26-ish books in 2020

I've got behind with updating my list again. I think these are all of my most recent ones:

24. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
    Quirky little book about a café that serves coffee and the opportunity for a bit of time travel. Intriguing idea and very moving in places.

25. The Guest List by Lucy Foley
    A whodunnit that was okay but didn't really draw me in. I didn't find myself caring much about any of the characters. It rattled along nicely enough though I suppose.

26. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
    I was aware of this from the Netflix adaptation which I hadn't watched because I'm such a wuss about anything scary these days. I do most of my reading in bed just before going to sleep but this haunted house story wasn't so scary that it gave me nightmares. There was a lot to digest in it though and I enjoyed it very much.

I'm very pleased I've made it to 26 books. I had no real expectation that I would, although I don't think I was far off last year. I've worked all the way through the pandemic with no extra time at home to fill with reading so this is probably a good record of an average year's reading. I might finish book 27 by the end of the year too. I've enjoyed keeping a record on here. I might have a look at Goodreads. I like the idea of keeping track on there too.

@IJumpedAboardAPirateShip Jasper Fforde is a bit weird. His books are sort of comedy, surrealist crime fiction. So the one I read is part of his Nursery Crime series where a lot of the characters are from nursery rhymes. But some of them aren't. And the settings are actually real places. It's funny and cleverly done though.

38. Runner - Lizzy Hawker
Memoir by an ultra marathon runner. Probably not worth reading unless you are interested in the subject. It's very inward looking. But perhaps you need that sort of mentality to run 150+ miles in one go!

39. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
This always pops up on "100 books to read before you die" lists. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was easy to read and managed to strike the balance of being funny/heartbreaking all at once.

25. The Affair, Santa Montefiore
Her books are my guilty pleasure. This one was about a bunch of Chelsea women lunching and wearing stilettos on the school run and one has an affair. The motivations and way it happened were plausible but the rest was even more guilty pleasure reading than usual.

36 Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.

Two short stories/novellas meditating on grief. Beautiful.

Also I don’t know Jasper Fford, what’s he like?

@MercedesDeMonteChristo I LOVE a man called Ove, the film is a great adaptation as well

I’ve had to put down The Long Song by Andrea Levy as I suddenly got booked on 2 books and all my reading time is taken up with them at the moment. One very boring on ADHD and the other I’m 1/3 through (600 pages 🙄) but it’s pretty good so far so at least that’s something

24: A Man Called Ove, Frederik Backman

I liked this. The last quarter I really found quite moving but I do like a bit of sentimentality. I’m always behind the curve with books so I know most will have read this year’s ago, but in case you haven’t it’s about a grumpy old man and his neighbours. I particularly liked the overuse of names, not sure why but I just really liked it.

My target was 12 this year so I’m delighted to have doubled it.

Not sure what to go for next yet. I’m on the home straight with 1984 and we are scheduled to finish next weekend.

31. Too Much Information - Dave Gorman. I love DG. This wasn't his best but I still enjoyed it

32. The Western Wind - Samantha Harvey. I thought this had been recommended on here but I've done a search and can't find it mentioned, so not sure where I read about it. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy it that much although the premise (Medieval murder mystery) floated my boat. It wasn't really a Medieval murder mystery and I was underwhelmed by its structure (told backwards) and lack of plot. Some of the writing was beautiful but I didn't really get what it was trying to do/say.

33. The Man Who Didn't Call - Rosie Walsh. Nice, light, easy read.

35 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Murder mystery narrated by an eccentric woman who lives high on the plateau near the polish-czech border. Excellent.

I've only ever read one Jasper Fforde and I really enjoyed it. Just haven't got round to buying any others. I need to start making more list!

37. The Key - Simon Toyne
The second part of a trilogy that is one of those history/religion/conspiracy/post-DaVinci code type things. Very good. Lots of monks and Islamic insurgents and bookish professors who also happen to be ex special forces soldiers. Totally unbelievable but fun.

I can never see Jasper Fforde’s name without seeing Jasper Carrot in my head.

23. The Saturday Morning Park Run, Jules Wake.

It was just what I needed after A Gentleman in Moscow. Nicely written rom com, slightly more engaging chick lit. The romance was one I enjoyed but I really enjoyed the sense of family and community that it explored. And, I’m going to go back to my local Park Run when it starts up again. I’ll read more of her work if it comes up on my BookBub emails.

Still on 1984. I think we have another week of reading. Just need to work out what to read alongside. Not sure I fancy anything too taxing or wonderful.

Damn. That should be 36. not 35.

You are all inspiring me to record what I've read better! I'm constantly looking a books in the library and second hand bookshops (pre-Covid) and can't remember if I've read them or not! So I would definitely benefit from some kind of system.

35. What Remains - Tim Weaver
This is about the fifth book in a series where the main character looks for missing people. This was good, lots of twists and some really creepy bits featuring a penny arcade and a hall of mirrors. You have to have read the previous books though, otherwise it would make no sense.

Impressed you manage reviews. I have a little notebook where I've recorded every book I've read since 1996. Which is why I wanted to do this challenge because I know I read about 26 books a year until 2 things happened: DS was born (DC3, the older two didn't affect my reading at all!) and most fatally getting a smart phone. Keep meaning to do some stats on it, e.g. a quick glance tells me in my 20s I read predominantly male authors with the odd woman, now it's predominantly female authors with the odd man (last man I read was Philip Pullman last December).

I often finish a book late in bed so the best I can do on GR is lignite it with a star rating.

I can’t wait for the end of year round up that tells you how many pages you have read, average numbers etc.

I love that you do that! The only logging I’ve ever done is a list since 2017, I do want to make the effort to start writing a little review for myself even if it’s in good reads!

Oh, I’ve put probably oversold it. It’s a book that has pages like ‘books that make you cry’, ‘favourite all time books’ etc. I’m very discerning about what makes it into the book.

I also keep a notebook with every book I’ve read since 2013 with a little review (tiny) - once I finish 1984 it will be 200 and the book is finished so have a lovely new Austen inspired one.

I also log on Goodreads for the geeky data.

I may be a tad obsessed with the logging of my books.

@MercedesDeMonteChristo tell me more about your book journal!

Loved a gentleman in Moscow too, read it last year for bookclub

22. A Gentleman in Moscow Amor Towles. I adored every single word, sentence, paragraph and chapter in this book. It was perfect. I sobbed, I laughed, I smiled inanely to myself. An aristocrat is sentenced to house arrest in a luxury hotel in the Soviet Union. I loved all the little references to literature, philosophy, theology and so much more. I really enjoyed the relationships which seemed so clear even though they weren’t in your face.

This is my read of the year. 5 stars and it’s going in my literature journal (yes I am a nerd) along with about 12 others.

I’m pretty pleased I’ve managed this many, I set my target at 12.

Currently reading 1984 for book club purposes and now scrolling my Kindle for something a bit light and easy.

32. Hold Your Breath by B P Walter

I liked this. A bit strange and exorcismy but kept me guessing for the most part. Quite well written. I'd like to read others by this author. I didn't realise until I'd finished that the author is male. The book is told from a girl/woman's perspective and often if a male writes that it can feel clunky but this didn't.
Worth a read.

34 The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami

Another novel/series of interlinked short stories, my third book structured like this this year (Girl, Woman, Other and Olive Kitteridge being the other two) and this is possibly my favourite. Each story is written from the viewpoint of one of the ten loves from a relationship at school to his last relationship but they aren't written in chronological order so I ended up going back and forward to try and work out the order of the loves. Some loves appear in more than one story, some in only one. Nishino is always slightly out of reach, they each have a different view of him and the relationships vary in length and importance (to the women and to Nishino). It was wonderful and touching and so simply but beautifully written. Going to read more by Hiromi Kawakami.