Can you tell that I’ve been on holiday? Lazy days on the beach and even lazier evenings on the patio mean lots and lots of reading time. And then there was the flight home on Saturday. Lots and lots of lovely books – and a mix of fiction and non-fiction too. This may be the first time I’ve been on holiday and read all the paperbacks I took with me too!
Read:
Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham
The Book Club Murders by Leslie Nagel
Primary Colors by Anonymous
A Proposal to Die For by Vivian Conroy
Discovery of Desire by Susanne Lord
The Sex Lives of English Women by Wendy Jones
The Barista’s Guide to Espionage by Dave Sinclair
A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor
Death of a Ghost by Margery Allingham
A Trail Through Time by Jodi Taylor
When A Child is Born by Jodi Taylor
A Roman Holiday by Jodi Taylor
Started:
Dustbowl Girls by Lydia Reeder
Queen Victoria’s Youngest Son by Charlotte Zeepvat
Still reading:
The Underground Railroad by Coulson Whitehead
The holiday meant reduced opportunities for physical book buying – but I did buy a few on the kindle – a couple of Chronicles of St Mary’s novels and novellas and a little spending spree in Gollancz’s ebook sale.
Now that is much more like it. Lots of reading done this week and some good stuff in there. I suspect the Coulson Whitehead may take me a while to read – the writing is beautiful but by golly is the story tough.
Read:
The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
You’re the One that I Want by Angela Britnell
Pumpkins in Paradise by Kathi Daley
The House in Quill Court by Charlotte Betts
Michelangelo’s Ghost by Gigi Pandian
Clockwork Gold by Jenny Schwartz
Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon
Louisiana Longshot by Jana Deleon
A Kim Jong-Il Production by Paul Fischer
Started:
The Underground Railroad by Coulson Whitehead
Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham
Primary Colors by Anonymous
Still reading:
N/a
The only book I bought this week is Margaret Atwood’s new graphic novel Angel Catbird. Check me being better at impulse control!
Not a very disciplined week – I kept starting new books and didn’t manage to finish them all. Naughty Verity. I’ve got copies now of a couple of books on my Autumn Preview wishlist, but I’m trying to resist the urge to start reading them immediately until I’ve got the ongoing list down a touch!
Read:
Enchanted August by Brenda Bowen
The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell
After Dead by Charlaine Harris
Curious Minds by Janet Evanovitch and Phoef Sutton
When Everything Feels Like The Movies by Raziel Reid
The Rise and Rise of Tabitha Baird by Arabella Weir
Started:
The House in Quill Court by Charlotte Betts
You’re the One that I Want by Angela Britnell
The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Still reading:
A Kim Jong-Il Production by Paul Fischer
The Jennifer Crusie got unexpectedly 50-paged-and-out (although i read the end to see if it went the way I thought it was going to – it did), hence its disappearance from the list. I bought three second-hand books to get some free postage from Amazon, but apart from that, I was very restrained and good!
Ok, so I’ve actually read more this week than this list suggests – as I did another round of 50 pages and out (see Book Pile post) and got another half dozen books or so off the pile.
Read:
The Venetian Venture by Suzette A Hill
The Counterfeit Heiress by Tasha Alexander
Ready to Were by Robyn Peterman
The Secrets of Wishtide by Kate Saunders
A Leader in the Chalet School by Elinor M Brent Dyer
Herring in the Library by L C Tyler
The World’s Wife by Carol Ann Duffy
Started:
A Kim Jong-Il Production by Paul Fischer
Crazy for You by Jennifer Crusie
The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell
Still reading:
n/a
I bought a stack of second hand Chalet School books while I was in York visiting my little sister – and the new (well newly rereleased) Trisha Ashley book. But other than that I was very good. Honest. Apart from 3 books in the charity shop. Oops. But that was before the second phase of the cull. I’ll be better now…
A Bank Holiday weekend bonus post for you – on my recent “rationalisation” of the to-be-read pile. When I was little, when mum wanted us to have a tidy up and clear out of our rooms, she would call it a rationalisation. I think this was mostly because Little Sister and I were extremely loath to throw anything away, so if we thought that we’d have to we’d kick up a stink. But a rationalisation was different (or so my mum said) we were just looking to make sure we had what we needed – no duplication etc. She’s cunning my mum. Thus a clear out for me is always called a rationalisation. It sounds less scary, less final – more productive.
So my to-read pile has got a little out of hand – even for me, so on a recent Saturday night, after I’d finished the book that I was reading I had a round of the 50 pages and out reading challenge to help get the to-read bookshelf down. The challenge is fairly self-explanatory – you give a book 50 pages – and if you’re not hooked or don’t care by that point you can give it up and put it on the charity shop pile. Some of the books didn’t need 50 pages. This doesn’t mean that they’re bad books, it just means they’re not for me. Often it means they come under the “Verity tries to kid herself that she’ll read literary fiction” banner. Because we all know that if given a choice, I’ll go for romance, or crime, or historical fiction, or comic fiction over award winning books. You’ve seen my Week in Books posts, you know the score.
Some of the 50-pages and out victims – nothing wrong with them, just not for me.
Then I took to the piles behind the sofa. I did this while The Boy was at work, so he couldn’t see how bad it had got. I have a magpie’s eye for books. I’m always picking up more and I have various different sources for them – many are second hand, or review copies – so I often haven’t paid anywhere near jacket price for them.* I yank them all out, inspect what’s there, hope there aren’t any duplicates in the pile (it has happened) and then have a weed. What literary fiction have I picked up thinking “I’ll read that some day” and then ignored in favour of pretty much everything else? Which books are in there by an author that I’ve got fed up of or have overdosed on? Which ones would I take on holiday with me to read, and then end up ignoring them in favour of the Kindle all week?*** Which are later books in series that I could read if only I pulled my finger out and read the earlier ones? Which have been sitting in that pile for ages, not getting moved onto the to-read bookshelf because there’s always something I fancy more? Which, if I’m being really very honest with myself, am I never going to get around to?
I’m not good at this part. But I don’t have time to give all of these 50 pages. I keep make a new pile of candidates for the 50-pages and out challenge – the ones where there is a realistic chance that I’ll like them enough to keep reading – and give that a prime spot near the front of the sofa arm.. But some, after careful consideration, I move straight to the charity shop bag. Then I reform the piles – trying to move some of the older stuff to the top, to sort it into genres and sizes and hide it all behind the sofa again.
One bag of books in front of the to read shelf after the sofa pile cull. The photos meant to be arty…
I hate admitting that I won’t read some of these books, that my eyes are too big for my stomach in book terms. But having a rationalisation does usually put the brakes on my aquisitions a little bit because I feel so guilty about the big stack of stuff that’s still waiting to be read. I could – in a very real sense – keep myself stocked up for books for months without having to buy any more, but we all know I don’t have that will power. So I sort, I give the excess to one of a series of charity shops I like around town, and then I make an effort to try and read from the pile for a few weeks. Or that’s the idea at any rate…
*Which is obviously a good thing or I’d be wasting money hand over fist,** which wouldn’t be good.
**I do sometimes wonder if the to-read pile would be any better if I did have to pay for all my books, and then I remember that when I moved to Essex I took 7 books with me, and when I moved back to Northamptonshire 3 years later I brought nearly 80 back with me – and that was after having held a cull before moving and having got rid of some as I went a long. So having to pay full price doesn’t stop the book acquisition – even when (as I was at that point) I have a *very* tight budget.
*** It happens. I take something literary fiction-y on holiday with me to force myself to read it, and then I end up ignoring it in favour of the kindle – reading backlog or buying more books in series – and then bring it home, unread, but well travelled.
So I had a bit of a rationalisation this week. A couple of books are gone from the long serving list because I decided I didn’t want to finish them. A few more are gone from the pile and not mentioned on here at all because I started them and didn’t like them. I still have more to do to get the pile under control, but I’m working on it.
Read:
Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich
A Mint Condition Corpse by Duncan MacMaster
Death of Liar by MC Beaton
Thursday’s Children by Rumer Godden
Dead White Female by Lauren Henderson
American Housewife by Helen Ellis
The Man on Top of the World by Vanessa Clark
Started:
The Secrets of Wishtide by Kate Saunders
The Venetian Venture by Suzette A Hill
Still reading:
n/a
In the spirit of dealing with the pile, I’ve been very restrained this week – I didn’t buy any new paperbacks at all – and my kindle acquisition was a freebie. I’m working on being better…
Romance, crime and magic appear to be the themes of last week’s reading – and I didn’t even realise that I was doing it! Some of the stories below were not full length novels, so I didn’t quite read as much as the list might suggest – although at over 500 pages Carry On might make up for that a bit!
Read:
What I Did For A Duke by Julie Anne Long
Rivers of London: Night Witch 3 by Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel
Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham
A Right Honorable Gentleman by Courtney Milan
So Sweet by Rebekah Weatherspoon
Play With Me by Alisha Rai
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
Started:
American Housewife by Helen Ellis
Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich
Still reading:
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink
The Man on Top of the World by Vanessa Clark
I bought two books at the charity shop – for 75p altogether – they’re American editions of Old School Romances and you don’t see them very often so I had to have them!
Oh boy, this week ended up a lot busier that I thought it would. And the reading has suffered. I was still quite post nightshift-y at the start of the week – so reading was slow and gentle, and then I did a lot of work and didn’t have a lot of free time. All this made me tired and find it slow to settle to anything.
Read:
Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries by Various Authors
The Highlander by Kerrigan Byrne
Sweet Tomorrows by Debbie Macomber
A Killer Closet by Paula Paul
The Crepes of Wrath by Sarah Fox
The Canal Boat Cafe by Cresside McLaughlin
Started:
What I Did For A Duke by Julie Anne Long
The Man on Top of the World by Vanessa Clark
Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham
Still reading:
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink
On the brightside, I didn’t buy any books. So progress there even if I didn’t read as much as I wanted.
I did five nightshifts last week, my brain had hit a go-slow by Wednesday morning and so I didn’t get as much read as I wanted. Fingers crossed I’m back in normal working order soon!
Read:
Daughters of the Bride by Susan Mallery
Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham
The Herring Seller’s Apprentice by L C Tyler
Ten Little Herrings by L C Tyler
Behind the Shattered Glass by Tasha Alexander
Buzz Books 2016: Romance by Various Authors
Started:
Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries by Various Authors
Still reading:
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink
Those among you who’ve been coming here a while will know that Nightshifts = book purchasing. I was fairly restrained this time out – two Kindle sequels bought in the early hours and 3 books at the supermarket on Friday after I’d finished when my defences were low…
A bit of a struggle in the middle of this week – no idea why. And as I started a run of five nightshifts on Sunday evening, expect light, non-taxing reading next week!
Read:
Trouble at Melville Manor by Mabel Esther Allen
Death in the Floating City by Tasha Alexander
A Demon Summer by GM Malliet
Curtain Up by Noel Streatfeild
Man on a Rock by Grant Sutherland
A Woman Unknown by Frances Brody
Started:
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink
Still reading:
Daughters of the Bride by Susan Mallery
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
3 second hand books bought – one to replace a book I lost a while back, two to read.
