My 2020 Reading life comes to an end

So you may have noticed my Classic Challenge reviews filling up the blog lately. Which is good because something has needed to! 

I actual read most of those in the first part of the year but didn't get around to posting/writing the review until recently. This year started out very strong in reading, even during the initial Covid stuff. But as the craziness of my life increased, my reading life diminished. I prioritized the Bible and did pretty decent with that (thanks to the Bible Reading Challenge) but by December was feeling pretty lame about the rest of my reading and wasn't sure I'd even recap the year. But I'm a creature of habit so I had to anyway. 

I did finish the Back to the Classics Challenge. I did more re-reads or easier level reading for me than I typically do but there were some pretty challenging reads in there too and I finished it! 

For the Literary Life 20 for 2020 Reading Challenge, the only things I didn't get to were Greek Play and the Book of Essays. I lost the paper where I wrote the titles and I'm too lazy to figure it out again but you can trust me :-)

Schole Sisters 5x5- well, I kinda let that one go. It was more like a 2x3. Although to be fair, most of my selections for that were either going to be new books or library books. I haven't had access to a non-digital library for most of the year and my book budget when to supplying my kids with books because they haven't either and unlike me, they don't typically use e-books (although Lucy's started to because her beloved Jessica Day George books are available there - although I gotta remember to go remove them from my goodreads account. They automatically get added and everyone is probably wondering why I suddenly love reading middle school level books about dragons). I could have filled in the categories with other reads but I'd rather just read the books I really wanted to read later on when I get them. 

But instead of thinking about what I didn't get to, I thought it'd be fun to go through what I did read and give some awards. Everyone likes awards, right.

Book I'm Most Proud of Having Finished - The Odyssey (Fagles translation)

Book I'm Most Proud of Having Picked Up - Silence by Shusaku Endo

This makes it sound like I didn't finish it but I did. It's just that the hardest part of this book for me was starting it. I don't like to read emotionally upsetting books and I knew this would be. But it was worth it. The ideas stuck with me for a long time. I'd find myself just thinking over things at the sink, dish washing paused. 

Book that took the most endurance - Undaunted Courage. It was good but it wasn't the type of book I enjoy so I had to force myself to pick it up. It helped that it was a pre-read for future AO years. But I just kept going and I finished it!

Best kid's book I didn't read to the kids - Sweep by Jonathon Auxier

I really like Jonathon Auxier and I'm excited to see what else he comes out with - especially as my kids get a little bit older and more of them can become read-alouds. They weren't quite ready for this one but I was and I enjoyed it a lot.

Best Parenting Book - Differently Wired OR No Longer Little

No Longer Little is fairly narrow is scope. It's really just a couple of points they hit. But they are really good points! I needed this when I read it and I expect I'll be reading it every 2-3 years as different kids hit this stage. Just laughing along with someone else who's been there, done that, was really helpful. 

Differently Wired is a book that I read not long after we got a diagnosis for our own 2e differently wired kid. It's a niche book and even within the niche, I know it has mixed reviews and I do understand why but I also needed to hear some of the things it said. Take the good parts, spit out the bad. I also really like Sally Clarkson's Different for a parenting coming to terms with a diagnosis or just one processing what life with a different kid is going to be like. It takes a completely different angle (Differently wired is more practically focused with some mindset points, Different is more of a encouraging memoir from a mom who's not just survived a season or two but helped her kid become a fully functioning adult who loves God - and that means a lot on hard days!)

Best Mystery - I read a lot of mysteries and Dorothy Sayers are always top notch but if you only count new ones and not re-reads, Agatha Christie's The Man in the Brown Suit was my favorite. I need to visit some used bookstores around here (when I can, we moved up to Tier 3 now so essential only but don't they understand books are essential! I guess not) and get a big stack of golden age mystery novels because I feel like I've read everything my library has an an ebook now. 

Best Re-read. The Great Divorce. I liked it the first time I read it but re-reading with the Literary Life Podcast just brought out so much more. I'm working my way through Till We Have Faces with them as well and I'm guessing it will make my list next year. 

Best Read-Alouds - I'm not even going to try and narrow these down, we just read some really great books together this year:

Squanto by Feenie Ziner - There is a reason people are desperate to get this reprinted. So good. 

Twig by Elizabeth Orton Jones - Norah made me read this to her three times in a row before I said we needed to change it up. 

Urchin of the Riding Stars (Mistmantle #1 - We will continue these). Craig has read Green Ember 

series and started the Wilderking series with the kids so I'm excited that I get to the one who reads this one with them.)

Adventures with Waffles - So funny, I had to stop more than once for us to catch our breathe from laughing. 

Owl in the Family - Another one if you need some laughs.

Tom Sawyer - It's a classic for a reason. 

The Wild Robot - I can't remember if this was this year or the end of last year but we really enjoyed it. 

That said, I'm always looking for new fun light books. I have a good stack of classics to get to with them but I like to mix in the funnier easier books between them. I will try and get to the next Vanderbeekers but I'd love suggestions for other laugh out loud read alouds, let me know!

So actually, when I look back over the year and the reading challenges, it wasn't nearly as dire as I expected. No, the second half was lighter than the first but that's okay, I still got some really good books into my soul. Now I have to go make my lists for next year - onward and upward!