My best reading of 2020

2020 was a weird year, reading wise. Unlike the previous four years, I didn’t go to sea, which is normally when I power through a lot of books, so I only read ninety-five books (including novellas) total - but eighty-four new-to-me, which is closer to on-par with previous years. I couldn’t read anything except serious non-fiction and fluffy comfort re-read fiction during lockdown (late March - mid-May for us in Aotearoa) and then I nearly stopped reading altogether in September/October because words were coming for Old Guard fanfic almost faster than I could type.

Overall I feel like I’ve really learned to zero in on stuff I want to read. Not that it can’t be challenging - The Great War For New Zealand certainly was! - but it has to be enjoyable to read, or what’s the point? Life is too short for reading-as-slogging. I don’t always live up to this, mind, but I try.

Like last year, I’m going to highlight the non-fiction and fiction new-to-me books that really spoke to me over 2020. They’re not necessarily published this year, but this is when I read them.

( Non-fiction recs )

( Fiction recs )