Moment of total honesty here. As of April 2020, I had read exactly zero books. There's no real reason for that other than I was doing things I didn't do much before (such as go to an actual gym), so reading kind of got pushed to the sidelines. Come quarantine, I resisted falling into the pressure to read more or be productive simply because we were all confined to our homes. I watched a lot of Netflix those first few weeks. I went on walks. I did whatever I felt like doing, honestly, because the world felt like it was falling apart, and I could not be bothered to listen to the idea that quarantine was this marvelous opportunity for us to accomplish things.
The point is, I didn't read at all for the first several months of the year. It wasn't until we were weeks into quarantine that I picked up a book. I started by reading all through my lunch breaks while working from home and ended up loving that idea. It gave me the complete mental break I needed in the middle of a work day. It also made it so easy to get through a book per week, at least. I've actually been able to keep that momentum going for the past three months. By the end of this week, I'll have gone through a dozen books, which is almost as much as I read all last year.
It's funny because I follow several people on Instagram who read literally twice as much as I do. But I really believe that how many books you read should never be a competition, other than competing with your past self perhaps. So the point isn't the number for me. But it does make me happy to have been able to keep the momentum of finishing a book per week going. I've also loved reading books from many different genres, even including nonfiction.
That being said, I thought I'd share my list of the 12 books I've read throughout quarantine. They're listed in order of when I read them, but I'll tell you my favorites at the end.
Most Likely by Sarah Watson
The Voices We Carry by J.S. Park
Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Alex and Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Pride by Ibi Zoboi
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
How to Write Short by Roy Peter Clarke
The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby
The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay (currently reading)
As for my favorite, I'll go with Agnes Grey, because it was the one I most enjoyed reading (I know, of course it's a Brontë, I'm unfortunately predictable). My least favorite was Alex and Eliza, because it just felt kind of flat to me, though the historical fiction aspect was interesting.
I enjoyed reading almost all of the others on this list. The Color of Compromise is perhaps one of the heaviest reads on here, but it's such an important and educational book that I think anyone should read. My other two favorites I'll give to The Voices We Carry, which was such a helpful and profound nonfiction read, and Far From the Madding Crowd, which was crazy and fascinating. But really, I'd recommend most of these books if you're looking for something new to read.
If you have any recommendations I should add to my TBR list, let me know, because I've got quite a lot of weeks left in the year to fill up.
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