Here is the list of notable things I read in 2020.
-
Artemis, Andrew Weir - finished 2019-01, day unknown
-
Permanent Record, Edward Snowden - finished 2019-02-11 23:55 EST
-
Adorning The Dark, Andrew Peterson - finished somewhere between 2020-01-01 and 2020-04-01. I feel like probably January, but not sure.
-
All The Crooked Saints, Maggie Stiefvater - finished 2020-03-02 00:33 EST
-
Redwall, Brian Jacques (read-aloud for James - he loved it, cheered during the final battle, and immediately suggested rereading it) - finished 2020-03-19 8:35 PM EDT
-
Message Contains No Recognizable Symbols, part 1. It's not great writing, and I don't believe in software superintelligence, but it does a decent job of capturing in fictional form what it might be like to be a witness to the birth of a unFriendly superintelligence. I read this ages ago but had it come to mind and dug it up 2020-04-27.
-
How To Invent Everything, Ryan North. Started this around my birthday or Christmas 2019, finally finished it up 2020-06-21 @ 11:17 AM EDT. A good installment in the bootstrapping civilization genre, though still not quite the volume I wish existed (it had a bit more practical detail than The Knowledge in some places, but less in others, and also perpetuated a likely false narrative around the origins of vibrators, so the book's rigor is not to be fully trusted).
-
The Wind In The Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. Read it aloud to James over the course of the summer. I had read it several times myself over the years. He quite liked it, and while he didn't get all the subtleties, he did appreciate what a good friend Ratty was being for Mole in the chapter "Dulce Domum". I think we started somewhere in May, and finished in early August, but that's a guess.
-
Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett. My sister sent this to me as an impromptu gift, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Finished it on 2020-08-20 @ 10:55 PM Eastern.
-
Making Money, by Terry Pratchett. The sequel to Going Postal. Hannah gave it to me for my birthday, and I read it within a few days of receiving it.
-
The Man Higher Up, a fun little O. Henry short story. Finished 2020-08-24 23:08:10 EDT, if I read my unclear note correctly.
-
Nonviolent Communication, by Marshall Rosenberg. Finished 2020-09-03 at 1:34 AM Eastern. It is full of amazingly straightforward ideas I would never have gotten to on my own, and which seem eminently straightforward but are brutally difficult to put into practice. My few successful attempts to apply it so far suggest it really does work, though. Strongly, strongly recommended reading for all homo sapiens (except Jesus, I suppose, who I believe already understands all this better than the author).
-
Two Arms And A Head, a book-length suicide note by a man who became paraplegic in a motorcycle accident. For many it would be a deeply, deeply disturbing read, and I certainly did not enjoy it. While it is wrongheaded in many ways, it does offer insight into how much suffering sudden paraplegia can bring to a person, and I am grateful to the poor author for helping me empathize with a category of people I had not devoted enough thought to. Reading it has also renewed my gratitude for having a body that largely works, something I take far too much for granted.
-
The Reason For God, a book about why it's reasonable to believe in Jesus, by Timothy Keller. It was a good read - it's clearly aimed at curious seekers, but I found it helpful as a believer who experiences doubt often. I'm not sure when I started it - I think sometime in August 2020. I finished it 2020-11-21 @ 11:10 PM.