This is the stack I got for Christmas – along with a £30 Waterstones voucher to buy more books! I haven’t spent it yet, but I’m contemplating some combination of Be My Guest by Priya Basil, Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips, The Glovemaker by Ann Weisgarber, a pre-order of the paperback of Benjamin Myers’s The Offing, and a cheap 2020 calendar.
2019 was my most prolific reading year yet! (I’m sure I said the same thing the last two years.) People sometimes joke, “why not aim for a book a day?” but that’s not how I do things. Instead of reading one book from start to finish and then beginning another, I almost always have 10 to 20 books on the go at a time. I tend to start and finish books in batches – I’m addicted to starting new books, but also to finishing them.
Some interesting additional statistics courtesy of Goodreads:
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
In terms of numbers read, this was my worst year for ages (I shan’t tell you how many, but it was more than 300 short of your score!). One treat in store for you will be The Offing, I hope – I loved it. Happy reading in 2020!
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Quality is always worth seeking over quantity!
I’m going to pre-order the paperback of The Offing, so I have to wait until March but I do believe it will be worth it. I’ve heard nothing but good things.
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In my 2019 Goodreads round up I also had a book that no one else had read – which surprised me given the amount of Goodreads members!
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It is surprising, isn’t it!? It sometimes happens to me if it’s an old and obscure book, an edition I have to add myself, or a pre-release book.
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I have the Linda Geddes in my piles too. Sounds fascinating. I like the way Goodreads presents your stats, but I don’t really use it, I am always impressed by how many books you read.
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The Geddes is a Wellcome Collection book. I didn’t realize she was also the author of Bumpology, a pregnancy guide I gave a secondhand copy of to friends who had a baby in October. They both read it cover to cover, which I found rather gratifying.
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My average star rating on Goodreads was also 3.7. I think that means we’re good at picking books that we’ll most likely enjoy!
I’m a bit in awe of 10-20 books at one time. When I have more than 4 or 5 I start feeling anxious and have to buckle down and just finish one!
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I’m definitely satisfied with that as an average rating 🙂
I think because I work from home I have the space, both physical and mental, for stacks of books at once. And any that I have to write a review for I tend to keep notes on, which helps.
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Wow–congrats on busting your reading goal! I’ll be interested to hear how that Strout compares to her latest. And I’m gratified to hear I’m not the last person on Earth who uses a real calendar! Happy New Year!
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I’ve always relied on print calendars. Since I don’t keep a diary, they’re also how I remember what’s happened in a year.
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It amazes me that you can have 10 or 20 books going at once. I get confused having a “real” books, an ebook, and an audiobook going at the same time. I’d say it was my age, but I don’t think even at my peak I could’ve done more.
I do hope you enjoy His Whole Life by Elizabeth Hay. I loved it – and Garbo Laughs which I read about the same time. The only thing of Hay’s that I haven’t liked was her memoir.
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This will be my third Hay novel. I loved her memoir as well. Did it cut too close to the bone for you?
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I’ve just worked out all my stats and blogged about them. One more book than last year, more fiction than non-fiction (wah!) and more by women than men by more of a ratio this last year. I’m happy but I want to get more reading time in 2020 (I have just finished a novel today so hooray for that!).
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I think you and I both read a pretty even amount of fiction and non? Which possibly makes us rare.
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Yes, I think so. I was a bit shocked I read so much more fiction than non this year but actually last year’s balance was something of an aberration. Give me a testing time and I will retreat into light fiction – 2018 had no major upsetting things or health issues!
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Ah, I see! I hope 2020 is a nice, calm year in comparison.
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I read like you – I usually have around seven books on the go at once so can go days without finishing anything and then might finish five in a day. I had my best reading year in 2019 too so here’s hoping 2020 is just as good for us both, if not even better! Happy New Year! 🙂
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Happy new year, and happy reading! Thanks for stopping by.
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