Play Book Tag discussion

Well, the 9-year-long 2020 is coming to a close. Each year we start with such fun, shiny reading goals, and then things like global pandemics happen.

Did quarantines give you more time to read or leave you in a Netflix-binging stupor?

Let us know how you did on your goals!

I still have six books to go to meet my reading goal for 2020, which was 75. This goal should have been a snap since I met it for the last three years. You would think with the coronavirus, I should easily exceeded this goal but I didn't. I will probably have 72 books read by the end of the year but I won't win the cigar.

Interesting question and one I've been thinking about, even mused on a bit in my personal tracking.

Did pandemic affect my reading in any way? Absolutely but probably not quite the same way as most experienced. What happened to me was pandemic severely affected my sleep patterns - which were already bad. Out of desperation, trying to calm my mind enough to both get to sleep and manage to stay asleep for more than a couple of hours, I started listening to audiobooks - rereads of my favorite regency historical romances mostly. Why such a change? I dislike audiobooks in general and they only work well for me if it's a book I have already read in print which I listen to when driving long distances or on long flights - none of which are happening these days. But desperation called - and it actually helped a lot. Poll Tally ultimately had me adding a couple first time audio reads which went fine but I will have to re=read the print books because I kept missing out on things - my mind wanders too much.

Other than that, what truly disrupted my normal reading this year were three things: 1st - reading Proust during the first 6 months of 2020; sticking to a 400+ page a month reading schedule to stay with discussion group is tough with Proust (note I normally read 400 pages in 3 days even with a lot of distractions). 2nd - a killer workload that just increased exponentially once pandemic hit (and continues pretty intense). 3rd - no surprise, participating in Poll Tally and working to read one book for each state and DC. I was NOT one of the power readers for Team Jade Dragons (see items 1 & 2), but I did what I could and achieved my personal PT goal. I made sure that every book I read after about March was one that fit in PT.

I will finish 2020 Popsugar Challenge - only 1 book to go which I can finish this week. I did finish the Unofficial Fall Popsugar Reading Challenge, thanks to Flurries. BINGO - I have 1 book to finish to complete all the numbers drawn on my card - but, no BINGO here! I will finish that book this week too or early next. I've got Flurries read and a couple more will be finished before year end - but nothing like the number I read last year! I also managed to read at least one book for every single monthly theme, but I did not participate in BLM or 9/11 reads.

But alas, other challenges are NOT close to being finished, and that is a first for me. I am 9 books behind in Unofficial Trim at this point. I have at least 8 books left to read for Popsugar 2020 Summer Reading Challenge - and those are now going to be my winter cold escape reading in January/February. We won't discuss how many buddy reads I'm still working on.

Most of all, I'm about 20 books behind my GR 2020 Reading Challenge - and while that gap will close, I am not going to hit the target of 160 books. And that target was REDUCED knowing I was reading Proust - last year I read 166, which was 11 below target because I started Proust in September 2019. In prior years I average around 185 books. A significant drop below what I expected would be a lower # books year. NOTE: my pages read is on track to exceed prior years -- again, because of PROUST!

In truth, I don't see pandemic as having any real affect on my reading. Work, Proust and Poll Tally Challenge, yes. But that's ok because I actually finished a life-long reading wish and bucket list read, and I discovered some wonderful series and authors that I would never have found but for Poll Tally. Including discovering the joy of graphic novels!

Ha! Nine year long 2020..why not 10? just wondering

Did Pandemic change my reading? I would have to say yes. Mostly because by May, I had finished all the books I had out from the Library and had to start digging into my personal hoard. After that, I had to start pilfering the boxes in the basement that had not been opened in 25 years. Surprisingly enough, I had a great year of reading. Currently I am at 124 books read, and my GR's goal was 125. Judging from what I am currently reading I should hit at least 130 by year-end. The only other goal I met was to not read anything I was not enjoying. Reading gives me joy and 2 years ago I decided DNF is not a sin. I am sticking to it. If by chapter 4 I am not into it, I will never get it into it. I repeat, DNF is not a sin.

The best part of the year was Poll Tally and the fun I had with my Dragon Mates! 🐉

What goals did I not meet?

1) I did not read 51 books, one per State/DC.
2) I did not read for every monthly tag-I only have 11-November was the one I missed. First time since I joined, that I missed a month. I was a little sad, then I got over it ;)
3) I have 3 Bingo years I did not read for. Again, I will get over it. I had the books, just not the time or desire.
4) I only read 6 of my Unofficial Trim. I have 3 DNF (hey they are off the TBR pile, that counts!) And 3 I just never got to.
5) I am missing 8 letters from my personal "Around The World in The Alphabet" challenge. But I am still happy with the result and I will do this again in 2021.
6) My goal was to read at least 10 books about WWII, set in other countries besides Continental Europe. I read 9.
7) I only read 2 books in honor of Jolene (see my personal thread to know more)-And so, I will carry this forward another year. I may just carry it forward every year, she was my first real friend here at PBT.
8) I Pottered with Pop Sugar (never posting on the PS group, only doing it on my own for the first try). Missed 11 books in the original grouping of 40 prompts. And missing 1 in the Advanced grouping. In the Summer 20, I only read 9 and the Fall grouping I read 9 out of 10.
9) Another personal challenge "Clear The Blanket Chest" I listed 33 books that had been on the chest before 12/31/19-I read 11 of them. This is another personal challenge I will continue in 2021.

Although it looks like I failed, truth be told, I had a really great year of reading. I got so tired of TV, although I recorded a million shows I never watched anything except Public television and some History Channel mini-series. DVR will be purged of all the useless things I recorded.

Amy’s Year 2020 Roundup –

Like my favorite thread of the year! Usually I hit 100 books on the nose, but this year, between Covid, and more regular monthly audio use, I hit 125! That’s a record you likely won’t see again.

I read for every tag and for all of the flurries.

I read 12 (unofficial) Trim the TBR books, and on time!

I read 13 Bingo books, but no Bingo.

For Poll Ballot Tally, I read 59 books for 35 states. And for at least a few more that should have been tagged but weren’t.

Taylor Jenkins Reid was my author of the year, and I read (in once case re-read) all of her works I hadn’t yet read.

My series challenge was the Once We Were Brother’s series by Ron Balsom, and I read all five. Catherine and Liam the investigative lawyer pair.

My remarkable person of the year was Cleopatra and I read three books featuring her.

I read 13 High Priority Books, and 4 of them made my top ten. Another four or five were close contenders.

I read 37 books that I owned. But some of them were bought in 2020.

I read 36 Cultural Horizon’s books, and noted where they were all set, can leave that list last of the places I visited.

I read 23 Jewish themed Books, 16 non fiction. 8 Book Club Books, participated in 8 Buddy Reads with PBT. I read two Giveaways, 13 that were very old on my TBR.

I read a book apiece of seven authors I am trying slowly to get through their works.

And there you go. Maybe this year I will give my 2021 challenge list a creative name…. Rather than Amy’s Challenges 2021. I have an idea. That one is next.

Honestly, I gave up on challenges this year - new job, family, lockdown, bees, and work work and more work took over all the bandwidth that I had available. Popsugar? Pah! Bingo was a bust. As was reading for the monthly topics, very unusually for me.

I’m fine with that - it is what it is. I’m not that far behind my 100 books for the year and I might actually catch up - I just didn’t read the kinds of books I might normally have done (I mostly kept it very light!) The only thing I feel bad about is not being able to participate more in Poll Tally - I got off to such a great and keen start and then we went into lockdown and I was working 12 hour+ days, so that scotched that. Meh.

Like Theresa, I ‘discovered’ audiobooks this year though which was great. Reading print risked exploding my brain, but passively having someone telling me a story was brilliant. Especially when I couldn’t sleep which was pretty much all the time. And I found myself audio-reading series - JD Robb’s “In Death” series mostly (I consumed those like candy), but also Harry Potter with Stephen Fry as narrator, the Rivers of London series and some others. It’s like finishing an enjoyable series became the new challenge. In that respect, I’ve had a great year. And now I’m back to reading print which is really nice. Being in summer always helps too.

Ha! 9-year long 2020. It sure feels that way. I’m reading less than normal but I read more than last year and my GR goal. So, both? I really hope 2021 is better in a lot of ways and reading is one of them.

I set few goals for myself this year - I only wanted to maintain my average of 150 for the year, read a book for each tag of the month (as I target every year), and for Poll Ballot Tally my original goal was to contribute as much as I could as well as read one for every state (including DC).

I think in light of that I far surpassed my goals.

I did read a book for each monthly tag, I am currently at 364 books for the year (ok, some of them are short stories or novellas, but that's still a record for me, and there will be more added by the 31st), and for Poll Ballot Tally I read two books for each of the 51 states, and I was the only one to do that.

Covid probably helped in that being homebound I found it easier to maintain the breakneck pace of Poll Ballot, even with all the TV watching in between.

I even managed to squeeze in two audiobooks, one because I needed it for the pirate tag (How to Be a Pirate) and the library only had the audio at the time, and one because everyone said audio was the best for it (Daisy Jones and the Six). I was surprised how much I enjoyed them, but overall I'm sticking to regular reading since it's much faster for me.

I'm looking forward to more relaxed reading for 2021.

I don't think my reading habits changed but I read some great books this year. I guess because instead of browsing I went after books I really wanted to read as soon as libraries reopened and I could reserve books. It used to be hat I wold take like 10 books out of the library at a time and only read a few of them.

I never really set reading goals, I just read. As of right now I've finished 183 books this year, and will probably finish another 5 or 6 before the year ends.

Poll Ballot Tally really upped my reading this year, and provided a wonderful distraction from real life. I think that game and the teamwork on Jade Dragons made the year go faster than it otherwise would. Heck .. some of my in-real-life friends have recently asked me , "How did you do on that challenge?" Obviously, I had gotten so wrapped up in it that I was telling people who haven't even heard of GoodReads about it. Ah, well....

Speaking of Poll Ballot ... I did set a goal of reading at least one book for each of the 50 states plus DC, and I managed that.

I participate in a number of other groups that focus on challenges, and I'm WAY behind in posting for those .... just now posting books I read in SEPTEMBER! And I'm behind in posting my reviews here as well, though I have managed to keep up to date with writing them in the word document I use to keep track.
I just have to take the time to actually post them.

Speaking of Netflix ... Hubby signed up and discovered The West Wing (he apparently never watched it). We're up to Season 3 ... we watch one episode per night, though we sometimes skip a night or two. We've started referring to it as "the REAL president" ... as in "Let's get these dishes done so we can watch the real president..."

I have been reading about 100 books a year while I was working full time. 2019 was my first year of retirement but I traveled a fair amount and took on some volunteer roles so my results stayed the same. I planned on 100 this year but now have 146. This is partly from being home more and also from being more active on GR. I joined this group in the middle of the year so I didn’t do the year challenges and I didn’t read for the monthly tags, just posted when I realized something fit.

Actually I didn’t read as much as I would have thought because I spent so much time watching news about the pandemic in the spring and the election after that. The only challenge I did was 52 books with various prompts from the Around the Year GR group. I finished that by June, so I did it a second time, and finished that in October. That group also had several Readathons, where it was advantageous to read very short books, something I rarely do, but I found I enjoyed it.

I actually had fewer audiobooks than usual this year because of less driving and my husband being home all the time. He doesn’t appreciate me going around with headphones all the time! On the other hand, I finally read some ebooks because the library was closed. However, I still have enough physical books for several years of quarantine!

A few years ago, I did the Book Riot challenge and a couple smaller ones. But I found I was reading things I didn’t really want to, and my reading life is too short for that! So I quit all challenges for several years.

Tessa, We just started watching the West Wing with the three kids! they are just starting to get into it. We saw the first three episodes...

My own personal reading goal is to find and read wonderful books. I think it's been more difficult to do this during the past year, due to the pandemic. With the library being shut, it's been harder to find the books I want to read.

In March, I bought and started using a kindle. I found that many books I wanted to read either had long holds or were not available through the library system - which led me to buying e-reads through Amazon. This was hit or miss for me, as far as liking the books. (And I really hated to spend money on books I disliked.)

On the bright side, I discovered some very good Historical Fiction books that were available to read. Books have always been a pleasure for me. I don't tend to think in terms of challenges.

Netflix and Amazon Prime have provided me with some great series to watch this past year. Highlights were: Grace and Frankie, The Durrells in Corfu (borrowed from the library), The Crown, and Mozart in the Jungle. I've just started watching "Virgin River".

The past year has been one of great challenges and big changes, some created more time for reading and some made it more difficult. The pandemic created more time but left me with a version of ADD, and limited my ability to read for several months. During that time, I went out for long walks and started listening to audio books. That kept my reading life from totally tanking.
Then, on June 30 I retired: more time for reading! But then we sold our house and moved to Asheville at the end of the summer. Once we settled in and established our daily rhythms, and I obtained a library card, reading picked up again. My reading life in 2020 resembles a sine wave!
I set a goal of reading 52 books in 52 weeks and met that goal. Currently at 54 and I expect a will get 1 or even 2 more in before the end of the month. Of the 54, 12 were audio, which is a big change for me, and one I hope to carry forward into 2021. I also read 16 non-fiction books, which surprised me. Many of these were audio memoirs, which is a genre I don't typically read, but it seemed to work well on those long walks!
I didn't have any goals for poll tally, other than to try to find a tag for just about everything I read. I was able to do this for 43 of the 45 books I read through October. I did read a few gems for Poll Tally that I am sure I never would have picked up otherwise. The Wolf in the Whale and Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place come to mind.
I try to read for every monthly tag and here I fell short. I only got to 8 of the 12 tags. Oh well.
I did well on Trim the TBR, knocking off 14 titles. To accomplish this with limited ability to access many of them, I just read at least 1 each month, without worrying about the number called.
Overall, I read so many very good books! Out of the 54, I had 9 with 5 stars, but soooo many with 4 stars. A shout out to the Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemison. I don't usually like series, too much pressure! But if you are a sci-fi person, this trilogy is brilliant.
I had another related goal of watching 50 movies this year! You would think I would have gotten to 100 films during the pandemic, but for whatever reason (ADD?), I only watched 20. Maybe b/c shorter "episodic" TV seemed to work better. I will rethink the movie thing for 2021.

Amy wrote: "My series challenge was the Once We Were Brother’s series by Ron Balsom, and I read all five. Catherine and Liam the investigative lawyer pair. .."

There are 5 of them!? I've only read the first. I guess I should look into the others.

I'm retired so I can usually read a little over 300 books each year. Poll Ballot had me upping my game to 584. I read a lot of auto racing, mafia, and space romances so they were short and easy to read, if not memorable. Well, the Ice Planet Barbarians were memorable and I'm going to finish those next year. I loved that the challenge gave me something to focus on while we had to stay in.

I read at least one book for each monthly tag, had miserable luck at Bingo, great luck in Poll Ballot Talky, completed all twelve Unofficial Trim Picks, and finished reading 60 books that I randomized at the beginning of the year. Most of them were good ones, too.

I drank more. My husband is a fabulous cook so we had appetizers and cocktails before he started dinner most nights. So I didn't really drink more, just more often. My golf game improved. Golf courses were open and the staff did a great job of sanitizing.

We suffered tragedy when my husband's 44 year old, always healthy son suffered a brain bleed in July. It wasn't a stroke and doctors have been unable to find the cause. He's still on a feeding tube and paralyzed on his right side. He's in a rehab facility and we hope he can start therapy early next year. His brain damage is not as bad as we expected and he's alive, which is more than we expected when it first happened.

My 44 year old daughter graduated with a degree in speech pathology. She was a stay at home mom until her divorce a few years ago, so we are so proud of how hard she worked and attended school at the same time.

Oliver is the greatest joy of our life. We are sad he just turned eleven, but we know he still has many years left.

2020..........glad to see it go.

God Bless Oliver!

The pandemic definitely effected by reading in a negative way. I can normally read over a hundred books a year, this year I'll be lucky to make it to 60. In July I read one book. Fortunately I'm feeling like reading again. I did read something for every monthly tag. I won't read every bingo book called but I'm very soon going to complete my bingo. I greatly enjoyed my purple sage team.
Lynda you and Oliver read an impressive number of books. I hope Oliver stays healthy for many more years.

I certainly read much more this year than normal. It was partly because of the pandemic and partly the Poll Ballot game. My goal is usually 100 books but as of today I'm at 180.

I read for all 50 states and DC for the Poll Ballot game.
All 12 PBT monthly tags.
Completed Modern Mrs. Darcy 2020 challenge - 10 categories
Completed a challenge sponsored by my library called the Book Nerd Challenge - 52 categories
Read 12 books for the Bingo challenge and scored 1 bingo,

It was a great reading year for me and I absolutely fell in love with 2 new (to me) series: Linda Castillo's Kate Burkholder and William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor. I'm really looking forward to new challenges in 2021 and a great year in general.

I had planned to read 100 to 150 books in 2020. Due to the pandemic and the Poll Ballot challenge, I actually have read 355 (and counting). I never thought I could read that many, nor was I convinced I could read multiple books simultaneously and keep them all straight, but somehow I managed to do it! I am continuing this method and plan to read at least 200 in 2021.

I completed all my 2020 PBT Challenges:

Decades Bingo - read a book for each number called that was on my scorecard - no bingos, unfortunately

PBT Monthly Tag - read at least 1 book for each monthly tag, and usually more than one

Unofficial Trim 2020 - read 12 books for this challenge - completed

Poll Ballot Tally - this was by far the most fun I have ever had on a challenge - Jade Dragons is a great team and the camaraderie was beyond all expectations - read loads of books, many more than planned, and read for each state plus DC

I escaped into books during the pandemic, and found that reading helped keep my mind off all the bad news.

Great Job, Joy! You and I also read an unusual amount of similar titles this year, I think. I'd be curious to check.

2020 and all its problems of quarantines, etc. has definitely upped my reading and viewing. My reading was definitely assisted by the Poll Ballot challenge! I really felt badly for the admins having to track all of that! My goal had been 50 books for the year - which I usually barely reach. This year I've read 67!

I was a Bingo challenge drop out! Since I didn't get more than 2 numbers in 6 months, I followed for a bit longer but really only read 4 books total toward the game and then just let it go. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed my reading this year and most of it was very good.

My husband and I also watched some good streaming TV. While watching, I picked up my knitting needles and started making hats. I gave many away to family and friends with a big push to a group as the FL weather turned cold just before Christmas. I think I made over 50 hats. I also returned to bread baking, this time with sourdough like so many of us in the pandemic who enjoy cooking! This was pushed mostly because yeast became difficult to find in the stores. These pursuits, along with my quilting, lend themselves to listening to audiobooks so I'm sure that helped boost my reading count.

KateNZ wrote: "Like Theresa, I ‘discovered’ audiobooks this year though which was great. Reading print risked exploding my brain, but passively having someone telling me a story was brilliant. ..."

So glad you discovered audiobooks this year. I love them!

I read more than I was expecting to because I decided to quit my job just before a pandemic happened. There were a couple of hiccups but I did all right with my goals.

1. Read 100 books... Complete - I've read 140 and still counting.
2. Read a book for each of the monthly tags... Complete - I didn't get reviews in for all of them, but I read them.
3. Bingo... Not Completed - I had aspirations but never started.
4. Poll Ballot... Not Completed - Again... aspirations, but it all got to be too much and I fizzled out around Jun or July.
5. Popsugar... Completed - Completed both the regular and advanced... finished yesterday!!

I had some other challenges that were more for motivation and I did complete at least one of them.

Overall, it was a good reading year.!!

I set my goal for 52 and read 135, being trapped at home and the year long Poll Ballot Tally help me surpass my goal. I have a nasty mix of health issues so I did not taking any changes. I am not much of a TV watcher, I do have a few shows and channels I like a lot but I prefer to read, work around the house, do crafts or garden.

I did not meet my goals in two groups.
I did not read at least one book for the monthly book tag in my groups, PBT and Grab a Book & Play Booktivity.
I missed the last two months on the spell out word game in Grab a Book & Play Booktivity.
I read three books in December and just stopped reading. I just need a break from reading and do more with the family.
Overall I am very happy with my reading year.
My only complaint is not reading not pushing myself to read the large page number books. I am making it a goal next year.

I usually read about 85 books but didn't want to push myself or avoid books because they would slow me down so set my goal at 75. I am currently working on 71 and now have to rush to finish.

At one point this year I was 14 books ahead of schedule, but once I went back to work, every thing went off the tracks.

I did complete all of the tags.

I am afraid I wasn't helpful to my poll ballot team Readers of the Purple Sage who were great and my Bingo numbers never came up. Even on Trim the tbr, I have 3 books left over.

Truthfully, I didn't have as many 5 books, but I'm not sure some of that wasn't influenced by my feeling of this horrible year.

I am feeling much more optimistic about 2021. I am super excited about the challenges.

I have been avoiding answering because this week it seems like a lot of work ;).

However, like others, the Poll Book Tally game coupled with Covid jacked my reading up to much higher than normal (plus got tired of TV for a while, etc). I didn't start off wanting to read for all 51 categories, so didn't.

I think I did every tag.

I did complete a couple of small challenges for reading classics, but after the Poll Book Tally I found I wasn't enthused enough to read the last 3 books for PopSugar, nor did I add nearly all of the series books I read for a serial challenge, etc. I've been doing the Flurries but not with great seriousness.

That said, after finding I could get a Bingo, I can get 3, so even if they don't all end up counting I am going to read all of the ones I have because I can find books I want for that. I have one left to read for it.

AJ wrote: "This year confirmed that I do not feel like reading when I am struggling with my mental health. I tend to watch more Netflix than watch TV when I am feeling low or anxious."

I definitely feel you on this. I think I am only just now starting to realize what a mental health toll COVID has had on me. It just upped my baseline stress so much! I watched more TV this year than I ever have. But, I also watched nearly everything with a friend who lives alone down in Florida, which made it a semi-social endeavor and way more fun!

Even so, I want to scale that back in 2021.

Well, it was an interesting reading year to say the least. I read a lot of books and met most of my goals, and yet it doesn't feel like a good year. I think that is just 2020 though.

Read 78 books: Read 82 (maybe 83 in the next few days!)
Read 45 books published in 2020: Read 39 (maybe 40!)
Read 12 books published in 2019: Read 23
Read 3,000 pages from 500+ page books: Read 4,007
Read at least one book each month for PBT: Read two books every month, except only one in September and October. May finish three this month!
Fall Flurry of Holidays: 2 in October, 2 in November, 9 in December (LOTS of novellas)

Not too shabby!

I only read 13 books in 2019 due to depression. Because of this, I kept my reading goal low for 2020.

My goal this year was to read 12 books. I just finished my 21st book. I'm quite pleased with being able to break out of my funk a little bit this year.

Total= 265++ books
Books published in 2020 = 20+
PBT tags = Read 13 tags, ranged from 7-26 books per tag.
Poll Ballot 240+ books
Bingo 13 books, 1 bingo.

My goal this year was to read 120 books, and I read more than 265! (gr says 274.) This is a lifetime record for me (not counting grad school). I read more than twice as many books as last year. I felt like I ran a marathon. It feels good to know that I am still capable of pushing myself to do more than I thought I could do, but I think I will let this record stand.

In 2020, I read more books, more great books, and more crappy books than in any other year. I participated in the PBT challenges, and I read books for all the tags, and the bonus tag. I didn't read as many classic or world books as I would have liked, but I did really well with diversity topics, poc authors, and non-fiction.

I read more books, but my average pages/per book decreased, and my average star ratings decreased. The pandemic and poll ballot both contributed to all of these stats.

I had more time to read due to the pandemic, and reading was also a huge escape for me. When I was fully engaged in a book, I wasn't thinking or worrying too much about things that are beyond my control. It was harder to maintain my normal level of concentration. I sometimes had to start 4 books before I could find the one that I really wanted to read at that time.

Poll ballot gave me something else to focus on as well. Poll ballot combined with the tags added more urgency to my reading, and I challenged myself to fit in more and more each month. I sometimes chose shorter or easier books in order to meet these goals, which wasn't always worthwhile. (Some were just plain bad.) By the end I was reading at a pace that was not sustainable or enjoyable. Next year I plan to slow down and savor what I'm reading.

Jenni Elyse wrote: "My goal this year was to read 12 books. I just finished my 21st book. I'm quite pleased with being able to break out of my funk a little bit this year. ..."

Good job, Jenni!

I read 32. My goal was 20 so I'm feeling good about that.

Here's where I ended today:

Read 75 Books: 66/75. Ended 9 behind
Read at least 15 books published in 2020: 23/15 Totally killed this
Read 5 books with Korean themes/author/subject: 2/5

Read 1 book for the monthly PBT tags: 12/12
Actively Participate in PBT Bingo, at least 1 bingo- Ended game with no bingos possible
Actively Participate in PBT Poll Ballot, at least 10 states: 15/15
Read at least 6 books of my PBT Trim Continuation List: 4/6

Read about the same as normal. But my work/commute didn't change, so that makes sense. I did read more nonfiction than normal this year.

My original goal for this year was to read 75 books. Thanks to stay at home orders and Poll Ballot Tally, I doubled that with my 151st book completed today. That blows my previous record of number of books read out of the water.

I finished all three of my annual reading challenges (Popsugar, Read Harder, Around the Year) and read at least one book for each of the PBT Tags. Although I was not one of the top readers in Poll Ballot Tally, I think I did a respectable job and out performed last year's statistics.

My overall stats were:

152 books (this includes a picture book I read for Read Harder that I did not include above).

49,344 pages read
324.63 average pages per book

Time listening to audiobooks: 25 days, 19 hrs, and 7 mins

90 Male Authors
61 Female Authors
1 Non-Binary Author

25 books by authors/artists of color
31 books had a POC main character

9 books by authors that identify (publicly) as LGBTQ
26 books with LGBTQ main characters

69 audio books
5 print books
77 digital books

142 books of prose
2 books of verse/poetry
6 graphic novels

127 books were fiction
24 books were nonfiction

137 books were by US/UK authors
16 books were by authors of other nationalities

147 books fulfilled at least one challenge requirement

11 books were published in 2020

I have lots of monthly challenges, but they aren't necessarily "goals". I unofficially try to read one book/month for each challenge, but this year I knew ahead of time that I wouldn't get something read for all of them.

I had hoped to read 165 books this year and made it to 179! That may be the most I've ever read.

My 12x12 challenge got at least 12 (all except one category got more than 12 read) for each category.

My final tally was 373, a record for me. I was hoping to hit 400 but after Poll Ballot Tally ended, I just ran out of gas and settled for a leisurely reading December.

Of the 373, only 13 had less than 100 pages, so I think I still read an average of 1 book per day for 2020.

My total page count was 105,961, for an average of 284.08 pages per book.

Read 50/50 books in 2020
14,999 pages

PBT Monthly Tag - 12/12 (not always in the same month)

PBT Poll Ballot Tally - read 28 books for this challenge

PBT BINGO -- Loved this challenge! Got a bingo on the very last call of the year! then quickly read 3 books in order to claim the bingo before the end of the year - I made it, just barely, by posting my last review on New Year's Eve.

F2F Book Club - We struggled this year, but managed to discuss 9 books. We usually do 11 and a weekend retreat. We had to cancel the weekend retreat this year - usually held in the fall - because of the pandemic.

2020 Read Harder Challenge, I did 15/24 but not in 15 different topic areas. I am going to forgo this challenge for 2021 and concentrate on just reading from my TBR towers and doing the PBT challenges in a laid back kind of way.

Inspired by Cora's detailed stats, here are a few I worked out for my 2020 reading.

Male authors: 20
Female authors: 30
Fiction: 41
NF: 9
Set in US/UK: 39
Set elsewhere: 11
Print: 23
Audio: 15
Digital: 12
Books with MC of color: 9
Books with LGBTQ+ MC: 4

I read fewer books than 2019 -- 75 in 2019 compared to 50 in 2020. This is directly related to the lack of a 3-hour per day commute during which I would have normally been listening to audio books -- I've been teleworking since the end of March.

I rediscovered short stories this year, enjoying them immensely in Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea and The Phantom White Hare and Other Stories. I'm going to make sure there are some on my list in 2021.

2020 had some good (I spent a lot of time outdoors; we got some home repairs done; we saved money on auto fuel and will perhaps go down to one car, having found we can get by with one; we got a puppy! I truly savored sitting down with a print book and reading) and quite a lot bad as well (missing family, grieving for those we lost, reduced income because of work reduction, fear and stress in general). I'm happy to be closing that chapter and moving on, with hope for a happy, healthy 2021.