Blogocentric Formulations

2020 Reading List

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!