2020 reading list

As I have before, I once again present my reading list for 2020. I first list the books I read (in roughly chronological order), and then make a few observations and comments.

• The Ruin of Kings — Jenn Lyons
• The Sharded Boy — L. Darby Gibbs
• The Man Who was Orthodox — G.K. Chesterton
• Cards of Grief — Jane Yolen
• Frey — Melissa Wright
• Liberal Fascism — Jonah Goldberg
• Faerie Fruit — Charlotte E. English
• New Spring — Robert Jordan
• Tenured Radicals — Roger Kimball
• A God in Chains — Matthew Hughes
• Song of Blood and Stone — L. Penelope
• Sister Emily’s Lightship — Jane Yolen
• The Road — Cormac McCarthy
• Avowals and Denials — G.K. Chesterton
• The Laughing Prophet — Emile Cammaerts
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight — J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Palace of Lost Memories — C.J. Archer
• Bringer of Storms — L.B. Graham [reread]
• Fire and Sword — Dylan Doose
• The Sounds of Poetry — Robert Pinsky [reread?]
• A Wind in the Door — Madeleine L’Engle
• The Saint’s Rise — Michael Grist
• The Four Gospels from a Lawyer’s Standpoint — Edmund Hatch Bennett
• Collected Works Vol. X: Collected Poetry Part 2 — G.K. Chesterton
• The Strongman and the Mermaid — Kathleen Shoop
• The Jews — Hilaire Belloc
• The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun — J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Verlyn Flieger
• Good Day! — Paul J. Batura
• Beyond This Dark House — Guy Gavriel Kay
• St. Thomas Aquinas — G.K. Chesterton [reread]
• The Black Earth trilogy — M.S. Verish
• The Club of Queer Trades — G.K. Chesterton
• Tales from the Perilous Realm — J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Man Who Knew Too Much — G.K. Chesterton
• A Swiftly Tilting Planet — Madeleine L’Engle
• Collected Works Vol. X: Collected Poetry Part 3 — G.K. Chesterton
• To Kill a Fae — Jamie A. Waters
• Shadow in the Deep — L.B. Graham [reread]
• The Guns of Ivrea — Clifford Beal
• The Father Brown Stories — G.K. Chesterton
• Many Waters — Madeleine L’Engle
• An Acceptable Time — Madeleine L’Engle
• The Darker Road — L.B. Graham
• The Spice of Life — G.K. Chesterton
• Haiku Harvest — Peter Beilenson, editor/translator
• Poetry as Liturgy — Margo Swiss, editor

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Now for some comments. I came just short of my low-key goal of 50 books. To be perfectly honest, this is due in large part to my increased amount of video-game consumption. I hope to get more good reading in this year, though.

Once again, and to no surprise, G.K. Chesterton tops my most-read authors list. This, I warn the reader, will likely continue for years to come. I intend to read all of GKC’s works by the time I die, and it might take that long. But more than that, he and his writing are always refreshing and encouraging to me; I sometimes find myself feeling down or disturbed, and realize I haven’t read any Chesterton in a while. And there’s always more GKC to read.

I was about to link to my post on Chesterton, when I realized I don’t have one yet. Shameful. I’ll get one up this year—call it a resolution.

As in the past few years, fantasy has been the most-read genre on my list. I do not mind this either. A number of these fantasy works have been rather obscure, one might say; this is due partly to my use of BookBub, which provides me with lists of discounted ebooks, and my possession of a Kobo e-reader. As an aside, I have thoughts on e-readers; I’ll have to make a post about that at some point as well.

Anyways, another significant part of my reading this year has been poetry. The larger part of this has been G.K. Chesterton again; the two volumes of collected poetry are hefty tomes. But some of the Tolkien, the Kay, and of course the last two entries on the list are also poetry. Plus there was Pinsky’s The Sounds of Poetry, which I may have previously read and forgotten, but which this time round was immensely helpful.

Another minor trend in my reading has been some non-fiction. In terms of books, particularly at the start of the year, but all throughout the year I have of course been reading academic articles for school and thesis research. I used to read almost exclusively non-fiction as a boy; last year I enjoyed the books I read, and hope to read more non-fiction this year.

Perhaps because of my increased rate of poetry consumption, I have suddenly started writing poetry this year. I’ve dabbled for years, but this year it suddenly became more serious, as it were. Since writing is rather the inverse of reading, I will not discuss it further here (I have already, for instance here, and I intend to post more poetry in the future).

A proper favourites-of-the-year post may come in the following days, but for now, I’ll just note a few of the standouts. Chesterton’s work, of course, but especially the poems, some of which are phenomenal. The Father Brown stories are classics that I thoroughly enjoyed. Jane Yolen’s writing is generally exceptional, especially the short-story collection Sister Emily’s Lightship. Revisiting Robert Jordan’s world via New Spring was particularly enjoyable as well. Clifford Beal’s The Guns of Ivrea was swashbuckling good fun. And on the theme of reading more poetry this year, I’ve really come to love haiku, such as those in Peter Beilenson’s edited volumes. Reading some new Tolkien was a delight, as well.

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Well, that’s a random bunch of comments. But it was fun to revisit in memory this year’s reading. If you’ve made it this far, thank you! And all best wishes for a happy and reading-filled new year!