2020 on Goodreads

This is the time I reflect on the books I have read throughout the year and make up some categories so that I can set a ‘Best' in each. Then rattle off some statistics, and list the books I have awarded five stars to.
In addition this year, because 2020 on Goodreads was loaded so early, I also used a draft to set in year goals, just noting the books I wanted to read, numbers from certain shelves etc. I have chucked all that in a spoiler as it is really not interesting reading, just my checklist!

Before I start rattling on about what I read this year, a thanks to everyone who reads my reviews and hits like or comments. If you are one of lots of long-suffering people following my reviews and don't hit like, please consider it in 2021, as it will motivate me to write these reviews.
And also to wish everyone a happy new year and a successful 2021.

So first to the “Best of the Year” books I have read:

Best Travel- Kiwi Vagabond, by E.S. Allison. Always a tightly contested category this one, as 90% of my books fit in here. I could have chosen Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, which was great, but not all parts were strictly travel.

Best History - Foreign Devils on the Silk Road, by Peter Hopkirk. Second place to Big Pan-Out: The Klondike Story, by Kathryn Winslow

Best Military - Kiwi Compañeros: New Zealand and the Spanish Civil War, by Mark Derby

Best Biography - Tic Polonga, by Russ Anderton. Honorable mention to Lightning Ridge, by Ion Idriess

Best Science - Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, by Peter Godfrey-Smith

Best Nautical - Passage To Torres Strait: Four Centuries In The Wake Of Great Navigators, Mutineers, Castaways And Beachcombers, by Miles Hordern

Best Mountaineering - East of Everest, by Edmund Hillary & George Lowe

Best Photography - Still Life: Inside The Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton, by by Jane Ussher (Photographs) & Nigel Watson (Essays). Close second - Paisajes del Silencio, by Pablo Corral Vega

Best Published by The Travel Book Club - Across the Roof of the World, by Wilfred Skrede. Honorable mention to Temiar Jungle: A Malayan Journey, by John Slimming, and Kurun Around the World, by Jacques-Yves Le Toumelin

Best New Zealand Authored - Kiwi Vagabond, by E.S. Allison. Closely followed by Deer Shooting Days, by Joff Thomson, and a mention for the NZ authored non-fiction short story collection - see below.

Best Non-fiction Short Story Collection - Figures in a Landscape: People and Places, by Paul Theroux. Second place to The Cursed Bus and other writings, by J Alex West.

Best Fiction - Brothers, by Yu Hua. Close second: Winters Bone, by Daniel Woodrell. Both at opposite ends of teh spectrum for complexity and size though!

Best Fiction Short Story Collection - (Although only 3 starred, it was pick of the bunch this year) Tales from Djakarta, by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Best Ebook or digital read - Sinew and Steel and What They Told, by Carrie Vaughn

And downer of the year:

Biggest Disappointment - A Thousand and one Australians, by Jeanne Heal. Badly dated and poor format, a fairly rare poor choice by The Travel Book Club.


Some Statistics - Read 118 books this year, at a touch over 29,000 pages. This is a dozen more books than last year, and a couple of thousand pages more, which is good as it has stoppe teh statistical slide for the last 5 years.

My average rating for books is a healthy 3.7 stars.

Longest book: Brothers, by Yu Hua, at 641 pages.

Of the 118 Books I rated:
15 books 5 stars
61 books 4 stars
33 books 3 stars
8 books 2 stars
1 book I chose not to rate

Given the 3.7 average rating, and the high proportion of 4 stared books, 4 stars for the year it seems is most appropriate.

So these are the five star books from the year (in order read):
Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving
Still Life: Inside The Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton, by by Jane Ussher (Photographs) & Nigel Watson (Essays)
The Cursed Bus and other writings, by J Alex West
Brothers, by Yu Hua
Figures in a Landscape: People and Places, by Paul Theroux
Tic Polonga, by Russ Anderton
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Winters Bone, by Daniel Woodrell
Passage To Torres Strait: Four Centuries In The Wake Of Great Navigators, Mutineers, Castaways And Beachcombers, by Miles Hordern
Kiwi Vagabond, by E.S. Allison
Seven League Boots, by Wendy Myers
Deer Shooting Days, by Joff Thomson
Siberian Dawn: A Journey Across the New Russia, by Jeffrey Tayler
Across the Roof of the World, by Wilfred Skrede
Paisajes del Silencio, by Pablo Corral Vega


Books to read:Chandler OmnibusHemingway OmnibusFinish Orwell Omnibus (1984) - didn't get thereAnother John Man -Genghis - didn't get thereAnother Thubron1 x wells from omnibus - didn't get thereBook 2 trans HimalayaA Far Off Place - van der PostAnother Mathiesson - tried but temporarily gave up on it...Mark Tully - India in Slow Motion1x Cable / French x1 another Newby1x Alan Moorehead1x Geoffrey Moorhouse1x Freya Stark1x from Norman Lewis omnibusGavin Maxwell Brightwater#2James West book - The Cursed BusAlhambra1x reread - Orwell Burmese Days1x Jeffrey Tayler1x thesigerNZ Spanish civil war bookanother Peter Hopkirk3 on Circumnavigator books < 4 >12 TBC < 12 >12 From Travel shelf < 16 >3 Penguin 60s < 3 >Books for Taiwan tripBrothersLovely BonesTokyo - Mo HaderWorld War Z54Corelli's Mandolin