2020 was an amazing reading year for me. I’m not sure if it is because of lockdowns and staying more indoors, or maybe it was because this was the first full year where I didn’t need to worry about school anymore. Whilst in previous years, I came home from school, made dinner and then did some more studying, I now come home, make my dinner and fill up an occasional laundry machine. So now I have all the time in the world for reading it seems.
I’m very happy with the reading that I dit in 2020. I started to dablle in adult fantasy and discovered that I really enjoy it. I love how it seems to take more time for the worldbuilding and character development. I learned that I really like it when stories have a big cast with multiple pov’s and found a few books that do this really well (These Violent Delights and The Priory of the Orange Tree, I’m looking at you guys).
Now for the actual stats: I read a total of 46.738 pages (according to Goodreads, because I’m too lazy to check with the actual books I read) across 103 books. That brings me to an average of 453 pages per book (I love me some thick books). Concidering that the most books I ever read in one year was 70, I am very impressed with myself. I even had to add another page to my journal to be able to put all the books I read in there (even then, I still read one book too much to properly fit the page).
One of my challenges for 2020 was to read more new releases, and I’m happy to say that I definitely managed that. Thanks to the Fairyloot subscription I got, I read even more than I planned, I read 29 new releases and one book that is due to be released in 2021. I also managed to finish up 17 series. Way more than the 5 that I set as a goal for myself.
In 2020 I read a lot more than usual, but I also bought a lot more books. In total, I bought 46 books (lockdow, I blame you for emptying my wallet). So at the end of the year I went to check if I actually read the books that I buy and it turns out that I read 29 of those books. Not too bad right? I’ll definitely be more aware of the books I will be buying in the future, so I can also focus on spitting through all of the books that are still unread on my shelves.
Here is a little table with how much I read of different genres. You can see that I have a strong preference for (YA) fantasy. I would really like to tip the scale to more adult fantasy in 2021, but I have trouble finding good recommendations. If you have any, don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments 🙂
| Young adult fantasy | 66% |
| Dystopian | 14% |
| Adult fantasy | 9% |
| New adult fantasy | 6% |
| Young adult contemporary | 3% |
| Science fiction | 1% |
| Thriller | 1% |
Some of the most memorable books I’ve read this year are The Daevabad trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty. This was my first attempt at adult fantasy and I really enjoyed all three of the books. A big and positibe surprise for me, was the Magic Eaters trilogy by Carol Beth Anderson. I got to read advanced copies of these and am in love with the magic system and characters. I’m looking forward to the last book that comes out in April. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas was an obvious one for me. I also read her Acotar series in 2020 and was pleasantly surprised by the novella, A Court of Frost and Starlight, since there seem to be a lot of mixed reviews on it. I am glad to say that I absolutely loved it. Some other honorable mentions are (in no particular order) As the Shadow Rises by Katy Rose Pool and These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong (review for this one will come later on in January).
For the comming year, I’m not expecting to read AS much. I would rather focus on enjoyment than on numbers and would love to read some of the more chunky books I still have on my shelves.
Happy reading in 2021!
Charlotte
The Fantastical World of Reading 