52 books in 52 weeks (2021 edition)

Anyone else find 2021 to be worse and more exhausting than the unprecedented trash year that was 2020? Because I sure as hell did. Thankfully I had books to help get me through. Let's cut to the chase because right now on the last day of 2021 I have no energy left to give.

This is my EIGHTH year of reading 52 books in 52 weeks. So for my maths friends out there, that's FOUR HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN books in the last eight years. Wow. That's quite impressive when you see it like that. Good job, me. That's a lot of reading. #NerdAlert or maybe just #UnemployedAlert.

Over the last eight years, two trends have evolved for me. Firstly, my very British goal of reading through every Agatha Christie book. This year I read a whopping TWO Christie books. And neither was that great. One was actually a stinker. My second (also very British) goal of reading through every Shakespeare play made glacial progress as I only read play this year (The Winter's Tale).

Another goal I had was to read more novels written by women and BIPOC. Out of the 52 books, I read 21 written by women, 31 written by men. It's something, but it's not great. For 2022, I want to increase that goal. Combined, I read 27 books by women and BIPOC, 25 books by white men. So that's... shite. In calculating how many books I read by purely BIPOC, it only amounted to 10. I need to do better in 2022. So here's to more books by women and BIPOC because I want to make sure I am ingesting a wide range of views, stories, and perspectives. No limiting oneself in the new year. And thank you excel sheets for helping me calculate all of this.

Now, onto lists because that's my favorite part of the year end wrap up: 

Least Favorite Book: Cherry. What to say? Misogynistic, terrible writing, no plot, awful characters?

Longest Book: The Secret Commonwealth. So long, and yet nothing happened? How?

Biggest Letdown: Ready Player Two. Literally a cookie-cutter copy of the original but with less stakes, less character development, and just... URGH.

Most Depressing Book: The Fifth Season. If you love apocalyptic, dystopian fiction, this is for you. Not an ounce of joy or happiness in this book about the broken earth and the people damned to try and survive on it. 

Least Favorite Character: Nico from Cherry. Alina from Shadow and Bone. Everyone in French Exit.

Most Batsh*t Character: Mary Katherine Blackwood from We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Favorite Book: Obvisously Fleabag: The Scriptures. But in close competition behind it: Gossamer, Watchmen, The Midnight Library, and Sphere.

Shortest Book: UR. Kindle readers, BEWARE!

Favorite Character: Fleabag from Fleabag; Nora Seed from The Midnight Library; Kvothe from The Name in the Wind.

Most Surprising Character: Coriolanus Snow from the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes; Jerry from Sphere.

Favorite Author: Phoebe Waller-Bridge & Michael Crichton, 

And that's it for 2021. 2022, please be better. Maybe George R.R. Martin will save us all by completing The Winds of Winter. Time will tell. Everyone stay safe out there. Covid is that bitch. May we all have a healthy and happy new year. Until next time...

- ben fleck

1. I Am Malala - Malala Yousafzai

2. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - August Wilson

3. The Name of the Wind- Patrick Rothfuss

4. French Exit - Patrick deWitt

5. Cherry - Nico Walker

6. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins

7. The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin

8. Firefly Lane - Kristin Hannah

9. Fleabag: The Scriptures - Phoebe Waller-Bridge

10. The Ancient Evil - Christopher Pike

11. The Girl Who Lived Twice - David Lagercrantz

12. Foundation - Isaac Asimov

13. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

14. Nomadland - Jessica Bruder

15. Behind Her Eyes - Sarah Pinborough

16. A Promised Land - Barack Obama

17. The Three-Body Problem - Cixin Liu

18. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

19. Emma - Jane Austen

20. Exhalation: And Other Stories - Ted Chiang

21. The Final Empire - Brandon Sanderson

22. The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

23. Watchmen - Alan Moore

24. The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

25. Nine Perfect Strangers - Liane Moriarty

26. Diamonds Are Forever - Ian Fleming

27. Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert

28. Gossamer - Lois Lowry

29. Beloved - Toni Morrison

30. Ready Player Two - Ernest Cline

31. The Word for World is Forest - Ursula K. Le Guin

32. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson

33. Sphere- Michael Crichton

34. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig

35. The Disaster Tourist - Ko-eun Yun

36. The Testaments - Margaret Atwood

37. Election - Tom Perrotta

38. The Great Hunt - Robert Jordan

39. The Secret of Chimneys - Agatha Christie

40. Appointment with Death - Agatha Christie

41. Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo

42. The Rules of Attraction - Bret Easton Ellis

43. The Leftovers - Tom Perrotta

44. The House of Gucci - Sara Gay Forden

45. Utopia - Thomas More

46. Veronika Decides to Die - Paulo Coelho

47. The Secret Commonwealth - Philip Pullman

48. UR - Stephen King

49. The Winter's Tale - William Shakespeare

50. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon

51. The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemisin

52. The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien