What books did you read in 2020?

[Vimster]

Last book of the year...

18. The Cobra Event by Richard Preston - pretty ropey airport thriller from the 90s about a team trying to track down someone spreading a deadly virus. The prose style could be described as workmanlike, virtually no actual insight, just action, together with way too much research, you know how they used to do it: have whole chapters being a lecture on something.

 

And that's 2020 in books. Despite lockdown I didn't read half as much as I could have, not sure why.

 

Spoiler

 

1. Moneyland by Oliver Bullough

2. Austerity: The History Of A Dangerous Idea by Mark Blyth

3. The Innocent by David Baldacci

4. Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey

5.  Flat Earth News by Nick Davies

6. The Wall by John Lanchester

7. Hey Listen! by Steve McNeil

8. Dark Blood by Stuart McBride

9. Timelike Infinity by Stephen Baxter

10. Surprisingly Down To Earth, And Very Funny by Limmy

11. Why We Get The Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman

12. Gotta Get Theroux This by Louis Theroux

13. Cyber Wars by Charles Arthur

14. The Hit by David Baldacci

15. Permanent Record by Edward Snowden

16. What Fresh Lunacy Is This?: The Authorised Biography of Oliver Reed by Robert Sellers

17. Rise Of The Robots: by Martin Ford

18. The Cobra Event by Richard Preston

 

 

[Vimster]

21 hours ago, Miner Willy said:

87. Trans Like Me by CN Lester - An enlightening and thought-provoking book on a topic I felt I should attempt to understand a little better.

 

88. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - I'd never heard of this before I read about it on here. I loved the characters and really enjoyed it overall. I thought the first half was a little slow at times, but the second half was great.

 

89. Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman - I listened to this on Audible (courtesy of the recent sale), where the different narrators added to the experience, but overall it was little more than mildly diverting. A shame, as I've really enjoyed Eagleman's non-fiction.

 

90. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell - Really enjoyed this. Great insight into a fascinating period, and unsurprisingly strong writing.

 

91. I, Robot - Another book choice owed to Rllmuk. It was pretty great, as most of the sci-fi I've seen recommended on here is. True fact: I'd never really read any sci-fi, and didn't think I was interested in it as a genre, until Rllmuk set me right.

 

I might finish two others tomorrow, so will probably end the year on 93. I think 57 was my previous record, so at least 2020 has that going for it.

 

Previously:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

1. This is How You Lose the Time War

2. The Uninhabitable Earth

3. Grief is the Thing With Feathers

4. Room

5. Flowers for Algernon

6. The Emperor of all Maladies

7. The old man and the sea

8. American War

9. The Hod King

10. The Picture of Dorian Gray

11. Everything I Never Told You

12. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

13. The Testaments

14. The Great Gatsby

15. Wolf of the Plains

16. The Stars' Tennis Balls

17. A Boy and his dog at the end of the world

18. Twelve Years a Slave

19. No Country for Old Men

20. 2001: A Space Odyssey

21. Child of God

22. Mythos

23. Cities of the Plain

24. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

25. The City and the City

26. The Nickel Boys

27. Mother Ship

28. Master and Commander

29. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

30. We

31. The Impossible Climb

32. The Three Body Problem

33. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

34. Smile of the Wolf

35. Killers of the Flower Moon

36. So You've Been Publicly Shamed

37. Laurus

38. The North Water

39. Saving Missy

40. The Light Between Oceans

41. The Elephant in the Room

42. Annihilation

43. The Psychopath Test

44. The End is Always Near

45. The Black Dahlia

46. Galatea

47. The 8th Emotion

48. The Bottle Imp

49. The Dog Stars

50. Wilding

51. Where the Crawdads Sing

52. The Porpoise

53. The Men Who Stare at Goats

54. The Man Who Fell to Earth

55. This is Not Propaganda

56. The Girl With Seven Names

57. Mockingbird

58. County Lines

59. Breakfast of Champions

60. Brief Answers to the Big Questions

61. The Volunteer

62. Into the Wild

63. Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima

64. The Pursuit of William Abbey

65. Echoes

66. Children of Ruin

67. Before the Coffee Gets Cold

68. Natives

69. The Spy and the Traitor

70. If Cats Disappeared from the World

71. One Day

72. The Overstory

73. Other Minds

74. Exhalation

75. The Hidden Life of Trees

76. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

77. Ready Player One

78. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

79. The Art of War

80. The Devil in the White City

81. Fup

82. David & Goliath

83. The Buried Giant

84.The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly

85. Norse Mythology

86. The Windrush Betrayal

87. Trans Like Me

88. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

89. Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

90. Homeage to Catalonia

91. I, Robot

 

Okay I am partially-sighted and can't just zip through books, but in 1991 I managed to read 61 novels, although I was unemployed most of the year, didn't have a social life and could dedicate hours every day to reading. So either all those books are sub-150 pages, you're an Olympic-level reader, you have a lot of time on your hands or you have the sort of job where you can read a lot. 93, that's impressive.

[Miner Willy]

1 hour ago, Vimster said:

Okay I am partially-sighted and can't just zip through books, but in 1991 I managed to read 61 novels, although I was unemployed most of the year, didn't have a social life and could dedicate hours every day to reading. So either all those books are sub-150 pages, you're an Olympic-level reader, you have a lot of time on your hands or you have the sort of job where you can read a lot. 93, that's impressive.

 

I'm actually a pretty slow reader I think - certainly books take me longer than my Kindle always suggests it will. I read plenty of fairly short books this year, including several that I would assume are essentially novellas, and didn't tackle many really long ones. But my numbers are mainly inflated by Audible audiobooks, which I listen to at 1.35 speed - it's pretty easy to get through one of those a week: I listen whenever I'm walking, cooking, eating, washing up etc.

 

My main reading time is while putting the kids to sleep. Once we finally sort their sleeping out my available time will massively decrease.

[Miner Willy]

92. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout - short but powerful novel. I really liked the description of the narrator's relationship with her mother.

 

93. Infinity in the Palm of your Hand by Marcus Chown - I very much enjoy this kind of popular science stuff which explains fascinating complex concepts in a way people like me can understand. 

[Timmo]

2 hours ago, Miner Willy said:

92. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout - short but powerful novel. I really liked the description of the narrator's relationship with her mother.

 

93. Infinity in the Palm of your Hand by Marcus Chown - I very much enjoy this kind of popular science stuff which explains fascinating complex concepts in a way people like me can understand. 

 

Jesus, you're like some kind of reading machine. I'm still on the same book I started in August. (Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets)

[Miner Willy]

1 hour ago, Timmo said:

 

Jesus, you're like some kind of reading machine. I'm still on the same book I started in August. (Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets)

 

I read that a few years back: loved it. Amazing how many of those stories made it into The Wire. Spoiler: I distinctly remember

Spoiler

the hilarious/tragic one of the photocopier/lie detector trick they used to get the naive street kids to confess.

 

[Mercury]

On 31/12/2020 at 18:47, Timmo said:

 

Jesus, you're like some kind of reading machine. I'm still on the same book I started in August. (Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets)

 

That's a pretty hefty book though. Read it after finishing watching The Wire and found it fascinating. 

[Mercury]

93 books is impressive but I've just joined a reading group found through Twitter and some of the people are hitting 200+ for the year. I've set myself a target of 52 for this year which is 4x this year but should be achievable.

[Timmo]

5 minutes ago, Mercury said:

 

That's a pretty hefty book though. Read it after finishing watching The Wire and found it fascinating. 

Aye it's fantastic, so much of the police sections from The Wire come straight from it.

[Bushtopher]

I stopped posting updates in this thread part way through the year for some reason, but ended up reading 60 books in total, surpassing my previous highest by 2 book (set last year).  Without some big changes in how I spend free time, I can't see myself reading many more than this in a single year (unless I start listening to audiobooks, but I've never really got on with these - my mind wanders too much).  

 

As we got close to the end of the year, I also found myself thinking about the length of the books I was reading as I was conscious of the fact that I was close to reading more than I'd done previously.  I didn't like the fact that I was doing this, as I want reading to continue to be a pleasant distraction/escape, rather than trying to surpass a meaningless total.  It only happened right at the end of the year, but if I feel it starts happening again I might just stop counting.

 

Anyway, full list hidden in the spoiler below, but a few highlights/recommendations (with many due to recommendations from others on here - thanks!)

 

This Is How You Lose the Time War (20/01)

Down and Out in Paris and London (31/03)

Queenie (19/07)

Gone With The Wind (12/08)

 

Think I've written about each of these earlier in the thread, but all were excellent and highly recommended (I've still not watching Gone with the Wind though - need to fix that!)

 

Before The Coffee Gets Cold (06/09)

 

Can't recall if this was recommended by someone on here, but I really enjoyed this - a nice twist on a time travel novel with some very strict limitations on what's possible, and pretty moving.

 

Mythos (09/10)

 

Collection of Greek myths, retold by Stephen Fry.  What I loved about this was retelling the stories to my kids (5 and 7) over dinner (taking out some of the nastier stuff!).  They really loved hearing some of the tales and it sparked a lot of interest in a range of related subjects.  Oh, and the timing of this as I was playing Hades was coincidental but rather brilliant

 

Pale Rider (18/10)

 

I knew very little about the Spanish Flu, so this was fascinating - particularly the similarity with what we've been going through with COVID.  The fact that it was written in 2017 I think makes it more impactful (i.e. not being influenced by how the world reacted to COVID).  It's depressing how as a species we don't really learn from our past.

 

Sword in the Storm (01/11)

Ravenheart (27/11)

Stormrider (07/12)

 

I'd not read any David Gemmel before, but fancied a new fantasy series.  These fit the bill perfectly.  I don't think they do anything particularly new, but were simply enjoyable stories with (mostly) likeable heroes.  I've just bought Legend in the daily deal so looking forward to reading some more of his.

 

The Windrush Betrayal (14/12)

 

Probably the most important book I read this year.  Not at all the kind of thing I'd normally read - being a fan of fiction more than non-fiction - but as a civil servant this had a particular resonance about the importance of being open to challenge, thinking through all angles, and never forgetting the impact policy decisions will have on real people (and whilst it's ultimately up to ministers to make decisions, the importance of speaking up if you see policy going wrong).  All in all, an absolute scandal and one which I'm doubtful we (the UK) have truly addressed.

 

The Plague (23/12)

 

An allegory about the French occupation during WW2, I found this a real slog, but - as can often be the case in these situations - by the time I got to the end I was glad I stuck with it.  The afterword about the reception of the book and the thinking at the time helped me appreciate the novel much more than I'd have otherwise done I think.

 

Away with the Penguins (29/12)

 

By the end of the year, I felt like I just wanted something nice, easy going, and uplifting.  This had great reviews and was 99p, so thought I'd give it a go.  It's rather silly, but was perfect for what I was after - made me laugh out loud in places, and brought a smile to my face

 

 

 

Spoiler

1. Flowers for Algernon (03/01)

2. The Undead: The First Seven Days (11/01)

3. The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly (13/01)

4. Girl (16/01)

5. This Is How You Lose the Time War (20/01)

6. Darien (Empire of Salt) (24/01)

7. Shiang (Empire of Salt) (28/01)

8. The Wall (31/01)

9. The Sword Saint (Empire of Salt) (05/02)

10. The Toymakers (10/02)

11. Little Women (16/02)

12. Leviathan Wakes (23/02)

13. Guards! Guards! (28/02)

14. Caliban’s War (07/03)

15. Three Parts Dead (16/03)

16. The Light Between Oceans (26/03)

17. Escape! (28/03)

18. Down and Out in Paris and London (31/03)

19. Abaddon’s Gate (07/04)

20. Truckers (11/04)

21. Touching the Void (14/04)

22. Cibola Burn (24/04)

23. The Nickel Boys (27/04)

24. Two Serpents Rise (06/05)

25. For Richer, For Poorer: Confessions of a Player (07/05)

26. Planet Hulk (13/05)

27. Moving Pictures (15/05)

28. Nemesis Games (25/05)

29. Wild Swans (06/06)

30. Red Sister (20/06)

31. Three Hours (22/06)

32. Replay (26/06)

33. HMS Surprise (11/07)

34. The Man Who Fell To Earth (14/07)

35. Queenie (19/07)

36. The Last Day (26/07)

37. Gone With The Wind (12/08)

38. Vox (17/08)

39. The Dutch House (22/08)

40. Lords and Ladies (29/08)

41. Rendezvous with Rama (03/09)

42. Before The Coffee Gets Cold (06/09)

43. Devolution (12/09)

44. Career of Evil (22/09)

45. Men At Arms (07/10)

46. Mythos (09/10)

47. Pale Rider (18/10)

48. Artemis (22/10)

49. Sword in the Storm (01/11)

50. Midnight Falcon (09/11)

51. Norse Mythology (11/11)

52. Soul Music (21/11)

53. Ravenheart (27/11)

54. Stormrider (07/12)

55. The Mistletoe Murder (10/12)

56. The Windrush Betrayal (14/12)

57. The Plague (23/12)

58. The Binding (27/12)

59. Away with the Penguins (29/12)

60. A Streetcar Named Desire (30/12)

 

[Miner Willy]

The Windrush Betrayal is a brilliant book. Definitely up there with the very best I read last year. 

[uglifruit]

I snuck in a couple right at the end of 2020:

 

What lies beneath - Adam Croft

A Midsommer Murders style mystery set near where I live in the county of Rutland.  And a huge hit with the locals.  But it's rubbish - here's why.  1. the plotting actually means the investigator doesn't really solve the case, and somewhat breaks the rules of this kind of novel  2. the novel gleefully repeats information at the reader (for instance the history of Rutland water) as the investigating officer 'thinks about what she's learnt'.  3.  there is an awful amount of mentioning local detail - local shops, local landmarks.  At best this comes across as panto style "I'm sorry I'm late, I was caught in the [notorious local traffic blackspot]" cue audience laugh in recognition.  At worst is comes across as I, Robot style product placement.  (This book is available to buy in LOTS of local shops).  4.  Did I mention the repetition.  5.  The author's voice comes across in very strange places.  (For instance what police officer, whilst having her life threatened, muses upon the merits of whether her son was given a mobile phone to early or spends too much time on Minecraft).   6.  There is repetition of points.  7.  I think an editor/publisher would have asked Croft to rewrite/remove sections.  (Though it's short as it is).  That's the danger of self publishing I assume.

On the plus side the writing of individual sentences is good, the chapters are very very short, and it's easy to read.  I think that is what all the positive reviews on amazon (presumably by Rutland locals) are enjoying.

This definitely isn't a novel for people who already read books.

 

Father Christmas and Father Christmas Goes On Holiday - Raymond Briggs

This are picture books - sorry I mean 'graphic novels - but still great.  Brigg's drawings always shine, but it's his Britishness with dialogue that I always love.  It feels so homely.  When The Wind Blows, and Ethel and Ernest (the biographical ones about his parents) - are littered with the "Cor!  Look at that, ducks" kind of language I associate with my gran, when I was a child.  Father Christmas has this too - with a very British Santa who listens to Gardeners Question Time.  There's something lovely about him hating the cold as his one day of work per year - plus him also getting rubbish presents from relatives.  Everyone should read it, once a year.

 

And I *did* finish S by Doug Doorst/JJ Abrahams.  It wasn't worth the considerable effort, though it got easier towards the end.

 

 

Oh, if we're doing totals - probably 30 or so.  Plus a few technical manuals, non-fiction things that don't need mentioning here.