On Good Reads to-reads shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 422
New books* read in June: 19
Books from the Library Book pile: 2
Books from the to-read pile: 12
E-books: 0!
Books read as soon as they arrived: 5 (including a freebie)
Most read author in June: Donna Andrews
Books* read this year: 111
Books bought: 11
Net progress: -1 – the pile is a book smaller than it was last month!
There were 4 Phryne Fisher books from the Kindle this month – but very little else – which is naughty, but I’ve been focusing on the physical pile. It’s all excuses isn’t it?!
* Total includes some short stories (although none this month)
Acutally a good week in the end – I’m not as tired as I was last week, but that’s because I’ve had a fair few days off and that means less commuting. And a wedding at the weekend meant I didn’t have the traditional weekend sofa reading time either, so not bad considering all that!
Read:
The Liar’s Daughter by Laurie Graham
Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris
Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
No Nest for the Wicket by Donna Andrews
Real Murders by Charlaine Harris
Started:
A Place for Us by Harriet Evans
Tiger Milk by Stephanie de Velasco
One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson
Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin
Still reading:
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
A trip to Milton Keynes mid-week led to six book purchases for me (although a couple were books that I’ve already read on Kindle that I wanted hard copies of) and some picture books for some little cousins we went to visit. Add to that a book on the Kindle, an impulse purchase in Sainsburys and the next Meg Langslow and the to-read pile is multiplying again…
This week’s other excitement was getting pre-approved on Net Galley for Part One of the Harriet Evans book mentioned above. I’m still quite new to Net Galley (and it’s not as if I need further encouragement to add more books to the pile!) and it’s the first time I’ve been pre-approved for something. It’s the simple things isn’t it. I’ll let you all know what I think of the first installment as soon as I’m finished reading it.
Ok, so this doesn’t look like a very productive week reading-wise. And you’d be right. Sort of. I’ve re-read two and a bit Phryne Fisher books this week – and I’m doing something very rare – I’m trying to pace myself and make a book last. I love Laurie Graham’s books and Liar’s Daughter is her latest to be released in paperback (I valiantly resist the urge to buy them in hardback) and I’m trying not to gobble it up in one sitting. I had about 80 pages to go when I left home for a weekend working on Friday night – which meant fell under my rule about not taking books with me when I have less than 100 pages to read (because it means I have finished it before I get to London and then have to carry it around with me for no benefit) – so I’m expecting to finish this on Monday. On the bright side I did take Titus Groan with me for the weekend to try and finish it – as I’ve been reading it on and off for months now.
Read:
Owls Well That Ends Well by Donna Andrews
Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay
Started:
The Liar’s Daughter by Laurie Graham
Still reading:
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
Purchase wise – a good week – only one book bought – the next Meg Langslow which is coming from the States so may not arrive for another week yet. I also won another Goodreads First Read book – which has already arrived – so I have two of those that need reading asap now. Look for them on this list next week!
You can tell I worked four days this week and commuted each day can’t you?! A much better week for reducing the to-read pile – and a library book in there too! I also finally got around to reading The Fault In Our Stars ahead of the film release.
Read:
The Valley of the Shadow by Carola Dunn
The Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan
High Rising by Angela Thirkell
The Temptress by Paul Spicer
The Library of Unrequited Love by Sophie Divry
Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
Started:
Owls Well That Ends Well by Donna Andrews
Still reading:
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
On the purchasing front, I bought the next Meg Langslow book, my pre-order of Laurie Graham’s Liar’s Daughter arrived (I’d forgotten that was out this week – hurrah!) and that was it – apart from two children’s books from the New Foyles flagship store for The Boy’s nieces (Weasels and The Great Granny Gang if you’re interested). So progress on that front too!
Oh nightshifts. You really do fry my reading plans. I suppose it doesn’t help that I’ve been re-reading Phryne Fisher during my dinner breaks rather than reading something new, but I need something easy and fun in the early hours. Still, I don’t think I’ve done too badly all things considering.
Read:
Mutton by India Knight
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
Scruples by Judith Krantz
Started:
We’ll Always Have Parrots by Donna Andrews
Still reading:
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
The downside is that I had a bit of a book buying spree – one in the early hours of Monday morning, two in the early hours of Tuesday and two more in the early hours of Thursday. So the to-read pile hasn’t exactly shrunk this week – and I’m currently resisting the urge to by the next book in the Meg Langslow series as I’m enjoying We’ll Always Have Parrots…
On Good Reads to-reads shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 417
New books* read in May: 20
Books from the Library Book pile: 0 (Oops)
Books from the to-read pile: 10
E-books: 7
Books read as soon as they arrived: 3 (including 2 free books)
Most read author in May: Carola Dunn
Books* read this year: 92
Books bought: 16 actual books and 3 ebooks
Net progress: 6 more books on the pile
Dang it. That book buying spree in the charity shop, and the nightshift impulse buys ruined what could have been a really good month for to read pile reduction. And the last week of the month was derailed by the nightshifts when all I seem to do is sleep and work.
Drat.
* Total includes some short stories (1 in fact this month)
Oh dear. All those train journeys and I didn’t manage to read much as I was hoping – the list was looking very poor until a concerted effort at the weekend. This week coming I’m on nights – so it could go either way…
Read:
The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris by Jenny Colgan
On the brightside, all I bought this week was a free short story on Kindle and a mystery novel on the Kindle for 99p and I’m counting that as progress!
Squeezed in a bit of over-time this week and had an elections briefing on Saturday – so you’d think that was plenty of commutes to get my teeth into some books, but I don’t seem to have covered as much ground as I was hoping. I’m blaming this on my attempts to reduce the number of non-fiction titles waiting to be read – because they take me longer to read than some light fiction does. But it remind me how much I enjoy good non-fiction and so I’m thinking of adopting a policy of having one on the go at all times. But then I already have too many rules and policies and it’s starting to get ridiculous.
The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris by Jenny Colgan
The Blessing by Nancy Mitford
Still reading:
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
A bad week for self-restraint – but one of these was free and another borrowed
Now I was doing really well on the not buying books front, until Saturday lunchtime when I arrived really early for my shift and ended up wandering into a charity shop. Four books later and suddenly the to-read pile was looking monstrous again.
I had a bit of a panic earlier in the week when Jenn McKinlay’s book turned up – as I didn’t remember ordering it. It turned out that I hadn’t – it was a win in a Goodreads giveaway – so of course that had to jump straight to the top of the pile so that I could review it because when some one sends you a book and wants you to review it, you should really do that as quickly as possible…
The Railway Detectives is borrowed from my Dad, and the Terry Pratchett is the replacement for my duplicate copy of Trisha Ashley, so only 6 (gulp) books bought this week and a net gain of 2 on the pile (because the Delilah Marvelle was an ebook). I really do need to try harder, still, I have many shifts this week. But then that’s what I thought last week!
Only two days at work this week – and it was looking like a really bad week for progress down the to-read pile until I put some effort in over the weekend to improve the situation…
Some of this week’s purchases – one of which never made it to the to-read pile…
On the plus side, I finally finished Tales of the Jazz Age after making a concerted effort not to go and start something new until I’d finished with it. And the Anne de Courcey was a book that I borrowed from my mum *literally* years ago so I’m really pleased to have read that so I could give it back to her. On the downside, the physical pile isn’t getting any smaller – as two books this week were from the kindle and that was before the Incident in the charity shops and the fact that the new Trisha Ashley came out – and was in two for £7 at the supermarket… On top of that I may have made an unscheduled stop in The Works in Leamington Spa on Saturday night and bought another one! At least five of the six were books that I already had earmarked to read on my Goodreads list. And I said last week that I wanted to get the number of books on the go at once down – and I have. By one. I’m grasping at straws aren’t I?!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 