2020: My Reading Year

2020: My Reading Year 

And so another year has come to an end. And what a year. Surely you don’t need me to remind you how different or weird or tragic or challenging 2020 has been.  Let me just say that, if we’re reading this, we survived, and despite the scars we may bear, that is in itself cause for some celebration. And I hope that even the darkest of years had snatches of light and moments of solace.  But, this being a book blog first and foremost, let me cut to the chase and proceed sum up my 2020 reads.  On that front, I must admit that save for December, when other commitments kept me away from reading and reviewing as much as I wished, I enjoyed plenty of good books and this was reflected in the number of blogs uploaded.

I principally review fiction and it is therefore quite ironic that my two post popular blogposts for the year dealt with non-fiction. Top of the list is Unofficial Britain: Journeys Through Unexpected Places by Gareth E. Rees,  a strange travel book combining urban folklore and personal memoir, history and psychogeography, road-trip narrative and gonzo journalism. It is a book I thoroughly enjoyed, and I'm happy that visitors to this blog seemed equally enthusiastic about this account of a "weird, urban Albion".  

My second most-read blogpost referred to a very different sort of book, albeit equally special.  2020 was the anniversary of Beethoven’s 250^th birthday and one of the more interesting works published in this jubilee year was Nel Regno dell'Infinito, critic Dott. Benedetta Saglietti’s translation into Italian (the first-ever) of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s celebrated review of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Apart from Saglietti’s annotated translation, the book includes an interview/conversation with Riccardo Muti, the first (anonymous) review of the work, published by the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung a few weeks after the first performance, an extract from a letter by Johann Friedrich Reichardt describing the premiere, and a translation by Giangiorgio Satragni of Hector Berlioz’s essay on the symphony.  By far the most valuable ingredient in this book, apart from the Hoffmann piece, is Saglietti’s essay introducing the review, which includes valuable insights into E.T.A. Hoffmann’s views on music.   I found this part particularly captivating, especially since it gave me a new perspective on Hoffmann, whom I previously knew primarily through his Gothic works such as The Sandman. 

Indeed, by now, readers of this blog will have realised that music and the Gothic are two great loves of mine.  And this year included some great Gothic and horror reads. One of my favourite blogposts this year (even though not amongst the most-read) was my musical review of a new translation of Igino Ugo Tarchetti’s Fantastic Tales. Tarchetti is an interesting literary figure within the Scapigliatura movement which greatly influenced Italian opera in the late 19^th and early 20^th Century.  I enjoyed other (more contemporary) horror reads.  The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones was highly rated and with good reason, combining as it does gut-wrenching terror with social commentary on the lives of young Native Americans. Paul Tremblay’s The Survivor Song is horror with a heart and particularly poignant in a pandemic year.   I also enjoyed several “feminist Gothic” works such as Evie Wyld’s The Bass Rock, the splendid short story collection Hag: Forgotten Folk Tales Retold and Rachel Mann’s brilliant religious thriller The Gospel of Eve.

The latter novel is published by Darton, Longman & Todd.  It is always a pleasure to read and review books from independent and small presses: the likes of Fairlight Books, Dead Ink, Granta Books and, in the weird/horror field, Undertow Publications, whose eighth volume of the anthology Shadows and Tall Trees proved to be a highlight of my speculative fiction reads of the year.

C0vid unfortunately disrupted the publication plans of several books.  One which I would single out is Victoria Gosling’s debut novel Before the Ruins, whose UK publication date on Serpent’s Tail was postponed to May 2021. I mention this particular book first of all because my review of it was my most-read post in the fiction category. But, more importantly, it was probably the book which gave me the most unalloyed pleasure in 2020.  Its mixture of coming-of-age novel and mystery story spoke directly to the heart of a reader who, like the protagonists, came of age in the 90s. What a lovely, lovely read.  I certainly augur that this will be a runaway success.

So what are my reading plans for 2021? Judging by the past couple of months, I might well have less time for books, but there’s no need to sacrifice quality reading.  So perhaps I will need to be more judicious in choosing my next reads. I might try to slip in some more non-fiction – starting (continuing?) with Alex Ross’s Wagnerian-length Wagnerism (which I started months ago but am enjoying in bursts).  And perhaps some greater variety in fiction genres, including a wider range of translated works (although there was a good selection of those in my 2020 reading list).

So, here’s to a new year that is better than the one we have left behind.  And may books help us make it through the tough times.  Best wishes to all!