My 2020 Reading
This year was something of a landmark for me in terms of reading. For a while now I’ve been trying to read some of the books that I should have read in high school or college (or perhaps that I should have been supposed to read, if you follow me). Over the last dozen years or so, I’ve gotten through a significant number, including fiction by Austen, Bronte, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Dufoe, Hardy, Melville, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and Zola, to name but a few. I’ve read some of the classics, including Greek and Roman historians, playwrights, and philosophers and some significant modern non-fiction, as well. Late last year, though, I decided to step it up a notch. My goal was to read 26 books with some significant number of them being big, important or serious books. As it turns out—and no one is more surprised than I am—I aimed low.
All the books I read this year are pictured here. Some of them are short and very easy to read, but a few of them are what Dorothy and I have taken to calling “Lifetime Achievement Books.” Specifically, the three volumes of The Gulag Archipelago (weighing in at a combined 1,818 pages), Moby Dick (‘only’ 459 pages but seriously, get to the whale already!), The History of the Peloponnesian War (574 pages), The Tale of Genji (1,139 pages), and War and Peace (1,136 pages).
My 2020 Reading
Here is the full list of books read in 2020 in the order I read them. Overall, I’ve enjoyed much of what I read. Some were not so much enjoyable as worthwhile. For instance, The Gulag Archipelago is not light or enjoyable, but it’s important. Personally I think it should be required reading, along with The Hiding Place. Obviously Jack London, the Narnia books by Lewis, and a few others are on the other end of the difficulty spectrum and provided a needed respite.
| Order Read |
Title | Author | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anna Karenin Anna Karenin | Tolstoy, Leo (September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910) | 1878 1878 | I actually started this on December 23, 2019, so only a third or so was read this year. My first book by Tolstoy and I have to say I really enjoyed it. |
| 2 | Gulag Archipelago 1 The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Volume 1 | Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isayevich (December 11, 1918 – August 3, 2008) | 1968 From 1958 and 1968, English translation by Thomas Whitney, 1974 | I believe this should be required reading at some level (high school or college). Although the Soviet Union no longer exists as it was, what happened there can—and almost certainly will—happen again, although in a different guise. |
| 3 | Brideshead Revisited Brideshead Revisited | Waugh, Evelyn (October 28, 1903 – April 10, 1966) | 1945 1945 | A miniseries was made in 1981 that is pretty faithful to the book. But the book is still better. Enjoyable and even a little thought provoking. |
| 4 | Moby Dick Moby Dick | Melville, Herman (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) | 1851 1851 | One of those books that everyone knows but few have actually read. You could make a much shorter, abridged version and not really detract from the story. I mean, seriously, get to the whale already. |
| 5 | Silas Marner Silas Marner | Eliot, George (Mary Ann Evans, November 22, 1819 – December 22, 1880) | 1864 1864 | A lovely short story. I really enjoyed it. |
| 6 | Man With The Gash The Man With The Gash | London, Jack (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) | 1901 1901 | Short Stories, set in the arctic. |
| 7 | In Parenthesis In Parenthesis | Jones, David (November 1, 1895 – October 28, 1974) | 1937 1937 | A book length, modern poem about the First World War. |
| 8 | Tristram Shandy Tristram Shandy | Sterne, Laurence (November 24, 1713 – March 18, 1768) | 1767 between 1759 and 1767 | I bought this because the title seemed familiar to me, bit I’m not sure if I’d classify it as a classic. Enjoyable but not great. |
| 9 | Beowulf Beowulf: A New Verse Translation | Unknown, translated in 1999 by Seamus Heaney (April 13, 1939 – August 30, 2013) | 0800 8th century | I haven’t read Beowulf since collece and when I came across this new verse translation, I thought I’d give it a read. It has the Anglo-Saxon on the left and the modern English on the right. |
| 10 | Republic The Republic | Plato (circa 425 – circa 347 B.C.) | 0006 375 B. C. | My goal is to read all of Plato’s dialogs. |
| 11 | Frankenstein Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus | Shelley, Mary (August 30, 1797 – February 1, 1851) | 1818 1818 | Not really much like the movie, in case you are wondering. Much more nuanced. |
| 12 | Confessions Confessions | Augustine of Hippo (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430 AD) | 0397 A. D. 397 | I read an old translation years ago but wanted to read it again. I saw this new (2001) translation by Philip Burton and figured the time was right. |
| 13 | Jugurthine War The Jugurthine War | Sallust (Gaius Sallustius Crispus, 86 – circa 35 B.C.) | 0010 44 B. C. | The Jugurthine War was fought between the Romans and the Numidian King Jugurtha from 112 through 105 B.C. This book also has a second work, The Conspiracy of Catiline, dealing with events in Rome in 63 B.C. |
| 14 | Macbeth Macbeth | Shakespeare, William (circa April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) | 1606 around 1606 | You know the story, probably. Don’t do what he did. |
| 15 | Genji The Tale of Genji | Murasaki, Lady (circa A.D. 970 circa 1030) | 1020 early 11th century | This is a long novel (three pages longer than War and Peace), written about 1,000 years ago, set in imperial Japan. Quite fascinating to read, although a cheat sheet with names would be helpful. |
| 16 | Recovering Eden Recovering Eden: The Gospel According to Ecclesiastes | Eswine, Zack (born 1969) | 2014 2014 | One of the few books written by a living author this year. I understood what he was saying and basically agreed, but I found his way of talking a little to hip for my teste. |
| 17 | Hobbit The Hobbit | Tolkien, J. R. R. (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) | 1937 1937 | The classic (and much better than the movie). |
| 18 | Lives of the Twelve Caesars The Lives of the Twelve Caesars | Suetonius (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, circa A.D. 69 – sometime after 122) | 0121 A. D. 121 | About (not too surprisingly): Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian |
| 19 | Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales | Chaucer, Geoffrey (c. 1340s – October 25, 1400) | 1400 between 1387 and 1400 | Like the edition of Beowulf, this has the modern English along side the original, which I find interesting. I can’t say that I enjoyed this as much as I thought I might. |
| 20 | Practice of the Presence of God The Practice of the Presence of God | Lawrence, Brother (c. 1614 – February 12, 1691) | 1692 late 17th century | Compiled by Father Joseph de Beaufort around 1692. I love this little book and try to read it every couple years. I also try to put Brother Lawrence’s practice into practice, but without a huge amount of success. |
| 21 | Death of Death The Death of Death in the Death of Christ | Owen, John (1616 – August 24, 1683) | 1647 1647 | The introduction by J. I. Packer is probably worth the price of the book. This is a fairly lone defense of the doctrine of limited atonement. |
| 22 | Alice Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland | Carroll, Lewis, (a.k.a. C. L. Dodgson, January 27, 1832 – January 14, 1898) | 1865 1865 | This book contains Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Through The Looking-Glass (1871), and The Hunting Of The Snark (1876). |
| 23 | Consolation of Philosophy The Consolation of Philosophy | Boethius (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, c. A.D. 477 – 524) | 0524 A. D. 524, | I found this quite interesting. How philosophy personified came to the aid of a man in desperate circumstances. |
| 24 | History The History | Tacitus (circa A.D. 56 – sometime after 117) | 0110 between A. D. 100 and 110, | More first century Roman history, written around the time of Hadrian. |
| 25 | History of the Kings of Britain The History of the Kings of Britain | Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095 – c. 1155) | 1136 1136 | Covering Britain from the earliest time, from its founding by Brutus, great-grandson of the Trojan Aeneas through King Cadwaladr in the latter half of the 7th century. |
| 26 | Five Dialogues Five Dialogues | Plato (circa 425 – circa 347 B.C.) | 0003 5th or 4th centuries, B. C. | More Plato |
| 27 | Peloponnesian War The History of the Peloponnesian War | Thucydides (circa 460 – circa 400 B.C.) | 0004 circa 400 B. C. | Published as The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War War, 1996, by Robert B. Strassler. This was easier to get through than I expected. Athen’s really should have left Syracuse alone, though. |
| 28 | Magician’s Nephew The Magician’s Nephew | Lewis, C. S. (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963) | 1955 1955 | I decided to read through the seven Narnia books in chronilogical rather than publication order. This one deals with the founding or creation of Narnia by Aslan. |
| 29 | Lion Witch and the Wardrobe The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | Lewis, C. S. (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963) | 1950 1950 | The four Pevensie children find themselves in Narnia. |
| 30 | Horse and His Boy The Horse and His Boy | Lewis, C. S. (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963) | 1954 1954 | Set during the time of the Pevensie kingdom, this is the story of Shasta and a horse named Bree. |
| 31 | Prince Caspian Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia | Lewis, C. S. (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963) | 1951 1951 | The Pevensie children return and meet Prince Caspian and help him in his fight against his uncle Miraz. |
| 32 | Voyage of the Dawn Treader The Voyage of the Dawn Treader | Lewis, C. S. (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963) | 1952 1952 | The two younger Pevensies, Edmund and Lucy return to Narnia with their cousin, Eustace Scrubb, and travel with Prince Caspian. |
| 33 | Silver Chair The Silver Chair | Lewis, C. S. (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963) | 1953 1953 | Eustace escapes to Narnia with his classmate Jill Pole and they travel with Puddleglum the Marsh-wiggle to rescue Prince Rilian |
| 34 | Last Battle The Last Battle | Lewis, C. S. (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963) | 1956 1956 | The end of the old Narnia and the beginning of the true and better Narnia. |
| 35 | Fire Next Time The Fire Next Time | Baldwin, James (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) | 1963 1963 | This is a very worthy book on race relations and rightly a classic. Baldwin sometimes paints with too broad a brush, but then, it’s hard not to, sometimes. |
| 36 | Nicomachean Ethics Nicomachean Ethics | Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.) | 0007 4th century B. C. | I think I’m more of a Neoplatonist than an Aristotelian. But we need to read people we don’t always agree with and this is a classic that should definitely be read. |
| 37 | Hiding Place The Hiding Place | ten Boom, Corrie (April 15, 1892 – April 15, 1983) | 1971 1971 | I was given this book last year and once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended. |
| 38 | Purgatory Purgatory | Alighieri, Dante (c. 1265 – 1321) | 1308 1308 | Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers, (June 13, 1893 – December 17, 1957). I read the first portion of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Inferno, in late 2015. Of the three parts, I think I enjoyed Purgatory the most. Are we allowed to enjoy purgatory? |
| 39 | War and Peace War and Peace | Tolstoy, Leo (September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910) | 1869 1869 | With the exception of a few sections, I enjoyed this book almost entirely. If you dropped out Tolstoy’s philosophy of war, there’s really be nothing to complain about. It’s long, but worth reading. |
| 40 | House of The Seven Gables The House of The Seven Gables | Hawthorne, Nathaniel (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) | 1851 1851 | I think I was biased against Hawthorne because we had to read him in school. But this story is really nice. Not necessarily happy, but nice. |
| 41 | Gilgamesh The Epic of Gilgamesh | Unknown | 0001 possibly 18th century B. C. | Probably the oldest thing I’ve read, from a time and a place we know little about. |
| 42 | Paradise Paradise | Alighieri, Dante (c. 1265 – 1321) | 1321 1321 | Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers, (June 13, 1893 – December 17, 1957). The third and final part of Dante’s Divine Comedy |
| 43 | Roumeli Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece | Fermor, Patrick Leigh (February 11, 1915 – June 10, 2011) | 1966 1966 | Fermor writes beautifully and if you have any ethnographic interest in Greece, then this book is for you. His writing is like stepping into a time machine. |
| 44 | Mill on the Floss The Mill on the Floss | Eliot, George (Mary Ann Evans, November 22, 1819 – December 22, 1880) | 1860 1860 | Not as happy a book as Silas Marner, but a beautifully written, sad tale of life. |
| 45 | King John King John | Shakespeare, William (circa April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) | 1595 1595 | The first of Shakespeare’s histories. My goal is to read through them all. This one, unsurprisingly, is about John, King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. |
| 46 | Lord Jim Lord Jim | Conrad, Joseph (December 3, 1857 – August 3, 1924) | 1900 1900 | Dark and somewhat mysterious. I’m not sure whether or not I’m a fan. |
| 47 | Mani Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese | Fermor, Patrick Leigh (February 11, 1915 – June 10, 2011) | 1959 1959 | This one wasn’t as interesting to me as Roumeli, but still worth a read if you’re interested in the area. |
| 48 | Beat to Quarters Beat to Quarters | Forester, C. S. (August 27, 1899 – April 2, 1966) | 1937 1937 | Originally published in England as The Happy Return. If I want something light to read, I often look to either Horatio Hornblower or Matthew Hervey. Chronologically, this is the eighth Hornblower novel. |
| 49 | Gulag Archipelago 2 The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Volume 2 | Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isayevich (December 11, 1918 – August 3, 2008) | 1968 From 1958 and 1968, English translation by Thomas Whitney, 1974 | These three volumes are not easy to read. But, again, I believe they should be required reading. |
| 50 | Cybernetics Cybernetics | Wiener, Norbert (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) | 1948 1948 | This was a book my dad had. It was written by a the famous mathematician and philosopher who was a professor when my dad was a grad student at MIT. I can’t say I understood all the math, but there was some interesting concepts that make the book worthwhile. |
| 51 | Problem of Pain The Problem of Pain | Lewis, C. S. (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963) | 1940 1940 | One of the best by C. S. Lewis. |
| 52 | Gulag Archipelago 3 The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Volume 3 | Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isayevich (December 11, 1918 – August 3, 2008) | 1968 From 1958 and 1968, English translation by Thomas Whitney, 1974 | It’s easy to find used copies of the first volume of this trilogy but I had to hunt to find one copy of volume 2. I never did find volume 3 so I had to buy it new. |
| 53 | Rumours of War Rumours of War | Mallinson, Allan (Born February 6, 1949) | 2004 2004 | I mentioned Matthew Hervey above. He’s sort of the Horatio Hornblower of the Light Dragoons. |
| 54 | Early History of Rome The Early History of Rome | Livy (59 B.C. – A.D. 17) | 0012 29 to 27 B. C. | Books 1 through 5 of Livy’s 142 volume History of Rome, which cover the period from the founding of Rome to 386 B.C. |
| 55 | Old Man And The Sea The Old Man And The Sea | Hemingway, Ernest (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) | 1952 1952 | This is the first book by Hemingway I’ve read and I enjoyed it quite a bit. |
| 56 | Out of Africa Out of Africa | Dinesen, Isak (a.k.a. Karen Blixen, April 17, 1885 – September 7, 1962) | 1937 1937 | I sort of expected this to be a novel, but it’s really an autobiography. Still, interesting glimpse into a time and a place that’s changed since then. |
| 57 | Under The Greenwood Tree Under The Greenwood Tree | Hardy, Thomas (June 2, 1840 – January 11, 1928) | 1872 1872 | I find that I really like Hardy’s novels. This is a short one and was written early in his career. Recommended. |
| 58 | Crime and Punishment Crime and Punishment | Dostoevsky, Fyodor (November 11, 1821 – February 9, 1881) | 1866 1866 | The third book by Dostoyevsky that I’ve read, after The Brothers Karamazov and Poor Folk and Other Tales. This is more of a psychological thriller. I liked Brothers K, for the most part. This is very different but also a great read. |
| 59 | History of My Times, (Hellenica A History of My Times, (Hellenica) | Xenophon (circa 430 – 354 B.C.) | 0005 4th Century B. C. | Covering Greek history in the years following the Peloponnesian War. |
| 60 | Smith of Wooton Manor Smith of Wooton Manor and Farmer Giles of Ham | Tolkien, J. R. R. (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) | 1949 published in 1967 and 1949, respectively | This is a short book with a pair of fun stories. |