A back dated post from my old website (RIP hacked/dead alexmanderson.com url).
I know I’m not going to be the only person who looks back on 2019 as a dividing line in their life. The pandemic in 2020 is the obvious line, but looking back for myself, 2019 was the end and beginning of many new chapters (sorry).
At the begining of 2019 Didi and I were in our early 30’s living in an appartment in Seattle.
At the end of 2019 we married and traveled easily on a plane for the last time (unbeknownst to us) to Hawaii for our honeymoon.
2020 is when the pandemic happened and at the end of the year Didi found out she was pregnant.
2021 was one of pregnancy and early baby Augie.
2022 mostly revolved around Augie and keeping him away from all the sickos.
Also in 2022 we moved away from Seattle to Port Townsend and somehow I turned 35.
Now as I am writing this post I can see 2019 was the last time I would live normally in Seattle, commuting daily to-and-from work on a bus, as a non-married, childless individual.
All of that is just to say that when I look back at the books I read during 2019 it feels like I’m looking back at books read from a decade ago, in a different life.
Something else I’m sure I will be saying as I continue going backwards in time is that my memories of the books themselves becomes more and more hazy. I swear I was paying attention at the time, but now, other than general plot points I can’t remember anything. So for my rankings I’m mostly just going with how I remember feeling about them at the time and ones that have sat with me well over the years. But also I’m sure a reread of any would alter my thinking.
Ranked below in descending order are 14 of the 32 titles I read and enjoyed the most in 2019.
Favorite Books Read In 2019
14
Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema by Anne Helen Petersen
Pages: 289
Release Date: September 30, 2014
13
Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror by Jason Zinoman
Pages: 274
Release Date: July 1, 2011
12
Paper Girls, Book One by Brian K. Vaughan
Pages: 320
Release Date: November 1, 2017
11
Educated by Tara Westover
Pages: 352
Release Date: February 20, 2018
10
The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Trees, Animals, and the Extraordinary Balance of All Living Things ― Stories from Science and Observation by Peter Wohlleben
Pages: 272
Release Date: September 11, 2017
9
How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveller by Ryan North
Pages: 464
Release Date: September 18, 2018
8
The Vision by Tom King
Pages: 488
Release Date: January 23, 2018
7
Complete Concrete by Paul Chadwick
Pages: 316
Release Date: September 13, 1994
4-6
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett
Pages: 336
Release Date: June 21, 2012
4-6
The Long Mars by Terry Pratchett
Pages: 353
Release Date: July 6, 1905
4-6
The Long War by Terry Pratchett
Pages: 419
Release Date: June 18, 2013
3
Robert Altman: The Oral Biography by Mitchell Zuckoff
Pages: 560
Release Date: January 1, 2009
2
Recursion by Blake Crouch
Pages: 336
Release Date: June 11, 2019
1
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Pages: 368
Release Date: May 7, 2019