2020 Reading List

 One habit I am not trying nearly hard enough to break (though not the one I should break the most) is treating holidays as deadlines in which things must be achieved. These many blogs must be written, these many pages completed, these many films watched, these many miles hiked, these many people spoken to, and these many books read. I did not expect to beat last year's total, and tried not to think of it as some kind of race, but I did and did, completing twenty-four as of New Year's Eve Eve. That said, I read few short stories - 42- to last year's 48- so I suppose it's still a loss. I'm not so anal as to start counting pages, though I can't help wondering if massive epics from previous eras ought not to carry more weight than contemporary kids books. No matter - the purpose is in the reading. 

I did not quite match last year's total for short fiction - 43 stories as opposed to last year's 48. As of writing, it's not too late to close that gap, but that'd be exactly the sort of arbitrary goal-post chasing I'm trying to avoid. 

Last year I swore I would have something to say about each of them, but ended up posting none of them. So here's a list, before forget, to show that it wasn't an entirely wasted year. 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw - Jeff Kinney.
The Noise of Time - Julian Barnes

Invaders of Space - Murray Leinster

The Information - Martin Amis

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

The Cowards - Josef Skvorecky

Chocky - John Wyndam

There's One in Every Crowd - Ivan E. Coyote

The Chimes - Charles Dickens 

The Fall of Berlin - Anthony Reed/David Fisher

No Doors, No Windows -Harlan Ellison

The Hobbit - JRR. Tolkien

Black Arrow - Robert Louis Stevenson

Neuromancer - William Gibson

Transformations - James King

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Holdon 

100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Quiet Boy - Lois Lowery

White Fragility - Robin 

Etienne's Alphabet - James King

Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson 

The Two Towers - JRR Tolkien 

Gathering Blue - Lois Lowery 

Farewell Party - Milan Kundera 

  

 

 

If nothing else can be said about this wretched year (and to be sure, very little can), at least that orange creature in the White House has been sent on his way. Not willingly and possibly not permanently, but undoubtedly (except perhaps in his own imagination).  No one expected him to go gracefully, but I for one didn’t expect him to go this pitifully – a pathetic patch of pouting petulance, not even a pretext of maturity or adult dignity.

I remember watching not long ago a comedy sketch in which a Trump impersonator refused to leave a day care centre full of toddlers, throwing a tantrum and clinging to his bouncy ball. A grotesque parody I thought at the time. But we’re living in times beyond parody, and the sketch has proven a prescient prediction. He’s given up even pretending to be President, instead devoting all his time to sulking on Twitter. He finally got around to signing the coronavirus relief bill, dithering and delaying while people were going hungry and losing their homes. He’s devoted all his energies to ridiculous conspiracy theories which have been contemptuously thrown out of court, and which even some of his closest allies and ardent supporters have had trouble swallowing.  It is beyond farcical.

But let’s not forget how scary and disturbing it all is nonetheless. A sitting president has refused to concede office, and cast doubts on the electoral process. Do we need any more proof of his authoritarian tendencies? Utter ineptitude kept him from pulling it off, but the very fact he was able to attempt it should terrify us all.

A few things to consider:

First: A shit-ton of people voted for him. More than any other candidate in US history. Lots and lots of people not only thought what he did and what he stood for was perfectly fine, but absolutely wonderful. Millions and millions bought into him and stand by him. We are damned lucky that the only person who ever got more votes was Joe Biden.

Second: The President has cast doubts on the very notion of truth itself. Truth is whatever he decides it is. He reserves the right to make it up as he goes along, and cling to whichever version of reality pleases him most. And his millions upon millions of followers have bought into this as well. Now, at a time when accepting a verifiable, quantifiable reality is more important than ever. Climate deniers, anti-vaxxers, Q-Anons are stronger than ever. Our collective well-being depends on accepting science, and millions upon millions simply reject it.

Third: Trump has exposed the vulnerabilities of the system. Sheer incompetence protected us from his worst instincts, but he’s shown how it can be done. How masses can be manipulated, how safe-guards can be bypassed, how scapegoats can be created, how dissidents can be vilified, how reality itself (nevermind the US political system) can be twisted to suit the needs of the Leader. There’s a lesson here for any would be dictator, and the next one just might know what he’s[i] doing.

Happy New Year.

 

 

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[i] I use the pronoun intentionally: the public may long for a strongman to lead them, but will not allow themselves to be dominated by a strong woman.