52 books in 52 weeks (2020 edition)

Wow! What a year it has been, in a not good way... 2020 has been surprising, difficult, tiring, irritating, and more. Never did the world think we would be suddenly facing a pandemic as we entered a new decade & faced an important Presidential election, but HERE. WE. ARE. 

Quarantined inside, separated from loved ones, and doing everything through glitchy video meetings. It's been tough.

And if you think being stuck inside made it easier to read 52 books in 52 weeks, you would be wrong. It was still as difficult as ever. Reading was hard to feel motivated to do, but I did it. And read some pretty good books.

For those keeping track, my goal to read every Agatha Christie book is trekking along. This year I read 8 more of her capers. Some were... not good. Dame Aggie can't hit every book outta the park.

And as for my Shakespeare quest, I only managed to read 2 of his plays. Oop. Look, I just didn't feel up to slogging through ol Willy Shakes' words this year. 

I did read a bunch of teen horror books by Christopher Pike. Lots of fun was had in those pages. Out of the 33 authors I read this year, 13 were female and 20 were male. Narrowing that gender gap. I also tried to read more BIPOC authors. 

I can always do better -- looking to continue reading different books from a variety of authors going forward.

I read some classics, read some books for work, some for the book/movie (boovie) club that I am a part of. Reading remains fun even when it is hard to be motivated to do it. 

Let's stop prolonging the best part of this post--my lists! See below.

Least Favorite Book: Normal People - Sally Rooney (So boring & not for me!)

Longest Book: The Once and Future King - T.H. White (So Long, So Arthurian & Witchy weird)

Biggest Letdown: The House with a Clock in Its Walls - John Bellairs (So much potential just quickly thrown down the drain...or, into the walls or w/e)

Most Depressing Book: Mood Indigo - Boris Vian (c'est tragique!); the Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead (the tragedy of slavery is fucking awful)

Least Favorite Character: Honestly, I find Sherlock Holmes quite awful & annoying & arrogant & not that fun. Throw in Tummy & Tuppence from Agatha Christie's books too.

Most Batsh*t Character: Any Villain in a Christopher Pike novel -- truly wild people, perhaps the most wild in Remember Me.

Favorite Book: Mood Indigo - Boris Vian (I don't know if because it's translated from French or one of the most beautiful movies I've seen, but it just really hit home for me in this year 2020)

Shortest Book: The Lemesurier Inheritance - Agatha Christie

Favorite Character: Deborah Lacks from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Deborah is a real-life person, so she's not technically a character, but she was astounding to read about. 

Most Surprising Character: Grace Randolph from You Should Have Known - Jean Hanff Korelitz. Let's just say she was nothing like Nicole Kidman and her many coats and accents in the Undoing and it changed the whole way I looked at the story.

Favorite Author: Dame Agatha (durp), Christopher Pike, Boris Vian

And that's it for 2020. Maybe next year is the year I can finally conquer Shakespeare and/or Christie. Maybe George R.R. Martin will complete The Winds of Winter. Time will tell. 7 years of 52 books in 52 weeks. Here's to 7 more years aka 364 more books! CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL. STAY INSIDE. WEAR MASKS. BE SAFE AND BE EMPATHETIC. We can get through this.  

- ben fleck

1. Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

2. A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

3. The Lemesurier Inheritance - Agatha Christie

4. Leia: Princess of Alderaan - Claudia Grey

5. N or M? - Agatha Christie

6. Cards on the Table - Agatha Christie

7. Parker Pyne Investigates - Agatha Christie

8. By the Pricking of My Thumbs - Agatha Christie

9. The House with a Clock in Its Walls - John Bellairs

10. Dumb Witness - Agatha Christie

11. Artemis - Andy Weir

12. The Collectors - Philip Pullman

13. Remember Me - Christopher Pike

14. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng

15. The Eternal Enemy - Christopher Pike

16. Bury Me Deep - Christopher Pike

17. Road to Nowhere - Christopher Pike

18. Tales of Terror: Volume 1 - Christopher Pike

19. Tales of Terror: Volume 2 - Christopher Pike

20. The Tachyon Web - Christopher Pike

21. Weekend - Christopher Pike

22. Postern of Fate - Agatha Christie

23. The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead

24. Normal People - Sally Rooney

25. The Once and Future King - T.H. White

26. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

27. Morning Star - Pierce Brown

28. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Frank L. Baum

29. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

30. Mañanaland - Pam Muñoz Ryan

31. Bayou Magic - Jewell Parker Rhodes

32. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

33. Mood Indigo - Boris Vian

34. The Sign of Four - Arthur Conan Doyle

35. City - Devin Grayson

36. Murder in the Mews - Agatha Christie

37. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel García Márquez

38. Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green

39. The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde

40. The Canterville Ghost - Oscar Wilde

41. Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie

42. The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan

43. The Two Gentleman of Verona - William Shakespeare

44. The Case of the Missing Marquess - Nancy Springer

45. I Know What You Did Last Summer - Lois Duncan

46. The City of Ember - Jeanne DuPrau

47. You Should Have Known - Jean Hanff Korelitz

48. Rip Van Winkle - Washington Irving

49. Serpentine - Philip Pullman

50. Julius Caesar - William Shakespeare

51. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

52. Chain Letter - Christopher Pike

52 Books in 52 Weeks (2019 Edition)

The world may be a trash fire that is gonna end, if not today, then in the next ten years unless we FIX THE CLIMATE. But, one thing that is consistent (for now): books! Another year has gone by, which means it is time for me to use this blog to write a post about the 52 books I read. This year, I cut it super close to the deadline. I had to read about 6 books in that last stretch of 2019 and it was hard (especially because my three year-old nephew kept stealing my copy of The Invisible Man). 

Some key things to note this year: firstly, George R.R. Martin did... NOT... give us The Winds of Winter, even though the show, Game of Thrones, bumpily ended. So, let us hope we get it in this new decade. 2019 was a stressful year. Lots going on personally and in the world, so at times I found it hard to take a moment to escape and read, but somehow I managed to do it.

Reading remains a favorite pastime of mine. This year, I had to read some books for some projects I worked on, particularly two podcasts for Parcast.com. One dealt with a Nazi Spy, the other with a deadly natural disaster. So... same thing.
For my Agatha Christie stans, I continued to make my way through her arsenal. reading 5 of her books this year. Though I must say, I am NOT a fan of her Tommy & Tuppence Series. I find those two just dreadful. For my William Shakespeare stans, I am still trying to get through his body of work, but only managed two of his plays this year.
I spent a lot of time re-reading the last three Harry Potter novels and I gotta say, they still stand up. Such beautiful world building and character growth! 
Out of the 41 authors, 15 were women and I plan to increase that number next year. I also want to read more books by a variety of different authors from different backgrounds. It's all about widening the scope and taking it all in.
Also, I had a dystopian face-off between Brave New World and 1984. In my opinion, 1984 seemed like a more feasible, terrible reality. And with the way the world is going now... we might be headed to the likes of Big Brother. 
But without further ado, it is time to get to listing stuff. WHO DOESN'T LOVE A LIST?!
Least Favorite Book: Partners in Crime - Agatha Christie (Sorry Dame Ags!)
Longest Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (featuring angsty Harry!) - JK Rowling
Biggest Letdown: The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie (annoying characters); The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness (too much running around!)
Most Depressing Book: Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (poor lil monster)
Least Favorite Character: Everyone in The Lies of Locke Lamora; Tommy & Tuppence (The Secret Adversary; Partners in Crime)
Most Batsh*t Character: Annie Wilkes (Misery) -- truly the most terrifying character of all time!
Favorite Book: Too hard to choose!! Tied between Fleabag - Phoebe Waller-Bridge; Stardust - Neil Gaiman; and HPs 5-7 - JK Rowling; Misery - Stephen King
Shortest Book: The 1928 Lake Okeechobee Hurricane - Charles River Editors
Favorite Character: Michelle Obama, duh (Becoming); Fleabag, duh (Fleabag); Hedwig (HPs 5-7); Phoebe Winterbottom (Walk Two Moons)
Most Surprising Character: Esther Greenwood (The Bell Jar) -- so much depth & vulnerability revealed
Favorite Author: Pheebs Walls Bridges, Agatha, JK -- guess I like British dames.

And that's it for 2019. Onto 2020. Let's hope we make it. A new year, a new decade, but the same ol' desire to read 52 books in 52 weeks. Maybe next year is the year I conquer Shakespeare and/or Christie. Time will tell. CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL.

- ben fleck

1. The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
2. Authority - Jeff VanderMeer
3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling
4. The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
5. Golden Son - Pierce Brown
6. The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin
7. The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie
8. The Ninth Life of Louis Drax - Liz Jensen
9. The Grownup - Gillian Flynn
10. House of Many Ways - Diana Wynne Jones
11. The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness
12. Moonraker - Ian Fleming
13. Fleabag - Phoebe Waller-Bridge
14. The A.B.C. Murders - Agatha Christie
15. The Sun Is Also a Star - Nicola Yoon
16. Misery - Stephen King
17. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch - Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman
18. Murder in Mesopotamia - Agatha Christie
19. Stardust - Neil Gaiman
20. Dune - Frank Herbert
21. Strangers on a Train - Patricia Highsmith
22. Partners in Crime - Agatha Christie
23. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
24. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
25. Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin
26. The Comedy of Errors - William Shakespeare
27. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - JK Rowling
28. Pygmalion - George Bernard Shaw
29. Antony and Cleopatra - William Shakespeare
30. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - JK Rowling
31. The Ruby in the Smoke - Philip Pullman
32. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
33. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
34. The 39 Steps - John Buchan
35. Walter Schellenberg: The Memoirs of Hitler's Spymaster - Walter Schellenberg
36. Becoming - Michelle Obama
37. The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan
38. Wayside School if Falling Down - Louis Sachar
39. Origin - Dan Brown
40. The Witness for the Prosecution - Agatha Christie
41. The Great Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928 - Wayne Neely
42. The 1928 Lake Okeechobee Hurricane - Charles River Editors
43. Walk Two Moons - Sharon Creech
44. Killer 'cane: The Deadly Hurricane of 1928 - Robert Mykle
45. And Both Were Young - Madeleine L'Engle
46. The Library Book - Susan Orlean
47. Travels with Charley: In Search for America - John Steinbeck
48. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
49. The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells
50. Maniac Magee - Jerry Spinelli
51. The Tales of the Beedle and the Bard - JK Rowling
52. 1984 - George Orwell