i read 91 books in 2020 (wrap-up)

Hello my loves,

I read 91 books this year! And I’m so happy about it. Also very proud of myself because like…I read almost 100 books between March-December 2020 and I’m not even sure how that happened.

For reference, in 2019 I read a grand total of…21 books.
Amazing, I know.

As some of you guys may know, reading has always been a big part of my life and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I was little, I was seriously the biggest bookworm. After getting older and discovering One Direction, Tumblr, fandoms and Youtube etc. however, I probably only ended up reading around 20 books a year which, is still an okay number and good for some people, but just not for me because I know I could’ve read so much more than I did. Essentially, I was just lazy and procrastinated it however, this year lockdown really gave me the push I needed to start reading properly again and now look where I am – 90+ books later and the bookworm is officially back! I’m now making a conscious effort to read consistently and not procrastinate it, and I’ve really fallen in love with reading all over again which I’m so happy about, especially considering I only started this streak in March last year and not even at the beginning of it (Jan). I’ve set my Goodreads goal to read 50 books this year because I don’t want to put pressure on myself, but secretly I’m going to hopefully aim for 100 books this time by having the extra 3 full months available to me.

Anyway, back to last year.

Here’s all the books I read in 2020 – all books with reviews will be linked.

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In Another Country – Ernest Hemingway

Banal Story – Ernest Hemingway

An Alpine Idyll – Ernest Hemingway

Ten Indians – Ernest Hemingway

The Undefeated – Ernest Hemingway

The Killers – Ernest Hemingway

Fifty Grand – Ernest Hemingway

A Canary for One – Ernest Hemingway

Hills Like White Elephants – Ernest Hemingway

Today is Friday – Ernest Hemingway

A Pursuit Race – Ernest Hemingway

Che Ti Dice La Patricia? – Ernest Hemingway

A Simple Enquiry – Ernest Hemingway

Now I Lay Me – Ernest Hemingway

Hoseki No Kuni 1 – 9 – Haruko Ichikawa

Men Without Women – Ernest Hemingway

A Night in With Audrey Hepburn – Lucy Holliday

Wonder – R.J. Palacio

Come Rain or Come Shine – Kazuo Ishiguro

Eleanor & Park – Rainbow Rowell

Will Grayson, Will Grayson – John Green, David Levithan

Deeplight – Frances Hardinge

The Murmur of Bees – Sofia Segovia

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

Wild Embers – Nikita Gill

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling

Ashley Bell – Dean Koontz

Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling

The Deathless Girls – Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Dear Edward – Ann Napolitano

Outline – Rachel Cusk

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

Truly Devious – Maureen Johnson

Burying the Honeysuckle Girls – Emily Carpenter

The Note – Zoe Folbigg

Beautiful Broken Things – Sara Barnard

Every Single Secret – Emily Carpenter

The Starless Sea – Erin Morgenstern

Girl, Woman, Other – Bernardine Evaristo

The Beekeeper’s Promise – Fiona Valpy

Dark Places – Gillian Flynn

On the Come Up – Angie Thomas

Wham! George & Me – Andrew Ridgeley

Clockwork Angel – Cassandra Clare

Queenie – Candice-Carty Williams

Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins

Everyday Sexism – Laura Bates

Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston

The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

Red at the Bone – Jacqueline Woodson

With the Fire on High – Elizabeth Acevado

The Color Purple – Alice Walker

My Sister, the Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder – Holly Jackson

The Guest List – Lucy Foley

The Weight of Lies – Emily Carpenter

The Vanishing Stair – Maureen Johnson

the sun and her flowers – Rupi Kaur

Until the Day I Die – Emily Carpenter

Life is Strange – Emma Vieceli

The Giant, O’Brien – Hilary Mantel

A Song Below Water – Bethany C. Morrow

The Lost Girls of Devon – Barbara O’Neal

Year of the Monkey – Patti Smith

Divergent – Veronica Roth

Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana Del Rey

Strange the Dreamer – Laini Taylor

Clap When You Land – Elizabeth Acevado

Everything I Never Told You – Celeste Ng

Dear Martin – Nic Stone

The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead

The Black Kids – Christina Hammonds Reed

Daisy Jones & The Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid

Woven in Moonlight – Isabel Ibanez

Burnt Sugar – Avni Doshi

Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng

Zikora – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
(will not be doing a review for or reading her future work due to her being transphobic)

Evidence of the Affair – Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Dutch House – Ann Patchett

Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

The Hand on the Wall – Maureen Johnson

Women Don’t Owe You Pretty – Florence Given

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The question I feel like I’m going to get asked the most from this post is – how did you read so many books?

Well…

From March I was on furlough for a couple of months, meaning I was essentially sitting at home with nowhere to go (because you know, lockdown) and an endless amount of time to throw myself into my books, so I did. That really gave me the push I needed in order to get back into reading again, and when I went back to work full time in June, I somehow just managed to keep it up. I continued to read a lot when I got home from work and on weekends, and then after a few months of that I started to have two books on the go at a time and I started taking my Kindle to work to read on lunch breaks too, because sometimes when I got home from work I didn’t have time to read. That’s about it really!

What was my favourite book of the year?

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and The Color Purple by Alice Walker. All of my feelings regarding these books are in my reviews which I’ve linked, but wow. Wow wow wow. I don’t think anyone would try to speak ill of The Color Purple but I’ve heard a couple of criticisms of Where the Crawdads Sing and I have 100% become one of those people that refuses to hear it because yes that’s your opinion, but it’s wrong. 

What was my least favourite book of the year?

Ashley Bell by Dean Koontz and The Note by Zoe Folbigg. I didn’t write a blog review for The Note because I DNFd it after 100 pages but it was the most boring and ridiculous rubbish I’ve read in a long time, I’m not even sure how it got passed to be published.

Book with the best cover?

Deeplight by Frances Hardinge and With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevado. The most beautiful covers ever!

Honourable Mentions

• The Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson – I’m not a series kind of person (probably because any series I ever try to read are fantasy, and I don’t like fantasy all that much) but this was so good! Definitely my favourite and the best series I’ve read so far – I’m excited to read more of Johnson’s other work!
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston – just…a dream. I feel like for me personally I definitely expanded my reading last year and made a conscious effort to read more “classic” books and books by people of colour. This was a hidden gem that I wish I had read sooner and I absolutely adored it.
• Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid – I really loved this book, highlighted the heck out of it and I’m so excited to read more of her work, I think I found one of my new favourite authors.

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And I think that covers everything! As I said, all book reviews are linked if you’re interested in any of my thoughts for any of the books I’ve mentioned and you can also always add me on Goodreads to keep up to date with my reviews and what I’m currently reading if you want to – let’s be friends!

All my love,

Chloe .xx

Goodreads – ChloLuna