01
Sean O'Leary's Reading Archive // 2020
The World Shifted. Stories Endured.
Thirty-one reading entries mark Sean O'Leary's 2020 shelf. The year moves from Brooklyn and Asimov's robot worlds into Dune, Mistborn, Baldwin, Douglass, the Dresden Files, Ringworld, the Emberverse and the aftermath of worlds that have already fallen apart.
It is a reading year where imagined upheaval sits beside American history—and where books become one way of looking outward while much of ordinary life turns inward.
2020
Red Shift Archive
31
Reading entries
12
Months recorded
20
Distinct companion titles
The Reading Signal
Thirty-one entries across one extraordinary year.
The books remain in Sean's recorded completion order, including the two separate 2020 entries for Peace Talks.
01
January
Opening Signal
4 entries
02
The Caves of Steel
January 14, 2020
03
The Naked Sun
January 20, 2020
04
The Robots of Dawn
January 26, 2020
02
February
Systems & Revolt
3 entries
05
The Currents of Space
February 1, 2020
06
The Stars, Like Dust
February 7, 2020
07
The Butlerian Jihad
February 18, 2020
03
March
Prophecy & Empire
2 entries
08
Good Omens
March 11, 2020
09
Mistborn: The Final Empire
March 29, 2020
04
April
Ascension
1 entry
10
The Well of Ascension
April 15, 2020
05
May
Ages & Machines
2 entries
11
The Hero of Ages
May 3, 2020
12
The Machine Crusade
May 31, 2020
06
June
Witness
2 entries
13
Go Tell It on the Mountain
June 17, 2020
14
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
June 19, 2020
07
July
Freedom & Conflict
4 entries
15
Uncle Tom's Cabin
July 13, 2020
16
Peace Talks
July 16, 2020
17
The Alloy of Law
July 20, 2020
18
Shadows of Self
July 30, 2020
08
August
Memory & Rings
3 entries
19
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
August 13, 2020
20
The Bands of Mourning
August 20, 2020
21
Ringworld
August 27, 2020
09
September
Emberverse & Dresden
2 entries
22
The Sunrise Lands
September 18, 2020
23
Peace Talks
September 30, 2020
10
October
Blades & Broken Worlds
4 entries
24
The Knife's Edge
October 1, 2020 Print
25
Battle Ground
October 4, 2020
26
The Scourge of God
October 27, 2020
27
Mountain Man
October 29, 2020
11
November
Survival & Machines
2 entries
28
Safari
November 1, 2020
29
Robot Dreams
November 20, 2020
12
December
The Year Closes
2 entries
30
The Sword of the Lady
December 20, 2020
31
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
December 23, 2020Civil Rights Related Books
Another current running through the archive.
Sean's surviving 2020 record also preserved a companion list centered on race, civil rights, American history, Indigenous history and identity. No completion dates were attached to this separate list in the source.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Dee Brown
Capital and Ideology
Thomas Piketty
Geronimo: His Own Story
Geronimo
Go Set a Watchman
Harper Lee
Go Tell It on the Mountain
James Baldwin
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Nobody Knows My Name
James Baldwin
Racial Formation in the United States
Michael Omi & Howard Winant
So You Want to Talk About Race
Ijeoma Oluo
Stamped from the Beginning
Ibram X. Kendi
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi
Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone
James Baldwin
The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank
The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin
The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History
Joseph M. Marshall III
The Last of the Mohicans
James Fenimore Cooper
The Life of Black Hawk
Black Hawk
The New Jim Crow
Michelle Alexander
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Reading Life Continues
Follow Sean beyond the 2020 shelf.
Sean's written book reviews and continuing reading activity live on Goodreads. His Goodreads author page gathers his own published work, while current video book reviews from 2025 and 2026 are available on YouTube.
Sean on Goodreads
Follow Sean's current reading activity and the written reviews he shares with other readers.
Visit Sean on GoodreadsGoodreads Author Page
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View Sean's BooksCurrent Video Reviews
Watch Sean talk about the books on his newest reading lists, along with libraries, writing and the author journey.
Watch Sean on YouTube