My Bookish Year: 2020

2020 is coming to a close (hurrah!) so I thought I'd end the year on a high by looking back at all the lovely bookish things that have happened during the shittiest of years.

2020 started off with a re-read. As I stated in my first Instagram post of the year, I was in the mood for a really good rom com and as I'd already read The Best Thing That Never Happened To Me by Laura Tait & Jimmy Rice before, I knew it would deliver. 

I love re-reading books and I'm going to start off 2020 with another read of Jane Green's Jemima J. It's been a few years since I read it (again) so I'm looking forward to rediscovering the story.

Do you re-read books? Which book are you planning to start the new year with?

Reading for me was a bit different at times, as over the spring and summer I got into the habit of taking my current read along to the supermarket with me to read during the 'car park shuffle'. It was a bit weird queueing to get into Asda at first, but even weirder was how quickly it became the norm, and standing on the outskirts of the car park while reading my book no longer felt out of the ordinary.

I read some fantastic books during 2020, and five of my favourites are:

Our Stop (Laura Jane Williams)

The Garden of Lost and Found (Harriet Evans)

The Mother-in-Law (Sally Hepworth)

The Lake House (Kate Morton)

All I Want For Christmas (Joanna Bolouri)

(I've listed the books in the order I read them, because choosing five was hard enough)

What have been your favourite reads this year?

At the beginning of the year, I was editing Book 11 - which became known as The 12 Christmases of You & Me and was published in October.

As well as finishing The 12 Christmases of You & Me, I also wrote the first drafts of Books 12 and 13 and published the paperback edition of Everything Changes But You. So it's been a very busy year, writing-wise!

I'm going to continue working on Books 12 and 13 during 2021 and hopefully start a whole new book towards the end of the year as I'm aiming to take part in Nanowrimo again. I wrote almost 70,000 words of Book 13 during November and I'm looking forward to jumping back in again to see if I can be just as successful next time round. I'm also looking forward to reading some more fantastic books, starting with Jemima J...

I'd love to hear about your bookish year. Let us know what you've been reading and/or writing in the comments below :)