I’ve been thinking…
Melissa Price-Mitchell
What I read in 2020
Lainey Lui coined a new word – inlectio – earlier this year. it’s two Latin words that translate to ‘not reading’. (New words like this make me glad I took Latin for three years in high school.) She wrote about struggling to read books during the pandemic. I also struggled with this on and off throughout 2020. Books took longer to jump out at me as I scrolled through the library website. They took longer to read as my attention span was much lower and constantly interrupted by doomscrolling (another new word for 2020).
I still read books, and I read 62 books this year. But I read in fits and spurts. Usually I always have at least one book on the go, and this year, I sometimes went weeks between books. We did travel at the beginning of the year (the Before Times), and I always read lots when I travel so that added to my book count.
But it’s January 9th, and I haven’t really read much of anything yet this year. I’m late writing this annual post. What’s bothering me most of all is that I look at this list, and I usually remember at least one thing from nearly every book I read. For 2020’s books, there are some that I have No Idea what happened. I hate that feeling. It feels disrespectful to the authors.
I relied on the library to feed my Kobo but also bought a couple of physical books as well. Here is my year in books on Goodreads.
Here’s hoping 2021 is a better year for reading. Here are the books I read this year:
What I read in 2019
It’s time for my annual what-I-read-last-year blog post! Here’s the breakdown for 2019,
- I read 78 books, which surpassed my goal to read 60 books by 30%.
- According to my Goodreads ‘Year in Books’ page, I read a total of 25,807 pages. I’m not sure how accurate the page counts are, considering different editions of books, (ebooks vs. print, hard vs softcover, etc.). My shortest book was 203 pages, and my longest book was 549 pages.
- I read nearly everything with my Kobo, and most of my books came from the library. (I love Overdrive integration!) I bought some books as well.
- I unintentionally reread a book that I first read in 2015, but didn’t realize it until I was partway through, so I kept going.
- I read my usual mix of fiction and memoir, with some other non-fiction here and there, but tried to expand to include more new-to-me authors.
- I enjoyed most of the books I read, and gave up on a few I didn’t. No more slogging through!
- I reviewed very few books because I hate the idea of hurting an author’s feelings. (And to think, I wanted to be a music critic when I was growing up!)
Here are the covers of everything I read:
Some of my favourite reads were:
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I read this book in less than 24 hours within a week of its release. I love both oral history-style writing and rock biographies so a story of a 70s rock band and their magnetic singer felt like a book that was written just for me. Looking forward to the screen adaptation that is in progress. The Show Your Work podcast had a great two-part interview with Taylor Jenkins Reid, which definitely worth listening to now if you missed it back in May (Part 1, Part 2).
Becoming by Michelle Obama
This was a long memoir, but I really enjoyed how Michelle Obama told her story. We would all do well to have someone like her in our lives: smart, funny, and insightful.
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
This book drew me in quickly and told the stories of a couple who immigrated into the U.S. from Cameroon, and of the wealthy family they worked for in New York City. Taking place just before and during the 2008 recession, it humanized a lot of issues that have been in the news ever since.
Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis
This book of essays was a quick, fun read. Lots of snark and ridiculousness along with some life advice you may, or may not want to take.
Scruples by Judith Krantz
I added this to my to-read list after I heard Judith Krantz had died. I discovered I wasn’t the only one who did that – there were a lot of holds for it at the library. The book itself was a fun read, if a bit dated.
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
I kept putting this book off, even though the premise appealed to me. Once I finally started to read it, I wondered why I had waited. I read it quickly and really enjoyed it.
Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of “The View” by Ramin Setoodeh
This was a super dishy read that I borrowed from the library on a whim. The author seemed to know many of the subjects well, or at least well enough to get them to talk. I’m surprised so many of the women went on record.
What I Read in 2018 Part 2: The Details
As noted in Part 1, I read 63 books in 2018. I missed my goal of 70, but that was a pretty ambitious goal. 63 books over 52 weeks is still a lot. (An aside, here is a fun article about Canadians and their reading habits that I found when I was trying to figure out how many books the average Canadian reads in a year.)
As for the books themselves, I read mostly fiction (a mix of contemporary, romance, thrillers and beach reads) with some memoirs sprinkled in. I abandoned more books that I used to, but I don’t like to track that because it feels mean. I have come back to books I’ve abandoned in the past and enjoyed them which reminds me that frame of mind when reading a book is important.
I didn’t rate or review many of the books I read. I’m not sure if that’s because I don’t want a less-than five-star review to hurt an author’s feelings, or if I was just lazy about it. I’m not sure if I will take specific action on this during this year’s challenge. No sense in overthinking it.
I will share my favourite reads here though. Here is a list of the books I really enjoyed in 2018, in reverse order from what I read them in. I’d love to know what your favourite reads in 2018 were.
- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
- Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky
- Just the Funny Parts: My 30 Years on the Hollywood Jungle Gym by Nell Scovell
- The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
- Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies by Michael Ausiello
- How To Be Famous by Caitlin Moran
- This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Philipps
- We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby
- We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
- The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green
- This Is Not My Life: A Memoir of Love, Prison, and Other Complications by Diane Schoemperlen
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- I Hear She’s a Real Bitch by Jen Agg
- You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld
- The Cactus by Sarah Haywood
- Nobody Looks That Young Here by Daniel Perry
- The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
- My Name Is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd
- Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo
- Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta
- Rosie Colored Glasses: A Novel by Brianna Wolfson
- They Call Me Supermensch: A Backstage Pass to the Amazing Worlds of Film, Food, and Rock’n’Roll by Shep Gordon
- The Breaking Words by Gilaine Mitchell
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler
What I Read in 2018 Part 1: The List
I’ve done the Goodreads Reading Challenge every year since 2013, and 2018 was only the second time I didn’t meet my goal. 2018’s goal was an ambitious one: 70 books read over a one-year span. I ended up finishing 63 books in 2018.
Here’s what I read in 2018. I’m having trouble with the Goodreads widgets this year so I’m going to split my annual what-I-read post into two parts this year. This post for the actual list of books, and a second post for the details.
