I didn’t have a reading goal set for myself last year, and I ended up reading 30 books. I’ve set 30 as my reading goal in 2020 and plan to surpass it.
I absolutely adore reading. I’ve always been a bookworm. As a child, you would find me up at 2 in the morning, wide awake, with a book in my hands – or fast asleep with a book lying open next to my head and the lights still on. In my high school years, I would take books to read during lunch and I distinctly remember the pride of reading the entire Twilight series during spring break of my senior year. Then suddenly, I became less passionate about reading. Sure, I enjoyed the occasional story, but watching new TV shows became a priority, and reading kind of went out the window.
A couple years ago, I found my love for books yet again. This time, I used them as my wind-down method in the evenings. Rather than staying up and scrolling through my Instagram feed until midnight, I put on some relaxing lo-fi and picked up a book to read until I was ready for sleep. This became such a habit that I now find myself having trouble falling asleep if I don’t read first, or at least listen to an audiobook. Last year, I devoured 30 books – a goal I didn’t even set, but was proud of accomplishing by the end of December. This year, I plan to surpass that, and I’m officially giving 2020 the title, “Year of the Books.”
My plan is pretty simple: I’m going to read more.
Rather than turning on Disney+ or Netflix while I’m working, I’m going to listen to audiobooks. I have a list of titles already lined up on Audible and Goodreads so I never run out of stories to fly through. I’m already 3 books in, and it’s only the second week of January! I was joking with my husband this morning, telling him how I was such a total book nerd growing up, and he returned my joke with a compliment, saying that being a bookworm makes you smarter. I want to continue learning, whether that’s through fiction (yes, you can learn from fiction), self-help, or even poetry and memoirs.
Last year, I checked off a significant number of books from my reading list, and this year, with the help of Goodreads, I plan to accomplish even more, by staying on top of what I’m currently reading, and not getting sidetracked by shiny new covers (because that happens). Here are some of the titles I’m most interested in getting my hands on this year. Tell me, have you read any of them? Would you like to see my reviews once I’m finished?
30 Books to Read in 2020
- Unravel the Dusk by Elizabeth Lim
- American Royals by Katharine McGee
- The Darkest Star by Jennifer L. Armentrout
- Sky Without Stars by Jessica Brody
- The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
- Renegades by Marissa Meyer
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey
- Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen
- All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace
- Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
- We Met in December by Rosie Curtis
- Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
- Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
- The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
- The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez
- 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne
- So This is Love by Elizabeth Lim
- As Old As Time by Liz Braswell
- House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig
- Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer
- Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly
- I’ll See You in Paris by Michelle Gable
- The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver
- The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
- The Deep by Solomon Rivers
- With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
- The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
- The Switch by Beth O’Leary
- Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham
In addition to these titles, I’ve actually already finished a couple of books and I’m currently reading a few more. Want to know what I’ve read (and what I’m reading)? You should definitely follow me on Goodreads.