The 48 Books I Read in 2021
I never really decided to challenge myself to reading 47 books in a year. In fact, according to my Kindle’s “Reading Insights” my goal for 2021 was to read 15 books!
I used to read a lot growing up. I remember bringing home the book order sheet from elementary school and circling several books in each order form to ask my parents about. (Am I totally dating myself here? Is this still even a thing or only for us early 90’s kids?) Of course they were fine with ordering a couple here and there - they wanted me to read!
Once reading started to get more intense with daily studies in intermediate/high school, I dropped leisure reading to keep up with text books. My perspective on reading changed a lot then and I felt like it was more of a chore.
This mindset continued through college…and actually up until somewhat recently. I decided to start a bookclub with some friends a couple of years ago. A friend of mine asked if I knew of any clubs and after a quick online research, we realized that many of them met on weekday mornings - something that wouldn’t work for those of us who have full time jobs.
What started as what I thought would be a “one book a month” experience, turned into me reading MUCH MUCH more than I initially anticipated. No complaints!
In retrospect, I think one of the things that may have held me back from reading was the cost. Reading lots of books = spending lots of money! BUT! I learned from my friends that there are reading apps out there where you can borrow books (ebooks and audiobooks) from the library for free! That 21 day borrowing timeframe really kicks in for me and I ended up reading through books pretty quickly…which is how I got to reading almost 50 books in 2021.
Lots of rambling to get to the punch line. Here’s a list of all of the books I read in 2021.
The Queen’s Gambit - Walter Tevis
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
American Royals - Katherine McGee
Echo Mountain - Lauren Wolk
Big Magic - Elizabeth Gilbert
Declutter Your Mind - S.J. Scott & Barrie Davenport
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Influencer - Brittany Hennessy
One Million Followers - Brendan Kane
First-Time Influencer - Patrick Rema
In Five Years - Rebecca Serle
Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop - Roselle Lim
The Alice Network - Kate Quinn
Along Came a Spider - James Patterson
A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck - Mark Manson
Everything is Figureoutable - Marie Forleo
Simmer Down - Sarah Smith
American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins
Untamed - Glennon Doyle
Bestiary - K-Ming Chang
In a Holidaze - Christina Lauren
The No Asshole Rule - Robert Sutton, Ph.D
Majesty - Katherine McGee
Party of Two - Jasmine Guillroy
The Kindness of Strangers - Tim Cahill, Dave Eggers
Calm the Fuck Down - Sarah Knight
Sex and Vanity - Kevin Kwan
Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
All You Can Ever Know - Nicole Chang
Anna K - Jenny Lee
The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
Pretty Things - Janelle Brown
We Begin at the End - Chris Whitaker
What I Know For Sure - Oprah Winfrey
Start with Why - Simon Sinek
How To Win Friends & Influencer People - Dale Carnegie
The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Reid
Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner
The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett
The Summer I Turned Pretty - Jenny Han
Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Radar Girls - Sara Ackerman
The Stationery Shop - Marjan Kamali
Everything Is Fucked - Mark Manson
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning - Cathy Park Hong