2020 book reading in review

[Russ Allbery]

In 2020, I finished and reviewed 42 books, two more than 2019 (although
I had finished but not reviewed two books at the end of 2019, so the
total is even more similar than that). This is the best year for
reading in terms of book count since 2012, despite being seriously
distracted by a new job, a pandemic, and US political meltdowns. Those
distractions do show up in the drop in page count.

If it weren't for the pandemic, the count would have been higher. Just
as I got into a rhythm of reading while I exercised, gyms became a bad
idea for the rest of the year. Treadmills are good for reading; long
walks around the neighborhood not so much. That time went to podcasts
instead, which I'm not too sad about but which don't prompt reviews.

Finding the mental space and energy to write reviews proved as much of
a challenge as finding time to read this year, and I once again had to
do some catch-up at the end of the year. To the extent that I have
goals for 2021, it's to tighten up the elapsed time between finishing a
book and writing a review so that the reviews don't pile up.

I read one book this year that I rated 10 out of 10: Michael Lewis's
[1]The Fifth Risk, which is partly about the US presidential transition
and is really about what the US government does and what sort of people
make careers in civil service. This book is brilliant, fascinating, and
surprisingly touching, and I wish it were four times as long. If
anything, it's even more relevant today as we enter another transition
than it was when Lewis wrote it or when I read it.

There were so many 9 out of 10 ratings this year that it's hard to know
where to start. I read the last Murderbot novella by Martha Wells
([2]Exit Strategy) and then the first Murderbot novel ([3]Network
Effect), both of which were everything I was hoping for. Murderbot's
sarcastic first-person voice continues to be a delight, and I expect
Network Effect to take home several 2021 awards. I'm eagerly awaiting
the next novel, Fugitive Telemetry, currently scheduled for the end of
April, 2021.

Also on the fiction side were Alix E. Harrow's wonderful debut novel
[4]The Ten Thousand Doors of January, a fierce novel about family and
claiming power that should have collected the [5]Mythopoeic Award this
year (sadly canceled by the pandemic), and TJ Klune's heart-warming
[6]The House in the Cerulean Sea, my feel-good novel of the year.
Finally, Tamsyn Muir's [7]Gideon the Ninth and [8]Harrow the Ninth
were a glorious mess in places, but I had more fun reading and
discussing those books than I've had with any novel in a very long
time.

On the non-fiction side, Tressie McMillan Cottom's [9]Thick is the
best collection of sociology that I've read. It's not easy reading, but
that book gave me a new-found appreciation and understanding of
sociology and what it's trying to accomplish. Gretchen McCulloch's
[10]Because Internet is much easier reading but similarly
perspective-enhancing, helping me understand (among other things) how
choice of punctuation and capitalization expands the dynamic range of
meaning in informal text conversation. Finally, Nick Pettigrew's
[11]Anti-Social is a funny, enlightening, and sobering look at the
process of addressing low-level unwanted behavior that's directly
relevant to the current conflicts over the role of policing in society.

Below is some additional analysis plus personal reading statistics,
probably only of interest to me.

In 2020, I read and reviewed 42 books, up two books from 2019. Page
count reverted to mean, however, so total pages were down slightly from
2019 (but still up a bit from 2018). Average rating once again ticked a
bit higher.

Overall statistics, with the change from last year:

Books read         42     (+2)
Total pages    13,063  (-1067)
Average rating   7.21  (+0.08)
Pages per day    35.7   (-3.0)
Days per book    8.71  (-0.42)

Breakdown by genre:

SF and fantasy  23  55%
Mainstream       0   0%
Non-fiction     19  45%
Graphic novels   0   0%
RPGs             0   0%

This was a rather non-diverse year by genre. I only read SF, fantasy,
and non-fiction this year, without a single graphic novel or mainstream
fiction novel. It's now been so long since I started the RPG I was
reading that I will need to start over again. Reversing the change in
2019, non-fiction was back up to almost half of my reading.

Of the SF and fantasy novels, here's a rough breakdown of the books by
reason for seeking them out. (As always, each book is only counted
once, and reasons higher on the list override reasons lower on the list
if both reasons apply.)

Award winners      3  13%
Award series       0   0%
Re-reads           2   9%
Genre classics     0   0%
Favorite authors  11  48%
Current SF&F       3  13%
Recommendations    3  13%
Random             1   4%

Compared to last year, this year's reading was more focused on my
favorite authors. I read fewer award winners than last year, fewer
books only because they were part of the zeitgeist (although that's
partly because my favorite authors were part of the zeitgeist), and
fewer recommendations. I suspect that several of the books from my
favorite authors will win awards in 2021, however, and thus with
perfect knowledge of the future would fall into the award winner
category.

I don't track this as a statistic, so I'm not certain, but I feel like
I read more SF&F this year that was published in the same year I read
it.

I was planning on catching up with award winners more broadly this
year, but it didn't happen. I found myself wanting to read books I knew
I would enjoy rather than experimenting with award winners that may or
may not click with me. I read the 2020 Hugo nominees, and that was
about it. Perhaps 2021 will be more of a year for catching up on the
SF&F awards.

References

   1. https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-393-35745-7.html
   2. https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-250-18546-7.html
   3. https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-250-22984-7.html
   4. https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-316-42198-7.html
   5. https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/mythopoeic.html
   6. https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-250-21732-6.html
   7. https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-250-31317-1.html
   8. https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-250-31320-1.html
   9. https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-62097-437-1.html
  10. https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-7352-1095-0.html
  11. https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-4735-7639-3.html

-- 
Russ Allbery (eagle at eyrie.org)             <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>