It’s time for my annual “What did Johnny Read Last Year” post.
2021 was another year for stress and unpleasant worry. To combat the decline of western civilization and implosion of capitalism, I challenged myself to read 50 books in the calendar year and successfully consumed 59. Pretty awesome.
Below is the list. You’ll see certain patterns there. I fell in love with Cory Doctorow, Ursula K. Le Guin and I devoured books on Buddhism while boning up on the rise of the grain state and astrophysics. And of course, I perused a few classics.
The Totally Awesome Book of Useless Information, Noel Botham
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Ursula K. Le Guin
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller
Ravel, Cassidy Ward
Orlando, Virginia Woolf
5
We Can Build You, Phillip K Dick
White Trash Warlock, David R. Slayton
A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
The Counterfeit Connection, Johnny Worthen
Lady Chatterly’s Lover, D H Lawrence
10
Passage Meditation, Eknath Easwaran
No-Nonsense Buddhism for Beginners, Noah Rasheta
Squeeze Me, Carl Hiaasen
Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo
The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, Thich Nhat Hanh
15
Tropic of Stupid, Tim Dorsey
Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie
Think Like a Monk, Jay Shetty
Steering the Craft, Ursula K. Le Guin
Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie
20
The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
What the Buddha Taught, Walpola Rahula
Skios, Michael Frayn
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
A Briefer History of Time, Stephen Hawking
25
If Not Now, When? Infinite Monkey Anthology
They Both Die at the End, Adam Silvera
Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Strong in Broken Places, LUW anthology
A Promised Land, Barack Obama
30
Stargazer, Anne Hillerman
The Hypnotist, Lars Kepler
The Upanishads, Eknath Easwaran
Information Doesn’t Want to be Free, Cory Doctorow
Radicalized, Cory Doctorow
35
Eastern Standard Tribe, Cory Doctorow
Overclocked, Cory Doctorow
Buddhism for Beginners, Thubten Chords
Walkaway, Cory Doctorow
Maximum Bob, Elmore Leonard
40
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
Runaway: Poppet Cycle 2, Donna J. W. Munro
Bonfire of the Vanities, Thomas Wolfe
Catwings, Ursula K. Le Guin
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
45
Catwings Return, Ursula K. Le Guin
Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings, Ursula K. Le Guin
Moonwalking with Einstein, Joshua Foer
Jane on Her Own, Ursula K. Le Guin
Seeing Sideways, Kristin Hersh
50
Crooked Kingdom, Leigh Bardugo
Homeland, Cory Doctorow
The King in Yellow, Robert W. Chambers
Captains Courageous, Rudyard Kipling
The Man with the Golden Arm, Nelson Algren
55
The Four Seals of the Dharma, Lama Khenpo Ngedön
Against the Grain, James C. Scott
Why Buddhism is True, Robert Wright
The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber & David Wengrow
59
The challenge continues. 50 books in 2022.
Peace out,
—Johnny