What a year, am I right? I think we can all agree that 2020 was not a favourite year for many. It was long and arduous and in March I was very concerned it would never end, so I was shocked when the year flew by and we ended up in 2021 without me even noticing. I’ve never been so excited about the end of a year! But I’ve vowed not to dwell on the negatives because we were all there and while we can joke about it the negatives will just bring me down. I don’t want to think about covid, Brexit, the election, or any of the multitude of negative things we suffered through this year. I remind myself this year definitely wasn’t all bad and this post will remind myself of that fact.
I sat struggling to figure out how to look back on a year when there has been so much to complain about. Normally I would talk about the highlights, places I’d been and things I’d done along with reading and TV. But this year I’ve not been able to go anywhere. I’ve spent too much time at home and built up a deep resentment for my new house. But then I remembered no one else has done all that much either so let’s compare notes. Did you spend as much time watching TV as me? Did you get as obsessed with the Taylor Swift albums as I did?
Music
I would normally create a whole playlist for you talking about all of my favourite music of the year… but I honestly can’t do that when my year has been taken up with 2 albums from Taylor Swift. I know I listened to other music before the surprise drop of Folklore but I honestly can’t recall what. Folklore and Evermore were all I listened to for the second half of the year. I have not been so obsessed with 2 albums in so long. I think I can safely say Taylor Swift will be my most played artist in next year’s Spotify wrapped as well, and we’ve only just started 2021.
Podcasts
I am not a huge podcast listener. Before 2020 I listened to just a couple of podcasts when I was in the mood, but even then I skipped episodes often. Thanks to Vera I got very obsessed with The Magnus Archives. I listened to it through lockdown, during the stress of possibly losing my job. I can’t listen to as many podcasts now (turns out my new job requires my full attention unlike my last one) but The Magnus Archives, Louis Theroux’s Grounded and David Tennant Does a Podcast helped keep me entertained during the long hours of working from home. It was almost like having company. But it does mean I’ll be bereft in 2021 when the final season of The Magnus Archives airs because what will I listen to then?
TV
2020 will forever be remembered as the year I watched way too much TV and didn’t need to feel guilty about it because so did everyone else. I used to talk to my friends about what we’d been up to at work, in life, with our families. In 2020 we texted each other about what shows we had to watch and showed off about how many episodes we fit into one day. You watched all of season 1 in one day? Puh-lease, I watched that and sacrificed sleep to start season 2 because did you see that cliffhanger? I did do a lot of rewatching as well, because anxiety levels were high and there is nothing better than diving into the familiar.
I won’t go into detail about all of the shows I loved this year because there a few, instead there’s a list with pretty pictures.
Umbrella Academy
Spinning Out (yes, this did in fact come out in 2020, but it was pre pandemic so feels like 50 years ago… also, I’m still not over it being cancelled)
Warrior (I thought I’d hate this show but it was so good)
Brassic (UK comedy that I loved last year and released a new season)
Schitt’s Creek
The Queen’s Gambit
Films
And that’s just TV shows, let’s not forget about the films I was watching throughout the year as well (turns out, not as many as I’d hoped simply because films don’t take up enough time in the long, long days I need to fill).
The Old Guard
Emma
Little Women
Books
My reading has been at a low for the past year or two. There have been slumps all over the place but even so I did read a few books I did love the past year. There weren’t as many new releases as I’d hoped to get to, but my life is always about my quest to get my bookshelves a little clearer and catch up on the backlog. But here are my highlights for 2020, I didn’t go into detail on anything else so I’ll just name the books for you. I’d link to my reviews but the year has been so hit and miss on blogging it’s more a case of what reviews?
The way I chose my favourites was simple, I went with the books I could distinctly remember, or remember enough of to know I enjoyed them anyway. They aren’t necessarily all really high rated reads for me, but that’s a whole other issue.
What were your highlights of 2020? I know it wasn’t a great year but I’m sure there was something which helped you make it through the year, so what book, show, film, album helped you survive?
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