2020 reading wrap-up

Hello, friends! Today is my 2020 reading wrap-up, which will be fairly long and statistics-filled, because I’m a nerd and like these things. So without further ado, here are the books I read in 2020!

Key

• (📚) = owned prior to 2020
• (🇨🇦) = Canadian author
• (🌾) = Indigenous author
• (📖) = on TBR prior to 2020
• (🎶) = audiobook
• (🆓) = from the library
• (✨) = favourite

Books read

• Fall On Your Knees by Anne Marie MacDonald (📚, 🇨🇦, 📖): 4 stars
• Wilder Girls by Rory Power (🆓, 📖): 4 stars
• The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (📚, 🇨🇦, 📖, 🌾): 4 stars
• Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (📚, 📖, ✨): 4 stars
• Hunger: a memoir of (my) body by Roxane Gay (🆓, 🎶, 📖): 5 stars
• The Only Girl in the World by Maude Julien (🆓, 🎶, 📖): 4.5 stars
• Vita Nostra by the Dyachenkos (📚, 📖): 4 stars
• Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaefer (🆓, 🎶) : 3 stars
• Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot (📚, 🇨🇦, 📖, 🌾): 4 stars
• Sabrina by Nick Drnaso (📚, 📖): 4.5 stars
• Middlegame by Seanan McGuire (🆓, ✨): 5 stars
• My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russel (🆓): 4 stars
• Bunny by Mona Awad (🇨🇦): 4 stars
• The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates (📚, 📖): 5 stars
• Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice (📚, 🇨🇦, 🌾, ✨): 4.5 stars

• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (📚, 📖): 4.5 stars
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (📚, 🇨🇦, ✨): 5 stars
• The Midnight Dance by Nikki Katz (📖): 1 star
• Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (🇨🇦, 🆓): 5 stars
• Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood (📖, 🆓): 4 stars
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (🌾, 🎶, 🆓): 4.5 stars
• Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim (📚, 📖, ✨): 5 stars
• Necessary People by Anna Pitoniak (📖, 🇨🇦, 🆓): 4 stars
• Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazo (✨): 5 stars
• Untamed by Glennon Doyle (🎶, 🆓): 4 stars
• A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena (📖, 🇨🇦, 🆓): 3.5 stars
• This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (📚, 🇨🇦, 📖): 3 stars
• Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins (📖, ✨): 4.5 stars
• Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay (📖, 🎶, 🆓): 4.5 stars
• Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle (📖, 🆓): 4 stars

• So You Want to Talk About Race? by Ijeoma Oluo (🎶, 🆓): 5 stars
• The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton (🆓): 2.5 stars
• Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe (📖, 🎶, 🆓, ✨): 5 stars
• Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan (📖, 🆓): 4 stars
• Big Water by Andrea Curtis (🇨🇦, 📖, 🆓): 3 stars
• The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates (📚, 📖): 3 stars
• The Stone Collection by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm (🇨🇦, 🌾, 🆓): 3.5 stars
• Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow (📖, 🎶, 🆓): 5 stars
• Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (📖, 🆓, ✨): 5 stars
• We Are Okay by Nina LaCour (📖, 🆓): 4.5 stars
• Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography by Andrea Warner (🇨🇦, 🎶, 🆓): 4 stars
• In Pieces by Sally Field (📖, 🎶, 🆓): 4 stars
• The Collector by John Fowles (📖, 🆓): 3 stars
• Blood is Another Word for Hunger by Rivers Solomon (🆓): 3.5 stars
• I Hope We Choose Love by Kai Cheng Thom (🇨🇦, 🆓): 3.5 stars

• We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib (🇨🇦, 🎶, 🆓): 4.5 stars
• You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle (🆓): 3.5 stars
• Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde (🎶, 🆓): 4 stars
• I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara (📖, 🎶, 🆓): 5 stars
• She Would be King by Wayétu Moore (🆓): 5 stars
• The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (📚, 📖): 4.5 stars
• I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick (📖, 🆓): 4 stars
• Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds (🆓): 4 stars
• Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (📖, 🆓): 4 stars
• The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang (📖, 🆓): 5 stars
• I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver (📖, 🆓): 4.5 stars
• Shut Up, You’re Pretty by Téa Mutonji (🇨🇦, 🆓): 4.5 stars
• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (📚, 📖, ✨): 5 stars
• Radio Silence by Alice Oseman (📖, 🆓): 4.5 stars
• The Majesties by Tiffany Tsao (📖): 4 stars

Statistics

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Format

• 28 were ebooks
• 18 were physical books
• 14 were audiobooks

So many ebooks! Courtesy mainly of my library and quarantine. One goal in 2021 is going to be to read more physical books.

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Age

• Adult: 41
• YA: 19

This ratio (more adult than YA) is pretty much on par for usual, but is definitely a lot less YA than I usually read.

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Rating

• ★☆☆☆☆: one
• ★★☆☆☆: one, which was 2.5 stars
• ★★★☆☆: 10, five of which were 3.5 stars
• ★★★★☆: 33, 13 of which were 4.5 stars
• ★★★★★: 15

This was such a great reading year! Most of the books I read were at least four stars, and I had so many favourites (favourites post coming Friday). I also read my first one star book, which, even though the book was terrible, was still kind of exciting in a weird way.

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Source

• 40 were from the library
• 20 were books I owned
  • 15 of which I owned prior to 2020

I knew I was reading mainly books from my library, but I didn’t realise it was this many. I’ve been seriously neglecting my physical TBR pile, which is definitely something I want to work on in 2021.

TBR status

• 38 were on my TBR prior to 2020
• 22 were added to my TBR in 2020

I’m pretty happy with this! Even though I’m bad at sticking to specific TBRs, I’m pretty good about reading my actual, long TBR rather than just picking up a bunch of random, impulse books (though that clearly happened here too).

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Publication

• Four were published in 2020
• 18 were published in 2019
• 19 were published in 2018
• Eight were published in 2017
• Two were published in 2016
• Nine were published in 2015 or older

This is also pretty on par for me! I’m consistently a couple of years behind because I’m bad at following book releases. I definitely want to read more 2021 reads this year, though, because there are so many I’m excited for.

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Genres

This is based on the genres listed on Goodreads. I’m thinking of switching over to the StoryGraph, which has better statistics, but haven’t yet.

• 19 were nonfiction, five of which were a memoir
• 14 were sci-fi/fantasy/fantastical
• Eight were contemporary
• Seven were horror/thriller
• Five were historical fiction
• Five were romance
• Two were dystopian

Of these,

• Six were part of a series
• Three were short story collections

This also sounds about right! All the audiobooks I listened to were nonfiction, and I had a fairly long commute this summer, so the amount of nonfiction makes sense. And that second category is fairly broad, including anything slightly fantastical or magical. But I’m really happy with this range of genres.

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Canadian and Indigenous authors

• 16 authors were Canadian
• Five authors were Indigenous

These amounts are definitely less than my goal for 2020 was, but I’m still happy overall! I read a ton more Canadian authors than I normally do, and I made a conscious effort to read more Indigenous authors. Both of these will continue to be overall goals for me in the future to work on as well.

So that was my reading year! I was so thrilled with how much I read and how great the books I was reading were. Thank you all for the recommendations!

How was your reading year? Did you read a ton of great books? What genre did you read the most from? Let me know!

Ally xx

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