I read 32 Books in 2019
Last year I made a promise to myself that I was going to get back into reading. I was an avid reader in my teen years, easily smashing 100-200 books a year back like it was nothing. Once I got into university, that was cut down quite a bit by the obvious time needed for studying and classes, but I was still able to push through about 50 books a year. Then after uni, my reading just sort of stopped. I think it was a mixture of being just utterly exhausted and burnt out from school, and getting distracted with travelling and not wanting to have to carry around books with me whilst abroad.
All of this changed when my boyfriend Julian bought be a kindle for Christmas at the end of 2017. I was quite reluctant to the e-reader life at first, as I have always been a paper-or-die kind of gal, but I took it with me on holiday to the Dominican and was surprised with how much I enjoyed reading on it. The convenience of being able to bring multiple books on holiday with one tiny device was a game changer. With that being said though, I still didn’t read all that much in 2018. I had gotten a job that was overwhelmingly hectic and stressful, and really wasn’t doing all that much besides working, sleeping and watching youtube.
Then came 2019 and I realized that I hadn’t used this awesome gift that Julian had bought me all that much… and I felt guilty. So when we started packing for our South America trip, I made sure to load the kindle up with some good reads and threw it into my carry-on determined to get some reading done. Speaking of good reads (see what I did there), it was during this trip that I discovered that my kindle actually automatically connects to my goodreads account (that up until then I never really used). After I would finish a book, it would automatically prompt me to rate it on goodreads and from there… my addiction with the app started.
Goodreads is THE place to help you get back into reading. You can look up book reviews and ratings, find lists of recommended reads based off of your tastes, keep up with what your friends are reading, keep a list of all the books you want to read, and you can even scan a book’s barcode at a book store with your phone and it will show you all the reviews right there to help you decide if you want to buy it. They also do this awesome thing where you can set yourself an annual reading challenge. I decided whilst I was away to set mine to 30 books, something I thought was both an idealistic but somewhat attainable number given my lack of reading in previous years.
I started the challenge off strong, reading 5 books whilst away on our trip. Once we got back though, things started to slow down. I didn’t even look at my book for whole month of April, and only managed to finish it right at the end of May thanks to a weekend up at my cabin. June things picked up again and I managed to get 4 books under my belt. Then the full swing of summer came around and well… not going to lie I got pretty distracted by all the wine and partying that typically goes with being at my cabin. The glorious thing about the goodreads annual reading challenge is that it tells you how your doing and whether you’re on, ahead, or behind schedule. By the end of summer, I was horrifyingly behind schedule (by 10 books, none the less). But thankfully, my friend Meg started herself a bookstagram. With her book recommendations and gorgeous book shots in my feed, and the glooming notification of being 10 books behind schedule kicked my butt in gear, and was able to bang out 6-8 books a month in September, November, and December (lets not talk about October).
I ended up succeeding and surpassing my goal of 30 books, and I was so proud of myself! If you’d like to check out my goodreads account, or browse the entire list of 32 books I read in 2019, you can using those links. But for now, I thought I could show you guys some of my favourites from the year that I would highly recommend you adding to your own To Be Read list!
Where The Crawdads Sing
This is a slow burner in the beginning, but boy is it ever worth it. The way the author brings you through present and past day following the life of "the marsh girl" Kya was breathtaking and captivating. It's a story of love, loss, survival, prejudice, and so many other things. Some say they were shocked by the ending, I personally wasn't. I thought it was perfect. One of my favourite books I've read in a while.
The Wolf in The Whale
I’m not typically a fan of fantasy books, but I had to give this a go just for my love of Canadian Native American history, plus my own personal Scandinavian heritage. I’m so glad I did because this was such a beautiful book! At first I was a bit weary, but about a quarter of the way in a couldn’t put it down. The ending had my heart through all sorts of emotions. Definitely worth a read!
Normal People
Sally Rooney is an incredible author of stories that completely hypnotize you. I read this one in one sitting, and stayed awake for hours after reading it. The dynamic between the two main characters as they grow from adolescence to adulthood is both raw and real. The characters are flawed, frustrating, endearing in a way that consumes you like all good books do.
A Court Of Thorns and Roses - the Trilogy
TRUST ME when I say this is one of the best book series I’ve ever read. This was a recommendation (and by that I mean she literally forced me to read) by my friend Meg with the only instructions of “don’t read the synopsis, just go for it and trust me.” Boy am I ever glad I did. This trilogy consumed me. I read it all in 4 days, and when I wasn’t reading I was dreaming about it. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for weeks. I spent every night up until 3am finishing them because I was that obsessed. There’s romance, war, friendships, bad-ass female leads… it’s everything you’d ever want. Dare I even say, this might just be my favourite book series I’ve read since Harry Potter.
The Great Alone
An emotionally compelling story of a family who drops everything and moves to rural Alaska, learning to survive in the hostile environment that Alaska becomes in the winter months, but also the hostile environment inside their home as the father deals with his ptsd from the Vietnam War. It is a long book, and can be a bit of a slow burn at times, but the story is heartbreaking and beautiful. I really enjoyed seeing the progression of the main characters life in how she persevered. It is a love story and a heartbreaker all in one.
Red, White, and Royal Blue
Romance is a relatively new genre for me that I really got into towards the end of the year. They are light reads that are perfect for holidays and when you want to read something that isn’t too heavy. Red, White, & Royal Blue was my last book of the entire year, and it was also my favourite romance I have read so far. A beautiful story of two “enemies”, the FSOTUS and the Prince of England none-the-less, who get into a public-tiff and have to go on a PR stunt pretending to be best friends to clean it up. The two “enemies” end up not hating each other so much after all, and start to fall in love. In turn, turning their relationship into something far more scary to deal with as they try and hide it from the public eye. I laughed and cried my whole way through this beautiful love story and highly recommend it as an intro to romance.
That’s it for 2019 reading! Now for my 2020 goal, which I have upped to 50 books. Something that makes me feel nervous but excited. I’m currently 3 books ahead schedule so… hopefully it goes well! I have a massive TBR pile sitting beside my bed ready to go. Besides the numerical goal, I have a few other book goals as well. I really want to read Harry Potter again, and I also want to dive into Sarah J Mass’s other series Throne of Glass. A big thing for me also in 2020 is that I want to start reading books from a more diverse selection of authors. Did you know that 88% of books reviewed by the New York Times are by white authors? Seems ridiculous to me when you hear that. I’m hoping to have a balance of both serious and fun books, and to just go with the flow of whatever I feel like reading and not put any pressure on my self to be reading the “right” kind of books. Because seriously, where’s the fun in that if you don’t just read what you want?
Do you have any reading goals for 2020? Do you use goodreads? If you do, be sure to send me a friend request because I love seeing what everyone else is reading!