2020 Reading Wrap-up

Time to wrap-up the reading I did in 2020.  

I read 88 books last year.  My original goal was 70, but I upped that three times, ended up with a goal of 90 and missed it by two books.  

Of those 88 books, 27 were new to me and underappreciated.  30 were hardcopies.  

The genres shook out like this:

Mystery - 27
Romance - 15
Suspense - 13
UF - 7
Hard-boiled Crime - 6
Paranormal - 6
SF - 5
Thriller - 3
Lit - 3
Mg/YA - 2
Western - 1

I tried to pick the genre that suited the book best, even when it was something like Paranormal Cozy Mystery or Paranormal Romantic Suspense.  If I added all the subgenres, we'd be here all day.  If you want a better break down, go browse through my 2020 Books Read post.

I totally forgot to note when I read subsequent books in a series.  Oops.  I know there had to be a couple of those in there.  

I'm surprised I didn't read a single non-fiction book last year.  I tried to read one but didn't finish it.  Not a year for NF, I guess.  More like me trying to escape into unreality on a daily basis.  ;o)

This year, I set my goal at 75.  I'm also going to try to get some more NF in there, and some more Westerns.  Maybe hit a couple more literature, too.  We'll see.  As always, I'll gravitate toward the mystery and the suspense and the paranormal.   I finished reading the first book of the new year last night, so I'll get the new Books Read post up sometime this morning.

How about you?  Did you meet your reading goals for the year?  Do you have new goals for this year?

Sunday Update - Week 53

Yep, it's the 53rd week of this horrible year.  I checked.  Figures 2020 would have an extra week.  At least it's days were over as of Friday.  Yay.  Here's to a better this year.  K?

For a horrible year, I did get some writing done.  In fact, I wrote 73044 news words in 2020.  Not gangbusters, but not bad all things considered.  Last week saw me writing 6538 new words for Duke.  Right now, it's at 35070 total.  Yay.  I only wrote 5 out of 7 days, but that's okay.  Each day I missed, I wrote the next day.  Fall off the horse, get back on.  I'd like to get this book done this month, edited next month, and in your hands in March.  Sooner, if I can swing it, but I'm not making promises about anything this year.

I didn't do any marketing this past week.  I did, however, sell three books yesterday - the last three of the genie series.  I assume this was residual from giving the first book away last month.  I'll do my year-end sales wrap-up over on Outside the Box sometime this week.  Tomorrow maybe.  We'll see if I'm up to looking at depressing figures today.

I read a couple good books last week.  Yay.  Unfortunately, I also missed my updated yearly goal by two books.  Read 88 instead of 90.  Oh well.  I set my 2021 reading goal at 75. 

In baking news, I tweaked the apple-cranberry crisp recipe again.  And we have a winner!  It turned out super yummy.  Recipe below.

My activity level blows.  I only did active things 3 days last week.  Here's to getting back on that horse for the new year.  According to my activity spreadsheet, I walked about 88 miles last year.  Let's see if I can do 100 miles this year.  Starting weight for 2021: 181.6.   A pound less than I started 2020 at.  So yay.

Not sure what this year will bring.  I'm taking it day by day right now - hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.  I'll keep doing these weekly updates and my reading wrap-ups.  And like I said, look for wrap-ups of 2020 throughout this week.  Wrap it up and put it behind me, ya know?

How was your last week of 2020?  Are you looking ahead?  

Recipe:

Apple Cranberry Crisp

6 medium apples (Granny Smith 5, Gala 1)

1.5 cups whole fresh cranberries

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 T white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp Apple Cider mix

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1 cup brown sugar

2 T white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup quick oats

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp Apple Cider mix

6 T butter (cold)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Peel, core, and slice apples to about 1/4" slices.  In large bowl, stir together apples, cranberries, both sugars, cinnamon, and cider mix.  Set aside.  In medium bowl, stir together both sugars, cinnamon, oats, flour and drink mix until well combined.  Cut in butter with pastry cutter until mixture is crumbly.  Pour fruit mixture into 9x13" pan, spreading it out so it's evenly distributed.  Sprinkle topping liberally over fruit, making sure you get it into the corners and along the sides.  No fruit should be visible.  Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until topping is browned along the edges and the fruit is fork tender.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.