This year so far, I have read 57 books that consisted approximately a total 12,659 pages – much more than last year’s 26 books!

2020’s reading is a bit of a mix of everything. I embraced the classics back into my life. Classic literature had always been and will always be my favorite genre, but sometimes I don’t want to pick up a classic unless I can dive deeply into it. I picked up a few nonfiction books ranging from autobiographical to self-development to psychology to poetry. I got introduced to some Dr. Seuss classics, but also explored other more recently released children’s literature. In the fiction genre, I jumped between romance to science fiction to fantasy. It was also probably the year I listened to the most audiobooks as I discovered the affordable subscription-free Chirp and Audible also started their unlimited plan, Audible Plus.

So… without further ado, I wanted to share some of the books I read this year!

Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions* was filled with brilliant and fascinating insights about how we make decisions. The most interesting thing I found out about is how we don’t really know the inherent value of things, we only price it relative to something else. The most surprising is that people will most likely cheat when given the opportunity. I think his TEDtalk, Are We In Control of Our Own Decisions? is a nice preview/summary of the topic he expands on in this book.

Dream Big* by Bob Goff is a worthy follow-up to Love Does and Everybody, Always. You can tell a big heart is behind every sentence. As always, Bob Goff delivers fresh and heartwarming stories that yet manages to be both insightful and funny.

High Performance Habits* by successful motivational coach and speaker, Brendon Burchard, is a solid read. It not only encouraged me, but also inspired me to make changes. I’m still a working progress and I think it’s one of those books I’ll have to keep going back to and reference. It made me aware of a lot of things I’ve been doing wrong, but it also affirmed me on those that I’ve already been doing the right way. I’m looking forward to diving deeply more into the online classes (came free with my book!!) in the coming new year.

Having experienced a mild version of “lockdown” for the most part of the year, I could not have picked a better time to finally read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl*. I found myself relating so much with Anne’s temperament. But at the same time, reading about her experience of having to hide with not only her family but also other people in a small attic made me appreciate the freedom we have even within the constraints the pandemic had made essential. There’s so much more I want to say and share about this book, and maybe I will later in another post.

Admittedly, I decided to read Middlemarch* because I fell in love with Folio Society’s giant collector’s edition, but George Eliot’s masterpiece more than lived up to its beautiful cover. It has since joined the ranks of my favorite classics. I honestly did not know anything about the plot going into it, but I ended up loving it that not even its 768 pages were enough to make me want to part with the friends I made within those same pages. For me, it really is a study of human beings: an apt depiction of marriage, religion, ambition, society, and love.

Meanwhile, I was interested in reading Les Liaisons Dangereuses* after discovering that it is the original source material for the 1999 film Cruel Intentions.* I actually quite enjoyed the prose and was really enjoying the letters-being-exchanged format, but then I reached the almost halfway point when it started getting redundant. I did get back after and devoured the rest of the book, turned out I just needed a break! SPOILER: It doesn’t really end well…

My only previous exposure to Neruda’s poem is probably his most-known verse:

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

So, since I was in the mood for some poetry, I bought a couple of Neruda’s poem collections. I really like Penguin’s Deluxe Edition of Twenty Love Poems & A Song of Despair* because it came with a side-by-side original Spanish poem and the English translation. It’s a beautiful experience to read the poems in both languages.

Although most certainly not one of this year’s favorites, I do think that Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis* deserves a special mention, if only for being the most bizarre. If I’m reading deeply into it, the story is one big metaphor centered around family duty, sacrifice, and gratitude. If I take it as it is, it’s a super weird story about a man who just one day changes into an insect. Not really a big fan of Kafka after grudgingly reading through The Trial and then discovering it’s an unfinished work only after I turned the last page. It was A TRIAL, believe me. After Metamorphosis, my opinions about Kafka did NOT metamorphose.

I listened to several audiobooks this year and besides the truly magnificent GREENLIGHTS by Matthew McConaughey* (which is not included above because I haven’t quite finished it yet!), the full voice cast for both MEMENTO* and Peter Pan* are perfect! Memento is a novella set as a sort of prequel for the sci-fi series, The Illuminae Files*. Peter Pan is a classic but I have never read the original source so this play is a nice introduction, the original book is on my list for next year. MEMENTO is super short but sets quite the plot with an AI gone wrong as it discovers its answer to the trolley problem.

V.E. Schwab is one of my most trusted living authors. I’ve read almost all of her works, and they’re all absolutely brilliant so I wasn’t surprised that she could easily pull-off such an engrossing, genre-bending standalone novel in the form of The Invisible Life of Addie Larue*. Straddling historical romance and fantasy, Schwab pieces together the completely coherent and magical life of Addie Larue – a flawless execution of such an intricate masterpiece.

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse is a gem, perfect for both young readers and adults. Wisdom on every page, beautiful simplistic watercolor/pencil illustrations, talking animals – what’s not to love?

And that was a summary of my year-long reading journey, thanks for reading! Now I want to hear about yours…

What were your favorite / memorable reads of 2020?

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