Reading stats, 2020

2020 may have ruined a lot of things--one thing it helped was my book count. For the first time since I started tracking in 2013, I broke 100 books over the year. I read 105 books and 37,000 pages.

This year I made an effort to read a lot more fantasy, and to focus on reading newer fantasy. Forty-four percent of the fantasy books I read were published in the last 5 years. I also re-read a lot of old comfort favorites, which makes sense, given everything else that happened.

I also tried to incorporate a solid non-fiction habit in my day. For a good six months I read non-fiction during my former afternoon commute time. This helped me get through a lot of my non-fiction backlog. The book I'm proudest of finishing is A People's History of the United States, which I read cover to cover in April, after reading chapters in fits and starts over the last decade.

My reading statistics were also skewed by reading the entire Virgin River series. I enjoy the Netflix show but hated the books. At the same time, there was something comforting about sinking into the same world each night for a month and knowing exactly what I was going to get. Since I borrowed the series from my Grandma, I didn't need to think to find the next book--just open the bag, pull the next one out, and keep reading. I would not recommend these books unless you're in need of some mind-numbing.

Overall, 36 percent (38) of the books I read were fantasy or sci-fi, 44 percent (46) were romance, and 14 percent (15) were non-fiction. The remaining books were mystery, literary fiction, and poetry.

In 2021 I'm hoping to continue reading new fantasy releases, and to sink into more romance worlds--but hopefully, ones that I actually like this time around.

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