2021 was again a year of little reading and less travel for me. COVID-19 is still a thing, according to significant chunks of the internet.

The good news is I've already spent some time in 2022 reading a novel in an obnoxious tourist bar in Cabo San Lucas. My current plan is to wander around a bit and when I remember that I abhor club life I will buy a michelada and stuff my face in book. Off to a good start so far.

And without further ado, here are the books I read in 2021 from worst to first:

14. The 25th Hour (2000) - David Benioff

I was pumped to read this book because I love City of Thieves so much but I could never find it. Eventually I ordered it online. After reading it I learned why I couldn't find it anywhere. It's trash. Apparently there was a movie adaptation starring Ed Norton and Phillip Seymour Hoffman though. I guess they liked it? It's about...nevermind just don't bother.

13. The Diamond Age (1995) - Neal Stephenson

Not sure why I read another Neal Stephenson book. I lost a few brain cells reading Seveneves a few years ago but people were telling me that The Diamond Age was one of his best. I would rank it above Seveneves but below a book of chess games I didn't even finish. This is definitely the last Neal Stephenson book I'll ever read. Probably.

12. The Moscow Marathon (1985) - Jon Speelman and Jonathan Tisdall

This is a book of chess games I didn't even finish. I started the year making social media posts reviewing the games of Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov's epic and controversial 1984/1985 world championship match.

It was a first to 6 wins match and Karpov took a 4-0 lead after 9 games. Then they drew 17 games in a row before Karpov won his 5th game. Then 4 more draws before Garry won his first game. Then 14 more draws before Garry won back-to-back games, making it 5-3. Then 6 months after the start of the match FIDE cancelled it citing health concerns of the players and all hell broke loose on Twitter.

Anyway my idea was that I don't like what social media discourse has become and in protest I would write reviews of 35-year-old chess games that nobody cares about. But reading through the games often put me to sleep and I gave up at some point. I also stopped playing live chess and started playing a lot more poker instead. The poker highlight (actually lowlight) of the year for me was making Day 3 of the WSOP Main Event but barely missing the money. Boo.

11. The City We Became (2020) - N.K. Jemisin

I loved the Broken Earth trilogy but this offering from N.K. Jemisin is not in the same league. Although everybody else seems to like it, so what do I know?

The concept is that when cities become large enough they are "born" as living entities and select humans become avatars of the city. And some otherworldy evil force wants to destroy all the cities.

It has an over-the-top lefty bias where all the sympathetic characters are people of color and/or queer and all the straight white people are villains. That didn't do much for me. But maybe that's why everybody else likes it.

10. Stormfront (2000) - Jim Butcher

This is a pulpy mystery novel about a private investigator who is also a wizard. A fun light read but lacking in depth. Which is also an apt description of my love life in 2021. Some entertainment but no real fireworks.

I have vague plans to read the second novel in the series some day if I ever come across it. Probably I'll have some meaningless sex again too.

9. A Darker Shade of Magic (2015) - V.E. Schwab

This one's in the same vein as Stormfront. Another light read but it's more fantasy than mystery and the world-building is quite a bit better. Also the first book in a series that I suppose I should continue. In this one magic is a living thing and there are 3 parallel worlds that our protagonist can move between, one of which is our own magic-denying world. Recommended to me by an internet date.

8. The Round House (2012) - Louise Erdrich

Minnesota native Louise Edrich won the Pulitzer in 2021 for her novel The Night Watchmen! Which for some reason I didn't read. But I read The Round House, which won the National Book Award in 2012.

The main character is an adolescent Native American boy living on a reservation. The novel starts with his mother barely surviving a horrific attack at the titular locale. The plot follows him, his friends, and his family as they cope with the trauma and hunt the perpetrator. Excellent prose and fantastic storytelling. I can't wait to read the The Night Watchmen!

7. The Underground Railroad (2016) - Colson Whitehead

I had a couple books on my reading list this year that were fictional tales of slaves escaping 19th century slavery. This one envisions an American South where the Underground Railroad is an actual physical railroad and the Southern states take varying approaches to horrific treatment of Blacks. It's a compelling read with strong characters but it's also depressing as fuck.

6. All The Pretty Horses (1992) - Cormac McCarthy

Another National Book Award winner with another film adaptation I haven't seen (starring Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz). This is the novel that made Cormac McCarthy famous. It's the first novel of his border trilogy and it's about a horse-whispering teenager who leaves Texas with his friend and rides into Mexico in search of a new life.

I'm no horse-whispering Texas teen but I suppose I have also left the U.S. for Mexico recently in search of some excitement. Not much drama showed up in my journal in 2021. I guess that's what Covid restrictions will do. Or perhaps I'm just becoming a boring old man with a retirement account. Well, never too late to skip town and blow all your money.

5. The Black Swan (2007) - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

This is a classic philosophy / economics text about the impact of highly improbable events (black swans), of which the COVID-19 pandemic is surely one.

Taleb was an options trader who invested heavily in market volatility (it's a thing) and became rich(er) when the market crashed in 1987. Even though he's writing about mathematical abstractions, he constantly uses colorful anecdotes to make his points and the text never feels dry.

I continued trading equities recreationally in 2021 after picking up the habit when the world ground to a halt in 2020. I had another great year of returns but certainly nothing to write a best-selling book about.

4. Washington Black (2018) - Esi Edugyan

This novel follows the life a young boy born into slavery in Barbados who ends up escaping and traveling the world. It paints a brutal picture of 19th century slavery in the Americas much like The Underground Railroad but this one offers glimmers of hope. It's a wonderful adventure story that turns a critical eye towards the relationship between slaves and abolitionists. The comparison could surely be extended to the relationship between Black Lives Matter advocates and Black people.

3. The Wisdom of Crowds (2021) - Joe Abercrombie

This is the finale of Abercombie's Age of Madness trilogy. I eat these books up. They're actually the only books that I buy the instant they're released and read immediately. I suppose if George R.R. Martin ever writes another Song of Fire and Ice book I'll read that one immediately too.

Anyway this is grimdark fantasy set in an industrializing world and this novel begins with a revolution. It is grim and dark though, so as with all Abercrombie works, don't get your hopes up for a happy ending.

2. A Memory Called Empire (2019) - Arkady Martine

This book ruled! Incredibly it's Martine's first published novel and it won the 2020 Hugo award. The main character is a young woman who leaves her home in a remote asteroid belt to become an ambassador in the heart of an empire. Her culture has a technology known only to them where they implant memories to pass down knowledge from one generation to the next.

The novel explores "empire" from the point of view of an outsider and delves deeply into the concept of "self." There's already a sequel out. I can't wait!

1. Watership Down (1972) - Richard Adams

I did not have high expectations for this one, but I absolutely loved it! It's about a group of rabbits who leave their warren to start a new one. Sounds boring but I tore through it. Go figure. I guess I learned a few things about rabbits too. Namely that they believe in a legendary rabbit named El-ahrairah and some of them can see the future. It's action-packed and epic. Everything you could want in a novel about rabbits.

That's it for 2021. Good riddance. In 2022 hopefully I'll be back to 20+ book reviews and that they will be full of references to the random adventures I have this year.