My 2020 Reading List — The Bumbling Millionaire

Last year, I missed putting my annual reading list up. Well, I missed a lot of things. I’ve had my head down focusing on some other things. We’ll be talking about those soon.

But I really do like keeping track of track of my annual reading. There’s a correlation to the amount a person reads and their success in life. The average American reads one book a year while the average CEO reads more than one book a week.

In 2020, I set a goal for myself of 52 books. My previous reading plan was one for pleasure and one for self-improvement. The self-improvement has gotten a bit blurred this year. I have moved away from business and self-help books and picked up a lot more non-fiction books. I learned a lot from them, but did they improve me? I could argue both ways, but one thing is for certain, they were enjoyable to read.

I fell short of my goal, though. I only read 46 books this year. But I published seven books. That takes a lot of head space. I’m not counting them in my goal. That would be like a running back counting the yards he gained in practice. It would be neat, but not accurate. So, 46 books. I’ll try harder next year.

This is something new I’m going to do. I’m going to call out my five favorite books of the past year. These are not in any particular order.

1. Every Knee Shall Bow: The Truth and Tragedy of Ruby Ridge and the Randy Weaver Family – Jess Walter – I’ve read other works from Jess Walter, but damn this blew me away. It also changed the way I looked at the Ruby Ridge incident and Randy Weaver. What more could you ask for from a book?

2. Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Force by Radley Balko – a phenomenal book that traces not only the history of law enforcement. Fascinating.

3. The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It – Robert B. Reich I would imagine that the majority of Americans are looking at our economic system as difunctional. Robert Reich actually provides some solutions on how to fix it.

4. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams – Okay. I may be the last person on Earth to actually read this book. It made me laugh out loud. Loved it.

5. That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea – Marc Randolph - this book was a fascinating look at Netflix. It’s so prevalent in our lives right now I forgot that it started as a service through the mail.

FICTION

The Burglar in the Closet – Lawrence Block
The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling – Lawrence Block
Chip Harrison Scores Again – Lawrence Block
In the Heat of the Night: The Original Virgil Tibbs Novel – John Ball
The Big Fix (Moses Wine #1) – Roger L. Simon
In the Cut (SpoCompton Crime Novel #2) – Frank Zafiro
Place of Wrath and Tears (River City #6) – Frank Zafiro
The Seventh (a Parker novel) – Richard Stark
The Jugger (a Parker novel) – Richard Stark
Slayground (a Parker novel) – Richard Stark
The Blackbird (an Alan Grofield novel #3) – Richard Stark
Stone Cold Dead – (Ellie Stone #3) – James W. Ziskin
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Hard Time (V.I. Warshawski #9) – Sara Paretsky
Pirate (a Sam and Remi Fargo Adventure #8) – Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell
When the Women Come Out to Dance – Elmore Leonard
To Live and Die in L.A. – Gerald Petievich
The Running Man – Richard Bachman
Moody Gets the Blues – Steve Oliver
At What Cost (Detective Penley #1) – James L’Etoile
Class Reunions are Murder (Poppy McAllister #1) – Libby Klein
Throwing Off Sparks (a Riley Reeves mystery) – Michael Pool
The Breadwinner – Deborah Ellis