Category: The pile

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: February 20 – February 26

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Nightshifts are finally over and I’m busy trying to get myself back onto normal person time – which is proving harder than usual after two weeks on nights.  The reading is still of the light and happy variety, but there’ve been some gems in there.

Read:

Seven Minutes in Heaven by Eloisa James

Pretty Face by Lucy Parker

Hack by Duncan MacMaster

Here We Go Round by Mabel Esther Allen

Judy the Guide by Elinor M Brent Dyer

A Secret Garden by Katie Fforde

Rivers of London: Black Mould Vol 1 by Ben Aaronovitch et al

Rivers of London: Black Mould Vol 2 by Ben Aaronovitch et al

Started:

A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams

Still reading:

First Women by Kate Andersen Brower

Shock and Awe by Simon Reynolds

I didn’t buy any books.  None. Despite the nightshifts.  I’m so proud of myself.  It’s the simple things.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: February 13 – February 19

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Nightshifts all this week.  Nightshifts all next week.  Take a guess at what I’ve been reading.  Yup. No literary fiction in sight!  There are some very good books among them and I’ve managed to get away from the cozy crime a little too!

Read:

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti

The Wicked City by Beatriz Williams

The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent by Susan Elia MacNeal

Shunned No More by Christina McKnight

The Ballad of Sean and Wilko by Paul Charles

Headgirl at Vivians by Patricia K Cauldwell

Kennelmaid Nan by Elinor M Brent-Dyer

Started:

Seven Minutes in Heaven by Eloisa James

Still reading:

First Women by Kate Andersen Brower

Shock and Awe by Simon Reynolds

No books bought.  I’m actually quite proud of myself for resisting the urge to order a tonne of Kindle books in the early hours.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: February 6 – February 12

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A busy week at work, with four and a half commutes means lots of reading done, which is nice. I finally finished American Wife – which took me a while because it was my bedtime book – and made some inroads to my NetGalley list (it’s so easy to find and request stuff on there).

Read:

Copy Cap Murder by Jenn McKinlay

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

Waiting for an Earl Like You by Alexandra Hawkins

The Mystery of the Painted Dragon by Katherine Woodfine

The Riviera Express by TP Fielden

Verity Fair: Custard Creams and Pink Elephants by Terry Wiley

Circle of Influence by Annette Dashofy

Started:

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti

Still reading:

First Women by Kate Andersen Brower

Shock and Awe by Simon Reynolds

I didn’t buy any books this week – although I did pick up a big stack of books that I ordered a few weeks ago for a bargain price.  Two steps forwards, one step back!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 30 – February 5

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So it turns out that I read almost nothing but cozy crime this week.  I realised this was happening on Friday and decided to roll with it and work my way through some advance copies I had waiting on the kindle.

Read:

A List of Cages by Robin Roe

Cropped to Death by Christina Freeburn

The Semester of Our Discontent by Cynthia Kuhn

River City Dead by Nancy G West

The Art of Vanishing by Cynthia Kuhn

Tell Me No Lies by Lynn Chandler-Willis

Fatal Brushstroke by Sybill Johnson

Started:

Copy Cap Murder by Jenn McKinlay

Still reading:

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

First Women by Kate Andersen Brower

Shock and Awe by Simon Reynolds

Three ebooks bought this week – but no actual books, I’m not sure whether that’s progress or not!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 23 – January 29

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I started the week (unexpectedly) doing a bit old 50 and out cull – nothing was capturing my fancy.  But it has got a few books off the virtual to-read pile.

Read:

The Flying Classroom by Erich Kästner

Danny Dingle’s Fantastic Finds: The Super-Sonic Submarine by Angie Lake

A Thrilling Term at Janeways by Elinor M Brent Dyer

Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars by Miranda Emmerson

Murder of a Chocolate Covered Cherry by Denise Swanson

Started:

Shock and Awe by Simon Reynolds

Still reading:

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

First Women by Kate Andersen Brower

I didn’t buy any books this week – but I acquired quite a lot because the arts department upstairs at work is moving offices and everyone seems to be having a clear out of there shelves – meaning lots of books up for grabs.  Oops.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 16 – January 22

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Well the week started with my birthday (yes I know, I was celebrating last week.  We take birthdays seriously in my house) and although I read a lot of American Wife and First Women I didn’t finish them, and I also spent a lot of the second half of the week reading about the handover of power in the US, the end of the Obama administration and the start of the Trump one.  So not a lot of books got finished.

Read:

Rivers of London: Night Witch by Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel and Lee Sullivan

A Killer Plot by Ellery Adams

Blitzed by Norman Ohler

Privates on Parade by Peter Nichols

Started:

A Thrilling Term at Janeways by Elinor M Brent Dyer

Still reading:

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

First Women by Kate Andersen Brower

I had a mega spending spree in Hay on Wye on my birthday (Monday) buying half a dozen books for myself and another couple as gifts for other people.  But beyond that I was very good and restrained.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 9 – January 15

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I’m not quite sure where my reading time went at the start of the week, but I know where it went at the end because we went away for a long weekend for my birthday. What a treat. 

Read:

The Draycott Murder Mystery by Molly Thynne

A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn

New York, Actually by Sarah Morgan

Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans

Wrong For Me by Jackie Ashenden

Three Men and a Maybe by Katey Lovell

Started:

 Blitzed by Norman Ohler

Still reading:

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

First Women by Kate Andersen Brower

 I may have bought a few books. But hey, I’m having an extended birthday treat!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: January 2 – January 8

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Three nights away from home impaired my reading progress somewhat this week, and also my attempts to read my way through the bottom of the to-read pile.  Still at least one of the books I did read is eligible for a category on the #ReadHarder challenge, so that’s good.

Read:

The Making of A Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Fountain of Sorrow by Paul Charles

More Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham

The Vets at Hope Green, Part 1 by Sheila Norton

Paradise Lodge by Nina Stibbe

Started:

The Draycott Murder Mystery by Molly Thynne

Still reading:

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

First Women by Kate Andersen Brower

Two books bought this week – but one’s in French, so its educational – and the other was for Him Indoors as well as me.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: December 26 – January 1

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Welcome to the week after Christmas.  You’ll see that I got one of the books I wanted and have already started reading it.  You may also detect a slight free book spree over New Year.  What can I say.  I regret it.  And because of the fireplace situation, the bottom of my to-read pile is in the box at the top, so there are some books I’d almost forgotten I had getting an outing!

Read:

Midnight at Tiffany’s by Sarah Morgan

Deadly Duo by Margery Allingham

Grunt by Mary Roach

A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley

Open for Business by Cressida McLaughlin

I Love The Sound of Broken Glass by Paul Charles

The Billionaire’s Christmas Virgin by J S Scott

Perfect Holiday Fling by Farrah Rochon

Started:

First Women by Kate Andersen Brower

Fountain of Sorrow by Paul Charles

The Making of A Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Still reading:

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

I didn’t buy any books this week – but as I mentioned, I had a little wander through the free book chart on Amazon.  But hey, they didn’t cost me anything and I don’t have to finish them if I don’t like them…

The pile

My 2017 Reading Resolutions

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I wondered as I was writing this post what the point of it was.  After all I’ve make a resolutions posts before and it has not gone well.  But as the whole purpose of this blog when I started it a few years back was to try and make myself accountable for bringing the to-read pile down and that’s failed singularly so far (as seen in my state of the pile post the other day), who am I to baulk at writing posts about things I suck at.  So, what am I going to try and do in 2017?

Well 2016 was the first year that I have read less than the previous year, since I started using Goodreads religiously to track what I read.  And I think that’s a good thing. 2015’s 365 books was a monster total – despite having said at the start of that year try to be less focused on stats.  I purposely didn’t set any resolutions last year – except to try and keep the previous year’s resolutions better.  And I nearly did that this year – only 1 month where I didn’t read a library book, and 1 where I hadn’t even started a non-fiction book.

So this year, I’m going for a renewed focus on quality reading, and enjoying my reading.  I want to read more current affairs writing – I’ve just taken out a trial subscription to the New Yorker because I find myself reading a lot of their stuff online, I already have a Vanity Fair subscription and I’m midway through a Wall Street Journal trial and I want to make the most of them and – in the case of the trials – work out if they’re value for money without thinking “I should be reading a book now” which I’ve found myself doing a few times this year.

But, as I mentioned at the top, the whole point of this blog is for me to conquer the to-read pile.  So I need to be better at not buying a couple of books every time I go into Tesco, and not spending my nightshifts impulse buying second-hand books.  Better at reading what I have – and just picking up something, anything off the bookshelf instead of staring at it thinking “I don’t fancy any of these”.  Pick up a book, try it and if I don’t like it, give up.

Lofty ambitions.  Will they come to pass?  Who knows.