2020 End of Year Book Review
While 2020 has certainly been a long, disheartening, and tumultuous year, I can point to one benefit to all the strangeness - my passion for reading has been reignited by a series of thought provoking books. All things said and done, I read 23 books in 2020, and am on my 24th. I've decided to spend some time in this decaying "Review" section of my website speaking on the best, the worst, and the most surprising books I've gone through this year.
The Children of Hurin - J.R.R Tolkien
The Silmarillion - J.R.R Tolkien
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Cujo - Stephen King
Dark Places - Gillian Flynn
The Woman in Black - Susan Hill
The Invited - Jennifer McMahon
The Mist - Stephen King
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
Carrie - Stephen King
The Hobbit - J.R.R Tolkien
The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek - Rhett Mclaughlin & Link Neal
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
Early Greek Philosophy - Jonathan Barnes
The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell & Bill Moyers
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
Beyond Good & Evil - Friedrich Nietzsche
On The Genealogy of Morality - Friedrich Nietzsche
Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
Tragic Sense of Life - Miguel de Unamuno
Explaining Postmodernism - Stephen R. C. Hicks
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
The books in bold are those I have read already, and the final book is one that I am currently in the process of reading. We'll start with the best five, move to the worst three, and then finish off with a "Most Surprising", "Biggest Letdown", and "Number One Recommendation". Man, I feel like Billy Crystal at the Oscars.
Starting off with the five best books I read this year, I'm going to keep every author to one book in order to balance out Tolkien with the rest. Notes from Underground floored me with its harsh, almost brutal look inside the psyche of a man possessed by the ghosts of what could be and what had been - a wretched man. The Silmarillion was a fantastic insight into the depth and complexity of Tolkien's world. I found Beyond Good & Evil to be an amazing criticism of the institutions of common morality, and an excellent introduction to Nietzsche. Jude the Obscure was a masterclass in the English language, and a good look into how a man's life can be turned upside down at the tip of a hat, and how misfortunes can pile up. Gone Girl may have copped out at the end, but it was riveting throughout and quite compelling. A couple honorable mentions are The Woman in Black and The Fountainhead.
Now, not every book I read this year was stellar, or even good, and three stood out as being worse than the rest. Tragic Sense of Life was good in its second half but a slog in the first, and I disagreed with Unamuno's conclusions at several key junctions. As an avid fan of Stephen King, Cujo was very disappointing. It was a hundred mile an hour blitz through an unsatisfying story, much unlike King's other novels. Finally, Early Greek Philosophy was a difficult book to read, though I don't fault the author. Most of the philosophers in the book have no written records of their thoughts, so a hodgepodge of aphorisms and broken thoughts comprises most of Jonathan Barnes' volume. While it may be the best novel about pre socratic Greek philosophy, perhaps it is just not meant to be read in this form.
I'd hate to end this review with a negative, so let's take care of the "Biggest Letdown" right here. While I may have given this to Cujo, I honestly felt more disappointed with Tragic Sense of Life. I was looking forward to reading a Spanish Existentialist's perspective on the Fundamental Problem, which I myself have dissected, but I found his conclusions were centered around death. Then there was his astonishing take on love - that the highest pinnacle of love is the pity one feels a homeless person receives as they grovel for food. I just can't agree with that sentiment.
The most surprising book of the year. I could give this to a few books, but I'll have to pick The Woman in Black. I thought it would be a Victorian horror with not enough scares and an unrelatable story, but it turned out to be a chilling, hair raising, and well written account. I was also quite surprised with The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek, as I bought the book mostly out of support for the authors, but ended up becoming enveloped in its mystery.
And last, but certainly not least, the one book I'd recommend above all others. One might say the "best" book I read in 2020: Notes from Underground. Dostoevsky really struck a chord with me with his nameless narrator and "Underground Man". A man so bitter he spends months planning "revenge" on an officer who bumped his shoulder once and overthinks the slightest encounter. It is very well written and well translated, and is remarkably quick to read, coming in at a mere 130 pages. In the reflections of this sour man I found a warning call against ressentiment - the concentrated, rotten bitterness Nietzche (who was heavily influenced by Dostoevksy), wrote of. I just read a passage in this book today, and it captivated me just as it had on my first read. I'm certain that if I could've just read one book this entire year, it would have been this slim novel about a man whose life had been so utterly wasted that he was left with naught but a putrid husk of his soul and a death to look forward to.
While that may seem like a depressing end to this post, it isn't. I'm looking forward to 2021's literary adventures with more zeal than ever thanks to the amazing books I read this year. Hopefully I'll finish Crime and Punishment within the next few weeks, after which I can turn my attention to Plato's The Republic, Alduous Huxley's Brave New World, Shakespeare's Hamlet, and then perhaps start delving into some Eastern, mostly Indian and Chinese, philosophies. And finally, while I have you all here, I hope you have a safe and happy New Year - here's to hoping 2021 makes up for 2020!