I’ve read many books this year, but not as many as in a ‘normal’ year. I sort of lost my reading mojo, during the pandemic. Looking back, I seemed to be worried about everything and especially worried about the virus. Usually, if I’m sitting on a chair, I am reading. However, there were many times this year that I just didn’t feel like immersing myself into a book. At those times, all that I wanted to do was read about Covid-19 or watch the State Premiers’ press conferences. There was a period there, that I was watching every state’s press conference. I soaked up all the information about the pandemic, until it exhausted me, and I couldn’t listen any more. That is when my reading took off again.
I knew that I wouldn’t hit my Goodreads reading goal this year, which was 75 books. On checking the end of year results, I was very surprised to find that I missed my reading target by just 13 books. In a normal year, I’d be a bit disappointed by this total, but considering the year that was 2020, I’m happy
My Books
Male authors – 24 books
Female authors – 38 books
Fiction – 50 books
Non-Fiction – 12 books
Aussie Author Challenge
I joined the Aussie Author Challenge in 2020. The idea was to make books written by Australian authors, a priority. This challenge was in it’s 11th year in 2020, but it was the first year that I had participated. I do enoy reading Australian authors, and decided to make them a priority in 2020.
The result was that in 2020, I read 28 Aussie authors – 10 male authors and 18 female.
There are levels of involvement in this challenge, and participants can choose the level that they think signifies the number of books written by Aussie authors that they intend to read in 2020. The levels are named Wallaby, Wallaroo, Kangaroo and Emu. When joining the challenge, I committed to read at Kangaroo level, which is 12 titles written by Australian authors, of which at least 4 of those authors are female, at least 4 of those authors are male, and at least 4 of those authors are new to you. Books can be fiction or non-fiction, and at least 3 different genre.
I did read more Aussie authors than I expected. As I chose books during the year, I was conscious of this challenge in my choices. I read many great Australian books, both fiction and non fiction, including authors not read previously and debut novels. I smashed all criteria for Kangaroo level, so will choose a higher level this year.
Favourite Books
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Good Dogs don’t Make it to The South Pole by Olav Thyvold ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Love That I Have by James Moloney ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Collaborator by Diane Armstrong ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Link to my previos post My Best Reads of 2020
This post is linked up to Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share
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Hi Jennifer – well it looks like you still read quite an assortment – and I think it’s a good thing sometimes to just sit (not sure about all that following of the news though!) I’ve done quite a bit of re-reading these last few months. I decided to start again at the beginning of the JD Robb “In Death” series that has about 40 books in it – and I’ve really enjoyed it (I don’t have a memory for book or movie plots – so it’s always new for me each time I re-visit something – weird I know!)
My goodness a 40 book series is a huge commitment Leanne. It must be a great series. I’m making my way through a 9 book series and had to think twice about the time they would take. Happy reading.
Thanks for the recommendations, have just downloaded The Collaborator and Good Dogs etc. The others I have read and enjoyed.
Hope you enjoy these two books Carmel.
Hi Jen, I love reading what others have read in 2020 or are currently reading. I’ve just joined a Book Club with 3 friends and we are visiting the Classics. This is a genre I don’t usually reach for in the first instance but I’m enjoying the conversation and discussion and we’ve only had one meeting! Great to see you here at #weekendcoffeeshare. Hope your arm is mending well. xx
Arm is coming along slowly Sue. Or seems slowly to impatient me. I love reading the classics occasionally. Your Bookclub sounds lovely
Oh I just LOVED The Great Alone. I too found that my reading dropped off significantly in March/April since I just could not seem to concentrate on what I was reading. I found that the types of books I was reading changed too. I wanted happier & lighter types of stories that weren’t so emotionally heavy. I did manage to read over 100 books though and am trying a rather daring goal of 120 this year. Not sure I can really read 10 books a month and still get anything done around the house but I’m going to try.
100 books in a year is fantastic Joanne. Good luck with your goal of 120 books in 2021. Don’t worry about the housework. Books come first 😂
Thanks, Jennifer, for sharing your favourite books. I’ll refer to your list when I look for new books to read. Happy reading! #weekendcoffeeshare
Thanks for creating the opportunity to link up to #weekendcoffeeshare
A great wrap-up of your reading year. I too found myself tuning in to press conferences. Who would have thought I’d do that? I’m off to google Good Dogs…
Hi Jo well 2020 did make us do many things that would never have expected
Hello Jennifer,
I’m part of the Coffee Share group and guess that we’re meeting because you are friends with Natalie our new host.
It’s always good to meet another reader. I don’t think I could keep up with you but books have been my life for as long as I can recall being able to read. In high school I stumbled across an author who quickly became my favorite, but you might not recognize him from Australia — George R. Steward. In the late 1960 through the mid 1970’s I collected his works by prowling the used books stores of San Francisco. I started what was essentially a book club with my friends and this was well before such clubs were a thing.
The best part was I even got a chance to meet the author in person and that was an amazing opportunity. Anyway, if interested, I wrote about some of this in a short, 10 minute story that describes some of his work and mention why you might want to track down some of his titles.
It was nice reading your post and getting to know you. I hope to host your visit soon. Here’s the story of meeting my favorite author back with I was fresh out of high school.
https://garyawilsonstories.wordpress.com/the-favorite-author-incident/
Hello Gary and thanks for your comment. It’s really nice to meet you and hear your story about your favourite author. I will definitely check out your links. By the way Sam Francisco is one of my favourite cities.
It looks like you still read a lot of great books. I love reading, and the pandemic had the opposite affect on me..I had a seven week long staycation last summer, and I believe I spent most of it reading. This is my first time visiting your blog, I found through Natalie’s coffee share. I’m a big fan of the coffee shares, have been doing them for many years. It is great to see so many new people joining! Great meeting you here 🙂
Maria
Thankyou so much for visiting Maria. It’s lovely to meet you. I’ll pop over and visit you
I’d say you did extremely well reading books in 2020! Did you spot a lot of typos? 🙂 I barely read six books in 2020. But, I was busy and focused on my main goal: publishing my debut memoir. And that took all the energy I had. 🙂
The absence of your “reading mojo” reminded me of a very nice thing one of my readers wrote me: that my book, Plunge, got her out of her not wanting to read funk. The pandemic prevented her from reading books, until she was pulled into mine and now she’s reading again. It’s so awesome how a book can impact you!
I spotted so many typos! They drive Mae crazy these days. There seem to be so many more of them. I must check out your book.