End of Year Review – Looking back at 2020

It’s hard to look back at 2020 and think anything other than “omg it’s finally over,” let’s be honest. It’s been a bit of a year. However, I do like to celebrate some of the good things about the year.

My personal highlights are:

• I created my own readathon – the UKYA readathon! I really enjoyed doing it and am looking forward to doing more with it next year.
• I redesigned my blog – a challenge I’d been wanting to do all year but didn’t really know what I was doing! Luckily I have lovely friends who helped. Thanks, Lauren and Becky!
• I started exercising regularly again, with a personal trainer. It’s slow going (especially as I am still suffering from plantar fasciitis), but it’s good to be trying to make a change.
• Finally getting to redesign my front garden. I had some horrible trees that are finally gone, and my parents and I took a weekend to make some raised beds. My front garden looks so much better, and lets in much more light! I’m so pleased with it, well worth the effort. I can’t wait to do the back.
• Starting bread baking again, thanks to Herculyeast, my sourdough starter. I know, I know, such a 2020 thing. But I’ve loved having fresh bread, and also making my own pretzels or pizza dough is amazing.
• Completing Blogmas! That’s right, this is the last post for December, and I have posted daily! I honestly am not sure how. Hopefully will keep up regular blogging now.
• Realising how lucky I am to have such wonderful friends and family 💙 and to have my health. I’ve always felt lucky for the former, but this year has really driven it home.

And just generally getting through the year – it’s been tough in places but I’ve made it.

I found this list hard to make – I couldn’t think of much I’d achieved. But I’m glad I did, because now I can look back on focus on some of the positives, no matter how small they may be.

Reading statistics

Right, onto the good stuff! Reading wise these are my stats for the year:

I have read 260 books with a total of 86,834 pages! I also didn’t finish 8 books. My reading challenge target was 200 books, so I’m pleased to have beat that. I was hoping to get closer to 300 though, or at least closer to last year’s total of 287. That being said, I’m still really happy, especially given that I found reading really hard at times this year.

My longest book was To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, at 878 pages. And 94 of those 260 books were audiobooks, proof that I definitely love listening to books now!

My average rating on Goodreads was 3.7, though this doesn’t take into account DNFs or the half stars I give here. I may have to track this better myself for a more accurate average!

My favourite book for the year was a tie between Queen of Coin and Whispers by Helen Corcoron and Hold Back the Tide by Melinda Salisbury. I read both of them twice this year! I am doing a full post of my favourite books of the year tomorrow – look out for that!

My least favourite book was Meet Cute Club by Jack Harbon, it just didn’t live up to what I wanted.

My favourite series completed was The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater. So not exactly new, but a series I loved reading through! And my favourite series finale was Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty. Truly a worthy end to a wonderful series.

Finally, I set a personal goal to get my owned TBR down over the last few months. I don’t have figures sadly, as my tracking got out of hand, but I have definitely achieved this because my books now fit on the TBR shelf. I suspect, compared to the start of the year, that it’s not that much lower (if at all) but I am pleased that I no longer have a chair overflowing with books.

Goals for 2021

My goals are to monitor my reading stats better. I’ve set up a Notion page to track:

• Half star ratings
• If it is by an author of colour
• If it has LGBT+ rep
• If it has disability rep
• If it has PoC rep
• What genre the book is
• What age range it is aimed at
• If I read it as an audio, physical or ebook
• If it was an ARC
• Year of release

So my goal is to keep up entering info into that so I can do much more thorough stats next year. Or even quarterly, perhaps, if I think it’s interesting! Let me know if you would 😉

I also want to track hauled books a bit better, as well as any I offload. We’ll see on that one though – I don’t think I dare set up a Notion database for that too until I have the first one working.

My reading challenge will once again be set to 200, with the same stretch goal as this year – try to beat 287. Hopefully, I’ll have fewer slumps next year and I’ll be able to achieve that.

I want to run the UKYA Readathon again in 2021. I had so much fun doing it this year, and I already have thoughts about next year. I am considering widening it to include middle grade – what do you think? I’d also love any ideas you have on the subject!

I want to track my owned TBR number again and get it below 100. I’ve said it before, but I really am trying to control my hauls right now!

Keep up regular blogging. I’ve really enjoyed coming back to it, and I want to keep it up. Not daily, but regular reviews at least – I’m currently planning on posting on Tuesdays and Fridays, with space for additions on Sundays. And hopefully some non-review posts too – tags, or just book talk.

That’s it! What was your 2020 like (personally, or in books)? What are your goals for 2021?

I hope you have a lovely New Year, and I wish you the best for 2021! x