5 Books That Changed My Life In 2020

Texts that changed my life even in the middle of this crazy year.

In 2020, I set a goal to read 75 books. But in March, thinking the shutdown would give me so much more time to read, I raised my goal to 80 books. Perhaps I should have left it at 75 because, in 2020, I read 72 books.¹

Last year, I read 80 books. When I wrote about which 5 changed my life the most that year, the world wasn’t being crushed by a global pandemic, a Mr. Potato Head President, and what may become the next great depression.

But despite all that, what I wanted to read about didn’t change much. It was influenced much less by global disasters and more by basic human experiences: how to love, how to be loved, how to live well, and why we are here at all.

So, what follows is not a list of the world’s best books or the books with the most woke knowledge, but the 5 books that changed my life the most in 2020. Books not on what separates us, but on what brings us together.

Happier Now: How to Stop Chasing Perfection and Embrace Everyday Moments by Nataly Kogan

“Having a sense of the greater purpose of our efforts, what I call the bigger why…