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2020 Reading in Review

It's my favorite time of the year: Analyzing my reading habits from the past 366 days! To see all the books, go here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2020/33585525

I read 76 books in 2020, totaling 31,982 pages (or an average of 421 pages per book--the Goodreads page count is wrong due to the wrong edition of Les Miserables being logged). If you want to be pedantic, I listened to 14 of the books, so really only read 27,411 pages. This is an increase from last year of one book and 4,439 pages total, or technically 4,725 pages if you take into account the audio books (I listened to one less audio book this year). Technically, I read 76.5 books; I started A Room with a View and ditched it halfway through due to extreme boredom.

The longest book was War and Peace at 1,422 pages; it just beat out Les Miserables, which clocks in at 1,232. My main reading goal this year was to read those two books, and I expected to read far fewer books as a result....I didn't expect COVID. The shortest book was William McKinley (173 pages).

The oldest book was Mansfield Park (1814). And here I was, thinking it'd be one I already mentioned! Ten books I read were published in 2020, but technically the newest was Majesty.

The average rating on a scale of 5 was 3.07, which has gone done from last year's average of 3.15. I'm still a harsher critic than other Goodreads readers; the average reader reviews for the books I read was 3.9, so I'm still a harsher critic.

My least favorite book was Girl, Wash Your Face. Four other books also received the lowest rating of 1: The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Austeland, and The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West.

My favorite book was Anxious People; last year, it was A Man Called Ove, so I clearly like Fredrik Backman. Other books to receive the top rating of 5 were Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Nightingale, Followers, and Becoming.

The biggest disparities: I rated The Pioneers 2.77 lower than fellow readers. Hear me out though: The pioneers in the book went to Ohio. I suppose that's my bad for not realizing that before reading the book, but it was also just boring. I rated Followers 1.37 higher than fellow readers.

I reread nine books this year: The Cuckoo's Calling, The Silkworm, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Career of Evil, Twilight, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay, and Les Miserables. All but one was reread because a new book in a series had come out or because I was finishing a series. Les Miserables was read again because, after a decade since the last read, I motivated myself to read it again (it's a great book but a huge commitment).

Number of books/pages read by month:
January: 1 book; 374 pages (What happened here? I couldn't tell you.)
February: 3 books; 1,280 pages
March: 6 books; 1,932 pages
April: 7 books (including 1 audio); 4,016 pages (2,594 excluding War and Peace, which I finished in April but started in late December 2019)
May: 9 books (1 audio); 3,871 pages (I didn't start Les Miserables until July, so I think I read more in May as a result of not having a giant tome on my bedside table.)
June: 8 books (4 audio); 2,752 pages
July: 7 books (3 audio); 2,905 pages
August: 5 books (1 audio); 2,156 pages
September: 6 books; 2,742 pages
October: 8 books (2 audio); 2,861 pages
November: 6 books (2 audio); 2,685 pages
December: 9 books; 4,031 pages [2,799 excluding Les Miserables. I panicked borrowed six books from the library before a shutdown went into place on 16 November (while only 1/3 through a 944-page book), but then they were all due on 14 December, so there was a lot of reading. I was also determined to match last year's number, but mistakenly got a number off, so ended up beating it by one.]

I said it last year, but I'll say it again: I probably won't read as many books in 2021 because I'm hoping COVID will be under control and I'll be able to go places again. The goal this year is to read what I want and keep logging reviews.
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