Category: books

books, new releases, reviews, Uncategorized

Review: The Rosie Effect

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I’ll start by saying that Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project is possibly my favourite book that I’ve read so far this year.  I’ve leant it to my sister, my mum and my dad – and they’ve all loved it.  Don Tillman is one of my new favourite fictional characters – and I loved his “journey” in The Rosie Project.  Thus it was with excitement mingled with trepidation that approached its sequel – The Rosie Effect.  I’ve had mixed results with sequels – so my overriding thought going into this was “please don’t have messed this up Mr Simsion”.

The Book picks up around 10 months after the end of The Rosie Project, with Don and Rosie married and living in New York.  One day as they’re sitting down to dinner, Rosie tells Don they have “something to celebrate” and suddenly he has a whole new host of challenges to negotiate on the road to fatherhood – and yes I know that’s a slight spoiler – but hey – this is one of the posters that Penguin are using:

Twitter poster for The Rosie Effect

So as you might imagine, the prospect of fatherhood poses a whole lot of questions for Don – who takes life very literally and isn’t great with social conventions.  I don’t want to say too much more than that, because I think anything else I add is going to be a bit of a spoiler!

The problem with a lot of sequels is that to create a plot, the author needs to create some drama in a relationship, and on this front the idea of a baby is a good one – it’s a logical next step for Don and Rosie and doesn’t feel forced.  And with the addition of adjusting to life in a new country where there are new rules to learn there is plenty of potential for drama.  However some of the things that happen to Don as a result of the pregnancy do seem a little far fetched and some of Rosie’s behaviour didn’t seem to sit quite right with the Rosie of the first book.

But I still enjoyed it – and I wonder if my reservations are because my hopes were so high.  Looking at it the other way though, would I have liked the book so much if I hadn’t read the first one?  I think probably not – because I needed the investment in the characters that I’d already built up.

So, is it as good as the Rosie Project?  No.  Is it a satisfying sequel for those of us who loved the original?  Well yes – I think so.  After a few rocky moments in the middle – and towards the end – I finished up happy with the outcome.  If you haven’t met Don and Rosie before – go and read the Rosie Project first – but, overall, he didn’t mess it up.

My copy of The Rosie Effect came from NetGalley in return for an honest review – but I suspect it’s going to be widely available from all the usual outlets – like Foyles or on Kindle or you can find it on my shelf at My Independent Bookshop.

books, Chick lit, Classics, cozy crime, Thriller

Scottish-set books

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In honour of the referendum today (I’m very excited as I’m working on the coverage overnight – but think of my poor partner having to put up with my moodiness afterwards) I thought I’d put together some of my favourite Scottish set books.

We’ll start with a classic of its genre – The 39 Steps – which you can get for Free on your Kindle. If you haven’t read this adventure caper – where Richard Hannay attempts to escape spies – you really should.  It’s a bit like an Indiana Jones film but a book, set pre-World War One and in Scotland rather than than somewhere more exotic.  Definitely worth a look – and the play version in London is a hoot (if not at all the same feel!).

Moving on to cozy crime and M C Beaton’s Hamish Macbeth series.  There are 30 novels about the perpetually single-but-romantic-yet-indecisive policeman and his flock in the village of Loch Dubh.  You don’t need to start at the beginning with Death of a Gossip (although it helps with keeping track of Hamish’s romantic entanglements) and they’re all fun (if increasingly formulaic) detective capers as murders crop up in lazy Hamish’s vicinity.

Falling in love with a Highlander (or being thrown together with one) is a popular theme historical romance.  It is, however, one that I struggle with.  I don’t know why, but they give me the giggles and the internal cringes if you know what I mean.  The men tend to be particularly thick headed and the women a bit shrill and irritating.  But then I haven’t read that many of them – I’m sure there are many excellent examples (leave your suggestions in the comments!) – as even reading the blurbs for some of them makes me embarrassed to read historical fiction.  So I’m offering you one recommendation – Julia Quinn’s When He Was Wicked – which to my memory includes no kilts, caber tossing or haggis, just a Scottish earl, who is in love with his cousin’s widow.  This was one of the very earliest of Quinn’s books that I read, and it is still one of my favourites.  A good blend of old school romance in the style of Georgette Heyer and the sexy bits that you never got from her!

And for a modern Scottish set romance, I give you Katie Fforde’s Highland Fling – about Virtual Assistant Jenny Porter who goes on a business trip to assess a failing Highland textile mill after a fight with her boyfriend.  Jenny manages to get thoroughly wrapped up in the village life – as her personal life gets more and more complicated.  A lovely read for a cold night in front of the fire – and yes, I know it’s not winter yet, but it’s definitely coat weather at the station at 4.15 in the morning now, so I’m including it!

It wouldn’t be a list from me if I didn’t get a bit of Lord Peter Wimsey into it, so I have to mention Five Red Herrings – which is the novel between Strong Poison and Have His Carcase and sees Peter on holiday to Scotland (one suspects to escape after the stress of the Vane case) and stumbles across a murder.  Its a complicated tale, involving artists and train timetables amongst many things – and if you’ve read Busman’s Honeymoon (I think, it’s a Harriet novel anyway) the source of the quote about “a murderer eating two breakfasts to lend verisimilitude to an otherwise unconvincing narrative.”

So there you are – some Scottish themed reading to add to your list.  On my list of Scottish-set books to read are: Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series (the first is Cross Stitch) which several friends have recommended and has just been turned into a TV series and Alexander McCall Smith’s 44 Scotland Street.

books, Chick lit, cozy crime, fiction

Bargain Book Deals

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Now I know that not everyone is like me in having a to-read pile a mile high, so if you’re in the market for some more reading material – here are some of my favourite bargain deals around at the moment.

If you haven’t read Jane Lovering’s Please Don’t Stop The Music yet – where have you been?  It was the RNA’s Romantic Novel of the Year in 2012 and it’s only 99p on Kindle this month.

Christina Jones is another of my favourite authors – and the older parts of her back catalogue are being republished as e-books at the moment.  My backlog is such that I haven’t managed to read them all yet – but I did really enjoy Tickled Pink a few weeks back – £1.53 on the Kindle at the moment

Previously reviewed on the blog, Trisha Ashley’s Every Woman for Herself is currently £1.49 for Kindle – I loved it, if you haven’t read any of Trisha’s books before, this wouldn’t be a bad place to start (although my favourite is still A Winter’s Tale which is a fairly bargainous £1.99).  If you want a paperback Trisha fix, the paperback of Good Husband Material is available on sale for £2.99 on The Works’ site – which leads me nicely onto…

If you’re an M C Beaton fan, The Works have a selection of her books including Hamish Macbeth, Agatha Raisin and some of her historical romances for around £2 or £3  and a bundle of five Hamish books for £7.99 here.

Also on The Works website there are all three of Carola Dunn’s 1960s set Cornish mysteries for £2.99- ideal if you want a bit of cozy crime for your autumn nights – the first in the series is Manna from Hades.

I’m a big Lucy Dillon fan – and The Works have several of her books – not only A Hundred Pieces of Me – which I read and adored earlier in the year in the pre-blog era (you can see my rave review on Goodreads here) – but also Walking Back to Happiness and Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts – all for less than £3 each.

And the goodies just keep coming on the Works site (and they’re doing 6 for £10 so you can really splurge) with Laurie Graham’s A Humble Companion.  I love her books – although my favourite Gone with the Windsors is hard to get hold of – and this was her 2012 book which is an insider look at the Royal Household during the time of George III.  Well worth a look.

I’m hoping this list has something to tempt you – if you’re heading to the supermarket this weekend, I’m hoping some of the new releases I’ve reviewed recently will be in their deals – certainly Daisy Goodwin’s The Fortune Hunter should be.  I did try to find out what the deals were this week in WH Smith, but drew a blank.  If you spot any good bargains you think I might like – post them in the comments below!

Edited – I originally posted that Gone with the Windsors was out of print, I’ve since found some copies in some places – so I’ve upgraded it to hard to get hold of.  It’s definitely not on Kindle though, which is a big loss.

books, Uncategorized

Liebster Awards

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Thank you very much to Amanda at ChocolatePages for nominating me for a Liebster Award – and sorry it’s taken me so long to post this.  I’d never heard of them before – so I had to have a google to find out about more.  There appear to be a few variants of the rules, but the rules I was nominated under are:

1. Thank and link back to the blogger who nominated you.

2. Write 11 random facts about yourself.

3. Answer the 11 questions you have been asked from the blogger who nominated you.

4. Nominate 11 bloggers with under 200 followers and set them 11 questions to answer.

So here are your random facts about me:

1. I’m a journalist in my day job

2. I really don’t like violent films or horror movies – The Boy had to stop Pulp Fiction half way through because I was so upset.  This surprises people because as part of the aforementioned day (and sometimes night) job I sometimes have to watch really horrible videos.

3. I have a large collection of Chalet School books – old paperbacks and new reprinted (unedited) ones from Girls Gone By. They were one of my favourite series when I was younger – and I’m still working to complete my set!

4. My first job was a bell-ringer at church weddings – £5 per wedding (back in the late 90s) was much better than the hourly rate in a shop at the time!

5. I’m a massive theatre fan and write about it here – although I don’t post on that as often as I do over here, books being somewhat cheaper than the theatre!

6. I lived in France for a year when I was at university – I was at university in Tours

7. As a child I had an obsession with Queen Victoria.  I used to play pretend games where I was her.  Or her daughter Victoria.  This means I (still) know some really random stuff about her and the royal family.  Like the fact that Edward VIII’s name was actually Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David and that he was always known as David.

8. My Granny loved Mills and Boon books.  When I was about 12 I had a phase of borrowing them and reading them.  I thought they were like Sweet Valley High, but with sex.

9. My favourite movie – ever – is Pillow Talk. Although this trailer does it no justice at all.

10. I’m a massive motorsports fan – Sunday afternoons during the season will find me camped on the sofa watching Formula One or MotoGP.

11. I don’t really have a claim to fame – I’m very jealous of people who do.  The best I have is that my Grandad stood as a candidate to become an MP in the 1960s.  He didn’t win.

And my 11 answers:

1. Sweet or savoury? Savoury – especially anything involving cheese

2. What made you start blogging? A need for more than my twitter account to express myself?! Seriously though, Verity Reads Books came about as part of a concerted effort to reduce the to-read pile – I thought if I was telling the world about it, I’d be less likely to ignore the backlog.  It hasn’t always worked.

3. Cats or dogs? Cats

4. Who is your favourite author? This is really tough for me, because there are so many people that I love reading.  I think either Dorothy L Sayers or Terry Pratchett – because I have one or other of their books as an audiobook on my headphones almost all the time and that’s got to mean something right?! Apart from that, I buy everything that Katie Fforde, Trisha Ashley, Laurie Graham and Christina Jones publish.

5. Tell me one interesting fact about you? I used to be a breakfast sidekick on a local radio station.  I started off as the newsreader, and ended up spending the whole show in the studio chattering away.

6. Who would be your 3 ideal dinner guests, (dead, alive, famous or not)? Doris Day, Freddie Mercury and Cecil Beaton.  Who knows if they’d get on or not…

7. What would you serve them? My speciality (and the one dish I’ve never messed up so far) is Mary Berry’s Chicken Taleggio – originally from her book Cook Up A Feast but now widely available on the web.  Here for example.  So that, then a crumble and a cheese board probably – because I’d hate to do something that didn’t turn out right!

8. What’s your all time favourite tv show? Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Particularly the High School seasons.  Every time I watch an episode I remember how much of my vocabulary comes from there – and how it shaped my teenage years. I used to try and wear my hair like Buffy’s (style not colour) was during Becoming Part II *all the time*.  I can still quote BTVS extensively…

9. What’s your ideal date? A night out at the theatre with a nice meal beforehand – something My Boy has got the hang of now – usually arrange the theatre – he buys the dinner! A Dream date would be going to see some Formula One or MotoGP – The Boy took me to the MotoGP at Silverstone last year and it was amazing.

10. Who is your celebrity crush? Oooh.  Tough. Patrick Dempsey maybe – not only is he hot and in one of my favourite shows, but he’s a racing driver in his spare time. I also like Benedict Cumberbatch – the various series of Cabin Pressure are also on frequent rotation on my mp3) and I still have a massive soft spot for David Boreanz and James Marsters from Buffy.

11. Tell me 2 of your favourite bloggers? The first blog I ever encountered is still one of my favourites – and that’s Dooce.  I’ve been reading her since just after Leta was born (and she’s 10 now) – which is longer than I’ve known some of my best friends!  I also love The mighty mighty Monkseal whose blogs on various reality shows are so funny they’ll make you cry. I nearly put him as one of my 11 – but he’s not a well-kept enough secret to be under 200 followers!

Here are my 11 questions to be answered:

1. What was your first job?

2. What’s your claim to fame?

3. What was your favourite book when you were a child?

4. What’s your favourite film?

5. Who was your teenage crush?

6. What’s your embarrassing childhood secret?

7. What’s your favourite TV show?

8. What was your first pet

9. Have you ever lived abroad (aka not the country you come from) if so – where

10. Favourite Sweet?

11. And is there one book you think everyone should read?

And my bloggers and this is where I had problems – so it’s not the full 11 I’m afraid.  I didn’t want to use anyone who I don’t actually read – and I found a lot of the blogs I read didn’t fit the criteria.  In fact it’s a shameful three – but I’ve had this post sitting in draft form all ready to go bar the bloggers for nearly three weeks.  So as it was starting to look rude, I thought I ought to swallow my pride, admit my failings and post as is so to speak.

1. Nutley One

2. A Small Mind at the Theatre

3. The Lovely Emma Louise from EmmaLouBookBlog (I apologise if you’ve done this before and I couldn’t spot it)

So there you go.  I promise I’ll try and do better in future.

books, stats

August Stats

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On Good Reads to-reads shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 399 (I’ve had a weed)

New books* read in August: 28

Books from the Library Book pile: 1

Books from the to-read pile: 16

E-books: 10

Books read as soon as they arrived: 1

Most read author in August: Ngaio Marsh

Books* read this year: 157

Books bought: 5

Books acquired: 2

Ebooks acquired: 10 Netgalley 3 free ebooks

Net progress down the physical to read pile: 9 less books on the pile

Gosh.  I don’t think I’ve ever done this well before – and definitely not on a nightshift month – which usually ends up in me splurging on books in the early hours!  Instead – as you’ll see I acquired a lot of Netgalley books – which has pushed my unread folder on the Kindle to almost epic proportions.  But I can ignore that because The Pile in the corner of the living room is smaller!

 

* Total includes some short stories (1 this month – Part 2 of A Place for Us by Harriet Evans – review here)

 

books

Back to School Books

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The schools go back this week coming, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to recommend some books based in schools or with a school-y element

I’m starting with a recent discovery (thank you NetGalley) – Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens which combines two of my favourite things – boarding school stories and Golden Age detective stories.  Like Mallory Towers crossed with Agatha Christie but with a wry smile, this is the first book about the Wells and Wong Detective Agency – aka Daisy and Hazel – and the very real murder they encounter at their boarding school.  I sped through this during my break and train journey on a nightshift and it was a joy.  There are subtle lessons about bullying and race for the children (I’d say 9 – 12 year olds) and enough sly nods to things for the adults amongst us too.  I’ll be looking out for the next one.

Melissa Nathan was one of my favourite authors of the early 2000s – and her final novel, The Learning Curve – is one of the best novels I’ve read about being a teacher (speaking as a non-teacher of course).  It’s funny, it’s smart, it’s romantic and the characters are all brilliant.  I loved Nicky and thought her relationship with her class was utterly believable and Oscar and his dad Mark are brilliant too.  I cried in Tesco when I read in the front of this book that Melissa had passed away and it saddens me that so many people won’t have come across her work –  so I heartily recommend this.  And as a side note, every year I have found at least one amazing new author from the Melissa Nathan Award Shortlist, so although tragically there will be no more books from Melissa herself, I feel like she’s pointing me in the direction of other people carrying on her fine work.

As previously mentioned, I love a good school story – and it would be remiss of me not to mention my favourite boarding school series of all time in a round-up of books about schools and that’s Elinor M Brent Dyer’s Chalet School books.  I’m working my way up to a full post on the subject so I won’t say too much more, except that if you like school stories set in the 1920s through to the 1950s and haven’t read any Chalet School books, then where have you been.  They are slightly dated now, and children should be given the abridged Armada paperback versions (which take out the smoking and some of the more questionable language) but I still adore them. “I bet Jo could sing it better” is still a running gag between my sister and I when things go badly wrong based on the main protagonist’s ability to cure fever, coma and emotional trauma with her singing voice. The School at the Chalet is the first book and is easily findable on the second-hand book sites – and Girls Gone By Publishing are republishing the unabridged versions in paperback for those of us who can’t afford the very collectible original hardback books.

One of my recent discoveries are Angela Thirkell’s delightful Barsetshire novels from the 1930s – and one of the best of these that I’ve read is Summer Half – where Colin Keith decides to spend a term as a teacher (as you could in those days!) rather than live off his dad whilst he studies for the law.  The focus is on the teachers and their lives and in particular flirtatious attention-seeking Rose – the daughter of the headteacher – who is engaged to one master, but busy flirting with every man she encounters.  It’s delightfully funny, and if you’re a fan of children’s boarding school stories, this may well float your boat too.

And finally, little bit tangential, but I really enjoyed John Le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which starts with a section set in a school, when I read it last year – and I’m not normally a spy/thriller reader.  Well worth a look for anyone who hasn’t read this classic of the genre – although I can’t claim that the school section is the main bit of the plot!

books, Chick lit, new releases, reviews, romance

Review: Unfinished Symphony of You and Me

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This post was Not In My Plan for this week.  My carefully constructed plan of what to post when, in a nice pattern, on a regular schedule, constructed (and written) around my current batch of nightshifts.  Then I started reading Unfinished Symphony of You and Me on my dinner break at 3.45am on Wednesday morning.  And I’ve just finished it (it’s Saturday afternoon at the moment, but it’ll be Sunday when this publishes, because I can’t let go of the plan so much I post twice on the same day!) and it was too good for me to just add it to the books read list this week and say how much I’d enjoyed it.

I really loved this. I laughed, I cried, I couldn’t wait to find out what happened – but I didn’t want it to be over at the same time.  I’m kicking myself for not reading it sooner.

Lucy Robinson’s created a fabulous cast of characters and a heart-wrenchingly brilliant story that shows you the importance of living your life, taking control and following your dream and not waiting for someone* to sort it out for you.

I loved crazy, messed-up Sally’s journey to find herself as she takes her courage in her hands and faces her fears.  I was desperate to find out what had happened that summer in New York to turn her from the mousy wardrobe mistress into a student opera singer.  And I didn’t get too grumpy at the reveal being dragged out, once I finally found out what had happened and how totally ingenious it was.  There were a couple of points where I could see the car crash (metaphorically) coming and wanted to scream with frustration at Sally for being so stupid – but then it was so brilliantly done in the end that I Didn’t Mind**.

I don’t want to say too much else about the plot, because it’s another book where it would be all too easy for me to ruin it for everyone who hasn’t read this yet (go and buy it).  I will say though that Barry is my favourite mad housemate since Bing in Bernadette Strachan’s Reluctant Landlady.  And that’s saying something.

This is a perfect summer read.  Although if you read it at the beach, people may point at you when you start crying (I held out until nearly the end, which is surprising considering that post-nightshifts I get incredibly emotional).  And, of course, my idiocy means I’m reviewing it too late in August for many people who, unlike me, have already had their summer holiday.

Still, recapture that holiday reading feeling and go and buy yourself a copy of Unfinished Symphony of You and Me.  My copy came from Netgalley (in return for an honest review etc) but you can find it here, here, here and here (on Kindle) and I hope still in W H Smith and maybe even the supermarkets too.  So really you have no excuse.  I’m off book some tickets to the opera and to add everything else Lucy Robinson has written to my to-read list – and to try to resist the urge to Buy Them Now (because of that pesky backlog I’m trying to deal with). Go. Buy. Read. Enjoy.

Oh dear.  I think this may be another of my overly emotional crazy posts.  Like my moment over the first part of Harriet Evan’s new book.  This is why I plan things so I don’t have to be coherent on here during my nocturnal moments.

* A man

** And when you consider that I can barely read one of my formerly most read books any more because I’m so angry at the way that the third book in the series turned out, you’ll know that that’s a big deal.

 

books, historical, new releases, reviews

Review: The Fortune Hunter

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I was very excited to get an advance copy of Daisy Goodwin’s The Fortune Hunter ahead of its release in paperback on the 28th – as I really enjoyed her debut novel My Last Duchess (which I passed straight on to my mum who liked it too).

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The lovely paperback cover of The Fortune Hunter

I’ve had trouble coming up with a plot summary for this that doesn’t give too much away, so I’m settling for the blurb:

In 1875, Sisi, the Empress of Austria is the woman that every man desires and every woman envies.

Beautiful, athletic and intelligent, Sisi has everything – except happiness. Bored with the stultifying etiquette of the Hapsburg Court and her dutiful but unexciting husband, Franz Joseph, Sisi comes to England to hunt. She comes looking for excitement and she finds it in the dashing form of Captain Bay Middleton, the only man in Europe who can outride her. Ten years younger than her and engaged to the rich and devoted Charlotte, Bay has everything to lose by falling for a woman who can never be his. But Bay and the Empress are as reckless as each other, and their mutual attraction is a force that cannot be denied.

Now I didn’t know a lot about Sisi before I read this book – so I can’t tell you how close to what actually happened this is.  What I can tell you is that I really enjoyed reading this book – loved the characters and spent a large portion of the book knowing that it wasn’t going to turn out right for everyone, but hoping against hope that it might.

I galloped through this (sorry, couldn’t resist a horse pun in a book where so much is centred around riding) in about 3 and a half train journeys.  I’m not a horse rider or a hunting fan, but I still found the book enthralling and the horse-y sections were were engaging and easy for a non rider to follow. There were also some lovely details in this – I particularly enjoyed the scenes with Queen Victoria and John Brown.

The Historical Note at the end explained some of the liberties taken by the author with reality and the book left me wanting to know more about the real Sisi and the Hapsburgs – and sent me googling on a variety of characters and hunting for biographies of various people.  It also made me want to re-read My Last Duchess – so I’ll have to dig out my copy of that too.  I’ve passed this straight on to my mum – which is always a sign of a good book in this genre. I look forward to seeing what Goodwin comes up with next

The Fortune Hunter is out in paperback on the 28th of August and should be available in all good book shops like Waterstones and Foyles although I could only find a link to the hardback on their website – but if you can’t wait you could buy that now – as you can the Kindle edition.

books

Admitting Defeat

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I’ve done it.  I’ve called time. I have given up. Titus Groan has gone to the Shelf of Shame.  Eight months after I started reading it, I’ve decided it’s not for me, that I have other things that I would rather read and that there is no point in carrying on with something I’m not enjoying just for the sake of saying I’ve finished it.

What prompted my decision?  Well it was reading another book that I wasn’t enjoying and deciding to give up on that after 75 pages and only two weeks of trying.  The other book was one by an author that I’ve read before but not particularly enjoyed.  I was trying this author out again because I’ve seen really enthusiastic reviews and lots of books by this author in the bookshops and wondered whether I’d made a mistake.

When I read this author before, I was living in France and had a very limited supply of English books.  There was a foreign language bookshop in town, but the prices were high and the selection limited. I discovered some gems there (my first Isabel Wolff came from there) but some didn’t thrill me the same way.  And when you’ve paid £10 for a paperback you know would have cost you £6 tops in the UK, you feel dissatisfied if it’s not Amazing-with-a-capital-A.  And I wondered if that was what was behind my previous issues – after all I’d bought TWO of this authors books while I was in France (I mentioned that there wasn’t a large selection didn’t I) so there must have been something there that I liked – even if I had given them away rather than bring them home!

But about a quarter of the way in to the book I still wasn’t grabbed and I was finding excuses to read other things instead, so I decided to give it up.  And I thought “How is this different to Titus?” which I’ve been reading it for months, have got about a quarter of the way through and am constantly finding excuses to not read.  I was also paying far too much attention to how many pages I’d read – when I’m enjoying something I don’t notice how many pages until I put it down.

So I decided that this was A Sign – and admitted defeat.  These two books join my (small) shelf on Goodreads called The Shelf of Shame – The Ones I Gave Up.  It’s not a very long list – other books on it include Dan Brown’s third Robert Langdon novel and a Dawn French novel – overall I’ve given up on less than 1 percent of the 1100+ books I’ve got marked as read on Goodreads.  I would leave them off my account all together (they don’t count towards my total of books read in a year because I don’t add a date) but this way it reminds me of what I really didn’t like and stops me from making the same mistake again.

I hate giving up on books – particularly if they’ve been sitting on the shelf for a while waiting to be read – but I’ve decided, there are so many good books out there, why waste time on the ones I don’t like.  Titus Groan has joined the pile going to the charity shop – after all, he might be someone else’s new favourite book.

books, The pile

Three Month Progress review

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Well.  Three months ago I posted a picture of the to-read pile as part of my efforts to get myself to shrink my stockpile of books waiting to be read.  Here’s how it looked:

The to-read pile back in May
The to-read pile back in May

So here we are, in August and I thought it was time to report back on my progress in my quest to reduce the backlog.  Brace yourself:

Books
The current state of the to-read pile

So I think it looks a little better.  Of course this is partly because I’ve had a rationalisation of the library book stock pile and taken a lot back.  But even taking that into account I don’t think that the pile has got any bigger – and if you compare the photos you’ll see that although some of the same books are still there there’s also a fair few that have changed.  So I’m not too discouraged – but there is still a lot of work to do.