2021 was an interesting year in reading for me. Somewhat oddly, I felt a real challenge being interested to read this year. I say oddly because between the pandemic and what I do for work (Bookship, a social reading app), it should have been lab conditions for a great year in reading.
Still, I managed to read 36 books (45 in 2020, 41 in 2019). My reading in 2021 centered around a few themes: my book club reads (for the Greener Reader bookclub), my trip to Iceland and associated historical interests, and the usual dose of “Comfort Food” reading: some science fiction and thriller old favorites and new reads.
One of the highlights of my year was a trip to Iceland with Michelle and our old friends the Jensens. That lead to some focused Iceland reading: Jar City (Arnaudur Indradason) and The Darkness (Ragnar Jonasso), two thrillers by Icelandic authors, and the Book of Reykjavik, a collection of stories by Icelandic authors about Reykjavik. But we can’t go to Iceland without thinking about one of my long-term interests, the “Northern Thing” as Auden called it: the fascination with all things Viking, northern, Odin, Thor and all that. So together with my travel companions we read Grettir’s Saga, which I had been struggling with in past attempts. This time we read the Jesse Byock translation and it was a revelation: hilarious, scary, modern. I wrote more about it, here and here.
While we were in Iceland, my friend Thomas recommended The Last Duel, by Eric Jagar, another medieval tale soon to be a motion picture starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck????, so we all read that together as well. The Last Duel was another revelation: a time portal to medieval France through the lens of the last judicial trial-by-combat, a duel to the death over an accusation of rape. A true story, and not a bad movie either. Continuing the Northern thing, I read Hrolf Kraki’s Saga again (Poul Anderson version, I dunno, 4th or 5th time probably). Then read Poul Anderson’s trilogy The Last Viking, about the life of Harald Sigurdsson, aka Harald Hard Rede, aka Harald Hardrada, who’s life would not be believable as fiction, it is so fantastical. Forced into exile in Russia after a disastrous battle at the age of 15, he landed at the court of Prince Yaroslav, where he remained until he sailed to Constantinople, joining and eventually leading the Varangian guard responsible for protecting the Emperor himself. From thence he crusaded to Jerusalem, led many battles and gained much wealth. He was imprisoned after a jealous Empress wanted to marry him, whereas he had eyes for someone else. Escaping back to Russia, he married Yaroslav’s daughter, eventually returning to Norway and became King. He then claimed, but was unsuccessful in actually obtaining, the Kingship of both Denmark and England. The latter cause led him to England in 1066, to his death at the hands of Harold Godwinson, who would himself shortly die at the hands of William the Conqueror. Crazy story.
Finishing up the Anderson series led me to read 1066, by David Howarth, a shortish book wonderfully recounting all the events that led to William the Conqueror and the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. That led to another grisly read, The Crusaders by Dan Jones, which I also read with, and at the recommendation of, my friend Thomas. Harald makes a minor appearance there as a Crusader, but really it’s the entire history of the Crusades in this book. If you think humanity has not improved in the last 1000 years, think again and read this book. It’s a litany of horror and cruelty on all sides. However bad we are, we’re not that.
Lastly, in the historical vein, my favorite author, Steven Pressfield, released A Man at Arms, a tale set in the holy land shortly after the death of Christ. Perhaps not as a good as Gates of Fire (one of my favorites), it’s still a great read.
Through the book club I am in, I read some wonderful fiction, much of which I probably would not have read otherwise. Kawai Strong Washburn’s wonderful mythical/modern Hawaii tale Sharks in the Time of Saviors, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Another Country by James Baldwin, and outside book club but via my book club leader, Justine Espiritu, the wonderfully cynical and scandalous Bonjour Tristesse by Francois Sagan, about a wonderfully cynical French teenager. Infomocracy is a near-future sci-fi exploration of what a global democracy might look like. A good effort, although (un-intentionally by the author I am sure), it felt more like a 1984-inspired info-autocracy).
A couple of one-off books I really enjoyed, outside my major themes:
The Ministry of Truth: the Biography of George Orwell’s 1984. Last year I read, and was horrified by, 1984, which I’d not read since high school and seems so prescient about today’s media landscape (and I am not just, or even primarily, talking about our previous knucklehead-in-chief.). The Ministry of Truth explores Orwell and all the ways this book came to be.
How Music Works, by David Byrne. I’m thinking about, and have started work on, a new form of music discovery (read more here.) Looking for inspiration, I read How Music Works, by the former leader of Talking Heads. It is about how music is made, marketed, discovered, consumed, appreciated, taught, and more. I particularly loved his chapter on Curation, which, if you’ve read my other writings, is something you know I am interested in. I read this book with Thomas and another friend, and continue to be surprised at how much social reading improves my enjoyment of a book.
In the “comfort food” category, I re-read William Gibson’s seminal Neuromancer and Count Zero ( I love both but I think the second book is even better than the well-known first book ). I really enjoyed Midnight, Water City by Hawaii-based author Chris McKinney. I re-read Foundation in anticipation of the some-what disappointing tv series. A few of the notable thrillers I read: Dragonfish, by Vu Tran; I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes, An Honorable Man (Paul Vidich), and two Israel-focused thrillers: The English Teacher (Yiftach Atir) and A Long Night in Paris (Dov Alfon). The former was particularly enjoyable and felt like an Israeli version of A Perfect Spy, complete with a wonderfully realized middle-aged male self-deception. Victoria Dougherty’s Welcome to the Hotel Yalta was a fun collection of cold war Eastern Europe spy tales, a set up to her novels.
So, for 2021: social reading was a big win. The most meaningful books I read, I read socially. I plan to do more in 2022. As for what I’ll be reading? Well, I have a bunch of good books lined up through book club. Outside of book club, I hope to read Brave New World, Circe, and hopefully some good history. I’m already started on The Thin Red Line (fiction on battle of Guadalcanal), Two Years Before the Mast (historical sailing adventure), and The Windup Girl (for book club). And I hope to read more about music discovery!