My 2020 Book List

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Every year, I write a blog about the best books I read that year. Some of these books were ones I’d planned on reading, but most came to me the way a new song comes to you: by happenstance. Recommendations from friends, advertisements online, podcasts, or good, old fashioned perusing. The way we receive information is scattered at best, and finding a quality read can feel daunting in a world that is overrun by entertainment. We only have so much mental capacity, after all, and so much time to spend on any given thing, but I’m under the deep impression that reading books is usually not a waste of time. There is much to learn, and books are one of the best ways to learn something new, understand a new perspective, and travel outside of ourselves for a bit.

With that, here are some of my favorite reads this year.

1. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig

This book came to me shortly after I bought my own motorcycle, and I was almost immediately floored. So many things to underline. So many breathtaking, profound passages to ruminate on and revisit. It is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live and a meditation on how to live better. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance follows a loose timeline of a summer motorcycle trip across America’s…