Ah, right. Time is a thing. No longer marked by minutes, days, weeks. But by increasingly bright dinners as summer settles. By emptying and replenishing a jar of instant coffee like an hourglass. By stamps on a boba shop loyalty card. By the blossoming colours on my paint-by-numbers canvas. By an incriminating pile of newly bought books inching taller and taller, a physical manifestation of library withdrawal…
In numbers
39 books read. I’m 75% way through my annual Goodreads reading challenge! I was going to say that it seems like I’m a long way off from my personal record I hit last year of 105 books but that it’s okay because I’m focused on quality over quantity this year, but actually, this time last year (end of June 2019) I only read 41 books, so maybe I’m not as far off as I thought.
Even so, I still don’t think I’ll hit 100+ books by the end of 2020 and I don’t want to make it a goal to. I decided to keep my Goodreads reading goal at a manageable 52 so that I wouldn’t be too intimidated to start more challenging books/bigger books. The most intimidating books I tackled so far this year were A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and I’m so proud of myself for reading them.
This might be cheating for me to mention because this is just after the mid-year mark, but this weekend I’m planning to start East of Eden by John Steinbeck, and it’ll be another one that I’ll be proud to have read. According to Goodreads, I’m 15 books ahead of schedule (a goal of 52 books sets my pace at 1 book/wk), so even if I take 15 weeks to read East of Eden, I won’t sweat it, although it might be annoying for my reading buddies… Hi Evie and Macey (: Don’t worry, I don’t anticipate it taking me that long haha.
62% women. I read 70% women in 2019 and 62% women in 2018. I don’t think I actively seek out female authors but it seems that I have a pretty good record of reading them, so this aspect doesn’t really affect how I choose what to read next. I don’t have a goal for this stat, but I’m happy with reading well over 50% women.
38% POC. What I don’t have a good record of is reading authors of colour. I read 21% POC in 2019 and 23% POC in 2018. Upon putting together my 2019 reading recap, I realised I needed to make an active effort to read more POC. It looks like I’m going in the right direction, and I hope to keep this up.
An initial challenge I had with reading more POC was that when I looked at the top books on my TBR, most of them seemed to be by white authors. I’m pretty sure that has to do with the fact that publishing is white, which means books by white authors receive larger marketing budgets, which means they receive more hype, which is how so many of these books land at the top of my TBR when I don’t make a conscious effort to read more POC. We need to hype more books by POC because ! they ! deserve ! it ! and bookstagrammers can have a huge influence in this respect. Lots of POC bookstagrammers have been doing it all along. Some publishers that I think are good about this are One World Books and Riverhead Books.
I wrote out a super long TBR of just POC authors at the beginning of 2020 and that’s how I’ve been hyping myself to read more POC. Based on my record, I’ll assume that my POC TBR isn’t as extensive as my white TBR, but it’s still way more books than I can read in a year, so I have no excuses.
6 classics read. For someone who almost exclusively buys classics (I loveee thrifting cheap vintage paperbacks and am too cheap to buy new releases), I don’t read very many classics at all. All my life I’ve found classics archaic, wordy, academic, pretentious, boring, etc. But having a pretty vintage paperback definitely motivates me to read them. Plus, I’ve befriended more classics readers since joining bookstagram so I’ve been more intrigued by classics just by being in virtual proximity to them.
In 2019, I read 9 classics. In 2020 so far, the 6 classics I read include: 1 novel, 1 novella, 3 plays, 1 Agatha Christie. Yes, Agatha Christie is her own category. Hm, I was proud of myself for reading 6 classics until I broke it down like that. No shade to novellas, plays, or Agatha Christie, but I want to challenge myself to read more classic novels. (Good thing I’m about to start East of Eden.)
19 books bought + 14 books gifted = 33 books accumulated. Of these 33 additions to my shelf, I’ve read/already read/donated 20 of them (“already read” as in I had already read it prior to buying it). But that’s just the books I accumulated in 2020.
At the end of 2019, I had 28 unread books on my shelf. Of those I read 3 and donated 5, which leaves 20 books unread from my 2019 shelf.
Thus, halfway through 2020, the grand total of unread books on my shelf is 33.
Best reads
Spaceman by Mike Massimino. An astronaut’s memoir. An exhilarating read that made me laugh and made me cry. The way he talked about community and overcoming failure resonated with me deeply. Plus space is cool.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. An intimate look at male friendship and trauma. A devastating, all-consuming read. Wouldn’t necessarily push a recommendation; it’s a lot to put yourself through. It’s a story that will stay with me forever. Buddy read with Sonia and Amanda.
Honourable mentions
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. A fictionalised history of Colombia by the father of magical realism. Beautiful imagery made more powerful for its political subversion. A challenging read that might not have made my honourable mentions if not for my reading buddies Evie and Sonia, who hyped me up and helped me process the book.
The Regrets by Amy Bonnaffons. A paranormal romance with lots of ghost sex. Jarring offbeat dark comedy. But also profound in some ways, like about the feeling of disconnect from the life happening around you. A strange, absurd story but I’ve never had more fun writing a review.
Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. An investigation of Harvey Weinstein and the abuse of power in media and politics. Fascinating. Couldn’t believe how many players were involved. Note to self to read more true crime. Buddy read with Evie.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. My first ever read by the queen of murder mysteries. The charming characters lulled me into a false sense of security. Texted a friend right after I finished. I underestimated Agatha Christie. She lives up to her reputation.
Books I keep saying I’ll get to but haven’t… yet!
A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J Maas. Fairy smut, apparently. I’ve been dodging spoilers but I want to know the memes!! This fandom seems hilarious. I’m mildly amused about how people are freaking out about Bloomsbury’s cover redesigns (in a bad way).
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. So many people have recommended this to me. I don’t know much about it except that it’s an epic and emotional family saga. (Don’t tell me! I want to go in blind!)
There are many more I keep saying I’ll get to but haven’t (yet), i.e. all 33 unread books on my shelf, but these are the ones I seem to really never shut up about. Better to keep this list really short to make sure I actually get to them. My excuse is that these are big books and highly anticipated reads that I want a physical copy to fully immerse myself in, but libraries have been closed and I’ve basically been in quarantine since December (I was in Beijing, if you recall… It’s been a long fuckin year). Luckily my library has just started doing curbside pickups.
Wish list
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, Head of Zeus edition. I’m obsessed with the red cover design.
The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara, Vintage/Anchor edition. To match the copy of A Little Life I thrifted! Put this on my TBR right after finishing A Little Life. Well, after I stared at the ceiling and cried for a bit. But right after that. This book actually just came in for me from the library (different edition), so we’ll see whether I keep this book on my wish list.
Exhalation by Ted Chiang, Vintage/Anchor edition. Loved the hardback cover design and so glad it’s out in paperback (just last week!) with the same design. It would go beautifully with my paperback edition of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu. Ted Chiang and Ken Liu are two of my favourite speculative fiction writers. I have the ebook and am thinking about reading it this month, so we’ll see whether I keep this book on my wish list too.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, 50th anniversary Penguin Classics Deluxe edition. One of the few classics I’d prefer with the contemporary cover design, but I wouldn’t be mad about the vintage paperback with the demon cat either (it’s so ugly it’s almost cool). The blurb is wild and I am intrigued.
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I jumped the gun in May and already asked you about your favourite read so far this year (because that’s when I read mine), so my question for you is: What’s a book you’re determined to read before the end of 2020? Voice your intention! (But if you have a update on your favourite read so far this year, I’d love to hear about that too!)