My 2021 Reading Year in Review

meltotheanyAside

happy new year, friends! i can’t believe we are entering a brand new year, because time just keeps feeling more and more fake! but these are always my favorite posts to make, and i hope you enjoy reading it. 

okay, let’s rip the metaphorical band-aid off right away – so i have read less books in 2021 than i ever have before. i remember a month or so ago, thinking about how i might be disappointed with myself when writing up this post, but today when i was updating my goodreads and saw that i “only” read 33 books, i actually was okay. maybe even better than okay, and i don’t really know the answer to why! maybe *gasp* good mental health right now? maybe because i read a lot of books that i absolutely loved, and have some memories attached to some that enhance everything about the story itself? maybe because at end of the day (or year), 33 still feels like an impressive number compared to what i felt like that i read with the lack of pressure and expectations i put on myself while leaving 2020.

2020 was a really hard year for everyone, but i think i left that year with just not wanting to put any extra pressure or expectations on myself in all regards, and that very much impacted my reading this year. i wanted to just throw myself creatively in other new places things that were bringing me happiness instead of reclaiming spaces and remembering my worth.

if i have one goal in 2022 it really is to stop being so hard on myself. i really am my own worst critic in every aspect of my life, and i just want to be braver in this new year, and trust in myself that everything will work out and be okay. because i honestly proved to myself in 2021 that everything was okay and that i was okay. (i mean, despite the very loud and obvious and still scary state of our world right now.) i still feel like i’m still struggling to find my place among book stuff again, but i know everything is a process, and i think pushing myself a little more in 2022 will be a really good thing for me and my reading! but i do find myself ✨ organically ✨ craving to read like before again, and i hope i am able to find that good balance and talk about it in 2022’s reading year in review. but first let’s look back at 2021, everything that i was able to read (and my favorites), and some cool reading graphs! 

Thanks to the amazing Brock at Let’s Read, here are some 2021 reading statistics that I was able to gather from his amazing spreadsheet that I use every single year:

My Top Ten Favorite 2021 Publications:
➽ 10.) Vespertine Margaret Rogerson
➽ 9.) Chain of Iron (The Last Hours, #2) by Cassandra Clare
➽ 8.) We Free the Stars Hafsah Faizal
➽ 7.) Honey Girl Morgan Rogers
➽ 6.) Ace of Spades Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
➽ 5.) One Last Stop Casey McQuiston
➽ 4.) Yolk Mary H.K. Choi
➽ 3.) The Anthropocene Reviewed John Green
➽ 2.) Iron Widow Xiran Jay Zhao
➽ 1.) She Who Became the Sun Shelley Parker-Chan


okay, friends! happy new year – i am sending you and your families love, luck, good health, and so much warmth in 2022 and always. i miss you all so much, and i hope that 2021 was gentle on you and that you were gentle on yourselves, too! i also absolutely cannot wait to read all of your end of year favorites posts and give my tbr a lot of love based on your book recommendations! i’m thankful for you all always, and i love you.

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➽ My 2020 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2019 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2018 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2017 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2016 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2015 Reading Challenge

15 thoughts on “My 2021 Reading Year in Review”

  1. Happy New Year, Mel! 💖 I hope you have a wonderful 2022 and I’m sending all the best wishes your way 💕 I’m so happy that you’re happy with reading less this year. I think we could all benefit from being easier on ourselves. This year I dipped out of the bookish community to take the pressure off myself and I ended up branching out to genres I would never normally have read. I started reading manga and it made reading so much more joyous for me than it has been in a long time. I hope whether you read 1 or 100 books in 2022 they all bring you a lot of joy!! 🥰

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  3. i’m feeling some type of way seeing she who became the sun and iron widow on your list of favorites!! so happy that you’ve found satisfaction in what you’ve read even if it wasn’t as many books as usual—i was also pleasantly surprised to experience that in 2021 too. can’t wait for all the buddy reads in 2022 hehe ❤

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  4. i love your statistics! how do you do them? a spreadsheet?

    i think majority of my reads were 2021 releases/as arcs too. i almost have no time to catch up on the older stuff (my bookshelf is glaring at me as i type)

    i hope 2022 is just as good for you as 2021 appears to be!

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  11. Happy New Year! I’m so proud of you and can’t wait to see what you accomplish in 2022. 33 books is still incredible, especially given the state of things, and I’m glad that you’re feeling okay, because you should absolutely be proud of yourself. 🥰 Love you!

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  12. Happy new year! There are so many books from your list that I haven’t read but I’m excited too! 2021 was a hard year for my reading and blogging and I expect it to go lower in 2022 too. I’m still learning to be okay with it, I still need to remind myself that it’s okay too try out new things and enjoy other hobbies too!

    Also, TXT album is really the best, I’ve been listening to it a lot too this year! It’s such a no skip album!

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  15. Pingback: My 2022 Reading Year in Review – meltotheany

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