This Year I Read 88 Books And Wrote 1

As 2015 started I made a goal to read 50 books by the end of the year.

This, like all great goals, was very stupid and certainly foolish. I have a very demanding job, four young children, and a very structured imaginary marathon-training program.

I set this goal for two reasons:

• My daughter was in the 2nd grade and starting to read more and I wanted to throw some fuel on that fire.
• I found that reading relaxed me more than any other activity – there aren’t any notifications when you read and I found it quieted my mind.

I started out with the following goals:

• I would read 50 books, with the definition of “book” sort of up to me.
• I would prefer books that I already owned.
• If somebody gave me a book, I had to read that book this year.
• If I sneered about a book or rolled by eyes then I *had* to read it next.
• I would try to not read “fancy” books; no judgment.
• I could re-read a book only if I hadn’t read the book in the last 5 years.

Results

I ended up reading a lot of books – more than expected. I didn’t stop working or paying attention to my kids, but instead replaced time spent doing the following with reading:

• Taking breaks at work
• Reading stuff on the internet of little value (i.e. most things on the internet)
• Watching TV
• Doing nothing while waiting on something (like in a waiting room)

I ended up exploring my local library and a local used bookstore due to the sheer volume of books I ended up purchasing.

More Interesting Results

The most interesting thing about my reading this year was that I ended up writing a book as well. By not judging the types of books I was reading I found deep veins of silly books that I liked so much I decided to take a run at writing one in the same style. The nice thing about reading is that you can surround yourself with people that you like; this isn’t always possible in the real world.

Books

Here is a list of all the books I read with a one sentence snarky review of each.

My top 5 recommended:

• Hyperbole and a Half – one of the best books I read this year.
• The First Bad Man – what do you say to a book like this?  What the hell?  I don’t want this weird story to end?  I can’t describe this book but I have now read everything Miranda July has ever written and will buy everything she writes in the future forever.
• Creativity, Inc. – great read, good story, remarkable transparency and teaching
• The Stench of Honolulu – funniest book I have read this year.
• What in God’s Name – Simon Rich is a delight, and I enjoyed this one greatly especially the parts with God working to open a restaurant.

Short Story Collections & Classics

• Slaughterhouse-Five – required to read every 5 years.
• The Best American Non-required Reading 2013 – I’d be happy to read a pink slip if David Eggers wrote on it.
• You are Free – very talented writer; the story of the school sticks with me.
• The Best America Short Stories 2010
• The Middle Stories – some of these are super weird, but good weird, and others are pretty haunting. This is the type of book that makes me love McSweeney’s as I don’t see anybody else publishing this.
• Middle Men – great short stories; started reading Gavin in one of the collections above.

Elmore Leonard & Westerns

• The Bounty Hunters & Glitz & Freaky Deaky – if you have never read any Elmore Leonard you should start now.  Any “hip dialogue” in a modern movie has been influenced by his realistic gritty style.
• Galloway – picked up at a used books store and is #12 in a series; good mindless entertainment.  The good guys win (SPOILER ALERT)
• The Last Kind Words Saloon – real story of Wyatt Earp which is different than all the crappy movies you have seen about it.
• No Country for Old Men – held up against the movie which is impressive.

Ernest Hemingway

• The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway – the master at work.
• The Green Hills of Africa – very good and classic Hemingway but would probably be boring if you hadn’t read a lot of his other stuff; this gives some context to his other stories when you understand that this trip spawned many of his stories.
• The Sun Also Rises – a fun game to play as you read Hemingway is to imagine that he is just a food critic that got out of hand while traveling.
• For Whom the Bell Tolls – the book that should have won him every award.
• A Farewell to Arms – great read, only seems less powerful after reading above.

Books about Creating Things

• The War of Art & Turning Pro & Do The Work – rereads; good, timeless, simple.
• Steal like an Artist – good motivational speech and instructions on organizing and coming up with idea.
• Creativity, Inc. – great read, good story, remarkable transparency and teaching.
• You are a Writer – blah
• Bird by Bird – honest, scary.
• Eats, Shoots & Leaves – less snooty, snotty, and pointless than I expected with a good perspective on the future of the subject.
• On Writing – I shouldn’t have expected anything different but this was very interesting, educational, and honest.

Parenting

• I was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids – great honest look at how hard it is to be a stay-at-home mom from multiple angles.
• I Heart My Little Assholes – didn’t care for this one; direct trade of privacy and shock for money.  One of those books that makes you think you could write a book just because it seems so obvious.

I don’t know what this is

• A Long Way Down – reads like a sweet screenplay, like all of his works.
• McSweeney’s #48 – so much good stuff in here; inspiring and overwhelming.
• Sorry to Bother You – a screenplay and the sort of thing that I wouldn’t have read if I wasn’t subscribed to McSweeney’s.
• Yes Man – one of the books I turned my nose up at but it wasn’t that bad.
• Fever Dream Ghost Book & Magical Neon Sexuality & Twelve Times Lost – Kevin Fanning is one of the Internet writers that I just follow around.
• Theophrenia & The House of Wigs – Joshua Allen is a great write
• Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget – bought this one at a Target while on vacation when I was surprised to see she had published a book; I have read her stuff online for years.  Honest, real.
• Celebrations – I never thought I’d spend time reading a birthday card to Oprah but here we are.
• The Ghost of my Father – love this author, but not my typical read (memoir). Well done and powerful due to how personal it is.
• Quitter – was one of the 100 first copies-for-review for this book; good instructional book for those looking to jump careers.  Jon has continued writing in this vein if you like that idea with Do Over.
• The Rosie Project – cute, sweet, reads like a movie.

Religion

• The Screwtape Letters – Masterpiece.  Should be re-read by me every few years.
• Stuff Christians Like – hard to finish.  Talk about niche.
• Scary Close – Donald Miller is one of those guys that is so thoughtful you hope that he has the same struggles as you do so that can can impart wisdom.

Comedy

• One More Thing – BJ Novak is very funny.
• A Load of Hooey – Bob Odenkirk is very funny.
• All my Friends Are Dead – this book is funny for a short amount of time; could have been better said with Powerpoint.
• Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk – what do you do when you are Sedaris and you run out of personal stories that you are allowed to tell?  Tell them as animals instead.
• Food: a Love Story – Jim Gaffigan’s act, but on paper.
• Bream Gives me Hiccups – I liked this book a lot and bought it from reading his pieces in the New Yorker without realizing it was the same Jesse Einsenberg that acts.
• Spoiled Brats & Ant Farm & What in God’s Name & Man Seeking Woman & Elliot Allagash & Free Range Chickens
  – Simon Rich is my favorite author this year, and I had never heard of him before
• Comedy by the Numbers – a ten-page joke in one hundred page form.
• I Found this Funny – great stuff in here, no all of it funny and large amount of stuff I had already read (good sign?)
• The Stench of Honolulu – funniest book I have read this year.
• What I’d Say to Martians – Give Jack Handey the Nobel Prize for Comedy.
• If the Raindrops United – meh.
• Yeah, sure – I count a book I wrote as a book I read – wanna fight about it?
• Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. – solid, look forward to him writing more and enjoy him on twitter.
• Poking a Dead Frog
• I Was Told There Would be Cake – overall weak but when describing growing up in the suburbs simply magic.

Business and Practical Advice

• The Ultimate Guide to Remote Working – pretty good resource, very interesting that they include their annoyances and issues with traditional office space.  People rarely think about just how terrible the typical setup really is until they start working from home.
• Smart Money, Smart Kids – If I do 50% of what is in this book with my 4 kids they will all be just fine financially.
• A Brief History of Walt Disney – if you aren’t inspired by Disney what are you even doing.
• What If? – Great interesting read.
• The Myths of Innovation – Very interesting book with clear conclusions around creative output and structure.  Good think piece.
• Mindfire – Good edit of Scott’s posts; one of my favorite authors.
• Focus – I enjoy Leo’s blog Zen Habits and this was in the same vein.
• Lean In – Great resource; should be read by all people in the workplace.  These books are normally so boring you just read them because you feel like you have to, but this one was full of interesting personal stories and a good forward-moving narrative with clear actions for us all to take.
• AngularJS – just finishing this one up; technology I used at work.
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – I hate business books but this was pretty solid.

Miranda July

• It Chooses You – man this was so freaking good and real. Whenever somebody says that a writer has a ‘strong voice’ I think of July. I’m going to read everything she has ever written, she works in multiple formats so see her movies too, but probably not any sculptures etc. by her.
• The First Bad Man – what do you say to a book like this?  What the hell?  I don’t want this weird story to end?  I can’t describe this book but I have now read everything Miranda July has ever written and will buy everything she writes in the future forever.

Books that were intended for children

• Lauren Ipsum – cute, but probably funnier to adults who work in the field than actual children.  The end where they go back and explain everything is better, so if you read with that in mind it would be a better exercise.
• Esio Trot – I read a few Dahl’s this year so one is representative of that; good cute little book.