2020 - My Year of Reading

2020 - The year that changed everything...

What can I say about 2020? Probably nothing that hasn’t already been said in a million different ways by millions of people. It was rough wasn’t it? Our governments failing us. So many lives lost. So much sadness and suffering. And unfortunately this year is bound to be more of the same. We can only hope we have a fast rollout of a safe and effective vaccine. Fingers and toes crossed.

Spending most of 2020 at home I thought I would achieve a lot creatively. Unfortunately for me, and many others I have spoken to, it was impossible for me to create. My headspace just worked against me. Suffering ongoing anxiety already, the pandemic amped it up and, with so much uncertainty, I found myself in this weird limbo-type space. Being creative is usually my go to for mental health care, so it was especially frustrating. I did, however do a lot of reading, even exceeding my reading goal for the year. Other than that there was a lot of binging - both food and Netflix. Not going to lie, I put on 4 kilos plus of lockdown weight. I will NOT be making any New Years resolutions. In fact I suggest we all tiptoe into 2021, and don’t make any sudden moves.

Anyway, lets get onto the reading. The books that helped me stay sane during this year that nobody was prepared for.

As usual, I read a variety of genres - nonfiction, short stories, poetry, and fiction, and I listened to quite a few audiobooks as well.

Standouts for 2020, in no particular order, were:

Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness. For the life of me I can’t understand why these books have won awards in the “childrens” category. These stories are not for kids. They are filled with violence, some of it quite graphic in its depiction. I loved the trilogy. I listened to this one and the reader, Humphrey Bower, did such a great job with the character voices and emotions.

Wild Fearless Chests by Mandy Beaumont.

Boy will be Boys by Clementine Ford.

Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe.

The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion.

Green Monkey Dreams, and Metro Winds by Isobelle Carmody.

The Institute by Stephen King.

Drive Here and Devastate Me, and Redhead and the Slaughter King by Megan Falley.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer - probably the biggest surprise for me in what I didn’t expect and just how much I loved it.

The Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta

I’m going to stick to my achievable goal of one book per week for 2021 and see how I go. I have over 1600 books on my goodreads ‘want to read’ list, so I have plenty of options.

Stay safe out there!