A Year of Books; Reading them, Finishing them, Buying them (or Not)

Last year’s year in review here.

What I Read in 2020:

Contemporary Romance/ Women’s Fiction = 10 (although some of these were re-reads from the 80s and 90s so… are they still contemporary? Lol)

Paranormal/ UF/ Fantasy/ Sci Fi = 7

Non Fiction = 5

Historical Romance = 20

Historical Fiction = 3

Mystery = 10

 Because my reading habits were sort of hit and miss this year, I did not do my usual monthly round ups on the blog after May. I included some in my newsletter, but if you want to find all the book recommendations I did this year, they’re here.

And here’s a partial “best of” book list I did here.

What I Started but Didn’t Finish (DNF’s)

Nonfic/ Memoir = 2

Sci fi/ Fantasy = 3

Historical Fiction/ Historical Romance = 3

Contemporary Fiction/ Mystery = 3

What I learned from my DNFs and finished books: Reading contemporary fiction was hard for me. The last contemporary fiction I read was in April. After that, it got harder for me to finish contemporary novels and then I had to admit that in a pandemic, I only wanted to escape into eras gone by… even if it was the twentieth century. I read and re-read a few books set in the 80’s and 90’s and they were sort-of historical enough to let me escape.

Of course I’ll chalk this preference up to the unique nature of 2020 and the delicate balance of preserving one’s mental health during a global pandemic.

I also learned that I still require and enjoy a quick plot, banter and conflict.  Books that had a slow start, too much backstory, or were too treacly or had complicated world building that I couldn’t get into were more likely to be DNFs.

A Book No Buy.

I really felt I was on a No Buy this year. Of course, I started with an official No Buy for the first three months. And then I decided to extend it. Mas o menos.

…

Okay, fine. I did buy a few (dozen) books.

Granted, some of these were pre-orders and some were for my book club. Another round of book purchases happened this summer when many good and important books by Black authors were highlighted and/or put on sale and I snapped up some of those that I wanted to read.

But I read quite a few library books this year as well and tried to always (1) check my TBR pile or (2) check the library before I purchased anything.

While of course I give myself grace for “violating” my No Buy because PANDEMIC REASONS, I still really appreciated reading books in a more deliberative way this year. Truly stopping and asking myself what I *really* want to read next is, as you can see, a learning experience for me.  As I’ve said before, reading is too important to me not to give it a little extra attention.

 What I Want to Read in 2021; Book Resolutions

1. First and foremost, I need to organize my Kindle! If I didn’t read something in 2020, I’m going to take it off the TBR pile! (Mostly.)

2. Continue checking the library first if I get a hankering to buy a book. This slows down my “one-click” finger and makes me think about a purchase. If I still will wait for a library hold, I probably really want to read it.

3. Pre-order my favorites as often as I can! This brings joy to future me! And it means a lot to the authors too! ;-)

4. READ EXACTLY WHAT I WANT. DNF if it’s not bringing me joy. 2020 has taught me that NO ONE has time for duty reads.

And that’s it for the 2020 review!

What were your favorite reads of 2020? Are you making any goals or resolutions for 2021? I’d love to hear about them! I’m often chatting with people on Instagram about books - hit up my DMs, even!

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