2020 Reading Year in Review

Most of this information in this post comes directly from my "2020 Year in  Review" post.  Since I was doing an overall 2020 review post, and a blogging year in review post (coming up!)... and since keeping track of my books is a big thing I do on my blog, I thought that deserved its own post too, lol.  :) 

• I increased my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal from 24 books in 2019 to 30 books this year, and reached it by mid-August. I will finish out the year with 43 books to my credit, 143% of my goal. (All books read were reviewed on this blog under the tag "2020 books"). Not quite as good as the 50 books I read in 2019 -- and my 2020 total includes re-reads too! -- but not bad either! 
• Once again this year, non-fiction choices outnumbered fiction (but just barely -- 22 to 21). 
• My library book club held its last meeting in late February -- just before the pandemic hit -- but online, the Gateway Women book club, D.E. Stevenson fan group and L.M. Montgomery Readathon on Facebook have helped boost my 2020 reading totals and provided me with a lot of reading/discussion pleasure during a very difficult year.  
• I read 1 book for the library book club, 5 for GW, 6 for DES (3 different books, including 2 re-reads) and 5 for the L.M. Montgomery Readathon (e different books, including 2 re-reads).
• (As I mentioned above,) I began counting re-reads in my challenge total, which also helped to boost my reading totals. 
• Since I reached 30 books fairly easily this year (by mid-August), I've decided to increase my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal modestly to 36 books ( = 3 books per month on average) for 2021. 
• This year, I reached 36 books by late October. I also reached the 36-book mark in October 2019, my best reading year since I started keeping track (50 books total).  So we'll see how I do in 2021...! 

• It's always very hard for me to pick a single book as "the best," and I gave lots of books four and five-star reviews on Goodreads! (Four stars was my average Goodreads rating this year.) I must admit, though, that there was one clear standout for me this year -- and that was "The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. It was one of the first books I read in 2020, and it remained at the top of my "best" list all year long!  I have recommended it to many people!