2019 Reading List | Newduereview

I didn’t start taking reading seriously until my mid-twenties. Before that reading was a relic of high school, something I thought I didn’t have to do anymore. Little did I know that reading is one of life’s grand secrets for personal growth.

Reading as a hobby came to me during a family Christmas party 6 years ago. Being an adult, I could fraternize with the parents more naturally. I was talking up one of my family’s friends, and I flat out asked: so what do you do when you are not working? He replied: I read a lot. His wife who was right beside him adds on: you should see how much money we spend on Amazon!

If you are thinking this is a holiday advert for Amazon prime you are only half right, the links for the books will be in this article. No, this is more of an example of what how to spend your time and the experiences you will have reading.

Lots of things have changed in 6 years, but reading has been my one anchor that hasn’t changed. To this day I still remember what was said at that Christmas party: “I read a lot.” I wanted to be able to say that too.

I have a modest amount of books on my bookshelf, but I only started keeping track of my reading list in 2017. Before that, I would make sure I had another book to read before I finish the one I was reading. Now I keep track of all the books I read, and I have a pipeline of books for myself to read in the future. 2020 is going to be a great year for reading.

Analysis of My 2019 Reading List

Below this writing is the list of all the books I read in 2019. The list in chronological order, and there are 47 print texts that I read in total. The months where I read the most were in April and August. On average I would read 3.9 books a month.

For a personal challenge try and read more than this. A good goal for the new year would be read at least 3 books a months for the whole year.

Favorites and Stand Out Books

Out of all the books I enjoyed reading the Sprawl trilogy by William Gibson. Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive wove together an incredible cyberpunk tale that had me clutching each book to find out what happens next. The imagery is vivid and Gibson’s ideas are expansive within the realm of science fiction.

Second to the Sprawl series was Margret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy. Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam were books I couldn’t put down. They were told from varying character perspectives over a wide time frame. Incredibly clever science fiction was at work in these novels. In some ways, we could say we have almost come as far as the technology in the MaddAddam series.

If I had to choose one single book as the keystone of this list it would be Jurassic Park. Read this if you haven’t, and read it again if you have. The themes that get covered in this book are still relevant today. I have read this many times and I intend on reading it again at an opportune time in my life.

Chricton has an infectious writing style. When I re read this year I went through the whole thing in a few sittings. There are some funny science Easter Eggs talking about hard drive sizes if you can catch them. It makes for an amusing retrospective for how advanced our technology has become since the late 20th century.

The most surprising book I read was On My Way To Paradise by Dave Wolverton. I have a take a book leave a book box up the road from where I live. I found On My Way To Paradise in that box. I left behind Dante’s Inferno in exchange for it. I had no idea who the author was or what the book was about. I only saw the cover and thought, oh this is science fiction, and I took it. The story describes a future ripe with technology, interplanetary travel, and highly advanced medical technology. The story takes you on a journey of warfare and planetary genocide. This is worth reading in the face of today’s new technology.

The book that affected me the most was Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality by Dean Radin. What an interesting book. Global consciousness, ESP and quantum mechanics are at the heart of this one. Reading this changed how I see the world around me. Does consciousness affect the physical world? Some say it does. But we don’t know for sure. This book is a little outdated, but the information is still relevant today. Any new advances will no doubt come from some of the concepts found in this book.

I found this book in a used book store, and it took me a whole 20 seconds to find it and pick it out. I wasn’t sure I knew what I was looking for, but I found it anyways. You could say that I used ESP to find it.

2019 Newduereview Reading List

Analysis of My 2019 Reading List

Favorites and Stand Out Books

2019 Newduereview Reading List

January (3)

February 2019 (4)

March 2019 (5)

April 2019 (7)

May 2019 (4)

June 2019 (2)

July 2019 (1)

August 2019 (7)

September 2019 (4)

October 2019 (5)

November 2019 (2)

December (3)

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