At the beginning of every year, we always see lots of lists about the anticipated releases for the next year. I always love writing my own version of that list with the books that look interesting to me, but I have to wonder: how many of these books do I actually read?
So today, we’re looking back at the anticipated releases posts I made for 2020 books and figuring out how many of these books I’ve read. (Largely inspired by Caro @ bookcheshirecat’s post about 2019 releases!) The original anticipated posts are here:
- 50+ anticipated book releases for 2020 (posted Dec. 2019)
- Anticipated book releases June-September 2020 (posted May 2020)
Now let’s take a look at how well I’ve done!
2020 releases I’ve read
(Links will take you to my reviews.)
- A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green 4/5⭐️
- Burn by Patrick Ness – 3/5⭐️
- Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas 3.5/5⭐️
- The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin 4/5⭐️
- Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland 4.5/5⭐️
- Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger 3.5/5⭐️
- The Fascinators by Andrew Eliopulos 2.5/5⭐️
- Heartstopper: Volume 3 by Alice Oseman – 5⭐️
- The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune 5⭐️
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab 3/5⭐️
- Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale 4/5⭐️
- Love, Creekwood by Becky Albertalli 5⭐️
- Loveless by Alice Oseman 5⭐️
- A Neon Darkness by Lauren Shippen 4.5/5⭐️
- Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev 4/5⭐️
- The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow 2.5/5⭐️
- Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert 4.5/5⭐️
- Tweet Cute by Emma Lord 5⭐️
- Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour 4.5/5⭐️
- We Used To Be Friends by Amy Spalding 4/5⭐️
- When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey 3/5⭐️
- Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli & Aisha Saeed 4.5/5⭐️
- You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson 4.5/5⭐️
2020 releases I haven’t read yet
- Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis
- The Book of Dragons: An Anthology, edited by Jonathan Strahan (reading this one now!)
- Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power
- Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth
- The Dark Tide by Alicia Jasinka
- Euphoria Kids by Alison Evans
- The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smith
- Finna by Nino Cipri
- Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
- Highfire by Eoin Colfer
- Infinity Son by Adam Silvera
- Iron Heart by Nina Varela
- Nottingham by Anna Burke
- On These Magic Shores by Yamile Saied Méndez
- A Peculiar Peril by Jeff VanderMeer
- A Phoenix First Must Burn, edited by Patrice Caldwell
- The Seep by Chana Porter
- The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi
- The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
- Super Adjacent by Crystal Cestari
- Twist by Sarah Cannon
- Unravel the Dusk by Elizabeth Lim
- Wicked As You Wish by Rin Chupeco
2020 releases I DNF’d or took off my TBR
These are the books that originally I wanted to read, but after starting them or reading reviews that changed my mind, I decided not to read them. Now you’re seeing just how many books I DNF…
- The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
- Belle Revolte by Linsey Miller
- By the Book by Amanda Sellet
- The Circus Rose by Betsy Cornwall
- The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune
- The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper
- I Kissed Alice by Anna Birch
- King of Crows by Libba Bray
- The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
- The State of Us by Shaun David Hutchinson
- The Sullivan Sisters by Kathryn Ormsbee
- Witches of Ashes and Ruin by E. Latimer
Releases pushed to 2021
The fourth a final category is the books that originally were scheduled to be published in 2020 and have been pushed to next year. We’ve only got four books here, and I’m still excited to read all of them!
- Bridge of Souls by Victoria Schwab
- The Ghosts We Keep by Mason Deaver
- Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater
- The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzi Lee
In conclusion…
Out of my 62 anticipated releases, I read 23, didn’t read (but kept on my TBR) 23, DNF’d or took off my TBR 12, and pushed 4 to 2021.
Here is the breakdown of these books in pie chart form:
I’ve read over a third of my anticipated books—not bad at all, I’d say. And the books that I’ve read and the unread books on my TBR are the exact same number, which is weird.
Of course, there were plenty more books published in 2020 that didn’t end up on my anticipated lists, usually because I didn’t find out about them until later. This year was full of some truly amazing books, and I want to read all of them! Here are some of the 2020 releases that were added to my TBR after my anticipated releases posts, which I still very much want to read:
(Links will take you to Goodreads.)
- Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
- Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
- The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis
- Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
- The Ship We Built by Lexie Bean
- Late to the Party by Kelly Quindlen
- Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez
- These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
- In the Role of Brie Hutchens by Nicole Melleby
- Anna K: A Love Story by Jenny Lee
- The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk
- The Scapegracers by Hannah Abigail Clarke
…and many, many more. I have a lot of reading to do!
How many of your anticipated 2020 releases have you read? Are there any on my TBR that you loved?
x Margaret
This is such a neat post idea! 23 is an awesome number, I love the idea of setting a goal centered around new releases!! Might have to do that in 2021 🥰
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Thanks so much! 😊 It’s definitely cool to look back and see how many of those books I’ve actually gotten to.
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I only listed 10 books in my initial list (and I haven’t updated it since). Compared to previous years, I have read more “new” books. Of the 10 I have listed in my anticipated releases for 2020, I have already read six and I have two in line this December. I am still hoping to receive one of the last two. 🙂 You’ve had quite a busy year! 🙂
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That’s great that you’ve read so many of your anticipated releases 😊 Best of luck with the two in December!
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Thank you! 🙂
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I wasn’t really keeping up with new releases before 2020 so everything I read this year was a pleasant surprise
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Haha that’s always nice to find some surprising new books! 😊
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I loved seeing your reflection on what anticipated 2020 releases you have read!! It looks like you still read a lot of books! 🥰 The only book I’ve read from your unread 2020 list is The Silvered Serpents, which I loved, though it was also sad and heavy at times ❄ I haven’t even looked back at how many 2020 releases I read … with the awards coming up I feel like I haven’t read so many of them 😂
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Thanks, Caro! Ahh I really need to get to The Silvered Serpents 😳 Haha it’s definitely weird looking at all those awards and “best of 2020” lists and realizing how few of them I’ve read…
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I never did anticipated releases posts anymore since I always spectacularly failed at reading them 😂 It’s still fun to look at what others are looking forward to though!
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That’s fair 😂 I always enjoy seeing what other people are excited to read!
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I think it’s incredible to have read a third of the your anticipated reads!
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Thanks so much! 😊
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Oh the title of this post immediately made my stomach sink because I know I haven’t read most of the books I was anticipating 😭😭 It’s cool that you read half of yours!
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Ahhh that’s okay! As long as you’ve read good books, I think that’s still an accomplishment 😊
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you definitely had a good balanced year, margaret! looking back, i did the same mistake of reading more 2020 releases than backlist titles, which is ofc no bueno. i told myself i’d prioritize older books, but it didn’t end up happening that much. i still have a few weeks left in december, so i’m hoping i’ll be able to read a couple more titles from my 2017 TBR, instead of picking up any new releases, hahah.
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Argh the eternal backlist vs. new releases struggle! Still, I think as long as we read good books, that’s a win 😊 Good luck with your reading for the rest of the year!
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AH this post reminds me that I need to read Hank Green’s book. I loved the first book and couldn’t wait to see what happened next and… here I am hahaha. Too many books to read!
I’m so proud of you for reading SO many of your anticipated reads, that’s so great! I don’t think I read as much this year, but… it’s always hard to balance between the new and the old and it’s tough to get the new releases sometimes, too. I think you did so great!! 🙂
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Oooh I hope you enjoy Hank Green’s book!! 😀 I definitely relate to having way too many books that I’m excited to read…
It’s always a challenge balancing the new and old releases, but I think as long as we’re reading books that we love, we’re doing well 😊 Thanks so much!
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Great post, its actually really interesting to go back and see how many new releases that we were excited about that we actually picked up 💜
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Thanks so much! Exactly, I’m always interested to see what I actually was excited enough about to pick up 😊
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This is such a fun post and it’s so good that you got to so many!! I’m terrible at getting to new releases (my tbr has so many backlists!) so of these I only read three – Yes No Maybe So (loved this one and gave it 4 stars I think), Tweet Cute (3.5) and Love, Creekwood (definitely a favourite of the year because I love being back in the Simonverse (5 stars). A lot of them are on my tbr though!
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Thanks so much! 😀 I’m glad you loved Love Creekwood so much—it was definitely a favorite for me too. Good luck with getting to all of the ones on your tbr!
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late to the party is amazing!!
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I’m so glad to hear it! 😊
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