Since 2015, it has been my goal to read one book each week, or 52 books total, per year. To date, I’ve only achieved that goal once since its inception, but that’s not really the point. The exercise is just a way to keep myself reading, whether that means one book a week, or one book a month.
Generally, I don’t give myself any firm direction in what topics I should be reading – just that I should read. However, this year, I’ve decided to try something different. Instead of starting with a blank slate and reading whatever suits my fancy, I’m going to tackle the giant stack of never-been-read books that live on my home bookshelf. As it turns out, there are 55 unread books currently sitting in my home. This of course does not count the unread e-books currently on my Kindle – let’s just ignore that for now, shall we?
Without any further ado, here’s my assigned reading list for 2021, in alphabetical order. As I read them, I’ll add a number before the title to indicate order read, as well as insert a URL for each title, so that interested readers can find out more:
| Title | Author |
| All the Wild Hungers | Karen Babine |
| The Artist’s Way | Julia Cameron |
| Backpacking with the Saints | Belden C. Lane |
| Bessie the Edible Dormouse Gets Down | Dylan Moran |
| Beyond the Wall | Edward Abbey |
| Big Dead Place | Nicholas Johnson |
| 2. The Burning Hotels | Thomas Lampion |
| Cactus Country | Edward Abbey |
| Chopsticks Only Work In Pairs | Shanshan Du |
| Colors of the Mountain | Da Chen |
| Come As You Are | Emily Nagoski |
| Compendium of Witches | Natasa Ilincic |
| Complete Metalsmith | Tim McCreight |
| Dr. Cosmos | Dylan Moran |
| Drawings from the Gulag | Danzig Baldaev |
| Educated | Tara Westover |
| Einstein | Walter Isaacson |
| Fools and Mortals | Bernard Cornwell |
| Fortress Churches of the Languedoc | Sheila Bonde |
| Fourth Ghost Book | James Turner |
| Freakout in Triple Time | Dylan Moran |
| Geography of Witchcraft | Montague Summers |
| Hayduke Lives! | Edward Abbey |
| The Hundred Foot Journey | Richard C. Morais |
| Inner Temple of Witchcraft | Christopher Penczak |
| Klaus Downtown | Dylan Moran |
| Medieval Miscellany | Judith Herrin |
| Meditations | Marcus Aurelius |
| Memoirs and Misinformation | Jim Carrey |
| Memoirs of a Spiritual Outsider | Suzanne Clores |
| Mermaids | Paula Guran |
| Mist-Filled Path | Frank MacEowen |
| Notre Dame de Chartres | |
| On Writing | Stephen King |
| The Outermost House | Henry Beston |
| Pig At Furisio’s | Dylan Moran |
| Pig Gets A Quadruple Bypass | Dylan Moran |
| Plant Spirit Shamanism | Ross Heaven |
| 1. Post COVID | Daniel Whitfield |
| Quattrocento | James McKean |
| Road Fever | Tim Cahill |
| Roughing it in the Bush | Susanna Moodie |
| Sacred Smoke | Harvest McCampbell |
| Saints | Elizabeth Hallam |
| The Seven Storey Mountain | Thomas Merton |
| Solitude | Robert Kull |
| St. Stephan’s Cathedral in Vienna | Reinhard H. Gruber |
| Start Where You Are | Pema Chodron |
| The Traveler | James Meikle |
| Village of a Million Spirits | Ian Macmillan |
| Voodoo in New Orleans | Robert Tallant |
| When the Chocolate Runs Out | Lama Yeshe |
| The White Album | Joan Didion |
| The White Tiger | Aravind Adiga |
Want to know what I’ve read since 2015? If you’re interested (or just incredibly bored) you can find those old lists here:
