Last year I had tons of fun with my wrap-up post, I made a pretty journal thing and fake awards and I really wanted to do the same this year but somehow never found the available brain space for something so creative. So after two weeks of procrastinating, this is the best I’ve got. I still enjoyed having some fun with reading stats and favorites

Goals and stats

I counted these in the most inefficient way possible, with pen and paper going by goodreads, so if the numbers don’t add up it’s just cause I made mistakes

• Goodreads goal: 72 books ✓ read 117 of which: 80 novel-length (2 anthologies), 24 novellas (praise the novella!), 12 graphic (1 anthology)
• r/fantasy bingo: do only 1 card ✗ I ended up doing 2
• get on Netgalley and Edelweiss ✓  I put this off the entire year and finally made an account in December, worried that having books with a deadline would stress me out. I was correct in this assessment, I’ve only got 3 ARCs, I can comfortably read 1/month and be done with them in time for their pub dates, still I don’t like having a deadline, even if I’m very excited for these specific books.
• Read 1 short fiction/month ✓ I didn’t track them per month, but I did end up reading far more than 12 so I’m happy overall
• at least 50% by women ✓ 65% by women authors, 4% non-binary authors and 6% were anthologies or stuff where I didn’t track
• 12 books (16%) by authors of color ✓ (25%) 29 books by Black authors, 2 books by South Asian authors and 9 books by East Asian authors. The Black Lives Bingo Challenge I participated in did the heavy lifting here, and this year I plan to participate in two other challenges I saw this year, but didn’t have the time for: books by Latinx authors and books by Indigenous authors. I find challenges really help with filling the gaps in my reading and helping me find new authors to love.
• 12 translated books (16%) ✗ I read 2 (1%)
• 6 Romanian books (8%) ✗ also just 2 (1%)
• 6 non-SFF books (8%)✗ but closer, I read 5 (4%)
• Do monthly round ups ✓ eventually, even if I posted some 3 months late and I still need to do the bu-jo ones for some months. These did work as intended as after a shitty month it was really nice thinking back on all I’d read.
• Participate in 12 challenges/book tags/ bookish memes/events ✓ 
  • r/fantasy bingo
  • goodreads challenge
  • Wyrd and Wonder (on twitter/blogosphere)
  • BLM Bingo
  • BlackSFFathon (twitter)
  • r/fantasy virtual con (organising side)
  • Top Ten Tuesday (blogosphere)
  • Self-Published Fantasy Month (twitter)
  • Sci Fi Month (twitter)
  • Spooktastic Reads (twitter)
  • OctTBR(twitter)

I did 3 short challenges on top of finishing my bingos in October and it was trying to do too many things at once, knocked me out for a months. I need to learn to pace myself.

I didn’t write it down as a goal but I meant to review all the books I read, and I have, at the very least a few words in the Review Tuesday Thread or in weekly wrap-ups. I was constantly behind reviews (oddly enough usually behind by around 16) but I did catch up on January 1st 2021. My struggles to catch up led to 49 review posts of which were 25 mini-review posts. I think for this year I’ll try to do stand-alones and series starters as their own posts, and sequels and novellas as mini-reviews, as a general aim.

I only read 14 self-pub books this year, in large part because of the deadlines things I couldn’t manage review copies. My least popular book on GR was Crux Skullcrusher and the Definitely Evil Sword (Cruxverse Shorts #1) by Vichet Ou, a comedy short.

My most read author is again Krista D. Ball, tied with Mercedes Lackey, 7 books each, next up is Martha Wells with 5 Murderbot entries. I read 2 or more books from 18 authors, a lot of that part of my effort for make some progress on my series.

85 of my reads were (mostly) fantasy and 31 (mostly) science fiction. Age categories: 94 adult, 19 YA and 4 middle grade. I had a lot of favorites in YA, and really happy to be trying it out again after I’d been avoiding it for some years.

Favorites

This is the downside to reading good books, ask me to narrow it down to a few favorites and I just short-circuit. Last year I had 38, this year 45, not counting the second in a series where I’ve mentioned them for the same bullet point. Going by order I read them. I apologize for the lack of eloquence.

• Murderbot by Martha Wells – world’s most relatable AI
• Queens of the Wyrd by Timandra Whitecastle – viking moms kick ass
• The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal – lady astronauts kick sexism’s ass
• Realm of Ash by Tasha Suri – slow burn romance, lovely writing
• The Demons We See and The Nightmare We Know by Krista D. Ball – awesome banter, gripping story
• The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold – I need to reread this, Cazaril is bestaril
• The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles – guys, I might like Romance
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow – pretty prose, books and traveling
• Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran – pretty drawings, horror story
• This is How You Lose the Time War – pretty prose and lesbians
• The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo – lovely atmosphere, just won a Stabby
• Swashbuckling Cats: Nine Lives on the Seven Seas by Rhonda Parrish – PIRATE CATS
• The Unspoken Name by AK Larkwood – orcs and necromancers and portal traveling
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune – the perfect book for 2020, a sweetness in book form
• We Ride the Storm by Devin Madson – a reread, liked the trad pub version even more than the first
• Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders by Aliette de Bodard – murder husband and diplomacy husband solve crime
• Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh – the romance is nice but I’m here for Mrs. Silver
• The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes – great setting, powerful book
• Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker, Wendy Xu – the perfect graphic novel for 2020, sweetness in graphic novel form
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark – djinn, ghosts and murder in steampunk Cairo
• Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee – ghosts, dragons and fox spirits in space
• Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer – AI who loves cats
• Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey – fun easy, often wholesome reads
• A Ghostly Request by Krista D. Ball – book sorting, dressmaking and ghosts
• Song of Blood & Stone by L. Penelope – guys, I definitely like Romance
• Dread Nation and The Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland – post-US-Civil War zombie slaying, also guys, I might like YA
• Spirit Caller: Books 4-6 by Krista D. Ball – noooo Krista why is it over? small-town ghost problems and hot mountie
• Planetfall by Emma Newman – a mental health issue that really snuck up on me
• Penric’s Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold – great case of possession
• The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin – amazing epic fantasy, great to puzzle out
• The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North – timey whimey fun
• City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett – colonialism and dead gods
• Demon Haunted by Ashe Armstrong – mushy & badass monster-hunting orcs
• The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz – sweet AI asexual Romance novella
• Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde – guys, I might like non-fiction biographies
• Legendborn by Tracy Deonn – oh yeah, I love YA now, this book is amazing, so packed, and it all comes together so well
• Heart of Stone by Johannes T. Evans – the slowest possible m/m Romance
• A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole – super fun Romance starting with spam emails from an African prince
• Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko – West-African inspired epic YA fantasy with an amazing beautiful world and sweet found family
• The Jumbies by Tracey Baptise – middle grade monster story
• Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark – horror novella with the KKK and creative scary monsters
• Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord – like you’re sitting down with a story-telling over a lovely dinner
• Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown – great book about trauma and recovery
• Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton – historical dragons, family drama, cannibalism
• The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin – creepy undergroundness

 Blog wrap-up

I made 112 blog posts, totaling 101663 words. A lot of those are blurbs and titles and such, but still much more than I was ever expecting to write in a year.

• 49 reviews, of which 25 mini-reviews
• Top Ten Tuesday: 21
• Round ups: 10
• The Sunday Post: 5
• It’s Monday, What Are You Reading, Can’t Wait Wednesday and Book Tags: 2 each
• best months: October and December, but October is kinda cheating because I accidentally cheesed 100 views out of Google trying to optimize my site’s speed.
• Most popular posts:
  • Mistcloak cosplay
  • Rhythm of War – a rant
  • TTT Characters I’d follow on Social Media
  • TTT Women in SFF 

That’s about it for my Reading stats and favorites, thank you so much to all of you who’ve stopped by my blog and the ones who organize events and memes, the blog’s been a blast and something to look forward to this shitty year, and I’m really happy with how it’s growing.