2020 Book List.
47 books, 15,346 pages, roughly 260 hours of reading. I never expected to read this much or grow like I did in 2020. My original goal was 20 books, I passed that number in June. 2020 was a year focused on growth and focusing on what is important to me. Listed in the order that I read them, here are a few words on all 47 books I read this past year.
TLDR: Top 5 most important reads of the year
Creative Quest | Questlove
The Central Park Five | Sarah Burns
Man’s Search for Meaning | Viktor Frankl
The Will to Change | Bell Hooks
The Knowledge of the Holy | A.W. Tozer
1.) The Plague | Albert Camus
I Started this book at the end of 2019 and had no idea how relevant it would be to what we all experienced in 2020. A story about a small town, quarentening to deal with an outbreak of a plague. This story focus on a few characters and how they struggle with being stuck in place and isolated from those they love.
Rating: 3.5/5
2.) Down and Out in Paris and London | George Orwell
This was a super interesting book for me. It did an incredible job of putting me into the shoes of the protagonist and really feeling his struggles. I truly understood what he was going through and his environment due to George Orwell’s incredible detailed but captivating writing.
Rating: 4/5
3.) Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes on a Tribe Called Quest | Hanif Abdurraqib
I may not have started listen to A Tribe Called Quest until their 2016 performance on SNL mere days after Trump was elected, but from that performance I realized two things, their music was incredible and they had a cultural impact beyond what I knew about them. Hanif fills in all of those gaps on the importance of their music and the struggles they had making it. I’ve been drawn to Hanif’s writing after reading They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, and was blown away by it. Hanif does an incredible job of showcasing his experiences that are incredibly different from mine even though we share the same hometown.
Rating: 4/5
4.) Mindhunter | John E. Douglas
If you know me, you know I am fascinated by true crime. This is one of the books that started it all. This book is FULL of details (almost too many at times) breaking down the origins of the FBI Serial Crime unit. This book griped me not because it is full of true crime stories but it takes the time to breakdown the psychology behind these serial killers.
Rating: 3.5/5
5.) When I Don’t Desire God| John Piper
I’ve had this book on my shelf for quite awhile and felt it was finally time to give John Piper a chance and read one of his more popular books. I wasn’t blown away. As I reflect back on this book I don’t really remember what I learned from it. It felt very surface level and not deep which is what I am looking for when I dig into a religious book.
Rating: 2/5
6.) The Outside | Stephen King
The first Stephen King I’ve read, and let me say, I loved it. After watching the killer HBO show with the same name, I wanted more of the characters and their stories. I didn’t think you could beat the show, but the book has so many more intricacies in each character that really helped me relate and care about them on an entirely different level.
Rating: 4.5/5
7.) Creative Quest | Ahmir Questlove Thompson
I don’t know if I can say enough good things about this book. This is the book that I give as a gift to any of my friends working in the creative space. I think back to quotes from this book almost daily. It completely changed how I think about creativity and the world in general.
Rating: 5/5
8.) Orbiting The Giant Hairball | Gordon MacKenzie
After leaving the freelance world and starting a job at a large company, I’ve felt some loss of creative energy, since I can’t fully pick and choose what I do each day. This short book (I finished it in 2 afternoons) helped me reshape how I saw working for a big company and showed me how I can still be creative while working for someone else.
Rating: 3/5
9.) The Shining | Stephen King
The Shining is my favorite movie of all time, from the ground breaking camera work to the unreal acting, this movie blows me away time and time again. Hearing that the author of this book hates the movie made me have to read the book, and I see why now. Some of the key moments from the book were removed. Now, I see why Kubrick made the changes he did but I would love to see a 100% faithful remake of this book. It was beyond griping and just a wild ride all the way through.
Rating: 5/5
10.) Doctor Sleep| Stephen King
As with most things, it’s really difficult for the sequel to live up to the original. Doctor Sleep takes “the shine” ability and turns it up to 11, which is an interesting idea but it quickly begins feeling like a good versus evil comic book story. In contrast from the grounded original, Doctor Sleep is an interesting story but falls short of hitting the magic that made The Shining so special to me.
Rating: 3/5
11.) Helter Skelter | Vincent Bugliosi
Charles Manson, what a story. I don’t know if I knew the details of all the craziness that happened as a result of this one man. Helter Skelter gives you every detail possible, even if they are disputed (see book review for Chaos for more details). The twist and turns are so unpredictable that at times I forgot this was real life. Bugliosi tells the story in a very dry, matter of fact way that makes sense from his DA point of view.
Rating: 4/5
12.) No Country for Old Men | Cormac McCarthy
No Country for Old Men is on of my favorite movies with one of the most interesting antagonist I’ve ever seen on screen. The movie is a pretty true retelling of the book with only a few minor changes. If you loved the movie and can get used to Cormac McCarthy’s writing style (took me a couple chapters) you will love this book.
Rating: 3.5/5
13.) 2001: A Space Odyssey | Arthur C. Clarke
Continuing on my Stanley Kubrick binge, I jumped into 2001: A Space Odyssey, a book written concurrently with the movie. It is crazy to me that this was written in 1968. We might not have hit the level of scientific knowledge Clarke predicted we would by 2001, but we are pretty damn close as we approach 2021. Predicting AI, wormholes, and so much more, this book is an incredibly interesting story of time and technology that feels extremely grounded and real, despite how out there these concepts would have been in 1968.
Rating: 3.5/5
14.) Frankenstein | Mary Shelley
Throwing it back to a high school classic is a book that gripped me back then and once again now. I don’t know what it was but it fascinated me and made me want to come back know, over 5 years after graduation. There are so many interesting themes in this book, but I think the most interesting to me is the humanization of the monster, while everyone around him is trying to dehumanize him.
Rating: 4.5/5
15.) Beyond Belief | Jenna Miscavige Hill
From true crime to cult stories, there is nothing that I enjoy more than a true story of humanity operating at its extremes. This book, written by the niece of the current head of Scientology, is an interesting journey from growing up in a cult, seeing its flaws, and trying to get out, all with an interesting love story mixed in.
Rating: 3.5/5
16.) The Sun Also Rises | Ernest Hemingway
I figured it was time to read my first Hemingway book, and TBH I wasn’t blown away. I enjoyed the writing and how vivid the moments were painted, but it felt like nothing really happened the entire time. I’m glad I gave Hemingway another chance with a Farewell to Arms (see review below)
Rating: 2.5/5
17.) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | Phillip K. Dick
Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 might be my favorite dilogy of movies (I googled it, it’s a real thing), so I was interested to realize that these movies were based on a book. The book was… fine. Nothing crazy. I enjoyed is writing style but all I wanted was to watch the Blade Runner film and hear the replicants insane monologue as he dies in the rain.
Rating: 2/5
18.) Shutter Island | Denis Lehane
If you haven’t realized yet, I was really drawn to books that some of my favorite movies are based on. Most of the time, for me, the book doesn’t live up the the excellence of the movie, but Shutter Island is equally as good as one of my favorite movies. Digging deeper into Teddy’s character, it excels in the same places the movie does, makes you question everything and everyone all the way down to the last page and beyond.
Rating: 5/5
19.) The Phantom Prince | Elizabeth Kendall
Back to serial killer true stories! Written by the ex-long time girlfriend of Ted Bundy, this is an interesting tale of loving someone that you think you know, but turns out to be nothing like what you thought. A unique perspective on one of the most famous serial killers in history that is heartbreaking.
Rating: 3.5/5
20.) The Hero With a Thousand Faces | Joseph Campbell
I wanted to love this book. On paper it had everything I wanted. It has the basis for so much of our current storytelling and digs into myths of the past, but at the end of the day, it was just too much information. It took me longer than any other book to get through because it was just so dense. I want to revisit this book, as I up my mythology reading game, but for now, I want to just read a dumbed down version of this.
Rating: 2.5/5
21.) Chaos: Charles Manson, The CIA, and the Secret History of the 60’s | Tom O’Neill
After reading Helter Skelter and watching every YouTube video I could find about Manson, I was interested to find this book, claiming what Bugliosi said wasn’t 100% true in this case. I won’t say this book wasn’t interesting, as it presented every conspiracy theory around the Manson family and the 60’s in general. The best way to describe how I felt about this book is that it was like someone was telling you an incredible joke that just keep building and building, but there was no punchline for 544 pages. It was just a collection of conspiracies that weren’t fully finished. I don’t think any of us will fully know what actually happened with The Family, and I now agree Helter Skelter shouldn’t be seen as the bible on the manson family, but this ain’t it either.
Rating: 2.5/5
22.) Since We Fell | Denis Lehane
Interesting story, but nothing to write home about. I would be interested in a sequel to this book, as it seemed like everything that we built up to had just come full circle on the last page. I’d be curious to see where the characters go after this book ends.
Rating: 2/5
23.) The Central Park Five | Sarah Burns
This is an important read. One of the most tragic stories I’ve ever read. Digging into police brutality, discrimination, and so many other things that we are still dealing with today.
Rating: 4/5
24.) American Psycho | Bret Easton Ellis
The movie starring Christian Bale of the same name is one of the best acting performances I’ve ever seen. The movie also digs into some really interesting themes of toxic masculinity and capitalism that are somewhat present in the book, but I don’t know man, it was just too graphic for me. I had to skip whole chapters at times.
Rating: 1.5/5
25.) Reset | David Murray
I read this one back in college and it did exactly what that title said it would, reset me, but revisiting it this year didn’t quite have the same affect on me. It was a totally fine read, but I now craze something deeper and honestly, harder to comprehend. I want to be forced to think about what I am reading and not just be hand fed things.
Rating: 2/5
26.) Columbine | Dave Cullen
Most stories of murder don’t spend this much time explaining to you all of the people that were involved. This book is not for the faint of heart, as it goes into great details on all of the students and faculty killed that day at Columbine, the story of the two shooters, and the lasting effects this event had on the people of this small town. It was one of the most gripping, human, and raw books I’ve read around a true crime. It didn’t feel as political as Helter Skelter, it wasn’t trying to convince me of anything, it just wanted to tell the true story of what happened.
Rating: 4.5/5
27.) Circe | Madeline Miller
When I read the Odyssey in High School, I was fascinated by these outrageous stories. Circe builds on those stories from a completely different perspective. Told from the point of view of a minor character, you get to see everything from a unique and interesting perspective. I will 100% read more of Madeline Miller’s retellings of myths that fascinate me.
Rating: 4.5/5
28.) Man’s Search for Meaning | Viktor E. Frankl
If you read only one book from my list of recommendations, I hope that it is this one. A book split into two halves, the first recounts the stories of Viktor Frankl, living life in a concentration camp. It is heartbreaking and really helps you understand Viktor and what comes next. The second part of the book breaks down how Frankl made it through his time in the camps. Out of his time, he comes up with a new way to see meaning in life, even in the hardest moments.
Rating: 5/5
29.) The Splending and the Vile | Erik Larson
Larson’s Devil in the White City is one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. This one just doesn’t quite hit the same highs as Devil in the White City. Maybe it is the subject matter, but it just felt dry. It was an interesting story of WWII focused on the British experience that I just didn’t get in my school education, but at the end of the day, wasn’t compelling enough for me.
Rating: 2.5/5
30.) A Farewell to Arms | Ernest Hemmingway
Despite disliking my for first Hemmingway of the year, I decide to give him another chance and I was so glad I did. A Farewell to Arms is a tragic story filled with complex characters and an enthralling narrative. I felt like I was right there with the characters on the front lines.
Rating: 4/5
31.) In The Secret of His Presence | George Halley Knight
In the midst of all these books, I don’t know if any book taught or showed me as much as this one. I have always been the type that is reluctant to spend time alone, this book taught me the importance of slowing down and sitting in silence for a while. In the silent times I have learned more about myself than in all the books I’ve read this year combined.
Rating: 4/5
32.) The Will to Meaning | Viktor E. Frankl
The best way to describe this book is that if Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, was the 101 class, this is the 201. Taking everything he talks about a step further and breaking it down further. If you enjoy Man’s Search for meaning and wanted more, read this.
Rating: 4/5
33.) A Clockwork Orange | Anthony Burgess
My 3rd book turned Stanley Kubrick film of the year, A Clockwork Orange wasn’t exactly what I expected. I came in fairly blind, having only seen a few random scenes from the film. I thought the story was unique and interesting, but left me lost at various points.
Rating: 2.5/5
34.) Cherry | Nico Walker
Recommended by a friend, Cherry was one of my biggest surprise books this year. I didn’t think I would enjoy the characters as much as I did, I didn’t expect to be pulled into the story and want more like I did. There is so much heart in these pages, a credit to the author Nico Walker who penned it behind prison bars. This isn’t 100% a true story on his life, but you can tell he pulled from his real life experiences to create this thrilling, heartbreaking book.
Rating: 4.5/5
35.) The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love | Bell Hooks
I don’t know where this book came from, but all of a sudden I saw it pop up on a few people’s Instagram stories as a must read. I jumped in and my life was changed. This book helped frame the male experience and what our role should be in this world. All I wish is that it would have dug into more of the “how to” of getting to where we should be from where we currently are.
Rating: 4.5/5
36.) The Knowledge of the Holy | A.W. Tozer
This is my most read book. I plan to reread it once a year because it is so foundational to my faith. It helps shape, reshape, and focus me every time I read it. If you are of the christian faith, read this book next. It will expand your views, while also breaking others down.
Rating: 5/5
37.) The Sundown Motel | Simone St. James
The only book I read this year that was published in 2020. Sundown Motel came highly recommended and I see why. A story set between to time periods that eventually come together. It was a little predictable at times, but was an interesting story nonetheless.
Rating: 3.5/5
38.) Dark Matter | Blake Crouch
I love a good sci-fi movie, but when it comes to books I tend to like something more grounded and real. Dark Matter was the exception to this. It surprised me with its twists and turns. I didn’t want to put this book down.
Rating: 4/5
39.) Care of the Soul | Thomas Moore
This book was cited a few times in The Will to Change, so I thought I would give it a chance as it seemed like it would dig into what I was missing from that book. Care of the Soul felt like therapy to me (I know nothing can replace actual therapy). This book really helped me look deeply at myself and how I was caring for my soul. There were some pieces I disagreed with, but more or less this book really helped me push my personal, internal growth to the next level.
Rating: 4/5
40.) The Abolition of Man | C.S. Lewis
I bought a collection of C.S. Lewis books and decided to jump in with this one. Abolition of Man was very interesting, but as it was written in response to a book that I hadn’t yet read, it didn’t really connect with me. Maybe if I would have read the book it is responding to I would have understood more of the points is was trying to make.
Rating: 2/5
41.) The War of Art | Steven Pressfield
This is a book I cannot wait to revisit. It was such an easy and inspiring read that when I finished the last page, I was more motivated to jump into my creative work than I had been in a long time.
Rating: 3.5/5
42.) Radical Candor| Kim Scott
Sorry to anyone from work that is reading this, I did not enjoy this book. Maybe it wasn’t written for me or something like that, but I just did not connect with it, nor take anything away. It all felt like common sense to me as I was reading it.
Rating: 2/5
43.) Hollywood Park| Mikel Jollett
This was the biggest surprise book that I read this year. I was told it was a story about a cult, but that couldn’t have been farther from the truth. It’s a sad sad true story of the trauma family can cause you and of a young man trying to process it and share his story with the world.
Rating: 4/5
44.) Dune | Frank Herbert
In preparation for the Dune film coming in 2021 (the movie I am most excited for), I wanted to read the book. I was not prepared to fall in love with the characters and their struggles like I did. I feel like this book was the perfect example of the Hero’s Journey in our main protagonist, Paul. For those of you interested in Sci-fi and incredibly deep storytelling, this is a must read.
Rating: 4/5
45.) The Cultural Impact of Kanye West | Julius Bailey
I don’t hide it, I’m a Kanye fan and am fascinated by him. I’ve always thought there was a method to his madness. This book tried to tackle something impossible, describe the impact Kanye has had both positively and negatively on our culture as a whole. Written by college professors, parts of it definitely went over my head, but if you are a fan of Kanye, this is the most thorough research I’ve seen on the genius that is Kanye West.
Rating: 3/5
46.) Dune Messiah | Frank Herbert
After completing Dune I, I needed more of the world and let me tell you, Dune II did not let me down. Building off of the ending of the first book and taking the story places I did not expect. This book, at times, is harder to follow than the original, but what it lacks in ease of read, it makes up for in compelling characters facing incredible difficult challenges.
Rating: 3.5/5
47.) Outliers | Malcolm Gladwell
The final book of 2020 hit me with a lot of questions that I’m glad I had to answer. Outliers tackles so many things that I did not expect based on the title alone. The tagline for this book is “The Story of Success” and it really made me reevaluate what I think of when I think of success and those that are successful. I don’t know if this book will make me change anything that I do, but it for sure made me think about my life and what success looks like to me.
Rating: 3/5