Since I had success with my 2020 reading plan, I made a spreadsheet to track my reading more in depth, and I added a new-to-me category to my tracking this year as well.

Here’s how 2021 went:

Holy shit.

I cracked open 216 books, and finished 211 of them. For a variety of pandemic-related reasons, I don’t expect this total to be bested anytime in the near future. Of those 216 books, 35 were rereads, and 77 were graphic novels (both increases from last year), which inflates the number a bit, but books are books, and I’m counting them.

I read 30 books by BIPOC authors (three times as many as 2021!) and 30 by authors I know to be LGBTQ2S+ (four times as many as 2021!). I wanted to improve both of those numbers in 2021, and am thrilled to have done so. Once again, I spent most of a year hitting my to-read stack goals without having to order a new book or visit the library to make my stacks. I don’t think I’ll be able to build my stacks in the same manner without purchasing new books or supplementing from the library anymore, but two years was a pretty good run.

Only 83 of my books were by women, which was a bit disappointing, as I wanted to hit 50-50 parity this year. I’m not surprised though, once again, the amount of old graphic novel rereads and superhero comics skewed the numbers. In 2022 I’ll be aiming for an equal mix again.

I caught up on 20 books written by friends (twice as many as last year). Sorry it took me so long! I also read 56 books by authors who were new to me (meaning I’ve never read their work before, not that I’ve never heard of them).

Non-fiction was a bit of a disappointment again. I read 15 non-fiction books in 2021, three times what I read in 2020, but still a slim percentage of my total reads. I tend to read non-fiction much more slowly than fiction, as I often make notes to myself of things I’d like to remember, or things that give me story ideas, this hasn’t changed, I don’t expect it to change.

I read 17 roleplaying game handbooks in 2021 (five more than in 2020), which means once again I probably read more RPGs than I played in game sessions. Another bad year for gaming for me, sadly. What games I played were fun, but pandemic brain definitely caused me to step back from actual game sessions (and as good as Roll20 is at what it does, I vastly prefer to have my gaming take place in person). Still, I played in at least three game systems that were new to me, and was able to be a mostly-regular player in my ongoing campaigns.

Of the 216 books I cracked open in 2021, I liked 138 of them enough to recommend to others, and there were no real stinkers. Even the books I set down had some pretty admirable qualities, they just weren’t for me.

Here’s the books and stories I enjoyed the most in 2021 (not necessarily published in 2021, obviously).

Favourite Fiction Reads

• Savage Legion by Matt Wallace
• Liquor by Poppy Z. Brite
• This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
• Death on Tap by Ellie Alexander
• Doppelgangster by Laura Resnick
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones
• Witchmark by C.L. Polk
• Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
• The Break by Katherena Vermette

Favourite Non-Fiction Reads:

• Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
• The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman by Nancy Marie Brown
• The Wave by Susan Casey
• The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris
• Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga

Favourite Graphic Novel Reads:

• Pulp by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
• Immortal Hulk Vol. 1: Or Is He Both? by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett
• Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang & Gurihiru
• Scene of the Crime by Ed Brubaker & Michael Lark
• Stumptown Volume One: The Case of the Girl Who Took her Shampoo (But Left her Mini) by Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth
• Pretty Deadly Vol. 1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick & Emma Rios
• Once & Future Volume 1 by Kieron Gillen & Dan Mora
• Black Widow Vol. 1 The Ties That Bind by Kelly Thompson & Elena Casagrande

Favourite RPG Reads:

• Troika! by Daniel Sell
• The Vast in the Dark by Charlie Ferguson-Avery
• Spire by Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylo

As for short fiction, one of my 2021 reading goals was to read more of it. I was slow to get to it in the early parts of the year (I’d only read three new stories by August), but I definitely picked up by the end of the year, finishing 61 stories by year’s end. Of the 61 stories, 6 were by BIPOC authors, 10 by authors I know to be LGBTQ2S+, 8 by friends, and 30 by women (just short of that 50-50 parity I wanted, and I would’ve made it too, except the final anthology I finished, while good, was predominantly filled with male authors). I liked 33 of those 61 stories enough to recommend them, and only 3 were pieces I chose not to finish. Not accounting for the single anthology I read, which contained 18 stories, most of them came from OnSpec (17), Uncanny (10), Lightspeed (4), and Tor.com (3).

Favourite Short Fiction Reads:

• The Back-Off by Aeryn Rudel (OnSpec)
• Remember Madame Hercules by Kate Heartfield (OnSpec)
• Wait for Night by Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com)
• So You Want to Be a Honeypot by Kelly Robson (Uncanny)
• Beyond the Doll Forest by Marissa Lingen (Uncanny)
• The Bone-Stag Walks by K.T. Bryski (Lightspeed)
• Jenny Greenteeth by Alison Littlewood (The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror)
• The Offering by Michael Marshall Smith (The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror)
• Shards by Ian Rogers (Tor.com)
• Pastrami on Rye by Sarah C. Walker (OnSpec)

Everything I read in 2021:

Here’s what I read in January.

Here’s what I read in February

Here’s what I read in March.

Here’s what I read in April.

Here’s what I read in May.

Here’s what I read in June.

Here’s what I read in July.

Here’s what I read in August.

Here’s what I read in September.

Here’s what I read in October.

Here’s what I read in November.

Here’s what I read in December.

Also, check out the roundup of my 2020 reading here.

Since one of my writing goals was to read more, I thought it would help to keep track of what I knocked off Mount Tsundoku. Here’s as good a place as any to post what I’ve read to keep me honest, and what I thought of each book immediately after finishing.

Back in 2020 I decided to be a little more systematic about my reading plans. I started putting an actual to-read pile to stack on the nightstand and limited the stack to five books, which seemed doable for the month. Occasionally comics and graphic novels or roleplaying games jump the queue, but I typically tried to get through the pile in the order I stacked them. I also used this strategy to try and diversify my reading. The goal was for each to-read pile to contain at least one book by a BIPOC or LGBTQ2S+ author, one book by a woman, one non-fiction book, and one book by an author I know personally.

Creating the piles is getting a little trickier, as I’m having a bit of trouble filling all of my criteria from stack to stack from my own shelves, and I’m never sure when a library book will arrive. Despite all of the library reading I’ve been doing I still plan on trying to read through the books on my own shelves as much as possible.

December started with finishing up last month’s reading list, and trying to finish off one more to-read pile before the new year hits. (And I almost made it!)

When Sorrows Come by Seanan McGuire: The latest October Daye novel. Toby and Tybalt get married (finally). Some good payoff for some series-long subplots in this one. While McGuire is great at reminding readers of what came before, this is probably incomprehensible to anyone who hasn’t read the rest of the series (which you really should if you like great urban fantasy). Also includes a novella from Toby’s POV.

The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror edited by Stephen Jones: A pretty solid anthology. I enjoyed the modern tales more than any of the classics. Neither M.R. James, Arthur Machen, or the Lovecraft stories included really grabbed me. Of those three, I had already read Lovecraft’s “The Hound” so it held up better, maybe out of nostalgia. I did, however, enjoy Algernon Blackwood’s “Ancient Lights.” The standout stories for me were Alison Littlewood’s “Jenny Greenteeth”, Michael Marshall Smith’s “The Offering,” and Maura McHugh’s “Gravedirt Mouth.” Other notables were “Sticks” by Karl Edward Wagner, and Simon Strantzas’ “The King of Stones.”

Gather by Richard Van Camp: On the joy of storytelling. A fantastic read full of advice on being a storyteller. I’ve been fortunate enough to hear Richard speak at several events, and was also lucky enough to interview him for an article, so while reading the book I could practically hear his voice saying the words.

The Canadian Werewolf Chronicle by Sean Cummings: Read from an advance reading copy so I could provide an introduction. I really enjoyed this! It brought back memories of all the fun werewolf shows I’ve watched over the years. Will probably speak on it more when the book officially releases.

Black Widow Vol.2: I Am the Black Widow by Kelly Thompson, Rafael De Latorre, Elena Casagrande: Another fine volume. Nice to see Yelena turn up. Kate Bishop too.

A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts by Ying Chang Compestine: I didn’t finish this one. It wasn’t poorly written, but I didn’t really connect with it. Conceptually really interesting though, glad I gave it a try.

My final to-read stack of 2021:

Raccoon Sky Pirates by Hectic Electron: A DELIGHT. Picked up on a whim and cannot wait to get it to the table.

Murder by the Book by Lauren Elliott: The first book in the Beyond the Page series. Took me a bit to get into, but once I got some momentum behind me, I really enjoyed it. I’ll probably read more in this series.

Star Wars Darth Vader Vol.2 Into the Fire by Greg Pak, Raffaele Ienco, Neeraj Menon: Still enjoying the latest run of the Vader comic.

Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest: Another delight. There’s a followup coming, I hear, which is very exciting. I hope this becomes a long running series.

Once & Future Vol.3 The Parliament of Magpies by Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain: Another beautifully illustrated volume of what’s becoming my favourite recent bit of Arthuriana. Can’t wait to see where the series goes after volume 3’s huge cliffhanger ending.

A small year end library to-read stack:

There were also lots of comics reread in December, consumed in individual issues: I finished the Fraction/Aja Hawkeye run, the 90s Power of the Atom, Duane Swierczynski’s Birds of Prey run, Chris Claremont’s take on Fantastic Four, a few Uncanny X-Men Annuals, and Gail Simone’s Domino run.

Sadly, I didn’t finish everything on the to-read stack as hoped, so I won’t be starting fresh in January, but that’s okay. I’m looking forward to reading them all the same, and still haven’t settled on how I want to shape my to-read stacks in the new year anyway.

Here’s what I read in January.

Here’s what I read in February

Here’s what I read in March.

Here’s what I read in April.

Here’s what I read in May.

Here’s what I read in June.

Here’s what I read in July.

Here’s what I read in August.

Here’s what I read in September.

Here’s what I read in October.

Here’s what I read in November.

Also, check out the roundup of my 2020 reading here.