Reflecting on 2020: Blogging, Reading, Stats, and Goals

The paradox of 2020 is that although my life was irreversibly altered, I feel almost as if nothing has changed at all.

Reflecting on the year, though, I started to realize just how different the beginning of 2020 was from now. This time last year, coronavirus was only just beginning and I hadn’t considered that it would ever impact me at all. This time last year, I was going to in-person school and the word “quarantine” was confined to history books and sci-fi novels. I hadn’t even yet had the idea to start this blog.

I know I’ve done a lot of yearly wrap-up posts in the past few weeks, but I wanted to write one last summary.

Reading:

Non-fiction/fiction: 11 non-fiction, 116 fiction

Average book length: 329 pages

Average rating: 3.3 stars

Worst reading month: January (1 book); Best reading month: May (21 books)

My favorite books of 2020!

Blogging:

My blog did not exist at the beginning of 2020! I started it on March 25th.

Posts published in 2020: 79

Follower count at the end of the year: ~345

Personal favorite posts of the year:

Are We Wasting Our Lives? | Gen Z Perspective on Social Media -This post really helped me organize my thoughts, and since writing it, I have deleted my Snapchat account permanently.

My Top 20 Books of 2020, Ranked– I spent a long time on this post and it was the most fun to write, since I got to feature all of the rave-worthy books I read last year. I already can’t wait to write the 2021 one…

What is Your Favorite Genre? | ft. My Controversial Opinions– because I like talking about my opinions.

Most-viewed posts of the year:

The Mystery Blogger Award

The Currently Reading Book Tag

15 Places on my Travel Bucket List

Most-viewed book reviews of the year:

Book Review: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Book Review: Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

Book Review: Quiet by Susan Cain

Updated 2021 Goals

(I thought of some new ones after I’d already posted my 2021 goals, so here they are, consolidated into one list)

1) Read at least one nonfiction book per month

2) Read more books that I think I will like, not just what’s popular

Last year, I spent a lot of time reading popular YA books to kind of “catch up” in the book world, and I also ended up hate-reading a lot of books I knew I probably wouldn’t like just out of curiosity or because I hadn’t yet read them. This year, I want to focus on reading books that appeal more to my personal tastes.

3) Use Goodreads to reflect on my opinions of a book

This year, I’ve started using Goodreads to write quick bullet-point thoughts right after I finish books, as a way to remember my opinions without writing a full-fledged blog review. I also like to use it to post spoiler-tagged reviews and reactions that I can’t post on my blog, since Goodreads let’s you hide spoilers. (I never, ever post spoilers anywhere on this blog)

4) Read 60 books

5) Read less YA

6) Read a wider variety of genres

7) Think more deeply about the books I read

8) Post more consistently

Thanks for sticking around to the end of this post! How was your 2020?

Goodreads