Thursday, January 7, 2021

Review of 2020 Bookish Goals

It's 2021! It's time to look at my 2020 goals and see how I did.

1. Read at least three books published in 2020.
I actually read quite a lot of 2020 publications: 18! As is usually the case, many of the best books I read this past year were published in 2020.

2. Get roughly 1/3 of my 2020 reads from my TBR list.
So it turns out that when I set a goal of half my reads coming from my TBR list, I only managed about a third, and when my goal was a third I managed even less, haha. It was about 15%. The good news is that I cut my original TBR way down so there are only 41 books left on it.

3. Read 50% fiction and 50% nonfiction.
I only managed 38% nonfiction, which is slightly higher than normal. Nonfiction books can be hella long, though, so page-wise I might have been closer to 50/50.

4. Read at least five books on my "shelf of shame."
Success: I read eight! Side note: People seem really bothered by my shelf of shame, but I love it. It externalizes, in a cheeky way, a feeling I already had, and it gives me a finite list of the books I feel I "should" have read by now so I stop feeling like there are hundreds of books in that category and realize there are actually only 32 of them.

5. Read something my sister recommends.
This year my sister's pick was Girls with Sharp Sticks. My sister's got dark tastes, y'all. It wasn't my favorite of the ones she's recommended, but I enjoyed it!

6. Read some modern books on feminism.
I forgot this goal was about modern-day feminism and read two books from 1981 (Ain't I a Woman and Women, Race, & Class, which were both excellent) but I read some more modern ones as well. I definitely recommend Hood Feminism and I Bring the Voices of My People.

7. Read some books set in Portland.
This goal led me to Adib Khorram's excellent Darius books, as well as another of this year's favorite reads, Piecing Me Together.

8. Read a Louise Penny book.
I read the first two in the Chief Inspector Gamache series and concluded that they're not for me. Now I know!

9. Listen to some classics narrated by celebrities.
I listened to five! I particularly appreciated getting to hear Tim Curry read Sabriel.

10. Start the Miss Marple series.
Success! I read four of the books and plan to continue with them this year.

How did you do with your 2020 goals?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: The Seeress of Kell, The Next Evangelicalism, and There There
Five years ago I was reading: Lonesome Dove, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, and The Quran
Ten years ago I was reading: Human Happiness

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