10 Books I Want to Read in 2020

Happy New Year, everybody! I often get a little stressed around New Year’s because of all of the “new year, new me” things you see everywhere. This time, though, I decided to just not make a big deal of it at all. There’s one thing I am very excited about and that is starting a new reading year! Last year, I made a list of ten books I wanted to read in 2019, which was a great way for me to read a bunch of books that had been on my shelves for a long time already. I managed to read all of them (along with 45 other books) and it made me feel very accomplished and satisfied, so I’m going to do the same thing for 2020 as well!

At first, I figured I’d make a list of 20 books I want to read in 2020 (because, you know, it sounds cool) but after looking at my list of 20 books, I felt more overwhelmed than excited, so I dialed it back down to ten books. There are many more books I’d still like to read very much, but I’m not putting them on my list. 2020 is the year of not putting unnecessary pressure on myself! The following ten books are ones that I’m challenging myself to have read at the end of the year, and as for the rest of the 40 books I hope to read… We’ll see!

(Clicking on the titles of the books will take you to their Goodreads page)

• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: I’ve been intrigued by this novel for such a long time but for some reason, it’s never been the book I pick up for my next read. Adding it to this list means I will definitely pick it up, though! I’m excited to finally sink my teeth into it.
• Heartless by Marissa Meyer: I absolutely loved The Lunar Chronicles by this author, which is a series of sci-fi retellings of fairy tales. Heartless was the first book Marissa Meyer released (in 2016) after finishing the Lunar Chronicles and I was excited to read it right away, but it has sat unread on my shelves ever since. That’s about to change!
• The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien: The Fellowship of the Ring was on my list of 10 books to read last year and I read that and then later in the year I read The Two Towers as well, so only one more book to go in the trilogy! Truth be told, I’m not loving it, but it is pretty exciting to finally read The Lord of the Rings.
• The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende: This book hasn’t been on my TBR for that long. I’ve always known about Isabel Allende as an author, but I never really knew what her books are about. Then, in 2019, I watched all of Jane the Virgin (a TV show) and there’s at least one episode in which Allende is mentioned. It was only then that I learned that she’s pretty much the master of magical realism, which is one of my favourite genres. I found a copy of The House of the Spirits at a second-hand book sale so that felt like fate. I’m very excited to read it this year!

• The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli: This is one of those books that I was very excited about when I bought it but since then never really felt like picking up. I’m not terribly excited about reading it, but it’s become a matter of pride now. I am reading this in 2020 and hopefully, I will end up actually loving it!
• Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett: I’ve heard incredibly mixed things about this novel which made me come to the conclusion that the humour in Good Omens either works for you, or it doesn’t. My boyfriend loved it, which makes me hopeful. He also wants me to read it soon so we can finally start watching the TV show that was released in 2019. If I’m being honest, I’m more excited about the show than the book, but I definitely want to have read it beforehand! Plus, it gives me a chance to finally read something by Terry Pratchett.
• Normal People by Sally Rooney: Everybody seemed to love this book last year, and I bought a copy to find out if I’d love it, too, but of course I didn’t get around to it yet. That’s it. No particular anecdote – I just really want to read this one.
• Het Achterhuis by Anne Frank: International readers will be more familiar with the title The Diary of a Young Girl, but since I’m Dutch, I’m going to read this book in the language that it was written in. I’m quite embarrassed to admit that I’ve never read Anne Frank’s diary. I think I got it out of the library once when I was little, but I didn’t actually read it. High time to change that, I reckon.

• On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden: This is a graphic novel that I bought in 2019 and was determined to read that year. What the cover doesn’t tell you, though, is that this is a really big book. It’s pretty huge, which intimidated me, so I haven’t picked it up yet. It is, however, very gorgeous and I’m looking forward to reading it a lot!
• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo: Evaristo made the news in 2019 because her novel won the Man Booker Prize, which made her the first woman of colour to ever win the prize. She also had to share it with Margaret Atwood, though, which was the first time the Booker Prize ever went to two people. This made me (along with a lot of other people) pretty angry and I picked up Girl, Woman, Other the next day. I have to say that I hadn’t heard of it before it won the Booker Prize, but it sounds really interesting and cool, so I’m excited to read it.

Are there any books that you definitely want to get to in 2020? Have you read any of the books on my list? Let me know in the comments so we can chat about it!