Resolution 2020 : To Read Three Books a Month.

My 2020 New Year resolution was to read more.  I was inspired to do this after I watched the Netflix Docu-series "Inside Bill's Brain".  Bill Gates does not read books, he gobbles them up.  He packs a suitcase of up to forty books when he goes on holiday.  He also reads widely, delving into topics that he is unfamiliar with.  As I was not reading regularly, I resolved to do something about it.

 I set a target of reading three books a month.  As an average book is about 300+ pages, I reasoned if I made time to read 15 pages in the morning and 15 before bed - 30 pages a day - it would take me about 10 days to complete a book, or about three books a month.  Easy peasy.

There is the tricky part of choosing titles.  There is nothing worse than reaching half way and not knowing whether to invest more time to finish a bad book.  To avoid this, I resolved to seek recommendations, either from friends or booklists, AND only read those that had a rating of over four on Goodreads.  This generally worked although it did not completely sieve out the duds.   

I finished three books in Jan.  Then Covid hit and I found even more time to read.  I also noticed I was getting faster,  doubling my reading speed.  Reading was no longer a chore.  It became something I looked forward during my down time.  I have learnt to gobble as well.

I surpassed my 3 book a month target by a mile.  Reading has brought joy and clearly broadened my mind on on multiple issue, making me at least more informed, if not wiser.  

The entire list of books read is shown below.  Fiction titles are in red, non-fiction in black.  I bolded 23 titles which I felt had an impact on me.  And yes, the focus on the Christmas theme in December was deliberate!

I will follow this with my Top fiction and non-fiction books for this year, in the hope that some will benefit from reading them.   Happy reading!

List of Books Read in 2020 most recent first.

83. Letters from Father Christmas (2004) - JRR Tolkein

82. How the Light Gets In (2013) - Louise Penny
81. Hercule Poirot Christmas (1939) - Agatha Christie
80. A Christmas Memory (1956) - Truman Capote
79. The 13th Gift (2014) - Joanne Huist Smith
78. One Day in December (2018) - Josie Silver
77. The Polar Express (1985) - Chris Van Allsburg
76. Last Christmas in Paris (2017) - Hazel Gaynor, Heather Webb
75. Deacon King Kong (2020) - James MacBride
74. Alexander Hamilton (2005) - Ron Chernow
73. Breathe (2020) - James Nestor
72. The Gold Mine Effect (2013) - Ramus Ankersen
71. A Line in the Sand (2011) - James Barr
70. Mythos (2017) - Stephen Fry
69. Know My Name (2019) - Chanel Miller
68. The Away Game (2019) - Sebastian Abbot
67. A Gentleman in Moscow (2019) - Amor Towles
66. The Beekeeper of Allepo (2019) - Christy Lefteri
65. Shoe Dog (2016) - Phil Knight
64. Talking to My Daughter About the Economy (2018) - Yanis Varoufakis
63. The Book of Joy (2016) - Douglas Carlton Abrams
62. The Vanishing Half (2020) - Brit Bennett
61. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (2017) - Neil deGrasse Tyson
60. Spymaster (2016) - Martin Pearce
59. The Travelling Cat Chronicles (2018) - Hiro Arikawa
58. The Midnight Library (2020) - Matt Haig
57. When Breath Becomes Air (2016) - Paul Kalanithi
56. What Money Can't Buy (2012) - Michael J Sandel
55. Never Split the Difference (2016) - Chris Voss
54. Educated (2018) - Tara Westover
53. Know Your Way Pilgrim (2020) - Christophe Cambillard
52. Last Tang Standing (2020) - Lauren Ho
51. Blue Moon (2019) - Lee Child
50. Ministry of Moral Panic (2013) - Amanda Lee Koe
49. Singapore : A Very Short History (2020) - Alvin Tan
48. The Club (2018) - Jonathan Clegg, Joshua Robinson
47. Kochland (2019) - Christopher Leonard
46. The Ride of a Lifetime (2019) - Robert Iger
45. This is What Inequality Looks Like (2018) - You Yenn Teo
44. These Truths (2018) - Jill Lepore
43. Good Economics for Hard Times (2019) - A. Banerjee, E Duflo
42. Talking to Strangers (2019) - Malcolm Gladwell
41. This is Going to Hurt (2017) - Adam Kay
40. The Hidden Life of Trees (2015) - Peter Wohlleben
39. The Rosie Project (2013) - Graeme Simsion
38. Where the Crawdad Sings (2018) - Delia Owens
37. War is a Force that Gives us Meaning (2003) - Chris Hedges
36. Destined for War (2017) - Graham Allison
35. Has China Won (2020) - Kishore Mahbubani
34. The Courage to Be Disliked (2013) - I Kishimi, F Koga
33. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (2017) - Gail Honeyman
32. The Humans (2013) - Matt Haig
31. China : A Modern History (2010) - Michael Dillon
30. Becoming (2018) - Michelle Obama
29. Law : A Very Short Introduction (2008) - Raymond Wacks
28. Adaptive Markets (2017) - Andrew Lo
27. Zonal Marking (2019) - Michael Cox
26. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing (2007) - John Bogle
25. Prepared (2019) - Dianne Tavenner
24. Little Fires Everywhere (2020) - Celeste Ng
23. Sapiens (2011) - Yuval Noah Harari
22. Born a Crime (2016) - Trevor Noah
21. 17A Keong Siak Road (2017) - Charmaine Leung
20. China in Ten Words (2011) - Yu Hua
19. The Fire Line (2016) - Fernanda Santos
18. Normal People (2019) - Sally Rooney
17. The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything (2010) - James Martin
16. The Silent Patient (2019) - Alex Michaelides
15. The Numbers Game (2013) - C Anderson, D Sally
14. Green Island (2016) - Shawna Yang Ryan
13. The Body (2019) - Bill Bryson
12. Soccermatics (2016) - David Sumpter
11. The Black and White Club (2019) - Peter Bergeron
10. Cybersecurity - Time Magazine Publication
9. Football Hackers (2019) - Christophe Biermann
8. Exhalation (2019) - Ted Chiang
7. Bad Blood (2018) - John Carreyrou
6. Exponential (2016) - James Hewitt, Aki Hintsa
5. Pachinko (2017) - Min Jin Lee
4. Range (2019) - David Epstein
3. Why We Sleep (2017) - Matthew Walker
2. Billion Dollar Whale (2018) - T Wright, B Hope
1. The Infinite Game (2019) - Simon Sinek

Merry Christmas!