Last year, for the first time, I decided to keep track of all the books I read. There’s something satisfying about finishing a book and adding it to the ‘read’ list in my diary each month. It’s encouraged me to read more as well. I read a total of 53 books last year and I thought if I could beat that number, even by only a little, then 2020 would be a success.

When it comes to reading, I’ve finally found an approach that works best for me. I don’t write book reviews or use Goodreads to track what I’ve read. I don’t force myself to keep pushing through a book I’m not enjoying. At my last job in a public library, I usually led one or both of the monthly book clubs and I took private joy in telling the book club members that they shouldn’t feel pressured to always read the book: it’s totally valid if you’re too busy, or tired, or just not able to get past the first chapter. And if you hated the book, that’s great! Different opinions can make discussions more interesting.

If I’m struggling to get through a book that I do want to finish (usually because there’s some element that interests me or I want to know how the story plays out) then I put it aside for as long as I need to and don’t let myself feel guilty for starting something new. I don’t bother reading the rest of a series if I disliked the first book, regardless of how many people on the internet insist that it gets better after book three, or five, or eight. I don’t have time for people who try to argue that the misogynist protagonist and/or male gaze in a series is a deliberate choice by the author and therefore not something people should complain about. And I certainly don’t need to explain to random people on the internet why I didn’t enjoy one of their favourite books just because they feel entitled to a right of reply.

This post wasn’t supposed to be a rant, but I guess I’ve been holding on to some of that for a while.

If you don’t want to suffer through the dreaded blogger ramble and prefer to get straight to the actual point of this post, skip ahead now!

2020 has been a bad year. Considering how many people are still in the middle of the pandemic, it feels a bit weird to acknowledge that 2020 has also been a good year for me, in a few different ways. Yes, I was technically unemployed for about 4 months and living off government payments. Yes, I was one of the million Australians who sought help with their mental health during that time. Yes, I was even more pessimistic about my career prospects than I had been before.

So here’s the good that came out of 2020:

• More time at home meant more time with my dog. This was mostly spent cuddled up with him and napping on the couch.
• I found comfort and purpose in yoga (stereotypical white-girl that I am, I suppose). While I’d done yoga sporadically in the past, it was nothing compared to my new habit of daily yoga at home, a habit which lasted 3 or 4 months until…
• I got a new job. It meant I had to move and get used to a longer commute, as well as living alone for the first time, but when the right job comes along you do what you have to do. Sure, it was only a contract position, but it was full-time and I had to trust that things would work out.
• My contract was made permanent. I love my new job, and I actually feel that fabled job security for the first time.

This doesn’t mean my life is now perfect. But overall, my year is ending on a good note. Some of that end-of-year high definitely includes my successful year of reading.

So, did I beat last year’s personal best of 53 books?

Sure did.

I read a total of 66 books in 2020.

Let’s take a look at the data:

Before we get any further, I just need to point again that if a book is listed under a particular month it doesn’t necessarily mean the book was both started and finished within that month. Most of the time, it just means that’s when I finished reading the book. I’m sure if I kept track of both start and finish dates then I’d have even more interesting data to analyse, but as a non-STEM Excel enthusiast there’s only so much of this I can take!

Anyway, you’ll notice that 7 books is the most I’ve read in a month and 2 books is the least. At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be a trend, but if you know that I stopped working in April and started my new job in August…well, make of that what you will.

I’m not disappointed about July, by the way. Reading 2 books in a month is pretty solid. Some people only have the time or motivation to read one book a month, and other people less than that!

Now that you’ve seen the monthly breakdown, you’re probably wondering how? How did I read 6 or 7 books in a month, especially if I was working full-time?

Maybe this will help answer your question:

Audiobooks!

Though I didn’t have pretty charts in last year’s reading retrospective, I did note that I listened to 12 audiobooks, which is about 22%. That’s a big jump to 58% this year! In 2019 (and before) the majority of my reading was definitely print books.

So why the change? First, I had decided last year to buy fewer books and rely more on library books. A natural extension of this was using the library’s apps for ebooks and audiobooks (though mostly audiobooks). Second, when I got my new job and moved, I was faced with a much longer commute, which was by train instead of by car. This was the perfect opportunity to read more and audiobooks were the best choice. Previously, I’d tried listening to audiobooks while driving but always got too distracted; for some reason, sitting on a train and watching the world pass by was less distracting and I found that I could focus on audiobooks better that way.

Some final stats:

Fiction: 62

Non-Fiction: 4

Audiobooks: 38

Most-read author: Martha Wells: 4

If you look closely, you’ll notice I took a brief detour into murder mysteries during February, March, and April. I’m also very happy to say that 2 of the books I read this year are now in my top 5 favourite books. Any guesses?

Month	Title	Author	Type
January	Lighthouse Bay	Kimberley Freeman	Audiobook
January	The Gossamer Mage	Julie E. Czerneda	Print
January	The Golden Age	Joan London	Print
January	No Friend But the Mountains	Behrouz Boochani	Audiobook
January	The Cruellest Miles	Gay Salisbury & Laney Salisbury	Print
January	Under the Pendulum Sun	Jeannette Ng	Ebook
February	Where the Crawdads Sing	Delia Owens	Print
February	Mortal Engines	Philip Reeve	Audiobook
February	Brightly Burning	Alexa Donne	Print
February	Muse of Nightmares	Laini Taylor	Print
February	Murder is Binding	Lorna Barrett	Print
February	Little Gods	Jenny Ackland	Audiobook
March	A Murder for the Books	Victoria Gilbert	Ebook
March	The Heart Goes Last	Margaret Atwood	Audiobook
March	The Art of War	Sun Tzu	Audiobook
March	An Isolated Incident	Emily Maguire	Print
March	Dragonsbane	Barbara Hambly	Print
April	Wideacre	Philippa Gregory	Audiobook
April	Homicide in Hardcover	Kate Carlisle	Print
April	Gideon the Ninth	Tamsyn Muir	Print
April	Dyschronia	Jennifer Mills	Ebook
April	Gathering Dark	Candice Fox	Audiobook
April	Oathbringer	Brandon Sanderson	Print
April	Fate of Dragons	Alisha Klapheke	Ebook
May	The Bone Palace	Amanda Downum	Print
May	The Ten Thousand Doors of January	Alix E. Harrow	Print
May	Spare Room	Dreda Say Mitchell	Audiobook
May	True Grit	Charles Portis	Audiobook
June	Hive	A. J. Betts	Audiobook
June	Once and Future	Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy	Audiobook
June	The Starless Sea	Erin Morgenstern	Audiobook
June	The Traitor Baru Cormorant	Seth Dickinson	Ebook
July	Little Fires Everywhere	Celeste Ng	Print
July	Wild	Cheryl Strayed	Audiobook
August	The Good Turn	Dervla McTiernan	Audiobook
August	The City of Brass	S. A. Chakraborty	Audiobook
August	All Systems Red	Martha Wells	Audiobook
August	Artificial Condition	Martha Wells	Audiobook
August	Rogue Protocol	Martha Wells	Audiobook
August	Stormblood	Jeremy Szal	Print
August	Wyrde and Wayward	Charlotte E. English	Audiobook
September	The Bone Ships	R. J. Barker	Audiobook
September	River of Teeth	Sarah Gailey	Audiobook
September	The Wizard Hunters	Martha Wells	Audiobook
September	Piranesi	Susanna Clarke	Print
September	The Stars Are Legion	Kameron Hurley	Audiobook
October	Crossroads of Canopy	Thoraiya Dyer	Audiobook
October	The Red Knight	Miles Cameron	Print
October	The Left Hand of Darkness	Ursula K. LeGuin	Audiobook
October	Radiance	Catherynne M. Valente	Audiobook
October	A Conspiracy of Kings	Megan Whalen Turner	Audiobook
October	The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires	Grady Hendrix	Audiobook
November	The Animals at Lockwood Manor	Jane Healey	Audiobook
November	Of Sea and Shadow	Will Wight	Ebook
November	Silver in the Wood	Emily Tesh	Ebook
November	Edges	Linda Nagata	Audiobook
November	Crosstalk	Connie Willis	Audiobook
November	Unconquerable Sun	Kate Elliott	Print
November	The Poppy War	R. F. Kuang	Audiobook
December	The Court of Miracles	Kester Grant	Audiobook
December	Sinister Magic	Lindsay Buroker	Audiobook
December	An Unkindness of Ghosts	Rivers Solomon	Audiobook
December	The Catalog of Lost Objects	David Gallay	Audiobook
December	The Priory of the Orange Tree	Samantha Shannon	Print
December	Banewreaker	Jacqueline Carey	Audiobook
December	To Sleep in a Sea of Stars	Christopher Paolini	Ebook

My prediction for 2021 is a slight increase in ebooks. I received a Kindle Paperwhite for my birthday, which is much easier on the eyes compared to reading on my phone. I’m not intending to buy many ebooks, at least not to begin with, as I already have enough to keep me reading with Tor.com’s eBook of the Month Club and any freebies advertised on the Fantasy subreddit. Though I am considering purchasing the ebook version of Brandon Sanderson’s Rhythm of War because these doorstopper books are getting ridiculous.

Looking back over the books I read in 2020, I’m a bit surprised that none of them were re-reads. It’s almost fitting, then, that I’m going to begin 2021 with a re-read of The Lord of the Rings. And yes, if I manage to finish all three volumes, you better believe they’re going on my list as 3 separate books, I don’t care if Tolkien starts rolling in his grave.