At one point this year, it looked like lockdown was going to deliver a post-baby record level of reading, but Autumn put paid to that, and the last few months have been mediocre, so I finished one behind. Still, I have kept myself at the relatively high level of post-doctoral reading. And a strong mix of reading too; I haven't read this much 'hard' non fiction (History, Philosophy, Politics) since 2010. And I'm glad I did that. Fiction was weak, accounting for only three of my BOTMs; it did mark the first time I read more women than men, though I don't think the two are related. Six other BOTMs were cultural, and three 'hard' non-fiction (all history).
This makes fiction pretty straightforward. I briefly wondered if there was an excellent piece of fiction sitting in other months, but there wasn't. The best two novels I read were both Mantel, and the best one remains Wolf Hall. I don't think it needs any more analysis from me, save that I liked it even more this time than I did first time round. I'd also note that a decade on we sort of take it for granted, and we shouldn't.
Non-fiction was overwhelmingly harder. I could make a case for at least three of these, but with mentions for Pope-Hennessy and Cohn, Meetings with remarkable manuscripts is an absolutely gem of a book. It's stylistically interesting, taking a complex and highly inaccessible subject and making it informal was a stroke of genius. But it's also robust, illuminating (pun intended) and important. I've never really been interested in manuscripts (or physical editions of books at all), but this made me look at the whole thing afresh. And I read it on kindle, when you can't even see the lovely pictures.
Feb: J. Child, My life in France (2006)
Mar: P. Paphides, Broken Greek (2020)
Apr: C. De Hamel, Meetings with remarkable manuscripts (2016)
May: V. Moore, How to Drink (2010)*
Jun: J. Pope-Hennessy, The Quest for Queen Mary (2018)
Jul: H. Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009)*
Aug: L. Lee, A Rose in Winter (1955)
Sep: J. Gillingham, The Wars of the Roses (1981)
Oct: M. Mengiste, The Shadow King (2020)
Nov: C. Stevens, Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams (2010)
Dec: N. Cohn, Awopbopaloobop Awopbamboom (1969)
