this, but will still be reading the third installment. - 3/5 stars

Senlin Ascends - Josiah Bancroft
Another take on the {architectural structure} of Babel storylines. We follow one every-man to the Tower of Babel, a countryman and his pants-wearer-of-the-relationship wife to the NYC of early civilization. Things immediately go wrong and Senlin must venture up the infinite tower and its rings of cities in search of his love. I didn’t particularly love this story as the shenanigans that Senlin gets are fantastical to a fault. In other fantasy novels, the antics of the world at least seem possible, or the world seems lived in. In this case, everything felt fake, almost as if the author only took this world half seriously. - 3/5 stars

Lincoln in the Bardo - George Saunders
Very curiously told story by a fantastic writer. Definitely not something I would recommend to everyone, but I simply had to read this for my grandmother and I do not regret doing so. - 4/5 stars

Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin - Megan Rosenbloom
Yes, this is actually a book about books made out of human skin. Disturbing to be sure. But Megan Rosenbloom’s healthy obsession with death and the art of preserving human essence in all its forms made for a very infomrational and fascinating story. Interestingly enough, three such books are within 10 miles of me in Philadelphia. - 4/5 stars

Ficciones - Jorge Luis Borges
Similar style to Ted Chiang’s short stories. Mind-bending, very well constructed. The Library of Babel was particularly striking. A library consisting of infinite hexagonal rooms with shelves of 400 page books each containing a completely random assortment of letters, numbers, and punctuation. The infinite nature of the library implies that every form of information is available within its walls. Anything and everything. Descriptions of each persons inner machinations, perfect predictions of the future. The allure of knowledge brought people and spawned cults within the knowledge seekers. Some sought the book containing the catalog of the library, which must exist somewhere. Some burned every tome they found that was not deemed useful. Some found resolve in the hexagonal halls surrounded infinitely by chaos with the gem-like hints of order. - 4/5 stars

The Alienist - Caleb Carr
This was apparently hot sh*t in the mid 90s, reaching top 10 nytimes best seller status. The 1920s New York crime investigation story (with cameos by Teddy Roosevelt) is interesting and engaging, though at times it felt bogged down in a recurring element of “rationalism” where one of the main characters obssesively attempts to explain the featured demonic and heinous behaviours with scientific rigor which at first was intriguing, but ended up slowing the story down more than it enhanced it. The subject matter of the murders is also a bit (a lot) dated. I wont attempt to disect things here, but it’s the type of material that would be seen as extremely progressive to include in a book in the 1990s, but nowadays it’s a bit cringe. - 5/5 stars

The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin
Amazing, concise, interesting, with just enough emotion and curiosity to complete a very well-rounded story. - 5/5 stars