It seems that in the last 12 months another year has passed, and we find ourselves again at the end of this one. While I think it would be a mistake to say this year has been less eventful than previous years, I’m having a much harder time remembering all that has happened, especially compared to the last two years when it seemed like every month brought a new cataclysm.

However eventful the year was, it did bring another round of reading, and fortunately (or unfortunately, if that’s how you feel) I remember the books I’ve read better than I remember the year itself. This year has been the most fictitious year since I started keeping track, with 80% of the books I read being fiction. I’m not entirely sure why this was (it may have to do with my re-reading of Percy Jackson and my discovery of Discworld) but it’s interesting to note (at least to me) that the amount of fiction I’ve read as a proportion of my total reading has steadily increased over time — 37% in 2020 and 52% in 2021. Whatever the cause of this genrational shift, I read some real gems. Without further ado, here are the third annual Book Awards; let’s get to it.

Awards

Best Science Fiction: Tie
The Bobiverse (We Are Legion (We Are Bob); For We Are Many; All These Worlds) by Dennis E Taylor / Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
This was the most difficult award to decide this year, which is why I took the easy way out and declared a tie. Both the Bobiverse books and Project Hail Mary (PHM) were outstanding books to read, and they are without a doubt some of my favorites ever. They both deal with the efforts of one man (or man-turned-computer) to save humanity in the face of an extinction-level crisis, using spacecraft, science, and humor to accomplish his goal. I loved the way they intertwined biology with the physics and engineering of space travel/exploration (the antagonist of PHM is one of the most fascinating fictional biological entities I’ve ever read about), and they both explore, in engaging, provocative ways, what makes us human. The Bobiverse is more humorous, as well as exploration-focused, while PHM is more plot-driven, but PHM certainly has humor and discovery and the Bobiverse certainly has a strong story. They have quite different tones overall, with PHM being more serious and the Bobiverse being more light-hearted, but both have an excellent balance of emotion that complements the themes of the story. 10/10

Most Inspiring: Courage is Calling by Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday previously won my “Favorite New Author” award, and he continues to deliver. This is the start of a new series on the four cardinal virtues, and while occasionally the writing can be a little dramatic and preachy, the overall themes and examples really made me want to be better and take action and be courageous. I really like the formatting as well, with the book split into three parts, each focused on a different aspect of courage, and the chapters being bite-sized, easy-to-digest sections that focus on a specific example (or two). It lends itself to a slower, more thoughtful reading. 9.5/10

Runner-up: Discipline is Destiny by Ryan Holiday
It’s almost feels wrong to just put the next book in a series as the runner-up for an award, but what can I say, I like Ryan Holiday and his books really resonate with me. As before, sometimes the writing can be a little dramatic and preachy, but I still really liked this one. The reason it doesn’t get the top spot is because it has a weaker third act, and also tales of courage tend to be a little more inspiring to me than tales of temperance. Nevertheless, this is still a great book. 9/10

Best Crime: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
When it comes to crime/mystery/detective novels it is, of course, hard to beat Sherlock Holmes, and there’s a reason he’s one of the most well-known literary detectives in the world. This book of short stories was a fun read, and while the longer novels like The Hound of the Baskervilles can really develop the tension and the plot, these short stories are a good size for when you want a little mystery but don’t have an hour to sit down and read. 8.5/10

Most Thought-Provoking: Why the West Rules – For Now by Ian Morris
I was first interested in this book because its premise is a question I have often pondered. It’s a big question, and really an unanswerable one (as most big historical questions are, especially when they deal with counterfactuals), but Morris does a good job of laying out his metrics and assumptions and the way he analyzed them. This means the first section of the book can be a bit dry as he sets up the framework, but the payoff is good and the book is, overall, quite fascinating (and I always love seeing non-Western civilizations getting some recognition). In the end, I do disagree with some of his conclusions and wish he went into more depth in some areas, but the beauty of the book is that Morris didn’t intend to write the definitive conclusion to the debate, and he did a great job of laying out his arguments and getting me to think. 8/10

Most Disappointing: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
This book had been on my radar for a while now, and it seems to get near-universal praise, so I was excited to read it. I’ll start by saying that there are certainly some great things in this book, and it definitely made me think in new ways about new ideas, like the role of social constructs and narratives in human development. That being said, there was also a lot that just really irked me, such as the preachy, bumptious ending, the overly Eurocentric approach, and the shocking deficiency of sources. Several of the assertions had no references at all, and when I did my own research to confirm Harari’s words I couldn’t find anything to back them up, which made me question the veracity of everything else. Overall, the book had potential, but I really was disappointed. Also he doesn’t use the Oxford Comma. 6/10

Runner-up: Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson has reached almost god-like status in the fantasy world, at least from what I’ve seen, and for years people have variously urged, encouraged, pleaded, and demanded I read his books (and therefore, on principle, I have avoided doing so). This year, though, I decided I’d waited long enough, so I picked up Elantris (because it wasn’t over 1,000 pages and part of a series), and proceeded to be thoroughly underwhelmed. The ideas and world were certainly interesting, but I kept expecting something more, something which never actually came. 5.5/10
Fortunately, every Sanderson lover to whom I told this explained that, yes, of course I would be disappointed, because I started with one if his weakest books. So, unlike Yuval Harari, Brandon Sanderson hasn’t been ruined for me and I will most likely be reading Mistborn sometime this next year.

Best Plot Twist: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
This is the first and only book by world-renowned mystery writer Agatha Christie that I’ve read, which is interesting considering her world-renown. I was apprised of the existence of a twist in this book beforehand (one of the reasons I chose to read it in the first place), and was not disappointed when I actually experienced it. It was awesome, and (at the risk of giving too much away) one of the only books I know of with such a twist, and I would love to read more like it. 8.5/10 Book, 10/10 Twist.

Best Science: What If? 2 by Randall Munroe
Building on the previous book like What If, How To, and Thing Explainer, this is another classic that is both hilarious and incredibly interesting. While the questions and situations addressed are themselves absurd and comical, I always end up learning lots about physics and chemistry and astronomy, and thinking about things in new ways. Plus, Munroe’s illustrations and commentaries are, as always, delightfully clever and witty, so it makes the whole experience very enjoyable. 10/10

Runner-up: Sentient by Jackie Higgins
This was a great read for me because it was about neuroscience, which I love, and animals, which I also love. Higgins takes each major sense and looks at an animal that excels in that sense (bloodhounds for smell, cheetahs for balance, owls for hearing, etc.) and compares how humans stack up (sometimes surprisingly well). Occasionally it sacrificed accessibility for accuracy and rigor, making it a little more difficult to understand than other pop science books, but I still really enjoyed reading it. 8.5/10

Best Traditional History: Venice: A New History by Thomas F. Madden
Another historical classic by Thomas Madden (author of Istanbul, a read from last year), this was a great book. I never really knew much about Venice other than canals and the fact that Indiana Jones travelled there once, but it certainly does have a fascinating history. Its interactions with Constantinople, the Crusaders, and the Islamic Caliphates, and the impacts they all had on each other are especially intriguing. 9/10

Best Revisionist History: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann
My education regarding the native peoples of the Americas has generally been as follows: there were some empires in South and Central America, and a bunch of tribes in North America, all of which were conquered and suffered under the Europeans due to superior European technology and organization, and it wasn’t great. And then in 1776, America.” Mann addresses this traditional view in the first few pages, and then goes into just how amazing the American peoples and cultures really were, with technological advancements, city-building, agriculture, transportation, etc. Unfortunately not a lot is known still/anymore, and I’m sure at least some of the ideas and claims in this book will be disproven as we learn more, but I really loved seeing the new perspectives and ideas Mann presents. Sometimes it was a bit verbose, and got bogged down in seemingly tangential anecdotes or scientific minutiae, but overall I really liked it. 8.5/10

Runner-up: God’s Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World by Alan Mikhail
Like pre-1491 America, the Ottoman Empire is another casualty of my Eurocentric education, only being taught as the “sick man of Europe” that was properly trounced under the righteous might of the allies in WWI. Naturally, the Ottoman Empire is far more complex, interesting, and impactful than that, and Mikhail did a great job of digging into the Ottoman Empire and Sultan Selim. I especially loved the suggestion of the Ottoman Empire’s impact on the Age of Exploration and the discovery of the Americas. It really showed just how powerful the Ottomans (Ottomen?) were and how much of an influence they had on Western Europe. Sometimes it lost its narrative thread and I had a hard time following the progression of ideas, but overall I really liked what I read, and I learned a lot. 8/10

Most Political: Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
This one first interested me because it’s subtitle is “Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics”, and I’m a sucker for maps. Unfortunately, the maps didn’t play quite as big a role in the book as I was hoping, but the book itself was still very interesting, and getting a more modern view of the interactions between nations was quite fascinating (I guess that’s what modern geopolitics is). The book was written in 2016, so when he got to Russia and it’s current interests and possible avenues for aggression it was amusing to compare his predictions against what has actually happened (i.e. the Russo-Ukrainian War). Overall a very interesting and timely read. 8.5/10

Most Original Premise: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott
It’s difficult to categorize this one, because it has a lot going on. It’s about a square who lives in Flatland, a 2D world in which all the residents are shapes with varying numbers of sides. the square is then taken by an emissary into Spaceland and shown the 3rd dimension. After having his mind blown by that, he’s taken down to Lineland (1D) and then a 0D world. The world-building is relatively deep and much of the book is dedicated to describing Flatland and its politics and society, but because this book was published in 1884 the misogyny and classism is rather blatant (Flatland women are lines, not shapes, and must always accommodate the needs of the shapes, and shapes with fewer sides are inferior to shapes with many sides). It’s an interesting allegory about the logical existence of worlds beyond our own 3D one, and all the accompanying implications (Abbott was an English scholar and theologian). Overall, not my favorite, but it was short enough that it didn’t overstay its welcome and it was still quite interesting. 7/10

Discworld
Discworld is… something else, and deserves an entire post of its own (and I very well might make one once I’ve read them all). It accounts for fully 20 of the books I’ve read this year (and I still have 21 more to go). I’d never paid much attention to the references and praise I’d read about Discworld until I read Good Omens and figured there might be something to this Terry Pratchett guy. I finally picked up my first Discworld book in July, and then the next 13 books I read, with one exception, were Discworld novels.

All of the books take place on the Discworld, a flat world, similar in many ways to our own (though not because it’s flat), that flies through space on the back of a giant turtle. Each book can stand alone, though there are threads that follow specific characters, like the City Watch, the Witches, and Death (one of my favorite characters, alongside the Librarian, who was transformed into an orangutan in a magical accident). With so many books there’s a bit of everything: philosophy, religion, Shakespeare, fairytales, murder mysteries, Phantom of the Opera, dragons, movies, music, etc. Each person who has read them will have a different opinion, but it’s generally agreed that a good place to start is not with the first 2-3 books, but with Guards! Guards! (dragons), The Wyrd Sisters (Shakespeare), or Mort (death). Pratchett is a master of satire and parody, and though each of the books is full of hilarious wordplay, fabulous characters, and interesting stories, they’re also full of serious commentary on life, relationships, society, and the sometimes non-sensical ways our world works. I love them, and highly recommend them to everyone.



And there it is, a view into my reading this year, and my thoughts on some of what I read. I’ve noticed that the awards and reviews for each book are trending longer, which can be either good or bad; if you have a preference for either let me know. If you’d like to see a full list of this year’s reading, you can find it here