🎵 It’s the most…wonderful time…of the year… 🎵

Once again, it’s time to review the books I’ve read over the past year and share my favorites with fellow readers. Plus with my memory in gradual decline,¹ it’s a nice opportunity to revisit ideas that may have slipped my mind over the course of life.

This year the tally is 58 books, keeping up with my average of about 50 a year. In terms of content, I found myself reading more memoirs than usual and I caught up on some “classics” that everyone seems to recognize and reference but few have bothered to read.

This is not a comprehensive list of all the books I read, nor is this a ranking of these books as the “best” of anything; they’re roughly listed in chronological order of reading. Instead, I prefer to share the books I enjoyed reading in hopes that someone will find and enjoy something they otherwise might not have encountered. Enjoyment does not imply agreement with or an endorsement of their arguments, only that I found their content stimulating and engaging.

In what has become an annual tradition, every December I review the books I read in the past year and pick out my favorites to share with other avid readers. 

This is not a comprehensive list of all the books I read, nor is this a ranking of these books as the “best” of anything. Instead, I prefer to share the books I enjoyed reading in hopes that someone will find and enjoy something they otherwise might not have encountered. Enjoyment does not imply agreement with or an endorsement of their arguments, only that I found their content stimulating and engaging.

According to Goodreads, I’ve read 52 books this past year, which is about my average, though parenthood understandably puts a crimp in my “spare time.”

And now, on with the list!

In what has become an annual tradition, every December I review the books I read in the past year and pick out my favorites to share with other avid readers.

This is not a comprehensive list of all the books I read, nor is this a ranking of these books as the “best” of anything. Instead, I prefer to share the books I enjoyed reading the most in the hopes that maybe someone will find and enjoy something they otherwise might not have encountered. Enjoyment does not imply agreement with or an endorsement of their arguments, only that I found their contents stimulating and engaging.

According to Goodreads, I read 63 books in 2021. Here are the ones I enjoyed the most.

It’s the end of 2020. You know what kind of year it’s been, I know what kind of year it’s been, let’s move on.

This is not a comprehensive list of the books I read or a ranking of what I think are the “best” books. Instead, I prefer to share the books I enjoyed reading the most in the hopes that maybe someone will find and enjoy something they otherwise might not have. Enjoyment for me doesn’t imply agreement, only that the book resonated in a profound way.

According to Goodreads, I read 62 books this year, which is a dropoff from the 106 books I read in 2019. On the plus side, whereas in 2019 I only enjoyed 2 of them to make the annual list, this year fared much better in terms of my reading enjoyment.

Without further ado, here is my list for YUTOPIA’s Favorite Books of 2020, ordered by date of completion. Maybe you’ll find something interesting and enjoyable here too.

One of the things I still enjoy from social media is the book recommendations, either directly from friends or from reviews I see shared. Every now and again I get exposed to books or authors whom I otherwise would never have encountered, and this exposure has helped me expand my knowledge and perspective about many topics.

Since I enjoy book recommendations, a few years ago I started compiling my favorite books from the previous year, initially as a Facebook post, then a Twitter thread, and now that the blog is back up and running, I decided to start posting them here.

The following isn’t a comprehensive list of books I’ve read or even a ranking of the “best” books. Rather, these are the books I enjoyed reading the most. This does not even mean I agree with everything in these books, only that for various reasons I found myself more engaged and generally appreciated the experience of having read these.

Enjoy at your leisure!