2020: Reading Year In Review

Oh boy, here we are again. This is my fourth year in a row recapping my previous reading year. It’s so fun to look back and see what I read way back in 2017 (my worst reading year ever) and how much I improved in 2018 and 2019. But now, let’s talk about the year that will go down in history: 2020.

Initially my plan for 2020 was to read a total of 45 books–just one more than I read in 2019. My big goal was 50. But once lockdown happened, and it was clear things weren’t going to change for quite a while, I couldn’t bring myself to regularly read. My motivation was zapped and it was hard for me to pick up a book and when I did, I read incredibly slow. So about halfway through the year, I changed my Goodreads goal from 45 books down to 30, and the Goodreads challenge tracker let me know I was right on track. By the end of the year, I had read a total of 31 books.

A part of me feels like if I would have had to change my Goodreads goal back in 2018 or 2019, I would have been really disappointed in myself. But it was actually very easy, painless, and totally-not-disappointing when I changed it last year. It was a welcome reprieve from feeling like my Goodreads goal was crushing me. I think one of the few good things 2020 gave me was the release from this self-imposed stress to read as much as humanly possible in a year. And I think I can now go on to future Goodreads goals without that pressure.

Anyway, moving on to exactly what I read this year. Some fun stats: I read 11,513 pages across 31 books. The shortest book I read was 32 pages, and the longest was 803. My average book length was 371 pages. And my average rating of the books I read in 2020 was 4.2 stars on a 5-star scale.

I read one picture book, seven e-books, and listened to five audiobooks. Ten of the books I read in 2020 were rereads, including the very first few books I read: The Hunger Games trilogy.

I had no clue when I reread The Hunger Games at the beginning of the year how relevant it would become a few months later and for the remainder of the year. My plan was to reread it in prep for the prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. But when that release day came around, and I had my copy, I couldn’t bring myself to pick it up. I knew it would be heavy and I was already witnessing heavy stuff every single day online and in the news. But I am glad I reread this trilogy. It gave me words to share and lean on during some of the roughest moments.

I dove more into adult romances in 2020, having just dipped my toes in the water in 2019. I read more Christina Lauren, fell in love with Josh from The Friend Zone, and actively sought out some plus size rep. I was going through these romance books very quickly over the summer and it was easily my most productive and enjoyable reading period of 2020.

Some big releases that I read included the final book in the Shatter Me series, Imagine Me. I wizzed through that in a single sitting. Midnight Sun was announced at the beginning of the year and released a few months later. I went out the day it was released to pick up my copy. That one took me a bit longer to get through. And Crescent City came out just before COVID lockdowns happened and it was so exciting to jump into a new SJM world–I can’t wait for more from that series!

I had two favorite books in 2020. The first was Crescent City, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows me–I am absolute SJM trash. My second favorite book might be a surprise though. I read The Outsiders for the first time in my entire life last year. I gave myself a week in November to read nothing but classics and The Outsiders was one of the books I picked up. I completely breezed through it and gave it five stars. It was incredible.

2020 wasn’t a terrible reading year. It was a slow one for sure, but I managed to get to a decent amount of books and I’m proud of myself for that. Even if I would have only read the six books I did before March, I think I also would be proud of myself for that. 2020 was a weird one, and I’m just happy to have survived it.

In 2021, my goal is to read 40 books. I want to see if I can make it back to where I was pre-2020. My big goal will be 45 books.

Let’s see what this year has in store.

P.S.
I promise to try to post more on here. The last time I did was for my last reading year in review, a year ago. Oops. Let’s just blame it on 2020.