2020 reading wrap up

[sandrylene]

This was a weird year for me, in that I have never before pushed through quite so many books I hated, or at least strongly disliked, in one year. Also, mostly unrelatedly, I read a lot of books outside my usual genres, including a half dozen non-fiction. That's something I nearly never do, unless you count books for classes. Oh, I also read one book in French and one book in German, a goal I'm looking to do again in 2021.


My seven disliked books:
Dave Eggers - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Catherynne Valente - Space Opera
Agnès Martin - Les Gens Heureux Lisent et Boivent du Café
Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves
Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements
Jack Kerouac - On The Road
Iain M. Banks - Consider Phlebas

I had a couple more underwhelmed or bemused ones, too. But I did also have tons that I really, really loved.

I am borrowing format of this from wanderlustlover's on Goodreads, and have statistics partly through them and partly because I have a spreadsheet. (Yes, of course I have a spreadsheet.)

Stats
Number Of Books You Read: 115

Authors were 80 female, 26 male, 3 non-binary, 5 anthology/mixed

The average rating was 4.5 stars, but I mostly don't rate things unless I like them or really, truly hate them.

Number of Re-Reads:
The Raven Tower I read twice this year because we did it in book club after I'd read it already. 2 books were rereads from prior years. So I guess 3?


Superlatives

1. Best Book You Read In 2020?
   This is really, really hard because I was really pleased with several books. It's likely to be one of:
   Erin Morgenstern - The Night Circus
   Robin Sloan - Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
   Ann Leckie - Ancillary Justice
   I don't think I can narrow it down past 3.
   
   
2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
   Catherynne Valente - Space Opera. It was highly hyped to me by someone I trust, but the whole thing was so "look at me, I'm trying so hard to pay tribute to Douglas Adams and also be so damn clever" that I completely could not get immersed and enjoy it.
   
   
3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read in 2020?
   Italo Calvino - If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. What. The fuckery? Not in a good way. This really read as "I'm trying to be very meta and clever and profound" and was way too up its own arse. /:
   
   
4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did) In 2020?
   I don't usually push books a lot? Hm. I did push Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country on people this year that I read last year, and I think some folks read that this year and that I got universal thumbs up on that.
   
   
5. Best series you started in 2020? Best Sequel of 2020? Best Series Ender of 2020?
   Series started: Ann Leckie - Ancillary Justice
   Sequel: Martha Wells - Network Effect
   Series Ender: I haven't read many series enders this year. I guess I'll have to go with Sharon Shinn - Unquiet Land
   
   
6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2020?
   Oh geez. I don't know if I can decide between Erin Morgenstern, Ann Leckie, and Robin Sloan.
   
   
7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
   Probably Claire Kann - If It Makes You Happy, though I did also read a bunch of non-fiction this year, and some of it I liked.
   
   
8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
   This isn't a characteristic of books I'm into, typically. Uh. Maaaybe Tamsyn Muir - Gideon the Ninth
   
   
9. Book You Read In 2020 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?
   I don't usually plan rereads. I would completely reread Kate Racculia's Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts or Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, though, as both of those were just so... I dunno, emotionally nourishing?
   
   
10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2020?
    Frankly I have no idea. I read eBooks and don't really spend much time looking at covers.
    
    
11. Most memorable character of 2020?
    Maybe Anaander Mianaai from Leckie's Ancillary books? Certainly sticks out in the mind for being... different.
    
    
12. Most beautifully written book read in 2020?
    Maybe Erin Morgenstern - The Night Circus, which had amazing imagery. Or maybe Zeyn Joukhadar - The Map of Salt and Stars, which has such beautiful language.
    
    
13. Most Thought-Provoking/Life-Changing Book of 2020?
    Life-changing is asking a lot, but I did read Lindsay C. Gibson - Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents on the advice of my therapist, and found it to be at least somewhat useful, and certainly thought-provoking. Though heavens know the type of thinking that requires is one I do tons of, regardless.
    
    
14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2020 to finally read?
    Definitely Ann Leckie's Ancillary books.
    
    
15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2020?
    Oh this is too hard. I started actually taking highlights this year, a first for me, so I have tons of things I liked for a variety of reasons. So a sampling:
    
    
    
    • "You're going to ask whether that's true for freestanding provision." Jules had been going to ask no such thing. He kept quiet and hoped no one would say ‘jurisprudential praxis' again."
      - Division Bells by Iona Datt Sharma
      
      
    • There was something about seeing Baba with his head in his hands, something new. It was a side of him I hadn’t ever seen. He wasn’t my baba anymore. He was just a person, lost and bent over like everybody else.
      - Zeyn Joukhadar - The Map of Salt and Stars
      
      
    • She’d chased plenty of things in her life—grades, her own phone line, diplomas, sex, the city, jobs, apartments, new jobs, better jobs, better sex, alcohol, different jobs, different apartments—but somewhere around thirty, she had looked around and realized she’d caught the one thing, all her life, she’d been searching for the hardest: a life on her own terms.
      - Kate Racculia - Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts
      
      
    • Goblin tea resembles a nice cup of Earl Grey in much the same way that a catfish resembles the common tabby. They share a name, but one is a nice thing to curl up with on a rainy afternoon, and the other is found in the muck at the bottom of polluted rivers and has bits of debris sticking to it.
      - T. Kingfisher - Nine Goblins
      
      
    • His face is so much more than hair and eye color, she wonders why books do not describe the curves of noses or the length of eyelashes.
      - Erin Morgenstern - The Starless Sea
      
      
    • "The best analogy I can think of is how a modern physicist would react if you approached him and proposed to travel at greater than the speed of light. Mixed with this is a little bit of how Chopin would react if you proposed to play a piano by striking it with a sledgehammer."
      - Stephenson and Galland - The Rise and Fall of D. O. D. O.
      
      
    • Overse added, “Just remember you’re not alone here.” I never know what to say to that. I am actually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are.
      - Martha Wells - Network Effect
    
    
    
    
16. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2020?
    Shortest: Penhallow Amid Passing Things by Iona Datt Sharma at 32 pages (It's obviously a short story, and not a book, but I don't want to figure out which thing I read is just longer than a novella, really.)
    Longest: Rise and Fall of D. O. D. O by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland at 768 pages
    Average Length for the Year: 308 pages
    
    
17. Book That Shocked You The Most.
    Maybe Italo Calvino - If On a Winter's Night a Traveler just for being so damned *weird*.
    
    
18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!).
    Hm. I'm not sure I have one of these? Maybe I'd go Jules and Ari from Iona Datt Sharma's Division Bells. I don't feel super passionately about this, but I'm very in favor of the type of relationship they have, and it felt real and supportive.
    
    
19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year.
    Murderbot and ART in Martha Wells' stuff is so good. Tuesday and Dex in Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts was such a beautiful friendship.
    
    
20. Favorite Book You Read in 2020 From An Author You’ve Read Previously.
    Ben Aaronovitch - False Value was notable for being I think my favorite in the Rivers of London series to date. I had already enjoyed that series, but for some reason this book particularly resonated for me.
    
    
21. Best Book You Read In 2020 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure.
    Maybe Ted Chiang's Exhalation: Stories ? I really enjoyed that and it was a book club one that one of the folks at work particularly advocated for.
    
    
22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2020?
    I don't have one. These are exceedingly rare for me, anyhow.
    
    
23. Best debut you read?
    Has to be The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar.
    
    
24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
    Tasha Suri's Ambha stuff, Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash were good for this. Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower, too, was really interesting in this respect.
    
    
25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?
    Kate Racculia's Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts. Mind you I also cried a lot. But a bunch of it was happy crying. Speaking of...
    
    
26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2020?
    There are multiple in this category because I kind of cry a lot.
    
    I know Martha Wells - Exit Strategy made me bawl repeatedly, and I effectively cried my way through probably half of Tuesday Mooney and also half of Zeyn Joukhadar - The Map of Salt and Stars, and I suspect at least once per Tasha Suri's books, Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash. I'm pretty sure I also teared up in one of the stories in Sharon Shinn - Quatrain, and at some point during Erin Morgenstern - The Night Circus. (The thing about me is that I cry at people caring about each other a lot, so uh. Yeah, it comes up in stuff I read relatively frequently.)
    
    
27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?
    Has to be Robin Sloan - Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. I don't get the impression this book is particularly well known, and reading it made me so, so happy.
    
    
28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?
    Zeyn Joukhadar - The Map of Salt and Stars. I mean. It's meant to. The topic is basically "here's a personalized view of being a Syrian refugee." This was definitely one where I had to put it down sometimes to breathe.
    
    
29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2020?
    Tamsyn Muir - Harrow the Ninth. I don't want to talk about why I think this, in case others haven't read this series and want to. I don't think I've ever had the type of reading experience this book provides before.
    
    
30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?
    On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and I absolutely DID hate it, SO MUCH. I spent the whole time ranting out loud about how basically every character in the book is a terrible person. In the middle of my ranting in my workplace's books channel, a friend linked https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/02/book-review-on-the-road/ which was a cathartic read, which I'm glad to have been able to go through after the book.

So that was 2020 in books, for me. I think I stretched myself in a bunch of ways, and was sometimes rewarded and sometimes really, really not.

BTW, if you have any desire to link up on Goodreads, please hit me up. I find it really useful to look at what other folks are reading for inspiration on what to hit next.