2020: Reading Year in Review
This past year challenged my reading like no other. What was once an enjoyable escape and past time became an intense struggle. There were several weeks-long periods where I kept picking up books trying to read and giving up after 20 minutes went by and I could barely finish a few pages. Focus often alluded me in the time of doom scrolling. Somehow, I managed to read 54 books. Although several of them were on the shorter side.
Historically, the vast majority of the books I choose to read are non-fiction. This year, I tried to mix it up a little (especially to try to read more graphic novels and fiction) and I’m so glad that I did. Getting out of my nonfiction box afforded the opportunity to read the best book I read all year (and one of the best books I’ve read in my lifetime), a book that changed my mind/ideas about what a book could be. It holds the top spot in my “Top 5 Reads of 2020” list. I won’t say much else about it other than to read it if you haven’t already!
Top 5 Reads of 2020
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong (fiction)
Geography of the Heart, by Fenton Johnson (nonfiction)
Counting Descent, by Clint Smith (poetry collection)
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates (nonfiction)
Beyond the Gender Binary, by Alok Vaid-Menon (nonfiction)
Because I am also a spreadsheet nerd, I made some year end graphs:
This coming year I hope to plan out a little more what I’d like to read (and also take a healthy chunk of books off of my TBR shelf).
Here is the full list of books I read in 2020. The bolded/italicized ones were books I either really liked or ones that especially stuck with me:
Deep Creek, by Pam Houston
Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari
How We Fight For Our Lives, by Saeed Jones
The Lost Words, by Robert Macfarlan and Jackie Morris
The Weight of Shadows, by José Orduña
This is Water, by David Foster Wallace
Range, by David Epstein
Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System, by Sonya Huber
The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben
Start With Why, by Simon Sinek
Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better, by Pema Chödrön
Geography of the Heart, by Fenton Johnson
The Inevitable, by Kevin Kelly
21 Lesson for the 21st Century, by Yuval Noah Harari
Peace is Every Breath, by Thich Nhat Hanh
Beyond the Gender Binary, by Alok Vaid-Menon
When Things Fall Apart, by Pema Chödrön
Dare to Lead, by Brené Brown
Rising Strong, by Brené Brown
The Dip, by Seth Godin
Stray, by Stephanie Danler
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Why We Swim, by Bonnie Tsui
Stamped: racism, antiracism, and you, by Jason Reyonds, Ibram X. Kendi
Me and White Supremacy, by Layla F. Saad
Recollections of My Nonexistence, by Rebecca Solnit
How to Do Nothing, by Jenny Odell
Better Than Before, by Gretchen Rubin
Self-Reliance, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Motivation Myth, by Jeff Haden
The Hatred of Poetry, by Ben Lerner
Fiction:
Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer
The Deep, by Rivers Solomon
Cinderella Liberator, by Rebecca Solnit
Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
Poetry Collections:
Pioneers in the Study of Motion, by Susan Briante
Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, by Ross Gay
Be With, by Forrest Gander
Cast Away: poems for our time, by Naomi Shibah Nye
Counting Descent, by Clint Smith
Good Bones, by Maggie Smith
Don’t Call Us Dead, by Danez Smith
The Essential Emily Dickinson, by Emily Dickinson, Joyce Carol Oates
Night Sky with Exit Wounds, by Ocean Vuong
The Book of Light, by Lucille Clifton
Graphic Novels:
They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei
Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe
The Arrival, by Shaun Tan
El Deafo, by Cece Bell
Kindred: a graphic novel adaptation, by Octavia Butler (adapted by Damian Duffy)
A Fire Story, by Brian Fies
Queer: a graphic history, by Meg-John Barker, Julia Scheele
Gender: a graphic guide, by Meg-John Barker, Julia Scheele
What were the best books you read in 2020?