At the start of 2020, before what I like to call “the slide into the weird” I began the year off with a goal: To read one fiction/non-fiction book per month throughout the year (with preference to fiction). Why? Primarily for my mental well-being. To escape the normal rigamarole of my daily life and drift away into an alternate world, with different characters and perspectives of it all. I never really was a book reader in my youth but as I age like a fine cheese (ha), I’m really taking a liking to the activity.

I started 2020 off great. Even when COVID hit and things got “weird” …and then things were just “new” …and then things simply became “normal,” I kept it up as best I could. As best I could that is until the end of the Spring term. Enter July 2020. The whirlwind that was my March 2020 to July 2020. It can only be described as a slap in the face, a blur. As I entered a well-needed break, getting up to speed on neglected house chores, reflection on the past several months began. With this, I let my reading book reading quest slide as chores took priority (as did Netflix evidently). Enter August, and knowing the Fall at work was also going to be remote due to COVID as well (after all it is now what I consider “normal” which actually I’m fine with) I had to begin prepping for the whirlwind to recommence! When the dust of the year settled, my goal of 12 books in 12 months came up short. All-in-all, only 8 & 1/8 of a book was completed. I say “1/8” as my December pick was started, but nowhere near finished.

Enter a new year. 2021. And a new goal of 12 books in 12 months. I think I’ll be able to do it this time, starting first with my “1/8” December 2020 pick, Kevin Kwan’s 2020 book “Sex & Vanity.”

Having read Kwan’s “Crazy Rich Asians” series, which was super great! I highly recommend reading the 3-book series (not to mention I’m a big fan of the first movie), I’m really excited to be (re)diving into his new book. Reading is well underway! As a quick note, it’s shaping up to be a great story (I’m now about 1/3 the way through it ). In February I’ll give a short review and, so I hope, will debut my February book!

Here’s to a good start to 2021…at least with my 12 books in 12 months goal..ha! Now back to prepping for the Winter term which starts up on January 11!!