Year in Review - 2021

2021 Year in Books! Another trip around the sun with a passenger none of us wanted, but are probably stuck with forever. At least some semblance of normal life poked through this year, and that includes reading.

I sure didn’t break any records this year. Page total was about the same, number of books was low, and average rating was a 4.2. But I came to realize the main goal for 2021 was completing The Wheel of Time, and by god I did it with days to spare.

It’s wild to think I spent two years involved with one single series. Never happened before and who knows when it will again. But it was a comforting constant I wasn’t expecting in the midst of our new daily stress. Kind of like a regular tv show you can turn on after a crazy day, just waiting with your favorite characters to whisk you away to something even more absurd than your reality. It’s a major accomplishment to have made it to the end, one I’m pretty dang proud of. Happy to report it was well worth it.

I wasn’t pushing too hard to read this year with a more regular work life and other things to demand my time. And the page count of WOT really cut me short on my reading goal, something I accepted by July. But I did focus on quality reads again, sticking to my formula of WOT-random-WOT, blending in multiple nonfiction hits along the way. Starting to wonder if that’s my thing now, all these nonfiction reads grabbing my interest more than before. Maybe this is true adulthood.

All-in-all, reading is a huge part of my life, and it’s relieving to know I can at least manage it within the hectic confines of whatever being a few months shy of 30 entails. I sure don’t plan on stopping anytime soon!

Anyway, on to the favorites! This will be a bit unfair since I completed one of the greatest fantasy series in history this month, leaving me with 10 five stars out of 19 books. But let’s look at what we have regardless. The hits this year outside the final three WOT were:

- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

- Hidden Valley Road

- Killers of the Flower Moon

- Can’t Even

- Station Eleven

And while all of these were amazing, I have to grant A Memory of Light with the trophy. Just too epic, too quality, and too emotionally important to not give it the win. I’m not sure I’ll ever read a book as all-encompassing of what came before, or as satiating. A strong runner-up would be Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, a book I really connected with and enjoyed early in the year. Just happened to end the year with something even bigger.

2022 will look different in books without WOT. The freedom to pick what I want whenever I want will be good to get back to. Though I have a new reading project that may take up a lot of the incoming slots. Here’s hoping the new year is a bit lighter and a lot easier, all with a book somewhere nearby.