Reading is so underrated. Does anyone my age read leisurely or for fun these days? It seems like it’s few and far between. Not knocking anyone who doesn’t read, don’t get me wrong. You do you. It’s only that it’s rare I find myself running into an avid reader.
Listen pals, reading is a heck of a time! And with the pandemic making 2021 a shitpot of shittiness, I took to the pages of literature to help me escape. I read a lot of books last year. This isn’t a ranking. But if you stumble upon this little blog post and find that some of these suggestions seem interesting to you, by all means, I suggest you go out and find them, and enjoy.
I read about 40 books and 10 graphic novels last year. This isn’t a ranking, but the ones that I enjoyed the most.
This was the book I started 2021 with and I absolutely fell in love with it. A little confusing for myself and some parts because of a lot of the Russian stuff. The characters were great and the hotel itself was treated like it’s own character. Almost like the Grand Budapest Hotel. A phenomenal read.
The first Miriam Toewvs book I’ve read. And after reading this one I went out and bought another 4 of hers. The intensity is dense through dialogue, which I love books that don’t need to spend so much time with meaningless descriptions. Having it focus on conversations between the characters, the book moved fast. But you find yourself wanting to take the time to really hear what all the characters are saying. I hoped it was a bit longer, but then again, I felt it would’ve been too similar to Handmades Tale which dragged on a bit. This was overall amazing.
I fucking love everything that Christopher Moore does. His books genuinely make me laugh while reading. I know there’s a lot of quotes from other authors on the back covers of books that say you’ll laugh out loud, it’s hilarious. Let’s not lie to each other, most of the time we chuckle twice out of the corner of our mouth. This author though, ya, I laugh. Keep in mind this is the third book in this series the main character Pocket, so I’d suggest also reading Fool and The Serpent of Venice. They’re fast reads too and really enjoyable.
Horrific to see how far evil can reach and an amazing journalists fight for the jarring truth about Harvey Weinstein. Didn’t want to put this book down because even though it’s all true it reads like a James Patterson book. I was shocked the sort of things talked about in this book actually exist. Well, the fucker Weinstein is in jail now and hopefully doesn’t get out.
There are so many stories about the Holocaust. Mostly horrific, many inspiring and some that are unbelievable. I couldn’t turn away from this story. The bond between father and son is so special to me specifically, reading this book hit home of what would one do to protect the ones they love. One of my top reads.
My favourite book of the year! Was blown away how everything was woven together through the generations of this family. I was a little intimidated at first because I thought it was going to go hard on the foliage jibberjabber. Thankfully it was not the case. This is the one I would go pick up right away during the winter months. Definitely a book you pick up with a cup of coffee on a cold winters day out there.
Reading these two books back to back was one of my favourite things about 2021. I love Backman’s stuff and this did not disappoint in the least. There’s very little focus on hockey if that’s what some may be worried about. So much depth in the characters and the shit they have to go through. I love books focusing on how actions of one, or many, impact a community as a whole. As I’m writing this I’m starting off 2022 by reading another Backman book called Anxious People, it’s just as good. This guy is one of my top go-to authors.
Well, there you have it! Some of my top reads of 2021. This was an easy list to put together since I was keeping track of what I was reading the whole year. Perhaps I’ll do the same for 2022. I have this habit of buying books all of the time so I’ve got three bookshelves with about 250 books in them. Going to have to make a dent soon enough with the more I read.