Friday 8 January 2021

My Year in Books 2020: Not so satisfying!

When I started planning for the reading list 2021, I panicked and my choices of challenges were all over the place. Should I pick easy ones or the most challenging one or the convenient ones? So many questions. I also prepared Quirkysoul Reading Challenge 2021 which was tough considering I had read prompts from many reading challenges. 

Speaking of reading challenges, I took up 50 books as total target and by end of 2020 I was mid-way in my 46th book of the year. So 45 was my count for 2020. I did not have any cheat books to reach my target.

I am a bit disappointed with my reading. Out of 5 reading challenges I took up I was able to complete only one. Like I said in my previous post I bit more than I could chew this year. Below are the challenges I picked for 2020.

In the list below the green-coloured cells are completed prompts whereas orange depicts the one I could not complete.

A-Z Challenge:

A-Z Mini:


Popsugar Advanced Challenge:


Quirkysoul Reading Challenge:


There are few other books I read that do not fall in any challenge except Goodreads Reading Challenge.


Many prompts have some books repeated. Funnily I did not complete the prompts that I curated.

The top 3 books for me in 2020 are

1. Becoming by Michelle Obama: I felt this book did not pretend to be some noble person. It was simple, honest and inspiring.

2. Wings of Fire by APJ Abdul Kalam: Many technical terms of the book flew right over my head but  the book can give you positivity like the man, Kalam sir, himself. Oddly, when I was reading the book I could hear his voice narrate his journey. Another 

3. 3 books share the third place. The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield, The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides, The Giver of Stars - Jojo Moyes: Each of them are different from each other but were certainly goodread.

Normal People by Sally Rooney was a bit disappointing for me as I expected too much due to the hype.

I am surprised that non-fiction(not a fan!) genre has topped by best book list. May be I should explore more in this category. I do have a tome for 2021 - The most suggested 'Sapiens' it is. Let us see how impressive it is going to be. Also last year I picked up some unknown authors and I did like many of those.

I have pledged to read 45 books this year and I am very cautious in creating my list of books. Also I am trying to clear the ever-growing TBR. Popsugar Advanced Challenge 2021 is going to help me do that.

More about these later.

C U Soon!