My goal for 2022 was to read 22 books. I only managed 9. Have you heard people say that having 3 kids is significantly more difficult than 2 kids? It’s 100% true. We’re out numbered. It didn’t help that the 3rd kid was sick a lot (4 ER visits plus a 6 nights in a hospital for COVID, RSV, and a Rhinovirus). I also started a new job in March.

So I’m shooting to read 15 books in 2023. It feels optimistic, but I need some optimism in my life.

Here’s the list of books I read in 2022, organized by date read.

1. Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside by Nick Offerman

2. The End of Everything by Katie Mack

3. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

4. Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

5. One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak — I went into this thinking it was going to be real stories, sorta like David Sedaris novels. It was not.

6. Cosmos by Carl Sagan

7. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan

8. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green — I loved this.

9. Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson

My goal for 2021 was to read 20 books. I read 24! I’m going for 22 in 2022.

Here’s the list of books I read in 2021, organized by date read.

1. A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

2. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

3. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

4. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

5. A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost

6. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

7. Cibola Burn (The Expanse, #4) by James S.A. Corey. I started this series before watching the TV show adaptation The Expanse on Prime Video. The show has gone past what I’ve read so I’m now playing catch up. There are enough differences between the books and show to still make these a fun read.

8. Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question by David B. Ostler. Highly recommended for members of the LDS (Mormon) church who want to understand and maintain relationships with those who question or even leave the church.

9. Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse #3) by James S.A. Corey. Yes, I did accidentally read book four before book three. The TV show already covered both books so it wasn’t a big deal, thankfully.

10. Nemesis Games (The Expanse #5) by James S.A. Corey

11. Naked by David Sedaris

12. Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris

13. Oh God Not Again! by Sarah1281

14. Babylon’s Ashes (The Expanse, #6) by James S.A. Corey

15. Lux (Texas Reckoners, #1) by Brandon Sanderson

16. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Excellent book.

17. Persepolis Rising (The Expanse, #7) by James S.A. Corey

18. Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse, #8) by James S.A. Corey

19. Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick

20. The New One: Painfully True Stories from a Reluctant Dad by Mike Birbiglia

21. Children of Time (Children of Time, #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I absolutely loved this.

22. Cytonic (Skyward, #3) by Brandon Sanderson

23. Leviathan Falls (The Expanse, #9) by James S.A. Corey

24. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez. Wow. I thought I knew how big of a dumpster fire the world is for women, but it’s so much worse than I thought. Highly recommended.

These are the books I read during the untamed, rampant dumpster fire of a year that was 2020, organized by date read.

1. Starsight (Skyward #2) by Brandon Sanderson.

2. Darksaber by Kevin J. Anderson. This is the first Star Wars book I’ve read/listened to. The audiobook had a bunch of sound effects which I found distracting.

3. Age of Death (The Legends of the First Empire, #5) by Michael J. Sullivan

4. Educated by Tara Westover

5. Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble by Dan Lyons

6. Bossypants by Tina Fey

7. Yes Please! by Amy Poehler

8. Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World by Michael Pollan

9. Age of Empyre (The Legends of the First Empire #6) by Michael J. Sullivan

10. The Aleph Extraction (The Galactic Cold War, #2) by Dan Moren

11. Calypso by David Sedaris

12. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

13. Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

14. I Am C-3PO: The Inside Story by Anthony Daniels

15. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

16. When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

17. Planet Funny: How Comedy Took Over Our Culture by Ken Jennings

18. Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4), by Brandon Sanderson

19. The Lost Sapphire of Azure Isle (Shadow Sovereign, #2), by Vona Stewart

20. Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor, #3), Jessica Townsend

One day over a decade ago I was working from a friend’s house. He got up off his computer proclaiming, “I’m going to go make toast.” He returned 30 minutes later, having made toast and eaten it. Plain toast. Not fancy avocado toast. Just plain toasted bread with butter.

30 minutes.

Toast has a half life of about 10 seconds¹. You gotta grab it directly out of a hot toaster and butter it quickly. The hotter the better. If you’re not risking your life by grabbing the toast then you’re waiting too long. Wait too long and you’re going to be eating hard bread with cold butter on it.

How was my friend’s toast even edible? Did he bake the bread first? Was the bread frozen and he thawed it out by holding the entire loaf over an air conditioning vent? Did he think toast meant leaving bread out until it gets stale?

These questions have plagued me for the last decade.

Ever notice that people with 20 children are like, “after the 3rd kid I stopped noticing any additional work! it totally gets easier. ha ha ha ha”

I think they’re all completely broken inside.