2020 brought all sorts of things nobody asked for.

One of the things it gifted me was the chance to rekindle my love affair with reading. And while I didn’t ask for it, I embraced it gratefully.

I checked 21 books off my list last year (not including audio books, there were some great audio books as well), which is very likely the most I’ve read since I was in middle school. Some of these were really well known titles I’ve putting off forever (my sincerest apologies, Mr.Potter). Others were random books that have been collecting dust on my bookshelf for years. Most were excellent, some were just okay. Others I actually contemplated not finishing and burning instead (I didn’t, because I could never).

So without further ado, in the order they were read, my 2020 literary rendezvous:

  1. Naturally Tan: A Memoir, Tan Frances
  2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
  3. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
  4. Harry Potter in the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
  5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
  6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
  7. Harry Potter in the Half Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
  8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow, J.K. Rowling
  9. Belgravia, Julian Fellowes
  10. Educated, Tara Westover
  11. Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens
  12. The Vineyards of Champagne, Juliet Blackwell
  13. The Woman in Cabin 10, Ruth Ware
  14. Once We Were Brothers, Ronald H. Balson
  15. How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi
  16. On Writing, Stephen King
  17. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
  18. The Glass Castle: A Memoir, Jeannette Walls
  19. The Storyteller, Jodi Picoult
  20. Christmas in Paris, Anita Hughes
  21. American Heiress, Daisy Goodwin

I’m not a book critic or an author, and I have so much respect for anyone who can sit down and write a whole stinking book. So I’m not going to tell you which ones on this list almost went out the window. It also seems impossible to pick my favorites, but here are a few highlights:

  • The Harry Potter books are probably the best things I have ever read. So much better than the movies, but also have inspired an absolute obsession with the movies. I was reading these just before and through the start of the pandemic and I would get lost in them for hours.
  • I’m not much of a nonfiction reader. The ones on these list took me a very long time to get through, and I often put them down and started a new book before I finished them. However, I really enjoy memoirs. Tan France, Tara Westover, and Jeanette Walls all had drastically different stories to share, but I was captivated by all of them. I love hearing how people came to be who they are and about the experiences that shaped them.
  • I’ve always been a huge fan of historical fiction, particularly stories set in the era of the second world war. I enjoy it even more when I walk away with real knowledge about the time period that I didn’t have before, or a desire to do some research of my own.

This love affair is something I’m gladly dragging in to 2021 with me. So far I’m 3 books in this year, and I’d say we’re getting pretty serious.

I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts on my recent reads and the ones that are yet to come. If you want to follow along, make sure you subscribe! And if you have any recommendations, I would love to hear them!