My 2020 Reading List.

Hello, friends! Today’s post is all about the list of books that I plan to read this year. I’m sure that I’ll end up reading many more books than just these few, but I thought it was a good place to start. I also plan on making blog posts for each book individually after I’ve finished them.

One of my goals for the year is to read more. That being said, as much as I absolutely love buying books, I want to be more intentional about the books that I end up buying. When I went to BAM (Books-A-Million) I decided that instead of buying every book I was interested in, I’d take a picture of it and when I finally got around to getting a library card for the library in Traverse City, I’d check them out (pun intended) then. I want to read more books, but I want to be very intentional about the ones that I end up buying.

Here we go…

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This was one of my favorite books when I was a little girl and I haven’t read it in YEARS. It keeps peaking at me from my bookshelf (all two editions of it) and I need to give it another read. For those who don’t know, The Secret Garden follows the life of a young girl, Mary Lennox who is sent to live with a mysterious uncle in his English manor. She is initially quite upset at the thought of living there, but as time goes on, Mary finds herself growing quite fond of the home and those who inhabit it. I’m curious to see if I love this book as much as I used to. I have quite high hopes, as I found myself loving Anne of
Green Gables even more after reading it as an adult.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I suppose I should be embarrassed to say that the reason I want to read this book is that I loved the show so much. I’m not embarrassed though. I don’t think there’s any need to be pretentious about media. (Although that’s probably a whole other blog post…) Anywho. This book is centered around four characters and their strange interactions with the infamous Hill House. From what I understand, the TV show strayed quite a bit from the source material, so I’m very curious to see all that happens in the book.

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien. I feel as though this book needs no introduction, but I will write a bit of the premise. Frodo Baggins, a hobbit from the shire, is gifted a mysterious ring from his uncle. He soon learns the nature of this magic ring and is given the dangerous task of destroying it. I hope I did the description justice. I try not to be longwinded when doing summaries, but I’ve always been a bit verbose in my writings. I have vivid memories of getting in a little bit of trouble when writing them for school, as I tended to make mine longer than the piece it was supposed to be about.

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. I mentioned this book in a previous blog post, but still haven’t made much progress on it. It follows Mayle and his wife as they move from England to the outskirts of Lourmarin. I look forward to reading the rest of it. When I bought it, I had no idea that it was actually a memoir, but that makes me even more interested in reading it!

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. This book seems to essentially be about a house that is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. I have never heard of this book before and I wanted to go into reading it completely blind, so I apologize if I’m rather vague about this one. I plan on writing a post for each of these books, so I’ll be sure to go more into detail in the post of its own, but for now, I don’t want to spoil it for myself or for you! A quick view of the wikipedia page for this book has told me that this book is one that transcends the horror genre, which makes me all the more curious.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. A novel published in 1932 focused on a dystopian future filled with genetically modified inhabitants. I honestly find it hard to believe that I haven’t read this book before, or perhaps if I have, I can’t quite remember. I took two science fiction writing classes in high school and I can’t imagine that we didn’t speak about this book once or twice. My memory isn’t the best, I’m afraid. I’m eager to read it all the same.

Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain. From what I understand, the premise of this book is that a group of friends drink a bottle of wine from 1954 and find themselves transported to the 1950’s. They find it all very charming, but eventually they must find a way to return to the present. It seems like a very whimsical read.

I know this list is rather small for a reading list of the whole year, but I’m sure I’ll find plenty of other books to read throughout the year. I’m also very curious to hear of all the books that you plan on reading! Any recommendations would be appreciated.

I hope this new year is treating you all well.

Thank you so much for reading!

XOXO,

Mattie