It's the end of 2020, which means it's time to review all the reading and listening I've done over the past calendar year. Here's how 2020 breaks down:
= favorite
= also really enjoyed
Books (click to expand full list) ▼
FICTION: SCI-FI/FANTASY
Alien Prison Ship by Terrance Mulloy
Apocalypse by Kyle West
Arsenal by Jeffrey Haskell
Axillon99 by Matthew S. Cox
Balanced on the Blade's Edge by Lindsey Buroker
Bionics, The by Alicia Michaels
Blue Fall by B.B. Griffith
Breakers of the Dawn by Zechariah Wahrer
Caledonian Gambit, The by Dan Moren
Cartwright's Cavaliers by Mark Wandrey
Deadland Drifter by J.N. Chaney
Death of Captain America by Larry Hama
Depth by Lev AC Rosen
Dying World by Chris Fox
Eden Paradox, The by Barry Kirwan
Emperor's Edge, The by Lindsay Buroker
Escape from Virtual Island by John Lutz
Forget Nothing by Jason Anspach
Flash Gold by Lindsay Buroker
Gates of Hell by J.F. Penn
Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers by Sarena Ulibarri
Hard Luck Hank: Screw the Galaxy by Steven Campbell
Hatchling by Chris Fox
How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps by Andrew Rowe
In Time For Revenge by Jasper T. Scott
Interview with the Robot by Lee Bacon
Junkyard Cats by Faith Hunter
Last Call at the Nighshade Lounge by Paul Krueger
Map of Shadows by J.F. Penn
Memoirs of a Time Traveler by Doug Molitor
Messengers, The by Lindsay Joelle
Momentary Stasis by P.R. Adams
Necrotech by Chris Fox
Nevada Necromance by Joe Moe, et al.
Never Hero, The by T. Ellery Hodges
New Avengers: Breakout by Alisa Kwitney
Nighthawks by Jeremy Flagg
Other Worlds Than These by John Joseph Adams
Peculiar, The by Stefan Bachmann
Project Destiny by Justin Sloan
Queen of Sidonia by Richard Fox
Rebel Sword by Peter Bostrom
Robot Uprisings by Daniel H. Wilson & John Joseph Adams
Sol Arbiter by J.N. Chaney
Sol Shall Rise by G.P. Hudson
Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn
Stuck by Chris Grabenstein
Three by Jay Posey
Titanborn by Rhett C. Bruno
Virtue of War by L.O. Addison
Wings of Hope by Pippa DaCosta
FICTION: MYSTERY/THRILLER
Alpha by Steve Konkoly
Blood Ridge by D.S. Kane
Clean Kill in Tokyo, A by Barry Eisler
Dark Sky by Joel Canfield
Driver, The by Hart Hanson
Forgotten Room, The by Ann Stroup
First Family, The by Michael Palmer
Frame-Up, The by Meghan Scott Molin
Getaway, The by Greer Hendricks
Haunting of Hill House, The by Shirley Jackson
Hidden by Rebecca Zanetti
Innocent Justice by David Archer
Into the Fire by Gregg Hurwitz
Legion by Robert Swartwood
Little Death in Dixie, A by Lisa Turner
Midnight House by Alex Berenson
Murder on Embassy Row by Margaret Truman
Never-Open Desert Diner, The by James Anderson
Never Say Spy by Diane Henders
Shanghai Tang by Mick Bose
St. Paul Conspiracy, The by Roger Stelljes
To Die in Vienna by Kevin Wignall
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
FICTION: OTHER
Agent 355 by Marie Benedict
In the Courts of the Sun by Brian D'Amato
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
NONFICTION
All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung
Author Life, The by J. Thorn
Authorpreneurship 101 by Jessica Leeann
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
Dan Rather: Stories of a Lifetime by Dan Rather
Fire Your Boss by Jonathan Green
Get Published by Paul G. Brodie
Happiness Project, The by Gretchen Rubin
How to Make Money Writing Nonfiction Books by Marc Guberti
How to Write Funny by Scott Dikkers
Incomplete Book of Running, The by Peter Sagal
King of Sting: The Story of Australia's Greatest Conman by Justin Armsden, et al.
Level Up: Quests to Master Mindset, Overcome Procrastination, and Increase Productivity by Rochelle Melander
Nice Try: Stories Stories of Best Intentions and Mixed Results by Josh Gondelman
No-Drama Discipline by Daniel Siegel & Tina Bryson
Nut Jobs: Cracking the Case by Marc Fennell
On Speaking Well by Peggy Noonan
One More Thing by B.J. Novak
One With All The Writing Advice, The by Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant
Outsource Your Book by Alinka Rutkowska
Own the Moment by Carl Lentz
People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Purpose-Driven Life, The by Rick Warren
Science of Sci-Fi, The by Erin Macdonald
Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark, The by Cecilia Watson
Show, Don't Tell by Sandra Gerth
Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days by Chris Guillebeau
Unbelievable by Katy Tur
Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J.B. West
Worry Trick, The by David Carbonell
Write A Book Now by Stefanie Newell
Wrong End of the Table, The by Ayser Salman
Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Your First 1,000 Copies by Tim Grail
This year, I spent a lot of time clearing out my Kindle of all the impulse buys and discount books that I've picked up over the year. That basically meant a lot of mediocre stuff, a lot of which I didn't finish. There were a few high points, though, including Last Call at the Nighshade Lounge which was a fun urban fantasy adventure with a unique magic system, and Peter Sagal's Incomplete Book of Running which I found particularly endearing and more heartfelt than I anticipated.
Over the past five years, I've averaged reading about 100 books a year (108, to be exact), but this year I think I'm going to scale it back and focus on being more intentional with my reading. I'm not sure what my reading goal will be in terms of actual number of books because I have a lot of titles lined up that are longer and more complex than what I've typically been reading over the past five years, which means I may not be able to plow through them at quite so quick a pace. That said, I do have a fair amount of Kindle "fluff" left (around 60 titles), so I guess we'll just have to see where the reading muse takes me.
Podcasts (click to expand full list) ▼
Bulletproof Screenwriting - 5 episodes
By the Book - 28 episodes
Canopy Church Podcast - 5 episodes
The Creative Penn Podcast - 39 episodes
Dead Pilots Society - 11 episodes
Dirt Cheap - 9 episodes
Dreampath Podcast - 1 episode
The Dungeoncast - 26 episodes
The Ezra Klein Show - 71 episodes
Freakonomics - 21 episodes
Gaslit Nation - 3 episodes
Genius Recipes - 2 episodes
How Did This Get Made? - 4 episodes
How I Built This - 9 episodes
Imaginary Worlds - 21 episodes
The Impact - 10 episodes
Impeachment Explained - 4 episodes
Indie Film Hustle - 1 episode
Lovett or Leave It - 48 episodes
Pod Save America - 118 episodes
Pod Save the World - 51 episodes
The Q&A - 8 episodes
The Rewatchables - 31 episodes
Rubicon - 5 episodes
Scriptnotes - 34 episodes
The Self-Publishing Show - 36 episodes
The Sell More Books Show - 15 episodes
Six Figure Authors - 45 episodes
Slate Political Gabfest - 62 episodes
The Story Studio Podcast - 12 episodes
Story Works Roundtable - 23 episodes
TED Radio Hour - 11 episodes
Untitled Female Driven Podcast - 9 episodes
Weeds, The - 97 episodes
What A Day - 234 episodes
The Wilderness - 7 episodes
Writer's Panel - 7 episodes
Writing Excuses - 36 episodes
Ironically, two of my favorite new podcasts didn't even make my end of year "favorite" ( ) or "also really enjoyed" ( ) list because I got tired of both of them pretty quickly. But By The Book (the hosts live out the advice of self-help books to the letter and then report back) and Dirt Cheap (dramatic reading and comedic analysis of bad pulp fiction from decades past) are great ideas for podcasts that were fun to follow along with for a time. Similar to the iconic My Dad Wrote A Porno podcast, they are clever ideas that just ended up getting a little old for me after several episodes. Pod Save America remains probably my favorite podcast which kept me sane during this crazy election year, and as always, the Ezra Klein Show and The Weeds were incredible resources for deep dives on a variety of topics.
Like with books, next year I'm going to scale back on my podcasts. There are several on the list this year that I'm starting to tire of, particularly all the self-publishing stuff. I think I'm hitting a critical mass where I don't feel like I'm learning as much as am just kind of going through the motions listening, so that's probably a good time to re-evaluate the time I spend listening to them.
Comics (click to expand full list) ▼
Black Cat (2019) #1-#3
Hellions (2020) #1-#3
X-Men/Fantastic Four (2020) #1
I didn't read many comics this year, although I think I'm also forgetting to include all the various ones that I skimmed through during the writing credit arbitration on the upcoming Black Widow feature film. My goal for 2021 is actually to read more comics because I really enjoy them and I've been missing reading them over the past few years.
Scripts (click to expand full list) ▼
PRODUCED
n/a
UNPRODUCED
Aether
Arab Spring
Bulletproof
Code 5
Edge of Sanity
Eight
Elsewhere
Eternally Yours
Family Movie Night
Feel So Good
Into the Darkness
Judas Curse
Life After Harley
The Mayor of Shark City
Miraloma Park
Most Likely
Neurotransmission
Problem Child
Prom Night Blitz
Revival
Scratch
Superman
Training Room
Untitled Vampire Feature
Widow
I'm not putting any favorites or highly recommended on the script section of my reading list because a lot of the writers on this list are my friends and/or colleagues and I don't want to play favorites with my friends and business associates.
TOTALS: 111 books, 1165 podcasts, 7 comics, 25 scripts
According to Goodreads, my book reading resulted in the following stats (based on the 98 books found on Goodreads):
Total Pages Read: 27,562
Average Pages Per Book: 248
Shortest Book: 42 pages
Longest Book: 729 pages
That's it for my 2020 reading... time to see what 2021 has in store!
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