Every Book I Read from 2016 to 2021
The complete list of every book I have read from the beginning of 2016 to the end of 2021.
Skip to: Key | Rating System | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021
Quantifying your reading habit is an easy way to make your reading life a miserable one.
That may be an odd way to preface a piece listing all the books I read over the course of five years, but I feel this introduction is necessary.
In my experience, the happiest readers are the ones who arenβt counting how many books they finish each year. Or at the very least they are nonplussed by how many or how few they complete.
When a friend introduced me to Goodreads in 2016, I felt like I had discovered my dream website. For a time. That feeling of excitement as I carefully organised my digital shelves and sought out new books soon turned to anxiety. That anxiety was born from the annual reading goals Iβd set myself. An arbitrary target that had far too great an influence over the books I opted to read.
Frequently, I would shy away from longer novels that enticed me for shorter texts I could finish more quickly. The thought of failing to hit my end-of-year target filled me with such dread that I refused to let it happen.
However, the thrill I felt when accomplishing my reading goal lasted less than a minute. What often followed was this sense that I had cheated. Reading comic books and plays still count as reading, certainly, but I felt an inferior reader to those who had read 50+ novels in a single year.
My entire experience of Goodreads soon became an overwhelming barrage of ill thoughts. I became insecure about any ratings or reviews I left, fearing that perhaps I had been too stupid to appreciate true talent or revered works that others had deemed mediocre. And my digital shelves rapidly came to resemble my physical shelves: overstacked with more unread books than I could ever hope to read.
The end of 2021 marked the end of my time using Goodreads, and I am happier for it.
This is why I felt the introduction was necessary. I am not sharing this list because I think it is especially impressive, nor do I think the number of books one reads is a signifier of oneβs intellectual superiority. Frankly, to me, someone who reads a few novels per year is infinitely more interesting than someone who reads hundreds of business and self-help books annually.
I am sharing this list because I want a record of what I read during that time to exist somewhere. Plus, I saw Lucy Bellwood do the same thing on her site and felt the compulsion to emulate her approach.
One final note: The ratings I have left reflect my enjoyment of the book at the time I read it. The kind of reader I was in 2021 differed from the reader I was in 2020. Undoubtedly, I am a very different reader now to the one I was in 2016. If I were to re-read some of those texts, I have no doubt my feelings towards them may differ.
Key
π Fiction
π Non-fiction
πͺ Children's fiction
π½ Science-fiction
π Fantasy
π Horror
π Poetry
π Play
π¬ Graphic novel/manga
π Business book
π Re-read
Rating System
β
I really enjoyed this book
β
β
I loved this book!
β
β
β
I loved, loved, loved this book!
Every Book I Read in 2016
- π½ The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
- π A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, George R. R. Martin β β
- π¬ No Fear Shakespeare Graphic Novels: Romeo & Juliet, Matt Wiegle, William Shakespeare
- π How To Be a Writer, Stewart Ferris
- π Victims, Shaun Hutson
- π Red Dragon, Thomas Harris β
- π The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter
- π Oryx & Crake, Margaret Atwood β β
- π On Writing, Stephen King β β
- π½ Dying of the Light, George R. R. Martin β
- π½ More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
- π To Cut a Long Story Short, Jeffrey Archer
- π½ Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick β
- π Writing Monsters, Philip Athans β
- π½ With the Night Mail and As Easy as A.B.C., Rudyard Kipling
- π Pronoun, Evan Placey β
- π The Magician's Nephew, C. S. Lewis
- π The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis β β
- π How to Write Science-Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card β
- π The Horse and His Boy, C. S. Lewis β
- π Prince Caspian, C. S. Lewis
- π Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C. S. Lewis
- π The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins β
- π No Plot? No Problem!, Chris Baty β β
- π The Silver Chair, C. S. Lewis
- π The Last Battle, C. S. Lewis
- π½ Tuf Voyaging, George R. R. Martin β β
- π Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, John Tiffany, Jack Thorne, J. K. Rowling
- ππ A Bit of Spirit & A Lot of Spit, Anna Mae β
- π The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart β
- π Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
- π Many Moons, Alice Birch
- π This Wide Night, Chloe Moss
- π Harrogate, Al Smith β β
- π 'Night Mother, Marsha Norman β
- π Mudlarks, Vickie Donoghue β
- π Frozen, Bryony Lavery
- π½ I, Robot, Isaac Asimov β
- π½ All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders β
- π¬ The Walking Dead: Book Thirteen, Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard (ill.) β β
Every Book I Read in 2017
- π Terminus, Mark O'Rowe β
- π½ I Am Legend, Richard Mathieson β β
- π A Number, Caryl Churchill β
- π Earthquakes in London, Mike Bartlett β
- π The Acid Test, Anya Reiss
- π The Complete Plays, Sarah Kane β β β
- π Fishskin Trousers, Elizabeth Kuti β
- π Endgame, Samuel Beckett
- π Plays: 1, Patrick Marber β
- π Cloud 9, Caryl Churchill β
- π Memory, Jonathan Lichtenstein
- π What the Butler Saw, Joe Orton β
- π½ The Forever War, Joe Haldeman β
- π Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett β
- π The Homecoming, Harold Pinter
- π The Sugar Wife, Elizabeth Kuti
- π The Caretaker, Harold Pinter β
- π Festen, David Eldridge β
- π Plays: 2, Caryl Churchill β
- π Blackbird, David Harrower β β
- π¬ Batman: Arkham Asylum β A Serious House on Serious Earth, Grant Morrison, Dave McKean (ill.) β
- π Grief, Mike Leigh
- π Plays: 1, Bryony Lavery
- π 1984, George Orwell β β
- π The Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris β β
- π¬ V for Vendetta, Alan Moore, David Lloyd (ill.) β β β
- π½ Dreamsongs: Book One, George R. R. Martin β β β
- π And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie β β β
- π We Want You to Watch, Alice Birch β
- π Far Away, Caryl Churchill β
- π My Name is Rachel Corrie, Rachel Corrie β β
- π It Felt Empty When the Heart Went at First but It Is Alright Now, Lucy Kirkwood β
- π Dept. of Speculation, Jenny Offill
- π½ Kindred, Octavia E. Butler β β
- π The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Stephen King
- π Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig β
- π Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge β β
- π The Pull of Negative Gravity, Jonathan Lichtenstein β
- π The Weir, Conor McPherson β
- π Ariel, Sylvia Plath β
- π The Riots, Gillian Slovo
- π Aristotle: Aristotle's Poetics, Aristotle, Kenneth McLeish
- π Waking, Lin Coghlan
- π Stoning Mary, debbie tucker green β
- π People, Places & Things, Duncan Macmillan β
- π Blue Heart, Caryl Churchill β
- π Lampedusa, Anders Lustgarten
- π Othello, William Shakespeare
- π Medea, Euripides, Robin Robertson (trans.) β β
- π Fifty Poems, Ian Hamilton
- π Serengeti Songs, Chris McCully
- π The Cherry Orchard, Anthon Chekhov
- π Iphigenia in Splott, Gary Owen β
- π Knots, R. D. Laing
- π On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
- π The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Bertolt Brecht, Eric Bentley (trans.)
- π The Six-Days World, Elizabeth Kuti β
- π The Ferryman, Jez Butterworth β
- π½ The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, Ursula K. Le Guin
- π Grammar: Know Your Shit or Know You're Shit, Joanne Adams
- π Mountain Language, Harold Pinter β
- π The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka β
- π Operation Crucible, Kieran Knowles
- π Every Brilliant Thing, Duncan Macmillan β β
- π The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton β
- π¬ Saga: Book Two, Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (ill.) β β β
- π¬ The Walking Dead: Book Fourteen, Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard (ill.) β β
- π Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Newt Scamander, J. K. Rowling, Tomislav TomiΔ (ill.) β
- π Plays: 2, Gregory Motton
Every Book I Read in 2018
- ππ Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett β
- π Freedom, Jonathan Franzen β β
- π Yard Gal, Rebecca Pritchard
- π Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads, Roy Williams β
- π Remainder, Tom McCarthy
- π Girls Like That, Evan Placey β β
- π The Motherfucker with the Hat, Stephen Adly Guirgis β
- π The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz β β
- π N-W, Zadie Smith
- π Seize the Day, Saul Bellow
- π Random, debbie tucker green
- π Consent, Nina Raine β
- π Lear, Edward Bond β β
- π Plays: 1, Philip Ridley β β
- π Plays: 1, Anthony Neilson β β
- π Notes from Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky β
- π The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath β β
- ππ Animal Farm, George Orwell β β β
- π The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, John Boyne
- π½ Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, Philip K. Dick β
- π Plays: 1, Martin McDonagh β β
- π Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster
- π Tiny Deaths, Robert Shearman β β
- π The Weir, Conor McPherson β
- π Plays: 1, Mark Ravenhill
- π A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness β
- π Existentialism & Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre
- π Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical, Robert Shearman β β β
- π Plays: 1, Edward Bond
- ππ My Name is Rachel Corrie, Rachel Corrie β β
- π Look Back in Anger, John Osborne
- π The Cripple of Inishmaan, Martin McDonagh β
- π Plays: 2, Anthony Neilson β β
- π Beginning, David Eldridge β
- π Memories, Lang Leav β
- π John, Annie Baker
- π Love Steals Us from Loneliness, Gary Owen
- π Thom Pain, Will Eno
- π Barker: Plays One, Howard Barker
- π Plays: 2, Philip Ridley β β
- π Plays One, Duncan Macmillan β
- π Pepper Seed, Malika Booker β
- π A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams β β
- π Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet β
- π Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller β
- π Pity, Rory Mullarkey β
- π Attempts on Her Life, Martin Crimp β
- π Plays: 1, Phyllis Nagy
- π Roadkill, Stef Smith β
- π Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie β
- π One For Sorrow, Cordelia Lynn
- ππ Closer, Patrick Marber β β β
- π The Playwright's Guidebook, Stuart Spencer β
- π Dust & A First World Problem: Two Plays, Milly Thomas β
- π Plays: 1, Rory Mullarkey β
- π Plays: 1, Simon Stephens β
- π Constellations, Nick Payne β β
- π Ross & Rachel, James Fritz
- π The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams
- π The Pillowman, Martin McDonagh β β β
- π Plays: 2, Mark Ravenhill
- π The Writer, Ella Hickson
- π½ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams β β
- π The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood β
- π I and You, Lauren Gunderson β
- π Everyone's Just So So Special, Robert Shearman β
- π Self & I, Matthew De Abaitua β β
- π¬ The Walking Dead: Book Fifteen, Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard (ill.)
- π½ Wild Cards, George R. R. Martin (ed.) β
Every Book I Read in 2019
- π Fear and Misery in the Third Reich, Bertolt Brecht, John Willett (trans.) β β
- π Plays: 3, Mark Ravenhill β
- π Everyone I Love is a Stranger to Someone, Annelyse Gelman β
- π Blue/Orange, Joe Penhall β
- π The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning, Tim Price β
- π The Oh Fuck Moment | I Wish I Was Lonely, Hannah Jane Walker, Chris Thorpe β
- π Release the Bats: A Pocket Guide to Writing Your Way Out of It, D. B. C. Pierre
- π Barker: Plays Two, Howard Barker
- π Treehouses, Elizabeth Kuti β
- π My Heart's a Suitcase, Clare McIntyre
- π Shipwreck, Anne Washburn
- ππ The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories, Marina Keegan β
- π Watership Down, Richard Adams β β
- π Going Through, Estelle Savasta, Kirsten Hazel Smith (trans.)
- π Us/Them, Carly Wijs
- π Chimerica, Lucy Kirkwood β β
- π Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., Alice Birch
- π½ Bloodchild and Other Stories, Octavia E. Butler β
- π Country Music, Simon Stephens
- π Escaped Alone, Caryl Churchill
- π Jerusalem, Jez Butterworth β
- π Shoot the Damn Dog, Sally Brampton β
- π Drown, Junot Diaz
- π Plays: 1, John Godber
- π In the Miso Soup, Ryu Murakami, Ralph McCarthy (trans.) β
- π½ Nightflyers and Other Stories, George R. R. Martin β
- π Dance of Flames, Jordanna Jade
- π Sanford Meisner on Acting, Sanford Meisner, Sydney Pollack
- π Plays: 1, Louise Page
- π Elephant and Other Stories, Raymond Carver
- π Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman
- π Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory, Raphael Bob-Waksberg β β β
- π On Becoming a Novelist, John Gardner
- π Gifts For the One Who Comes After, Helen Marshall
- πͺ George's Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (ill.)
- πͺ Esio Trot, Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (ill.)
- πͺ James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (ill.)
- πͺ Danny the Champion of the World, Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (ill.) β
- πͺ Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake (ill.)
- π This is Going to Hurt, Adam Kay β β
- ππ Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig β
- π Wonder, R. J. Palacio β β
- π This Modern Love, Will Darbyshire
- π Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt, John Cooper Clarke β β
- π Depression & Other Magic Tricks, Sabrina Benaim
- π Suicide Notes, Michael Thomas Ford
- π Inferno, Dante Alighieri, Robin Kirkpatrick
- π Horns, Joe Hill β
- π My Romantic History, D. C. Jackson β
- π Stitching, Anthony Neilson β
- π¬π V for Vendetta, Alan Moore, David Lloyd (ill.) β β β
- π F*ck the Polar Bears, Tanya Ronder
- π It, Stephen King β
- π Baby Reindeer, Richard Gadd β β
- π¬ The Walking Dead: Book Sixteen, Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard (ill.) β β
- π¬ Saga: Book Three, Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (ill.) β β β
- π¬ Strange Planet, Nathan W. Pyle β
- π The Zombie Survival Guide, Max Brooks
Every Book I Read in 2020
- ππ The Demonata #1: Lord Loss, Darren Shan β
- ππ The Demonata #2: Demon Thief, Darren Shan β
- ππ The Demonata #3: Slawter, Darren Shan β
- ππ The Demonata #4: Bec, Darren Shan β
- ππ The Demonata #5: Blood Beast, Darren Shan β
- ππ The Demonata #6: Demon Apocalypse, Darren Shan β
- ππ The Demonata #7: Death's Shadow, Darren Shan β
- ππ The Demonata #8: Wolf Island, Darren Shan β
- ππ The Demonata #9: Dark Calling, Darren Shan β
- ππ The Demonata #10: Hell's Heroes, Darren Shan β
- π How To Go To Work, Lucy Clayton & Steven Haines β
- π Good Omens, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman β β
- π Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker β
- π Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman β
- π Utopia for Realists, Rutger Bregman β β β
- π Instruction Manual for Swallowing, Adam Marek
- ππ On Writing, Stephen King β
- π½π The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who, Simon Guerrier & Dr. Marek Kukula
- π Normal People, Sally Rooney β β
- π Notes on Directing, Frank Hauser
- π The Eternal Garden, Jordanna Jade β
- π½ Doctor Who: The Target Storybook, Terrance Dicks et al.
- π Riptide: Volume 5, Jane Feaver (ed.)
- π The Ungrateful Refugee, Dina Nayeri β
- π #ENTRYLEVELBOSS, Alexa Shoen
- π Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
- π Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge β β β
- π Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber β β β
- π Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You, Adam Kay (ed.)
- π Milk and Honey, Rupi Kaur β
- π¬ The Boys Omnibus Vol. 1, Garth Ennis
- π Content Writing Step-By-Step, Joseph Robinson
- π One Hour Content Plan, Meera Kothand
- π Everybody Writes, Ann Handley β
- π Outraged, Ashley "Dotty" Charles
- π¬ George R. R. Martin's In the House of the Worm, George R. R. Martin, John Jos. Miller (adapt.), Ivan Rodriguez (ill.)
- π¬ The Complete MAUS, Art Spiegelman β β β
- π¬ Alan Moore's Writing for Comics, Alan Moore, Jacen Burrows (ill.)
- π Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Susan Jeffers
- π Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, Akala β
- π Remember Why You Fear Me, Robert Shearman β β
- π War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy β
- π¬ The Boys Omnibus Vol. 2, Garth Ennis
- π¬ I Want You, Lisa Hanawalt
- π Quiet, Susan Cain β
Every Book I Read in 2021
- π The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins β β
- π Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins β β
- π Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins β β
- π Lanny, Max Porter β
- π They Do the Same Things Different There, Robert Shearman β
- π The Bullet Journal Method, Ryder Carroll β
- π How to Build It: Grow Your Brand, Niran Vindo & Damola Timeyin
- π The Midnight Library, Matt Haig β β
- π How to Write It: Work With Words, Anthony Anaxagorou β
- π Our Numbered Days, Neil Hilborn β
- π Who Rules the World?, Noam Chomsky β β
- π¬ Gyo, Junji Ito β
- π Know My Name, Chanel Miller β β
- π½ Dalek, Robert Shearman β β
- π½ Rose, Russell T. Davies β β
- π½ The Day of the Doctor, Steven Moffat β β
- π½ Twice Upon a Time, Paul Cornell
- π Earthlings, Sayaka Murata β
- π How to Change It: Make a Difference, Joshua Virasami β
- π Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
- ππ The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
- π Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon β β
- π Show Your Work!, Austin Kleon β β
- π½π Dreamsongs: Book One, George R. R. Martin β β
- π Behind Closed Doors: Sex Education Transformed, Natalie Fiennes β
- π½ Dreamsongs: Book Two, George R. R. Martin β
- π Boy Parts, Eliza Clark β β
- π½ Stories of Your Life and Other Stories, Ted Chiang β
- π The Color Purple, Alice Walker β
- π Lost in Work: Escaping Capitalism, Amelia Horgan β
- π Capitalist Realism, Mark Fisher β β
- π The Sea Cloak and Other Stories, Nayrouz Qarmout
- π Keep Going, Austin Kleon β β
- π We Learn Nothing, Tim Kreider β β
- π Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals, Patricia Lockwood β
- π Humankind: A Hopeful History, Rutger Bregman β β β
- π Don't Call Us Dead, Danez Smith β
- π¬ Smashed, Junji Ito β
- π Choosing Divinity, Jordanna Jade
- π Misfits: A Personal Manifesto, Michaela Coel β β
- π The End: Surviving the World Through Imagined Disasters, Katie Goh β
- π¬ The Complete Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi β β β
- π We All Hear Stories in the Dark, Robert Shearman β β β
- π¬π Saga: Book One, Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (ill.) β β β
- π¬π Saga: Book Two, Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (ill.) β β β
- π¬π Saga: Book Three, Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (ill.) β β β
