In 2018 I read 208 books & In 2019, 202. Having read so much, I thought I should give reading a break in 2020 & focus on other things. Specially after I read My Brilliant Friend & sequels by Ellen Ferrante – The books were so exhausting, they put me over books for sometime. I started watching The Big Bang Theory & then lockdown happened.
I had too much free time and the anxious mind resorted to books. I finally managed to read 303 books in 2020. Out of which 102 were written by Agatha Christie. Interesting, isn’t it? (#selfbragging) 😉
I enjoyed reading most of the books – For some brief reviews & recommendations, do visit my Instagram account @bookdragonhaven
Biography / Memoirs: I read quite a few memoirs & biographies. Really loved 700 Sundays, Persepolis, Agatha Christie, How to be a good creature, Am I there Yet & Solutions & Other Problems
Children / Cartoon / Comics: I read 60 books in this category. Couldn’t list them here. But thoroughly enjoyed Sara Anderson’s Adulting is a myth & Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
Educational: It’s Normal by Mahendra Watsa on Sex Education was best amongst the lot. Eats Shoots & Leaves was hilarious & relatable! Four Agreements was also good – The best lesson from it was – Don’t take anything personally – I am training my mind for it
Humour: Abridged Classics: Brief Summaries of Books You Were Supposed to Read But Probably Didn’t was so hilarious – A one line take on the classics you should read but don’t :p
Poems: Not much of a poetry person but find Lang Leav very relatable, hence Sea of Strangers
Novella / Shot Stories: Laburnum for my head based in Nagaland, Zikaro & The Last Dance & Other stories were best in this lot
Fantasy: Loved loved loved The Starless Sea – It is magical. Practical Magic & Ickabog were equally good!
Spiritual: Not my genre but chanced upon The Dalai Lama’s Cat – This one is a must read!
Mystery / Thriller: Malice by Keigo Higashino, The Silent Patient, Something in the water by Catherine Steadman & Perfect Murder by Shakuntala Devi
Other Fiction: Top 10 – The Housekeeper & The Professor, Little Fires Everywhere, Hypnotist’s Wife, Where’d You Go Bernadette, The Giver of Stars, To Night Owl From Dogfish, The Little Book Shop In Paris, We always lived in a castle, The Language of Flowers & A Redbird Christmas
Book Of The Year: Pachinko – based on Japan’s occupation of Korea, Sino-Korea relationship, condition of Koreans in Japan – This one spans almost 100 years. A fantastic Read!
What were your favourites of 2020? Do share in the comments. I might get some book recommendations 😀
The Chinese Zodiac, known as Sheng Xiao, is based on a twelve-year cycle, each year in that cycle related to an animal sign. These signs are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
If I had to
define 2018 for me, it would be Year of Books. In the beginning of the year, I
had resolved to read 200 books. By the end of the year, I finished reading 209.
This does not include any half reads (DNF ) ones.
Reviewing Books
of 2018 is going to be a humongous task given that I have read 200 books and
liked most of them! You can find detailed review of these books (I have posted
some & will be posting more) on my Instagram account @bookdragonhaven
I am posting the
best reads genre wise (it was difficult to choose one genre for some of the
books)
Drama: The Unlikely
Pilgrimage of Harold Fry & The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy (sequel
to the former) – It’s a story about friendship, love, commitments and loss. Nanny
McPhee & the Big Bang – The book alternates between the script of the movie
and real-life anecdotes while filming the movie. Interesting style, I think. I
also read Nayak, which is of a similar style. Nayak is a movie made by Satyajit
Ray turned into a book. Crazy Rich Asians Trilogy – content wise the book is
not much, but the architecture, clothes and lifestyle of the riches are detailed
in a very interesting manner! Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows – Balli Kaur
Jaiswal – Not a fan of Erotica but this one is written very well. (It is not
only erotica btw, it is more about the stories of Punjabi Widows who live in
London, specially Southall) Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood – Rebecca
Wells – A moving tale of friendship and sisterhood. Wonder – a story about a
boy with a deformed face (If you love books, read. If you love movies, watch
the one with Owen Wilson & Julia Roberts), Godan – Premchand (Hindi)
Dystopia: All the novels I
read of this genre were too good! Be it the Hunger Games Trilogy, Flawed &
Perfect by Cecilia Ahern and the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood!
Fantasy: Artemis Fowl
series – Eoin Colfer, The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern, The magical
moonlight flower & enchanting stories – Satyajit Ray, The Mermaid and Mrs
Hancock – Imogen Hermes Gowar, How to make time stop – Matt Haig (one of my
most favourite authors now), Poonachi – Perumal Murugan (Story from a point of
view of the goat – It was simply fantastic to know what goes in a goat’s
world), The Immortalists – Chloe Benjamin, The Bear and the Nightingle – Katherine
Arden, Fire & Blood – George RR Martin, Father Christmas series – Matt Haig
History (History, Historical Fiction & Historical
Romances): The last train to Istanbul – Ayse Kulin,
Lincoln in the Bardo (More like the Abstract, Experimental category), The Rose
of Sarajevo – Ayse Kulin, Barygaza (History of Bharuch, an important port for
trading with Greece), The Guernsey literary and potato peel society – Mary Ann
Shafer, The Colour Purple – Alice Walker, The little coffee shop of Kabul – Deborah
Rodriguez, Love in Exile – Ayse Kulin (Was a bit disappointing, lots of
questions unanswered), A Suitable Boy (Never ending saga of post-independence
India), Good Things I Wish You – A Manette Mansay (Romance in romance, a writer
writing book about 19th century pianists Robert & Clara Schumann
& their relationship with each other & Johannes Brahms & also
exploring a relationship herself), Lajja – Taslima Nasreen, Jinnah often came
to our house – Kiran Doshi, Beneath a Scarlet Sky – Mark Sullivan, The name of
the Rose – Umberto Eco, The boy in the striped pajamas – John Boyne, The
English Patient – Michael Ondaatje, Lioness of Morocco – Henrietta Meire and
Julia Drosten, The Architect’s Apprentice – Elif Shafak, The Nightingale –
Kristin Hannah, The Good Earth trilogy – Pearl S Buck
Humour: The 100 year old
man who climbed out of the window and disappeared & The accidental further
adventures of the hundred-year-old man – Jonas Jonasson, Me and Earl and the
Dying Girl – Jesse Andrews (It’s actually about cancer & death, but in a
humorous way), Batatya chi chawl – Pu La Deshpande (Marathi)
Memoirs: Smrutichitre –
Laxmi Tilak, Don’t Disturb the Dead – Shamya Dasgupta, Shashi Kapoor, The
householder, the star – Aseem Chhabra, The Good, The Bad & The Ridiculous –
Khushwant Singh, The one & lonely Kidar Sharma – Kidar Sharma, Romancing
with life – Dev Anand, In Other Words – Jhumpa Lahiri, Shoe Dog – Phil Knight,
This is me – Chrissy Metz, #GirlBoss – Sophia Amoruso
Mystery & Thrillers: The
girl with the dragon tattoo trilogy – Steig Larsson, 13 Reasons why – Jay
Asher, Ghachar Ghochar (sort of absurd), The Widows of Malabar Hill – Sujata
Massey, Frog Music – Emma Donoghue, Seven deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – Stuart
Turton, Sacred Games – Vikram Chandra, I let you go – Clare Makintosh, We need
to talk about Kevin – Lionel Shriver, We were liars – E Lockhart, Good Girl –
Mary Kubica, Inspector Singh Investigates – Shamini Flint
Love / Romance / Feel Good: Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine – Gail Honeyman, Me Before You
trilogy – Jojo Moyes, The art of hearing heartbeats – Jan-Philipp Sendker, Words
in Blue – Cath Crowley, The Kiss Quotient – Helen Hoang, The History of Love – Nicole
Krauss, To all the boys I have loved before – Jenny Han, I see London, I see
France – Sarah Mlynowski, Less – Andrew Greer, PS from Paris – Mark Levy, One
Man Guy – Michael Barakiva, Love & Gelato – Jenna Evans Welch, November 9 –
Colleen Hoover, The Hating Game – Sally Thorne, Boy meets Boy – David Levithan,
Cobalt Blue – Sachin Kundalkar, Dumplin – Julie Murphy
