Reading List 2020

My reading productivity took a big hit year, because

1. The New York Public Library closed until late summer
2. My daily reading routine revolved around the daily subway commute, which was no more
3. The cats kept attacking my books

But I still managed to finish some great reads!

7 Books I Particularly Loved And Why

• “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer”
  by Siddhartha Mukherjee
  Basic science research may be expensive. But it’s more effective than trying to cure disease by buying advertising and skipping drug trials.
• “Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen”
  by Dexter Palmer
  Feeling nostalgia for the days when misinformation was imaginative and tabloid-y rather than about destroying democracy.
• “Fleishman Is In Trouble”
  by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
  Doctors goof off while talent agents do the real work.
• “Exhalation”
  by Ted Chiang
  Forget flying cars, the technology I’m looking forward to is more pets.
• “Know my Name”
  by Chanel Miller
  The art classes at RISD sound like tons of fun and less pretentious than I expected.
• “The Charisma Machine: The Life, Death, and Legacy of One Laptop Per Child”
  by Morgan Ames
  Computers aren’t enough to fix society, sorry.
• “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement”
  by Jodi Cantor and Megan Twohey
  Be like Ashley Judd: arrange for the destruction of your enemies, then go on a multi-day Appalachian Trail hike when they meet justice.

Covers

Perspective Check

(The joint authors throw the totals off)

By Only Men: 20 / 38
By Only Women: 15 / 38

By Only White People: 26 / 38
By Only Non-White People: 10 / 38

Fiction: 17 / 38
Non-Fiction: 21 / 38

Recent (2019 or 2020): 21 / 38
Earlier This Decade (2011–2018): 6 / 38
Classics (pre-2011): 11 / 38

Happy 2021!