For the last few years, I have kept track of the books I’ve read, ultimately compiling into a list that I’ve shared on New Year’s Eve. As someone who enjoys quantifying various aspects of my life, keeping a ledger pushes me to read more. This year began the same way: trying to front-load my reading so I was not playing catch up once work and life were busy over the summer months. This year ended trying to play catch up in December—November was the first month I’d gone without reading a book in four years.
Once the world hit pause, my ability to focus on the page waned. Reading ground to a halt. My routines, of which I am normally unwavering, started to falter. Such was life during the great quarantine of March/April/May 2020. Here’s a picture a friend was nice enough to snap of me in April. It portrays a man lost in the depths of living alone and working from home.
I had to maintain a routine otherwise I truly would have lost my mind (more than I already have). The 5:37am alarm was set once more. Weekday workouts and walks/runs resumed. Post-work parking lot beers commenced. I started writing more and played entirely too much golf. Most importantly, I managed to keep track of it all.
2020 By The Numbers
34 rounds of golf played
37 books read
87 movies watched
101 pages written
214 new beers tried
224 weekday workouts completed
62,254 minutes of music listened to
7,659 average daily steps
2,490 pictures taken
In photos
Quotes and Notes
“You won’t understand what I mean now, but someday you will: the only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you--not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving--and then to appreciate them for what they can teach you, and try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad--or good--it might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all. But the best, as well.” -Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life
“Chaos is a double-edged sword, and uncertainty a duality. On one hand, the anarchy of current affairs makes entropy antagonistic. But on the other hand, chaos is a possibility--both the possibility that something better will come and the possibility that events do not have as much consequence as they seem to. Contemporary chaos may be draining, but there’s a different vein of chaos that I dearly miss: uncontrollable laughter, inappropriate glee, and late-night talks that descend into a surreal madness where everything is funny. The chaos of possibility.” -Merritt Mechum, The Muppets: Sex and Violence
“We forget all too soon the things that we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.” -Joan Didion
“Intolerance, abuse, calling of names because of differences of opinion about religion or politics or business, as well as because of differences of race, color, wealth, or degree of culture are treason to the democratic way of life. For everything which bars freedom and fullness of communication sets up barriers that divide human beings into sets and cliques, into antagonistic sects and factions, and thereby undermines the democratic way of life.” -John Dewey, Creative Democracy: The Task Before Us
Books
Anker, Conrad; Roberts, David The Lost Explorer: Finding Mallory on Everest
Bourdain, Anthony Kitchen Confidential
Brown, Pierce Red Rising
Brown, Pierce Golden Son
Brown, Pierce Morning Star
Brown, Pierce Iron Gold
Brown, Pierce Dark Age
Burroughs, William S.; Kerouac, Jack And The Hippos Boiled In Their Tanks
Didion, Joan Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Dubner, Stephen Freakonomics
Foucault, Michel Madness & Civilization
Gladwell, Malcolm Talking To Strangers
Kalanathi, Paul When Breath Becomes Air
King, Stephen The Institute
King, Stephen The Running Man
Krakauer, Jon Missoula
L'Amour, Louis The Sackett Brand
L'Amour, Louis The Sky-Liners
L'Amour, Louis The Lonely Men
L'Amour, Louis Mustang Man
L'Amour, Louis Galloway
L'Amour, Louis Treasure Mountain
L'Amour, Louis Ride The Dark Trail
L'Amour, Louis Lonely On The Mountain
Le Guin, Ursula The Left Hand of Darkness
Lewis, Michael Boomerang
O'Connor, Flannery A Good Man Is Hard To Find
Perrotta, Tom Bad Haircut
Phillips, Kevin Bad Money
Pollan, Michael The Botany of Desire
Rooney, Sally Normal People
Saunders, George Pastoralia
Tufte, Edward Visual Explanations
Westover, Tara Educated
Whitehead, Colson The Nickel Boys
Yanagihara, Hanya A Little Life
Yurchak, Alexei Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation
