i am ski

Wrapping Up 2021

I'm going to ignore the state of the world here at the end of 2021 (or maybe it's just 2020, Part 2), and instead focus on my own personal wrap up of the year, akin to what Spotify does with their 2021 Wrapped. It's a fun, more positive way to reflect on the past 12 months, rather than rehashing the news of the past year. So if you're of mind, please feel free to read on and see what I consumed most this year.

Spotify 2021 Wrapped

As I mentioned Spotify, I might as well start with my 2021 Wrapped. According to their nifty little Wrapped presentation, I listened to 47,482 minutes of music. Which, while a lot (more than 92% of the rest of Spotify listeners in the United States) is about half of what I did last year. I attribute this to my turntable. I consciously listened to my LP collection more, if only because it forced me to stand up every 20-30 minutes to flip the record over.

Spotify says I listened to 102 different genres, with my top 5 being:

  • New Age

  • Soundtrack

  • Classic Rock

  • Electronica

  • Ambient

I'm sensing a theme. Given I listen to music while trying to fall asleep, this is not a surprise. Nor is the fact that while I might have listened to 1944 different artists, the one I listened to the most this year was Enigma. They (he?) are one of my all time favorites. Along with Engima, the others in my top 5 are:

  • Enigma

  • Vangelis

  • deadmau5

  • Air

  • Daft Punk

Goodreads

I also did a lot of reading. I like that Goodreads does a reading challenge each year that I can partipate in. When I first started a few years back I set a goal of 12 books to read for the year. This year I challenged myself to 26 books, and I'm currently at 33. I'm about a third of the way through Peril by Bob Woodward, and I should finish that before the end of the year, bringing my total to 34 books. Perhaps for 2022, I'll strive for 36 books. I have friends that read 100+ books a year, which is amazing. Most of my reading time tends to be before going to bed, so sometimes it's only 15 minutes of reading before my eyes start to droop. Here's Goodreads stats on my year:

  • 33 books read

  • 13,514 total pages

  • Longest Book: Swan Song (956 pages)

  • Shortest Book: To Be Taught If Fortunate (176 pages)

  • Average Book Length: 409 pages

  • Most Popular: Where The Crawdads Sing (2,625,939 people also shelved)

  • Least Popular: The Salt Line (9,651 people also shelved)

  • Highest Rated: A Court of Mist and Fury with 4.71 Stars

And the books I read, in order:

  • Daisy Jones & the Six Taylor Jenkins Reid

  • The Bone Season Samantha Shannon

  • Recursion Blake Crouch

  • The Collapsing Empire John Scalzi

  • The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern

  • Nomadland Jessica Bruder

  • The Consuming Fire John Scalzi

  • To be Taught, if Fortunate Becky Chambers

  • The 5th Wave Rick Yancy

  • If it Bleeds Stephen King

  • The Last Emporer John Scalzi

  • Full Throttle Joe Hill

  • The Alice Network Kate Quinn

  • A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine

  • The Color of Magic Terry Pratchett

  • The Ghost Brigades John Scalzi

  • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue V.E. Schwab

  • The Glass Hotel Emily St. John Mandel

  • The Lost Symbol Dan Brown

  • Utopia Avenue David Mitchell

  • A Gentleman in Moscow Amor Towles

  • Swan Song Robert McCammon

  • The Chosen and the Beautiful Nghi Vo

  • A Court of Thorn and Roses Sarah J. Maas

  • Later Stephen King

  • The Lightest Object in the Universe Kimi Eisele

  • Project Hail Mary Andy Weir

  • Redshirts John Scalzi

  • The Salt Line Holly Goddard Jones

  • Alas, Babylon Pat Frank

  • Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens

  • A Court of Mist and Fury Sarah J. Maas

  • The Midnight Library Matt Haig

I think my top three favorites would be:

  • Project Hail Mary

  • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

  • Swan Song

I'm hoping to branch out a bit more next year, in terms of genres. We'll see if that happens. I do love my sci-fi and fantasy!

Reddit

To be frank, I spend way more time on Reddit than is probably healthy. It's probably my main source of news, politics, entertainment, etc. I mod a couple of communities (r/harley, r/loghomes, and r/reason), and spend more time there than any other site. According to reddit, here's my stats for the year:

  • 13 new communities joined: /r/appleswap, /r/talesfromtechsupport, /r/thenandnow, and 10 others reddit isn't showing me apparently

  • 328.7K Bananas Scrolled

  • 8.4k Karma Gained (given the amount of time I have spend on reddit, it's obvious I'm more of a lurker)

  • /r/todayilearned gave me the most karma

  • My top post of the year was in /r/natureisfuckinglit 2.4K Karma

  • Top voted comment had all of 141 upvotes (again, mostly a lurker)

  • 22 awards given (I honestly never noticed)

  • Spent the most time in /r/harley (23 hours) closed followed by /r/AskReddit (22 hours)

And there you have it. Hopefully 2022 is more about creating than consuming. As that's a vow I usually make, we'll see how well it holds up.

Here's to a better 2022 everyone!