End of Year Recap // Ranking My Best Posts of 2020

2020 was a hell of a year. I don't think I'm exaggerating to say that, more than any year in recent history, "2020" stands out as what Mrs Windsor would describe as an "annus horribilis" (yes, worse than when Diana died). Some people say that our definition of the year's start and end are arbitrary and have no meaning outside our collective social understanding. 2020 seemed determined to prove that idea wrong, fitting so many catastrophic events into one Gregorian year that you could be forgiven for thinking the natural world followed a calendar too. 

I'd like to say that all that is behind us now, but of course that's not true. We are still in the midst of a global pandemic, not to mention the fact that climate change, racial inequality, and the rise of fascism continue to be urgent problems. 

All of the above is true. However, celebrating the end of one year and the start of another is not without purpose. Viewing the whole scope of human existence as one long, uninterrupted march from prehistory to the present might be useful for cause-and-effect analysis, but it can be a little overwhelming for the individual human. Breaking up our lives into years helps us make sense of it, enabling us to reflect and look forward in a way that seems somewhat structured. 

I am currently in the process of just such reflection and anticipation, specifically with regard to this blog. Every year I plan to do more writing, looking back miserably on the lack of writing I produced in the previous year. In this year, I'm actually surprisingly happy with the amount of writing I've done. I have written a total of 44 posts on this blog in 2020, almost a post a week, which is something I'm very proud of. 

But! Not all posts are created equal. There are definitely some posts I am prouder of than others, so I thought it would be fun to look back on these and rank my best posts of the year. So, in no particular order, here are my top five Extra Libris pieces of 2020:

A Book That Changed My Opinion About Something // 30-Day Book Challenge - Day 26

The bulk of my 2020 posts (30 out of 44, to be exact) owe their existence to the 30-day book challenge I dragged out attempted over the course of the year. It's hard to choose just one of these posts as my favourite, because I truly am happy with most of them, but the one which sticks out the most to me is this one about Dreams of Joy. Writing it required being vulnerable about my past ignorance, which is always hard but still important to do. It also spoke to what I think is one of the great purposes of literature: to change people's minds. I'm pleased that I could share an experience like that, even if it meant owning up to some mistakes. 

Book Review: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

If there's one thing I particularly enjoy doing with my writing, it's being a bitch. I recently read an interview with Vigdis Hjorth in which she said that "anger is good for writing" - I'd be inclined to agree with her. Anger equals passion, and passion can help create compelling writing. 

My review of American Psycho is, I believe, an example of some such writing. Angry writing, that is. Whether it's compelling or not is for the reader to decide. Nevertheless, it was fun and cathartic to write, and it stands out as one of my favourite posts of 2020. 

Why J. K. Rowling is Not Our Ally

While this post didn't perhaps do as well as some of my others in terms of views, and there are several things I would do differently were I to go back and write it again, it remains one that I am still very proud of. I put a lot of effort into properly researching and structuring my post, making sure that everything I mentioned was correctly cited and that I referenced the opinions of trans people specifically. It felt important for me to write it, and in hindsight I'm still glad I did. 

5 LGBT+ Webcomics to Read Online Today

Unlike other posts which stood out in my memory for how they were fuelled almost entirely by anger and rage, I remember writing this post as a much calmer, more cheerful experience. Being the bitter bitch that I am, even my previous lists of LGBT+ media hadn't come without a dig at another creator (her name rhymes with Saylor Twift). This one, though, was driven purely by love for queer webcomics and a desire to share them with others. I hope that this comes across in the post. 

Film Review: Slaughterhouse Rulez (2018)

After the American Psycho review of January 2020, Bitchy Mary struck again in October of the same year, kicking off Extra Libris's Spooky Season series of posts with a some-holds-barred rant about the god-awful Slaughterhouse Rulez. Like American Psycho, this movie annoyed me so much that it seemed like its terribleness seeped into my blood, and writing a blog post was the creative equivalent of covering myself with leeches to suck the poison out (sorry Michael Sheen, but it really was a bad film). I felt much better after though, so I guess leeches creative outlets work for anger management after all.

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That's it! Those are my favourite posts of 2020. It was hard to choose just five, because I'm a narcissist and quite proud of my own work, but I think these ones are good representatives of the writing I did on this blog last year. If you're reading this, do you have a favourite post from Extra Libris? If so, why do you like it? Do you disagree with my choices, and if so, why? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Here's to many more posts in 2021!

Cheers!