A 202(1) Bookish Year in Review

“Another year over,” in the immortal words of what is either John Lennon or an older Harry Potter, if you squint a little bit. “A new one just begun.” In some ways this was a year of routine: our first full year in our new home. The first year fully end-to-end under the shadow of the pandemic. My first full year maintaining my story blog here and my Instagram page. Like all years the individual days drag but you blink and you’re a month in the future. There’s always that bit of malaise as the calendar turns over that time was wasted and I should have done more. But in 2021 I’m glad I embraced the quiet. If all goes well I have a little less than a month until I become a parent. At some point I’ll have to return to the office, at least a few days a week. So all-in-all I appreciate taking a year to enjoy the calm and books and shows and games before a 2022 that will be remarkably different.

In the meanwhile, and like last year, let’s recap my stories and storytelling in 2021. I posted 68 times to IG including a handful of reels and a mix of book reviews, random pictures, and just the occasional thought of the day. I wrote 18 articles here on this page. I played a half dozen or so videogames, highlighted by replays of Skyrim and Breath of the Wild and a new play of Persona 5. And assuming I accurately tracked everything in Goodreads (and I think I did, let’s say a 95% confidence interval) I read 56 books totaling 25,589 pages. Per the aforementioned baby, next year will look very different; let’s revel in the production while we can. I won’t write any detailed reviews in this post but rather give a few superlatives. So without further ado, my 2021 in books:

Ending of the Year

I always have an emotional reaction to endings. An old girlfriend/current friend once told me ‘nostalgia’ is the word she associates most with my personality- it fits. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the journey, just few things affect me more than knowing that journey is over. I’ve been in a bittersweet state awaiting the baby, excited but knowing it’s the end of the life I’ve had until now and the start a new one. I’ll get a little choked up at the conclusion of audiobooks hearing the ‘Audible hopes you have enjoyed this program.’ And so, it’s no surprise that my ‘Ending of the Year’ award goes to The Wheel of Time. It’s such a treat to spend so much time with a series and have it come to a satisfactory conclusion. Nothing can quite replace Harry Potter (my recent thoughts on JK Rowling notwithstanding) which I read as new books were released. I grew up with those characters. To contrast I read the entirety of Wheel of Time in just over a year, a full 8 years after the final book published. Yet, the sheer scope of the story and the amount of time I spent with those characters over the year built that relationship. Weighing in at over 4 million words, WoT was my constant companion on drives, runs, bike rides, and chores around the house. The series would tell me there are no endings to the Wheel of Time, and the first season of the TV show is a nice dip back into the story, but it certainly was an ending, and my ‘Ending of the Year.’

Test of Time

Watching a show or movie I grew up with in the late 90s/early 2000s feels a bit like navigating a minefield in terms of a reference or joke that makes me cringe with a fresher perspective. Older books have their own perils; stories feel dated in terms of either the themes which have since been duplicated, elaborated on, and generally improved (see my article on Dune for a few thoughts here) or the writing itself. But once in a while you find an author or book you would assume contemporary if subject to a proverbially blind read test. Twain falls in this category for me. And after reading Left Hand of Darkness I’ll add Ursula K. Le Guin to the ‘Test of Time’ club. Published in 1969, Le Guin’s science fiction world of Genthen with its androgynous and periodically ambisexual beings feels at place in modern discussions of sex, sexuality, and gender. I loved the story itself (though it admittedly gains steam toward the end) but her ideas, writings, and allegory stuck with me. It’s a book I keep recommending and miss on my shelf after lending it to friends if only so I could throw it at people who vouch for rigid gender roles.

A New Interest

I grew up on mythology but this year saw a bit of a revival for me. Persona 5, God of War 3, and Circe gave me snippets of the Greek and Egyptian myths with which I was already passing familiar. Norse mythology circles pop culture and was very loosely adapted with Thor and Loki in Marvel. I’ve seen African mythological influences in N.K. Jemesin’s Inheritance Trilogy or Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. But I was woefully ignorant on the Matter of Britain. Wheel of Time is rife with references to Arthurian legend (half the names are pulled directly from stories) but I missed most of the context. It took reading Sword, Stone, Table (edited by Swapna Krishna and Jenn Northington) to really get me on this train. A series of short stories, this collection is broken into three parts; Once (relatively faithful retellings of the classic legends), Present (legends crafted into a modern setting), and Future (sci-fi renditions of the now familiar tales). I’ve read so much fantasy that finding something new (to me) or truly creative is a genuine treat. This collection sparked ‘A New Interest’ for me- I’ve since had friends recommend other stories based on Arthurian legends.

Deep Breaths

I’m writing this on the first day of 2022, but I’ll conclude my thoughts on 2021 by looking to the future. Inshallah I’ll be a dad in just a few short weeks. The journey the last couple years had setbacks, and for now I’m still just crossing every digit I possess that everything will go smoothly and we’ll bring home a screaming, pooping newborn at the end of the month. I’ve been so hyper focused on getting to day one that I’m only recently trying to get ready for what comes next. And so I’ll award my final superlative, ‘Deep Breaths’ to Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting. We posted a pregnancy announcement on social media 3-4 months ago and I got a congratulatory text from a friend with a kid of his own that same morning and then this book on my doorstep less than 24 hours later. The author, Emily Oster is a professor of economics at Brown and applies approaches she uses at work to a series of decisions you make as a parent. There’s a wealth of information from friends/family/strangers on the street on what to do as a parent, some of it directly contradictory and most less as a recommendation, more an absolute. Oster does her best to show some of the data behind routine decisions and presents it in such a way as to mix and match for what’s best not only for your kid, but for you. Cribsheet didn’t make me think being a parent will be any easier, but it reassured me that we’ll figure it out, and we’ll make the most of wherever our choices take all three of us.

Happy new year to you all- engaging with this community, here and on my social page, has been one of my most rewarding experiences during 2021. This next year is going to be different in a lot of ways, but stay in touch and I’ll be here with you and with stories as much as I can!