2020, in Books!

One would assume that in an year like 2020, when I spent my entire time at home, I should've read more and beat my goal by twice at least. Well, not really, coz in this bizarre year, I discovered Korean dramas and dedicated chunks of time to watching and rewatching some dramas. (Jump to the end to see how I approached Korean dramas 😃 )

Book-wise, 2020 has been a good year. Books that I read in 2020 that will stay with me forever, in the order I read them this year are -

1. Normal People by Sally Rooney - I loved this book for many reasons, but the easiest one of all is - I am in love with Rooney's prose, so much that I read this book in one long sitting over one evening. 
2. The Siege by Helen Dunmore - I picked up this book because it was recommended to be a book that would make me feel colder in the winter months. And the book delivered! More than the feeling of cold, I became aware of how St. Petersburg laid under a siege during the winter months, and more awareness of how people endured communism
3. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah - Noah's autobiography takes you to the 90s South Africa, and that is a ride worth taking
4. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney - See above. I could read a laundry list by Rooney and still think its the best piece of prose ever. 
5. East of the West by Miroslav Penkov - Great prose, stories set in Bulgaria to improve your worldview
6. The Book of Indian Kings - This short book which is an anthology of essays written by historians takes you through a list of Indian kings from the last thousand years.
7. A long petal of the sea by Isabel Allende - This book is on this list coz I love Allende's prose no matter what she writes about, but this book is special because it is a story of immigrants into Chile and follows the lives of one family
8. Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris - Months after I finished reading this book, I am still obsessed by how amazing this book is, and in awe of Harris's adventure through the Silk Road and thankful for her perspective on everything she wrote. She opened me up to many new subjects to learn and gave me new perspectives on wilderness and love for nature. 
9. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles - Towles is a revelation for me, I loved how beautiful the prose in this book was. I am now sad coz I will never be able to read this book for the first time ever.  
10. Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich - This is a depressing book, especially because we all know what happened to the people behind these voices, but this book is a must read if you want to not forget how the apathy of the leaders makes matters worse. 
11. Fox and Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic - I love Ugresic's prose and her stories. Always a fresh perspective. 
12. Cooked by Michael Pollan - I read this book through the entire year, page by page while eating at my dining table, and drooling over Pollan's words when he talks about his cooking experiments and deep in thought as he talks about the food industry. Must read if you are interested in food. 
13. How to be Ace by Rebecca Burgess - This book is a must read for everyone. Period. 
14. To the Lake by Kapka Kassabova - A very well written book drawing from the author's family but taking the reader into the current Macedonia, Albania and Greece, and the two great lakes that are divided between these three countries. 

Some stats

1. A page average of 275 per book is pretty decent, so I am satisfied. 
2. I had a goal to read books written by non-English writers. In 2020, I read 22 such books, all listed in this shelf. 
3. Even in 2020, I did not go to bed for even a single day without reading. 

Stuff for next year

1. Continue reading more books by non-English speaking authors, preferably written in their native language and translated. I want to read stories/books set in various countries. 

2. I MUST re-read a few favorites (how about a goal of re-reading 10 favorites?)

Why this data for books? 

I have more clarity on this aspect now. If I only have another 35-40 more years left on Earth, and if I get only 10 good books per year, that gives me only 350 more good books. I am not okay with this, especially because I still believe that I can find a great book only if I read a few not too good books, coz brilliance can be found in the most unexpected places/books/authors. So, I need to have read at least 10 great books out of all the books per year, and giving enough buffer for guilty-pleasure-reads, I should have a hit ratio of at least 1:4 - i.e., one great book out of every 4 books I read. This means, I need to keep the goal for books to be read every year to at least 50-60. Hence, the data 😊

Korean Dramas - The how!

It all started with Crash Landing On You, my favorite drama back in April, but which I now realize is just a well made one. I got obsessed with the leads Hyun Bin and Son Ye-Jin and started looking up their work. That took me to some works by writers like Kim Eun-Sook and Park Ji-Eun, all of which I LOVED - especially everything written by KES. Following that took me to the lead Lee Min-Ho, whom I didn't like much to begin with, but since his dramas were well made, I hung around enough that now I like him. I also discovered the brilliance of Jun Ji-Hyun and followed her work for a bit. Following the recos of friends who have been long time watchers of K dramas took me to earlier works like My Girl (which gave me a love for Lee Dong-wook) and My Princess and Ji Chang-Wook's dramas like K2, Suspicious Partner and Healer. I then started looking up critically acclaimed and all-time popular dramas and found my next watches. One thing led to another and by the time we got to Dec 2020, I have seen ~40 Korean dramas, and spent a whopping ~700 hours watching them (that is at least 100 books, even if I read slowly!!! - this thought depresses me a bit, TBH). 

However, in the spirit of being honest to myself, I must admit that I enjoy watching Korean dramas - they are almost always well made and researched and is good content (though sometimes sexist, I've noticed that most content is politically correct). With this vast experience under my belt, I have now become slightly picky in what I like and how much time I devote to watching a drama, but it still is the reason I turn on the TV.