I have not been setting myself TBRs lately, but 2020’s year-long TBR was a success, so I thought I might as well set one for 2021. 21 books is likely to be a fifth of the books I will read in the coming year, so these are important choices!
These are all books that are sitting on my shelf already. Fine physical specimens that are begging to read! I did not choose these books according to how popular they are, rather I have chosen them because I really feel I want to have read these by the end of the year because I think they will add something to my year.
It is a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. Last year I had a distinct separation of the two, but for 2021 I have not paid attention to how many fiction or non-fiction books they are. I simply went through all of the books on my shelf and chose these to prioritize.
1. They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us (Hanif Abdurraqib)
2. Flames (Robbie Arnott)
3. Don Casmurro (Machado de Assis)
4. The Flowers of Evil (Charles Baudelaire)
5. A Small Town in Germany (John le Carre)
6. Chronicles (Bob Dylan)
7. The Border (Diarmaid Ferriter)
8. Moonwalking With Einstein (Joshua Foer)
9. The Midnight Library (Matt Haig)
10. The Stationery Shop (Marjan Kamali)
11. The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2000 Years (Bernard Lewis)
12. Quell (Clare Littlemore)
13. Palace Walk (Naguib Mahfouz)
14 . Johannesburg (Fiona Melrose)
15. The Sport of Kings ( C E Morgan)
16. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (Haruki Murakami)
17. Hamnet (Maggie O’Farrell)
18. The Essex Serpent (Sarah Perry)
19. A Sweet, Wild Note (Richard Smyth)
20. In The Days of Rain (Rebecca Stott)
21. The Secret History (Donna Tartt)
I read a few books set in the Middle East towards the end of 2020 and I thoroughly enjoyed them, so I put a few more on my 2021 TBR. Because of that I also decided to include Bernard Lewis’ book, so I will get a better grasp of the region’s background.
I have signed copies of Hamnet and The Midnight Library, so really, I ought to get to those sooner rather than later. I have been meaning to read those ever since I got them, but always put them off! I am sure I wil love both, so there is no reason to, really!
There are a few by well-known authors that I have never read from, such as Murakami and Le Carre.
It’s a rather mixed bunch, but I hope I will enjoy them all.