Welcome to the end of 2020. We finally made it. This year, I came back to reading in a big way, after not doing a whole lot of reading for so long. I found new authors, got a few new hyperfixations, and revisited some old favorites. Let’s talk about it!
This year, I started reading the Cassandra Clare books. At this point in time, I have read The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices, Chain of Gold, and Ghosts of the Shadow Market. Needless to say, I think it really shows how obsessed with the entire Shadowhunters world I am. I have literally read The Mortal Instruments series in its entirety twice this year. TWICE! I read the series for the first time in mid-April, and this series really got me back into reading. This series was also a catalyst for me creating my book Twitter account, which I have found a lot of joy out of. I completely fell in love with this series and rediscovered my enthusiasm for reading through this series, so I owe a lot to this author.
Speaking of trying new things, I also gave a few audiobooks a chance this year. In the past I have always struggled with audiobooks. I started to get into podcasts, so I thought “hey, maybe I can try audiobooks too!” to a certain degree of success. Some audiobooks, like Cemetery Boys, were really great, and others, like Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, I really struggled to get through. Though perhaps that might have something to do with me and not the narrators or the books.
Throughout this year, I also revisited some old favorites of mine, those being the works of Rick Riordan. I reread all of the Percy Jackson books, reread the Heroes of Olympus series, and I read the Trials of Apollo series. I was absolutely obsessed with the Percy Jackson books as a kid, and rereading these books, as well as seeing the new adventures of Lester in the Trials of Apollo was really lovely. I also started rereading the Harry Potter series, which I have not yet finished rereading but I was absolutely obsessed with this series when I was a little kid and it has been really nice to revisit this series and these characters that I loved so much as a kid.
Now, for the highs and lows. For my favorite series, I would have to say Magnus Chase. I love this series to death. Percy Jackson, The Heroes of Olympus series, the Trials of Apollo series, and all of the Shadowhunters books are all very close as well. In short, anything written by Cassandra Clare or Rick Riordan is instantly a 5 star in my heart, and I will read anything and everything written by either of them. I also read the Six of Crows duology this year, and that certainly warrants a mention too. My favorite standalone book I read this year was probably Cemetery Boys, but there were a lot of honorable mentions. I reread Challenger Deep this year, and that is one of my all time favorite books. Of course, I can’t go a single blog post without mentioning Will Herondale. (P.S., happy belated birthday to him!) I met him this year, which was enough to make my 2020 at least tolerable. Obviously, not all of my reading in 2020 was great. I had a couple of reading slumps, especially in December, where I really struggled to get through any books at all. There were also a select few books I read that I really didn’t enjoy. However, I am very easily pleased when it comes to reading, so the books I didn’t like weren’t really a lot. For the lows, I'd have to say Defy the Stars was one of my least favorite books I read this year. My absolute least favorite I read this year was Soon I Will Be Invincible, which I made an entire review for in an earlier blog post.
Now, I have summed up my year in reading for 2020. For a moment, I want to talk about my goals for next year, reading-wise of course. This year, I read 90 books. In 2021, I am setting my goal to 100 books, but I am hoping to read more, not only because of the challenge, but because I want to largely diminish my insanely long “to be read” list. I am very confident in my ability to accomplish reading 100 books because I probably read about two whole books in January through March of 2020. I didn’t really start reading until mid-April, so that’s a few months where I didn’t read hardly at all. If school is manageable enough, and I continue to have no social life, then I believe that my goal is completely attainable. I am hoping that you all get many opportunities to read and are able to accomplish all of your reading goals. Best of luck for 2021!
