Not all of these books were written in 2019. I didn’t even read all of them this year. Hell, I didn’t even read all of them-14 were consumed as audiobooks. Still, one recent Sunday morning, I decided that I would forget everything I read this year if I didn’t write them down. Hence the three page list on the yellow legal pad in front of me.
Last year, I bought myself a Kindle for my birthday. It made sense-I travel a lot, have limited shelf space, anticipate moving soon and do not want to lug books from place to place, and have no local bookstore to rely on and revel in. In the second half of 2019, though, I found myself buying more cheap paperbacks off Amazon than digital copies on the Kindle. Still supporting the corporate behemoth that is increasingly involved in my life (Alexa, tell me the news) yet returning to paper copies of the art form I most frequently use.
This year also saw the surprisingly late introduction of Hunter S. Thompson and Charles Bukowski to my library. I tried to make every other book nonfiction with some success, though novels still dominate the list. I did do a decent job, I believe, of reading meaningful works instead of just your typical “airport book” that tells a great story but could easily be left on your seat in the terminal for the next reader like a Politico left on a DC subway seat. A notable exception to this is “Roy, Vampire,” a Kindle-only vampire romance thriller that I am very proud of completing.
Most notably crossed off of my “big books” list was Ulysses by James Joyce. I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I anticipated, what with it being such a seminal modern work. It has a lot of words in it and I think it is overly appreciated. A book that impressed me as I crossed it off the list was A People’s History of the United States. Could it inspire another generation to surprise the nation in a way that, according to the late Howard Zinn, the sixties had? Maybe not, but it certainly opened my eyes to labor struggles within the United States in a way nothing has before. It also allowed me to enjoy learning American history for the first time in over ten years, at the very least since high school. Some small but bigger-than-expected rebellions were even referenced as having happened in tiny upstate New York towns near my hometown (shoutout to the Anti-Rent War, the “Calico Indians,” and Berne, New York). In spite of all my American Socialist Awakening (Helen Keller was a Socialist!), I still bought and sold quite a few stocks this year. Sorry, Howard.
Short biographies written by young people: are they having a moment? I’m talking, of course, about Educated by Tara Westover and others like it-Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wells. That is also the order I read these three books in. I adored Educated for its descriptions of western American life with its religious radicalism and quirky people. Now, “quirky people” is quite the understatement-overbearing, oppressive, and sexist all more accurately describe Westover’s father. You get the sense that her experience is unique while probably being more common than we would like to think. Hillbilly Elegy was my least favorite of the three, evidenced by the fact that I remember the least about it. Theme: rust belt Americans have fewer opportunities since the rust belt became the rust belt. The Glass Castle, written years before the other two but only brought to my attention as a result of their reading, was my favorite. Its characters deserve the designation of “quirky.” It will be my go-to gift for birthdays in 2020-accessible to anyone with a family.
Travels with Charley in Search of America was a bad book for me to read while living in Europe. It made me pine for my home country, for all the corners both familiar and unfamiliar. The most impressive descriptions were of the Badlands in South Dakota and Steinbeck’s adventures in Maine. In a similar vein, Peter Jenkins’ A Walk Across America made me reconsider Appalachia and the southern states. His very unique experience was compelling and an uplifting read. The book that made me happiest to live in Europe was Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. Completed on a surprisingly long train journey back from Prague, this racy tale helped me feel that expat passion that is falsely clung to still by so many Americans traveling to Paris and other European countries.
Out of all the books I read, there were only two that I had read before, though much earlier in life. These are It by Stephen King and Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. I first read It when I was about fourteen years old and discovering reading as an active pursuit. I was definitely too young to read it then, but bought a secondhand copy at a flea market in Maine on a trip visiting our grandparents and felt a connection with the characters who were roughly my age. It was a gripping read then and was again this year. My dad first introduced me to Jonathan Livingston Seagull when I was about seventeen. I read the copy my family keeps on their bookshelf and bought it for myself this past year. It is a book I recommend to everyone. I put it in my All Time Top Ten.
The year began with my first foray into the realm of self help books. The Defining Decade by Meg Jay should be read by everyone graduating college and helped me deal with the inevitable comedown that follows college graduation in the first year of real “work.” Part of my coping mechanism was to begin listening to audiobooks during my thirty minute commute in an attempt to at least feel more productive with my time. The two books I enjoyed the most driving to and from work are somewhat similar: The Boys in the Boat and Seabiscuit: An American Legend. Similar in time frame, part of America, and fact that they both center around racing events, these two books literally had me cheering in my car as the heroes contained within strove for victory. I also made a concentrated effort to listen to more nonfiction, completing Sapiens, The Big Oyster, Dopesick, Becoming, and Guns, Germs, and Steel in this manner.
I could not talk about my 2019 in books if I did not mention that it was the year I discovered Hunter S. Thompson. Knowing that I was late to the party made me no less happy to arrive. I first finished Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (of course), followed by Hell’s Angels and then The Rum Diary. Incidentally, that is the order in which I rank them, although Hell’s Angels is really on par with Fear and Loathing. I am ready to order more collections of his writings for Rolling Stone. I also finally read Kurt Vonnegut with Hocus Pocus. I claim Vonnegut as an Upstate New York native more than I should. I am “pretty sure” he lived near Amsterdam, New York, approximately twenty minutes from my hometown. I am no less proud to claim him after reading one of his works.
I typically try to avoid books that have been translated into English from a different language. This is very short-sighted and something I should probably stop doing. Two books I was especially glad to have read this year are The Discovery of Slowness by Sten Nadolny and My Struggle Book One by Karl Ove Knausgaard. Both of these books have received international buzz and rightfully so. I am not going to complete reading the massive undertaking that Knausgaard has put forth though I enjoyed the first installment. It just does not seem worth the time to me-if I am going to read multiple volumes, it will finally be Proust. The Discovery of Slowness was remarkable, an incredible tale of exploration that had me staring at the Canadian wilderness on Google Maps for longer than anybody reasonably should.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell was a book I read on a recommendation. I am grateful for the suggestion for it was one of my personal favorite books of the year. It was very readable and intriguing while remaining complex enough to leave me pondering it for some time after closing the back cover. I have no desire to see the movie.
Before this ends, some nonfiction books I must mention are Evicted by Matthew Desmond, Barbarian Days by William Finnegan, Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe, and Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. Bad Blood was eye-opening in its depiction of how so many high profile people were duped in a Silicon Valley scheme. Say Nothing was the best book I have read on the conflicts in Northern Ireland and was written in a compulsively readable style. In my opinion, Evicted should be read by every American. It was difficult to pick through as it was very academic in its approach, but the legitimacy this lends only makes its truths that much more heartbreaking. I had to put it down at times to catch my breath, particularly after the fire, and certainly read something uplifting afterward. Finally, Barbarian Days is in my top three of the year. I loved every second of its journey around the world in search of the perfect wave, a concept as much as an actual natural phenomena. It made me want to drop everything to become a surfer.
It seems unfair now to not write about every book I read this year, but I know that it must end. I do feel as though every book I completed deserves mention and some level of detail above the passing nod I give to those already mentioned. You can see the full list in the images in this post. On to 2020 and all the books and authors I have not yet attempted.