Whoo boy. Almost exactly halfway through 2021 before I post the 2020 log. We had a baby girl on January 29 this year. Between the final few weeks of pregnancy and the first few months of adjusting to 2-child life, this was not top of mind. But here we go. As usual, I expect nobody to find and read this. If you do, however, thanks for the time...and how on earth did you find this???
Reminder note: these are books that I finished in 2020 (i.e., they may have been started in 2019; by the same token, there are books that were in-flight at the end of '20 that will appear on the 2021 list). They are presented in the order I finished them.
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
I set some specific reading goals for 2020, one of which was to read the entire Lord of the Rings series, including The Hobbit. I assigned myself one book per quarter. I'd actually read The Hobbit many years ago, but reread it this time to get some runway on the LOTR trilogy. Honestly, Tolkien isn't really my thing. His fantasy world doesn't really grab me, and I'll thus not have a ton to say other than that while I get why other people are into it, I'm not. I found most of this series to be a chore to get through. I'm not anti-fantasy. I dig Harry Potter. And as a Christ-follower, I appreciate the fact Tolkien's faith informed his fiction. The stories just don't speak to me especially deeply.
I set some specific reading goals for 2020, one of which was to read the entire Lord of the Rings series, including The Hobbit. I assigned myself one book per quarter. I'd actually read The Hobbit many years ago, but reread it this time to get some runway on the LOTR trilogy. Honestly, Tolkien isn't really my thing. His fantasy world doesn't really grab me, and I'll thus not have a ton to say other than that while I get why other people are into it, I'm not. I found most of this series to be a chore to get through. I'm not anti-fantasy. I dig Harry Potter. And as a Christ-follower, I appreciate the fact Tolkien's faith informed his fiction. The stories just don't speak to me especially deeply.
Tales From Q School - John Feinstein
Feinstein golf books, in my experience, are generally all the same. That is not a bad thing, though. He takes a certain significant golf event/season and goes deep behind the scenes to contextualize all of it. This one is a bit dated in that Q school is now not a thing. However, it was a major rite of passage - if you could actually pass, which was far from guaranteed - for PGA touring pros for many years. Interesting read. "Fun" is probably not the right word, but interesting definitely works.
A Course Called Ireland - Tom Coyne
Starting in maybe 2019, I rapidly became a fanboy of the golf fanalysts at No Laying Up. They are roughly peers of mine age-wise and are living their best golf life and getting paid (apparently handsomely) to do so. Their occasional YouTube series called Tourist Sauce (a multi-week; multi-episode romp through a particular region seeing/experiencing what golf life is like there both on and off the course) hit up Ireland. Scotland and Ireland are 1a and 1b on my "must do at some point in my life" golf trips. I devoured this series, and have actually now watched all episodes at least twice. Maybe thrice. Enter Tom Coyne. He's fairly well-known for having literally walked on foot around the perimeter of Ireland playing every links golf hole he could find. This book was the end result. I'd actually read it once before and adored it. The NLU boys invited Coyne along for their trip, and he obliged for a time. I was therefore reminded of his book, and gleefully read it again. Hilarious and engaging and somewhat inspiring in a I-wish-I-had-the-stones-to-do-something-like-that kind of way. Unreserved recommendation for any golf fan.
Mere Christianity - CS Lewis
We read this as a church small group. I'd read it I believe twice before, and have every expectation that over the years I'll probably read it at least twice more. Each chapter is thought-provoking, and it always gratifies me to see/know that there are genuine intellectual giants out there among believers, given that the general conceit amongst atheists/agnostics (that I know, anyway) is that faith/belief is beneath them and that only the intellectual incurious at best and weak at worst would stoop to faith.
The Gray Man - Mark Greaney
So the Gray Man series...like Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon and Robert B. Parker's Spenser, I was introduced to Greaney's Gray Man by my mother and (actually moreso) stepfather. This series is cut from the same cloth: ambiguously "good" guy who colors outside the lines to defeat the unambiguously bad guys, performing superhuman feats of daring and machismo along the way. They're fun. Probably not especially edifying, but fun. The Gray Man is a former assassin whose handlers have generally turned on him, putting him on his own (Bourne, anyone?). So that's that.
The Fellowship of the Ring - Tolkien
Part I of the LOTR trilogy down.
A Course Called Scotland - Coyne
Following the same general blueprint as A Course Called Ireland though without the thoroughly impractical commitment to being on-foot, Coyne seeks to tackle the links of Scotland. I found this one to be a tick less enjoyable than the Ireland iteration, if for no other reason than that Coyne is a bit more self-reflective and at times even borderline melancholy in this one whereas in Ireland it's almost exclusively fun/hijinks. Scotland probably therefore a bit more genuine, but less of an unvarnished romp. That said, still full recommend, as with anything Coyne writes.
The Twin Towers - Tolkien
Part II of the LOTR trilogy down.
The 5 Temptations of a CEO - Patrick Lencioni
I believe this was my 3rd pass through the 5 Temptations. It's a quick, fun, but insightful read into what good business management looks like; or, perhaps more pointedly, what bad management looks like. It's a good reminder every few years to ensure I'm not falling into any of the 5 temptations within my miniature sphere of influence.
The Point of It All - Charles Krauthammer
Published posthumously by Krauthammer's son, this is a collection of the elder Krauthammer's published works over the years organized by some general themes to which he regularly returned. It's a thought-provoking survey of a public conservative thinker's arguments, although I'll confess I found the read a bit burdened knowing that Krauthammer had passed and there being no indication he'd come to know Christ before doing so. Nonetheless, I genuine admired his mind.
On Target - Greaney
The second of the Gray Man books (I was gifted the first three of Christmas 2019, I believe). As I suspect will be the case as long as the series lives (as with Silva's Gabriel Allon) it is a bit formualic but an enjoyable and quick escapist-type read. There will always be a time/place for that.
The Moscow Rules - Daniel Silva
My Gabriel Allon book for the year. I've introduced Allon in previous posts, and will simply say I continue to expect to tick these books off until I've read them all. They're a treat, so long as you look at them as entertainment and not exactly a blueprint for your life.
Ballistic - Greaney
The third in the Gray Man series, with which I obviously spent a fair amount of time in 2020.
That's it. You may note the absence of the third LOTR book. I failed in my mission to finish them all in 2020, though I did finish it in very early 2021. It will kick off next year's post. Halfway through 2021, my overall volume is down considerably, so next year's post will be quite a bit shorter. Newborn life will do that.
Best and God Bless,
JSR
