Every year in the build up to Christmas I get a bunch of ‘gift guide’ emails from publishers and bookshops – I’m sure you’ll know the type, they usually consist of a list of the most recent releases, largely in hardback. These emails can be useful, no doubt, but they don’t always feel very heavily curated. Or at least, if they do have specific sections for genre or purpose, these are often buried down the bottom and easily missed. With that in mind, I thought I’d have some fun and put together my own gift guide based on the best books I’ve read in 2020, so if you’re on the lookout for any last-minute present ideas (or you just fancy a few more books for yourself – nothing wrong with that) then this might help.

There was a time, a few years ago when Track of Words was still in its infancy, when I made a point of writing reviews for every book I read. That was great, but it did lead to some reviews which don’t sit quite so comfortably alongside the science fiction and fantasy that make up the majority of what I cover. These days, for various reasons, that’s no longer the case; instead, I only review some of the books I read, and not only does this keep me happy, but I’m actually reading more! With that in mind, I thought it might be interesting for this article to talk a bit about the differences between reading for the purpose of reviewing, and reading just for fun.