I Read a Lot, I Can't Put it Down. While Others Are Painting the Town, You'll Find Me in a World of Fantasy

Well, I decided not to do the group of end of the year posts I normally do, because 2020 was extra, and I just didn't have the energy for it. I will do a very honed down books I read in 2020 post now, though. Besides Gus, reading books was one of the best ways to distract myself from the craziness of the year.

I only read 71 books of my 75 book goal. The first time in many years that I didn't meet my goal. I had to let a lot of things go the last 12 months.

So, here's my very limited list:

Best Classic novel I read in 2020: It's a tie between Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" as a classic novel that I reread and Wlkie Collins' "Lady in White", which I had never read before. If you ever want to read a great classic novel, check out "The Woman in White"

The best non-fiction book I read this year: "Becoming" by Michelle Obama. I was in desperate need of hope this year, and this book gave me some of that. I loved how open and honest she was about herself, her marriage, and her life.

The best Graphic novel I read this year was my reread of Alan Moore's "The Watchmen". I haven't read it since 1989/90.

The best thriller/scary book I read in 2020, was Blake Crouch's "Dark Matter".

 

The most disappointing book I read was, "Inland" by tea Obrecht. I love Westerns and I loved her book, "The Tiger's Wife", but this book took sooooo long to get going, and she had so much to work with. Sigh.

The best Young Adult novel I read was, "Children of Blood and Bone" by Tomi Adeyemi. Talk about a fantastic adventure.

The best children's book I read was "Kidnapped", by Robert Louis Stevenson. I am always going to pick the best adventure story.

The best detective novel I read was, "The Magpie Murders" by David Horowitz.
 

 

 The best book by a former Iowa Citian was, Chris Offutts', "Country Dark". I give him that honor even though his son did bring a plunger as a gift to Stinky's 13th birthday party and gave all the kids stomach hickeys with it, so you know the book was good.

The best fantasy/ short story collection was Kelly Link's "Get in Trouble"

I read a lot of series' books this year, and this is my list of those:

 The best memoir series was the Maya Angelou autobiographies. They were so interesting and she was involved in so many  different movements during her time.

The best escapist series: The "Crazy Rich Asians" series by Kevin Kwan. Boy howdee, did I need escapism this year.

The best dystopian series'ish books I read were Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" books. I couldn't really read much dystopian fiction until you-know-who got voted out, and it wasn't quite as close to our actual lives.

Okay. That's it for the books I read in 2020. Let's hope this year has even more and better reading experiences for all of us.