Time to look at what I read in 2020, and make some plans for 2021.

Let’s start with my book bingo challenge. I got three bingos and filled all but five tiles. I enjoyed this challenge a lot, and it led me to seek out a range of books I might not have picked up otherwise. You can read reviews for the books I read for my book bingo challenge here.

I’ll post up my new card tomorrow.

Now, on to my Goodreads Challenge, where I read 75/80 books. Not too bad. This year my breaks at work got shorter, giving me less time to read. Well, that’s my excuse anyway. I’m going to try for 80 again this year. It seems like a doable but challenging target.

Click here to see what I read in 2020

If you want to talk about any books on that list, feel free to comment. Also feel free to add me as a friend on Goodreads.

According to Goodreads, the longest book I read last year was The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal. That surprised me; I read a few things that felt a lot longer. Relentless Moon was one of the standout books of the year for me. I greatly enjoyed most of the books I read last year, though some other stand outs were; The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin, The Curse of Chalion and The Physicians of Vilnoc by Lois McMaster Bujold, Chuck Tingle’s Harriet Porber, that was much smarter than I anticipated. Also City by Clifford D. Simak is going to stay with me for a long time. As will a few of the short stories from Ted Chiang’s Exhalation collection. I binged Paper Girls and Lock and Key, and I continued with The Adventure Zone, which just keeps getting better. And of course, I got to spend more time with Murderbot and I met the Sandman.

I better stop before I list half of my 2020 reads. What were your favourite reads of 2020? What should I read in 2021?

Before I go, I’m going to touch a bit about my 2020 in general. Maybe not a lot of the real world 2020, because that has been a total shitfire for everyone. I’ve been feeling pretty isolated this year; due to the virus I haven’t taken a holiday, and because I am a shift worker I don’t get a chance to see my partner or my friends throughout the week. I also have had anxiety issues most of my life, which have started to affect me a lot this year. On the upside though, I started getting therapy this year. Long time readers of this blog may have noticed that in July I purchased a domain, linked a twitter account to the blog, and started talking more about my own fiction. That, as well as doing the writing prompt challenges over at Reedsy have been a part of my attempts to overcome my anxiety. I have always been terrified speaking up and sharing myself with others, and I really want to push myself to share more. I want to connect more, and I hope that through this blog I can do that.

In 2021, I want to continue these changes, and focusing more on this blog is part of that. Let’s sign off on 2020 and see what the new year brings.

Happy Reading,

~ Lauren