I was going to wait and see if any of my remaining library reserves arrived in the last couple days of December before posting this, but I simply can’t put it off any longer.

My original 2020 reading goal was 150 books. I reached that around early December, so I set a stretch goal of 175 and passed that, too, with 182 books completed. But because I read so many comics and picture books, I prefer to track my reading by page count. My goal was to beat my 2018 record. The result?

119% completion! Ahhhh! That’s what happens when you’re furloughed for three months.

Breakdown

Clearly, I got serious about manga this year. I won’t list everything added, but the SpiderHouses collective manga library grew by over 50 volumes in 2020. Whew.

With emerging graphic novel imprints, mergers, and press closings, I’m not going to analyze the complete spread of publishers I read this year.I did, however, want to take a quick look at where my manga translations are coming from.

I’m not at all surprised that Viz Media, a manga powerhouse, was my most read publisher. Same with Seven Seas, which has been putting out some amazing slice-of-life, LGBTQ+, and nonfiction content. I was surprised how TokyoPop came in fourth. I shouldn’t be, though. If you’ve kept up with my past posts, you’ve seen me wax nostalgic about on 2000s manga. Only two of the TokyoPop titles I read in 2020 came out in the last year – the rest were used copies I found online or forgotten volumes I discovered in my library system. The latter is also the reason behind those little Dark Horse and CMX blips.

My Favorite 2020 Releases

Prose

• The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda
• Prosper’s Demon by K.J. Parker
• The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

Manga

• Wave, Listen to Me! vol. 1-3 by Hiroaki Samura
• Koimonogatari: Love Stories vol. 1 by Tohru Tagura
• My Androgynous Boyfriend vol. 1 + 2 by Tamekou
• Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist’s Journey vol. 4 by Akiko Higashimura
• Kageki Shojo!! The Curtain Rises by Kumiko Saiki

Graphic Novels

• The Golden Age, Book 1 by Roxanne Moreil and Cyril Pedrosa
• Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang
• Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës by Isabel Greenberg
• A Map to the Sun by Sloane Leong

Picture Books

• Story Boat by Kyo Maclear and Rashin Kheiriyeh
• The Old Truck by Jarrett Pumphrey and Jerome Pumphrey
• Accordionly: Abuelo and Opa Make Music by Michael Genhart and Priscilla Burns
• The Moon Keeper by Zosienka

2021 Book Goals

My main goal for 2021 is to get more familiar with smaller presses. I put in a couple hours of work the last week of 2020 organizing my Goodreads books by publisher so I could see existing gaps in my reading. I’d like to do a bit of a dive into Tilted Axis, Glacier Bay, and Arsenal Pulp in the first half of the year.

My biggest, dreamiest aspiration for 2021 (granted there’s an effective vaccine rollout and we get to the other side of this pandemic by next winter) is to make it to a major comics convention, one I haven’t been to before. I’m not holding my hopes up for SPX, as much as I miss it, but I am seriously considering a trip west for either Emerald City or C2E2.

Do you have any big book goals for 2021?

P.S. Speaking of 2000s TokyoPop, check out what come in the mail this week.