Everyone is saying 2016 was a bad year, but my controversial, contrarian opinion is that: 2016 was good. I started a new job that kicks ass, moved forward with my writing (get my new book The Arborist), and most importantly, avoided anything terrible happening directly to me.

Much of the “bad year” sentiment comes from shared events that everyone is aware of, such as celebrity deaths. I propose that people like me, who are in the privileged position of being able to mourn the loss of influential strangers, must actually be having a pretty good year. If I can sit at my kitchen table and shake my head at social media because something bad happened in Los Angeles, then I have shelter, I have free time, and I have the resources to be accessing information from halfway across the world. With those things alone, I’m doing better than most people on Earth, and much better than most people throughout history. 2016 isn’t so bad.

Next year could be worse, of course. The tragedies that don’t directly affect me now, like Brexit and Trump, could start having real, worldwide consequences. I remain a techno-optimist though; technology has, without fail, improved exponentially regardless of who is in power or how dumb the general population is. And technology is the main driver behind life, on average, continually getting better. There is no reason to think that will suddenly stop.

Anyway, here’s my year in review, celebrating good stuff that entered my brain.

Most Listened-To Music:

As I do every year, here are the top 20 albums I listened to most, according to Last.fm. Some of these might not have come out in 2016, but I discovered them this year, so, whatever. This list actually looks pretty good this year; I recommend listening to any of these you haven’t already heard.

20. Tycho – Epoch
19. Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (SURVIVE) – Stranger Things Soundtrack
18. Tove Lo – Lady Wood
17. Groenland – A Wider Space
16. BROODS – Conscious
15. I Monster – Bright Sparks
14. Wolfmother – Victorious
13. David Bowie – Blackstar
12. Brandy Clark – Big Day in a Small Town
11. The Weeknd – Starboy
10. Zeds Dead – Northern Lights
9. Lady Gaga – JOANNE
8. Ariana Grande – Dangerous Woman
7. M83 – Junk
6. Black Stone Cherry – Kentucky
5. Glass Animals – How to be a Human Being
4. Britney Spears – Glory
3. Lindsey Stirling – Brave Enough
2. The Avalanches – Wildflower
1. Nothing But Thieves – Nothing But Thieves

Last.fm also provided some cool new stats about my listening habits this year:

• Stranger Things
• Black Mirror
• Making a Murderer
• Luke Cage
• Westworld
• Halt and Catch Fire
• Sense8
• Mr. Robot

This is another category where I have a record of everything I took in, thanks to Goodreads. Here are the books that came out around 2016, and that I liked:

• I Will Rot Without You by Danger Slater
• Authority by Jeff Vandermeer
• A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
• City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
• Ritualistic Human Sacrifice by C.V. Hunt

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