2020 has seen the most books I’ve read in a good couple of years, and it’s been the first year since I’ve joined Goodreads that I’ve fulfilled my reading challenge. At the time of typing up this blog post I’ve read 114 books, far surpassing my original goal of 52, and nearly reaching my second goal of 120 books which I plan to finish up with some of the books that have taken me the longest to read.

I read about religion and magic, food and murder. I reviewed my knowledge of wordpress and design, and I added to my knowledge bank of theology. I even sprinkled a celebrity biographies in my reading line up.

Most of my reading this past year ebbed along with the flow of the year and book covers that caught my mind. Renewing my library card and subscribing to Scribd helped me bolster the number of books I read this year, as I always had several books at the ready on my phone or my kindle.

I also fully embraced audiobooks this year, and I could often complete books during the day as a lot of my work this year didn’t require audio. My first and one of my favorite of the audiobooks I read was We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union — which I read through hoopla, which my library offered. These books made up a significant chunk of my reading this year and I enjoyed autobiographies, as well as historical fiction, LGBT+ romances, and contemporary pieces. You can get a better look at the audiobooks I listened to on my Goodreads or through future blog posts scheduled to come out in the next couple of weeks (so, subscribe?).

This year I also read my first comic book and graphic novels. Queer: A Graphic History and The Umbrella Academy were my favorites of the handful I read.

Of the physical books and e-books that make up the rest of my consumption, the vast majority were either murder thrillers or theological in nature, though a textbook or two can be found amongst my year in books list. I read through Rachel Held Evans’ books, devouring her thoughts and questions on the Bible. I also enjoyed Gillian Flynn’s novels and made my way through Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians series, although those books were finished with a little less gusto as the books slowly went down in over the trilogy. And JK Rowling’s books were read with vague interest until she became a TERF — so.

A few stand out books this year were The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, a book who’s plot and characters still linger in my mind nearly 100 books later; I read Rachel Held Evans’ Searching for Sunday twice and I filled the pages with notes and highlights; Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Khann was first read on Scribd and then asked for a physical copy for my birthday which I read again as soon as I got it. Another few notable books were Womanish, Womanist Midrash, You Should See Me in a Crown, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and They Both Die at the End.

I didn’t force myself to finish books I wasn’t enjoying or learning from this year, so I created a Goodreads list for books I abandoned in case I ever care to go back to them. Creating this list, sped up my reading a lot this year as I didn’t feel the need to suffer through books I wasn’t enjoying or I wasn’t connecting with.

Despite all the reading I did this year, I still at times felt like I wasn’t reading enough or as much as I wanted to as my reading speed has slowed down over the years. There was also frustration as I didn’t retain every piece of information I wanted to, but this year I finished 114, and I’m kind of proud of that. 2020 was a weird year and though I may not’ve been able to leave the house much, I explored the world through the books I read.

For those of you want to read more next year:

I highly recommend trying out Scribd, for $10 a month you not only get access to articles, books and audiobooks but Scribd has also teamed up with services such as Pandora Plus, MUBI, and Curiosity Stream which means you get free access to those services too as long as your Scribd subscription continues. By using my link you get 60 days of free access to Scribd content (as opposed to the normal 30-day free trial) and I also get 30 days for free.

I also recommend checking out your local thrift stores and used book stores frequently for new and sometimes pretty interesting reads if you can’t afford to be at Barnes & Noble every week for a new book to read. Libraries are also key for getting to read books and support the authors, even rural libraries now often offer some sort of digital app like Libby or Hoopla through which you can borrow e-books and audiobooks.