I’m sooo excited for this post!! I can’t believe it’s been a whole year of more reading—new books, fresh stories, old favourites, etc. Last year, I was well on top of things, and I published my 2019 Reading Digest on the first day of the new year. This year, however, I have more to unpack and get into, so I hope you’re ready to tuck into my 2020 Reading Digest! Hope the incoming bookish analysis is v enjoyable!! (:
~also my film photos (of my massive stack of the 57/60 books i read in 2020) did NOT come out good; so i sufficed for screenshotting my story from when i spent an hour trying to get these shots :’) i have included one very blurry/grainy/overexposed photo as i did NOT spend a whole hour doing all of that work for nothing haha!~
~also this is coming out way later than i had originally anticipated bc i didn’t get to finish the post before starting back at school, and 22 credits is something to take v seriously hence i have not been able to finish writing this until three weeks into the semester L O L~
Goodreads Summary
My page count is off again, like last year :’) And, it’s with the same book as before. The Jane Austen collection once again threw me a bit. GR has me down for 21,037 pages, but I only read Northanger Abbey this year—the last chunk of the book. So, the rest of the pages need to be subtracted. Hence, my accurate page count is: 20,357.
The Hobbit was the most popular out of my reads!! My least popular does not even have an image because it’s so unpopular :’) It was the 100 American Poems anthology from 1972! This was actually an updated collection, as Selden Rodman notes in the very interesting introduction. I started this read shortly after the start of quarantine, but I didn’t finish it until December :’)
As I predicted last year, my shortest page count & longest page count are the same: An Angel’s Story from Max Lucado comes in at 64 pages, and The Lord of the Rings weighs in at a whopping 1,216 pages. These are both annual rereads for me! Next year, I might not log Angel’s Story, simply so I can see what my shortest read would be aside from it :’) And, who knows, maybe I’ll read something over 1,216 pages next year. Probably not, but maybe.
My highest rated was once again Crooked Kingdom of the Six of Crows duology! My reread of these followed my first read of the original trilogy, & it was divine to get references that I missed the first time around!
Finally, these were my averages!! I guess 300 was my sweet spot for this year, and I’m lucky that I always read books I like, hence the very high rating average. 2020 reading digest
How I did with my 2020 Reading Goals
First things first, I read 65 books out of my goal of 60, so I was at 108%! That’s close to last year’s 110% which was due to my reading 60/50. I managed to read more than I did last year!
I aimed for 12 classics, and I exceeded that pretty well :’) My total was 21!! Out of that number, 11 of those were completely new to me; among them were: The Glass Menagerie, East of Eden, A Separate Peace, & Hamlet. I still want to write about Shirley & Mansfield Park in the coming month!
As for my goal of 5 non-fiction reads, I surpassed that also, coming in at 9! Four of these reads were for school—The Forgotten Conservative: Rediscovering Grover Cleveland; Did America Have A Christian Founding; Liberty, Order, and Justice; and An American Life, Reagan’s autobio. I read one of the Tolkien biographies I purchased last year as well!
Although I didn’t exactly hit my aim of 5 theology reads, I did start Lewis’ Mere Christianity in 2020, so I’m gonna count it :’) My total comes in at 4! I did read one book on apologetics, but that’s not exactly theology, so…
I wanted to read at least 12 entirely-new-to-me books in 2020 (in the fiction category), and I did!!! That’s kinda big for the girl who loves to reread like no tomorrow. In total, I read 20 new books! V happy with that.
Favourite ~new~ reads from 2020
I define new as what I just described above: “new to me.” Not necessarily new to the rest of the world, haha :’) Anyway…
The Grisha Trilogy (!! <3) // The Folk of the Air Series (!! <333 CARDAN!!! I am absolutely going to also be talking about this series v soon.) // East of Eden // A Separate Peace // Little Women (technically not new, but as it’s been so long since I read it, it was like a whole new read) // The Son // The Book Thief (yes, DEF need to talk ab this one soon) // The Children of Hurin // the last 3 books in the Anne of Green Gables series // Tolkien: A Biography (wanna talk ab this one next month, too!) // Mansfield Park
Favourite rereads
Narnia. Duh. I never fail to enjoy my annual reread, but my goodness, was this year something else. I enjoyed them ~immensely~, noticing things I hadn’t before. (Can you believe that?!!? I’ve been reading these for like 10 years. The mark of a true great.) While it felt like I was reconnecting with each book in a special, new way, The Last Battle was particularly moving for me. I thank God for these stories so often; they mean the world to me.
The Silmarillion. Also duh. But again, it was like a whole new special experience <<. My second read of The Silmarillion was during Summer, so I could just soak it up far quicker. Also, more familiarity with the characters meant I didn’t have to constantly check what elf did what, even as I still learned/realised new stuff. I was seriously so drawn to this book. I talked about this back in my Summer wrap-up & an Instagram post already, so I’m gonna quit before I repeat myself pointlessly.
LOTR. Another duh, I’m sorry. But my goodness GRACIOUS. I just adored my experience with LOTR this year. I read it mostly by itself this year—usually I’m always reading multiple books at once, but I didn’t, & that was the best decision. August was characterised by this read. I simply ~basked~ in it. I even annotated my beloved copy; ofc, I noticed new things; & I was moved in new ways. Forever blown away by Tolkien’s genius—I am so grateful for this story.
Other great rereads: SoC/CK (I noticed all the call-backs/references to stuff from the Grisha trilogy!); A Ring of Endless Light; & quite a few of my childhood favourites! 2020 reading digest
In summation…
I think 2020 was great for reading. Truly, I had some of my most favourite reading experiences thus far, from buddy reads to personal moments alone in my room, crying because my favourite character just did something to my heart. Also, I fell in love with so many bad boys… I expanded the genres I read, and went outside my usual classics to poetry, plays, more YA fantasy, autobios/bios, and even an anime book that my little brother’s friend had me read in order for him to read one of my books :’) (Suffice it to say, that book got like 2 stars from me, definitively the lowest rating I have ever given a read haha.)
Thanks for reading this somewhat lengthy 2020 Reading Digest!! I would absolutely LOVE to hear what your favourite book(s)/reading experience(s) of 2020 were. In such a wild year, I am even more grateful for the escapism, loveliness, and promises held within the pages of a book. HNY, again! <3