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My 2019 in Books
Every year I make it my goal to read 50 books. That’s about one a week. This year I failed once again, coming up short at only 43 books. I blame my short-lived plan to not read a single fiction book while I was working on the first draft of my thesis. That being said, I still got to read a lot of amazing fiction and non-fiction this year. What follows are the top five books/series I read, along with the worst.
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
This book was billed to me as Harry Potter for adults. It is not that. Yes the premise of the book revolves around magic and wizards, but the tone is entirely different. In Harry Potter, the magical world is a place of wonder where initially Harry can go to escape from the Dursleys. In this book, the magical proclivity of the main character of The Magicians is no cure for his very existential problems. The Magicians is a story about trying and failing to use magic to escape from yourself and your own existential meaninglessness. Yes the main character is an asshole, but assholary is merely a crutch, like magic, for him to avoid addressing the very real underlying causes of his unhappiness.
I could talk for hours about The Magicians and despite not enjoying it much the first time, it has really grown on me on a subsequent reread, and has become one of my favorite books of 2019.
