My 2021 Year in Books

2021 did not go as planned in a lot of ways. Like every year until this year, I set big, quantitative goals around running, writing, business development, and my career. I also set a massive goal to read 52 books in 2021. I didn’t get close to this goal.

Like millions of privileged Americans, I assumed we were collectively going to rise out of the global pandemic in 2021 which lead me to set ambitious goals. Some of those goals were about earnest self-improvement and learning. Others, in retrospect, were vanity metrics and virtue signaling. Regardless, 2021 did not go as expected for me or millions of others.

It did not take long for plans to shift and change. In Texas, we saw superstorm Uri sweep through and ravage our lives. Yet, I read. Then something happened. I stopped wanting to be productive. I stopped caring about self-improvement. I was more concerned about maintaining. Rest was hard. Mental health was frazzled. The desire to curl up with a good book gave way to curling up with a video game or rewatching all of Bravo’s Top Chef from season 1 episode 1 to live. I revisited comfort food — literal and figurative.