Books of 2020 and a Remnant of Readers

With two moves, house renovations, house selling, and countless traveling, I kept my 2020 reading goal to a manageable twenty-four for the year. Plus, I process slowly and like to linger on them a bit. As a #rabbittrailreader I’ve possibly read triple this in words and pages and chapters, but it’s been good and needed for me to set a small goal of books to actually finish (I use the Goodreads Reading Challenge).

I was curiously observing some frantic discussions recently, centered around current political climates and fears of book bans and all manner of inevitable suppression and whatnot because of things read in a forum here or an article there. It wearied me, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. After all, I’d probably be all #keepyourhandsoffmybooks if this truly became a problem and it’ll always be incredibly important to me that my children have access to books that are good and true and beautiful.

My husband sent this though, and I found it poignant:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.

—Neil Postman

…I tend to think it’s the latter we ought to be worrying more about these days. The information overload and conjectures on all sides, continuous stimuli for fight and flight, never-ending opinions from all, each touted as truth. No time, energy, or desire to read good books because of hours and minds too filled by current events and information-overload. We’ll either rely on everyone else for knowledge or think we already have it all.

I’m personally thinking it’s the perfect day to curl up with a cup of tea, a good book, and remind myself that I have unfettered access to the Truth that will outlast all of this.

As I set my goals for this year, what books are you eyeing for 2021?

My 2020 Books:

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