Alright, bookworms. Gather ’round the fire and cozy up with a little SoBros Book Club action. Today, I’m sharing my reading list from 2020, so let’s get after it.
Books I Read in 2020
Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber by Mike Isaac – After working in the San Francisco tech landscape for a couple of years, this one had me chompin’ at the bit to get to. There’s a lot of that world that I hate (despite having some of the best times of my life out there, don’t get me wrong), and this book exemplified a lot of it. It’s a fascinating case study in the exorbitant amount of money that’s floating around the tech startup scene and the long con that Uber essentially is.
G.I. Combat, Vol. 1 – Yo, I found this shit on the Books-A-Million bargain bin for $3. That’s an automatic rule of mine – you find some crazy shit in the Books-A-Million bargain bin, you gotta buy it. But, I finally got around to reading it this year and found it to be rather enjoyable. War comics haven’t always been my thing, but my introduction to The Unknown Soldier had me seeking out more. A really fun book.
There’s No Punchline: An Independent Wrestling Joke Book by Nick Iggy – Sure, it’s a joke book. But, in it, you’ll find an amusing love letter to independent wrestling. It was clearly a passion project, and Iggy knocked it out of the park. This was a super easy read and featured all of 2020’s best independent wrestlers.
Doctor Strange by Mark Waid – I never read Doctor Strange growing up, so I was on a big Doctor Strange kick last year and into the beginning of this one. And, it doesn’t get much better than Mark Waid, come on.
She-Hulk by Charles Soule – Soule’s first volume of She-Hulk was another Books-A-Million bargain bin find, and I’ll say it – best comic book I read in 2020. It was so much fun – I’m largely unfamiliar with the She-Hulk character, and this felt like a tremendous place to start. Plus, Hellcat stole the show in every frame she was in. A real barrel of fun.
Benoit by Steven Johnson, Heath McCay, Irvin Muchnick, and Greg Oliver – Man, pour one out for Hastings. R.I.P. to Hastings. I found this piece of uplifting journalism at the Murfreesboro location before it closed down. If you’re unfamiliar with the Chris Benoit story, I’d say this is a great book to start with. But, for diehard wrestling fans, you’re probably not going to learn anything new and this isn’t exactly the ‘trip down memory lane’ type of story that you’ll want to revisit over and over, soooooo……
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nahesi Coates – This is going to sound so fucking dumb. Believe me, I’m well aware of the context surrounding why Coates’ work was being bought up by white people left and right this year. But, for me, I was like, “oh the dude that had that killer run of Black Panther comics writes books too!” So, I picked this one up awhile ago and only got around to reading it earlier this year.
Moon Knight – Birth and Death – Holy shit, that whole suit Moon Knight run was good good stuff. I think this was technically Vol. 4, but if you didn’t get in on this era of Moon Knight, you GOTTA go back and get started on this run.
Change We Can Believe In – I’m sure some of y’all gonna be laughin’ at my dumb liberal ass. But, I picked this one up at the same Hastings that I found the Benoit book at and thought it would be nice to have some of those campaign speeches handy. I was reflecting upon President Obama’s run and his amicable diplomatic demeanor one day and thought I’d run that shit down Memory Lane.
That’s it for me, folks. I have a bookmark in a couple different books at the moment, but that’s all I finished this year. Feel free to share your reading lists in the comments.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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