Late last year I announced doing my first readathon in 2020. Besides setting a goal for the amount of books I wanted to read, I also chose to participate in Startonyourshelfathon. While the organisation of this readathon went into a slump quite soon, I did continue my reading. The goal was to read as many unread books on your bookshelf as you can between December 13th 2019 and December 31st 2020. To help myself with that, I made a list of 35 books I wanted to read and also a list of every physical and electronic book I owned in December 2019.
So how about an update? How is this list going?
Well, the list is going very well actually! There are only 7 books I did not read, 1 I am still currently reading (but saving the rest of it for next year) and 1 is DNF-ed.
Even though there is still time to read them, the books I didn’t read were:
The Drowned Boy by Karin Fossum
Book 11 of the Konrad Sejer series I am reading. I did not read this one, and had to skip it from the series completely, because it turned out I actually DID NOT own this one. Sadly, I also couldn’t find it at the library, hence the skipping.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
I added this one to the list because I wanted to read a Neil Gaiman story, which I had never done before. Somehow I ended up reading Stardust earlier this year, and while the writing is good I didn’t enjoy the read. And ever since haven’t been inspired to start on Neverwhere at all. It’s listed as YA and while I have tried reading YA multiple times, I just don’t enjoy this genre as others seem to do. There is always something lacking for me. I feel it’s safe to say I won’t be reading YA anymore… Not when there are so many books out there I know I can enjoy instead.
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
This one has been on my TBR for ages now. It’s a thing in my community. I want to read it. I think? I don’t know. Apparently I don’t because I never started it. And it’s not even the amount of pages, because I have read other fatties. For now, I just list it as, “maybe someday”.
The next two books I didn’t read are all non-fiction. I have put them on the list for some variation, but with the pandemic I wasn’t inspired to read either of them. I also want to keep both of them, to start reading them when (if?) life is more normal again.
Het slimme onbewuste by Ap Dijksterhuis
Steeds leuker by Jelle Hermus
How to be free by Tom Hodgkinson
Of this one, I am not sure yet. I didn’t read it for the same reasons stated above. But somehow this one seems so utterly useless to read, I will probably unhaul it.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Stephen King’s memoir AND personal writing advice! Once again, I keep forgetting I should read this. Maybe I can finally get to it in December, and if not, it will just remain on the list. It’s promised to be really interesting. I certainly can’t skip it!
Of course there are many other owned books I did not read this year, but since they weren’t on the specifically made list I won’t have to show them to you. 😉
What about you? Did you have reading goals for 2020? Or participated a readathon? What did you not read? Share it in the comments!
I’ve read excerpts of Stephen King’s book, and I’ve heard him speak about it. I’ve yet to read it.
Like many others on my to-read list I’ve got a copy some place.
Oh, to keep inventory of all my e-books! I did one directory on my Kindle and I’ve only gotten about 1k out of near 10 k listed. I’ve over 50k on my server. I know I’ll never get them all inventoried or read. It is fun having a library though.
Happy reading!
Oh yes! I surely know what you mean! I try to keep myself from receiving too many ebooks at once, like from neighbors and such, otherwise my digital library would be so big it becomes a bit overwhelming. And I also easily delete them when I know I don’t want to re-read or have no interest anymore. And the same for physicals, I easily give them away to others, except those I keep for re-reading.
Maybe we both someday get to read Stephen Kings personal story about writing. 😀
Good for you for knowing your limits! Neil Gaiman has written a lot of great science fiction books for adults. That might be a better place for you to start. 🙂
Stephen King’s book on writing is excellent, by the way.
My post.
So many books so little time, am I right? Hope you manage to get around to these. Happy reading! My TTT https://readwithstefani.com/books-i-meant-to-read-in-2020/