Tag: monthly stats

Books read this month: 32*

New books: 26

Re-reads: 7 (5 audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 9

NetGalley books read: 9

Kindle Unlimited read: 6

Ebooks: 3

Audiobooks: 5

Non-fiction books: 2

Favourite book: The Shampoo Effect

Books bought: We’re not going to talk about this, because after a Very Good Books Incoming in the middle of the month as you all know I went to Book Con and it all got a bit excessive. You’ve already seen the Book Con purchases, but there are a stack more that you haven’t yet from the days around the actual conference. And then there were another 13 ebooks…

Most read author: Three Dimsies (middle grade, not loads of pages) vs three St Just mysteries probably means that GM Malliet is th most read on page count

Books read in 2026: 233

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 588

A pretty solid month in reading – except for the number of books coming in. Yes I may have sold more than than I bought, but the stuff I bought is now on the already bulging to read pile, and the stuff I sold wasn’t taking up as much space. But I did have a wonderful time!

Bonus picture: A summer garden party I walked past on the way back to the station one day…

*often includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – but not this month!

Books read this month: 35*

New books: 28

Re-reads: 7 (5 audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 9

NetGalley books read: 3

Kindle Unlimited read: 4

Ebooks: 12

Audiobooks: 5

Non-fiction books: 3

Favourite book: Dolly All the Time

Books bought: lets gloss over

Most read author: Rachel Reid – four from the Game Changers series

Books read in 2026: 201

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 587

I am aware that the numbers don’t seem to add up this month – and that’s because there were two Wells books that I reread (for the umpteenth time) which are actual hardbacks, and have already been on my shelves for years so don’t really fit into any of the categories. But that’s why. Usually they do add up because the rereads are either audiobooks or ebooks. But not this time, and possibly the July stats they may not – and the July is because we have Book Con coming up in the middle of the month and if there’s one reason I might end up re-reading things I already own, it’s because a talk about it has inspired me – and all of the Girl’s Own stuff is physical copies. Anyway, aside from that, not a good month for reducing the NetGalley list, but a pretty good one for reducing the actual physical pile (the third over flow pile is significantly smaller than it was!) but I guess reading stuff that I actually bought on Kindle (as opposed to getting a e-proof of) is also something that I should be doing, so I guess I can find a bright side in everything!

Bonus picture: The RSC before The Tempest – on one of the first gorgeous weekends of the year.

*often includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – but not this month!

Books read this month: 35*

New books: 27

Re-reads: 8 (7 audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 10

NetGalley books read: 8

Kindle Unlimited read: 2

Ebooks: 8

Audiobooks: 7

Non-fiction books: 6

Favourite book: Really hard to chose between The Paris Match and Star Shipped

Books bought: 7 ebooks, 8 books and a couple of pre-orders arrived too, plus a holiday book from mum (thanks mum!)

Most read author: Jill Paton Walsh as I binged the entire Imogen Quy series.

Books read in 2026: 166

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 587

I may have bought too many books, but I did at least get more off the to-read pile than I put on it (just) and it was a really good month in non-fiction reading which makes for a change. I also did well on the NetGalley front but not on the Kindle Unlimited one – but I guess I can’t do everything!

Bonus picture: some more Wales – this time Anglesey – from the end of month trip.

*often includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – but not this month!

Books read this month: 38*

New books: 32

Re-reads: 6 (all audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 7

NetGalley books read: 10

Kindle Unlimited read: 4

Ebooks: 10

Audiobooks: 6

Non-fiction books: 3

Favourite book: Probably While You Were Seething

Books bought: About 15 ebooks bought, two books at the airport and a couple of pre-orders turned up too.

Most read author: Travis Baldree (two Legends and Lattes books

Books read in 2026: 128

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 587

Any month where I go on holiday means a good month in the stats usually, and this is no exception – because the holiday was longer than usual. I’m pretty pleased with myself for the amount of NetGalley books I read, but also because despite being away from home I still managed to read a fair few from the pile. We’ll skate over how many I bought though.

Bonus picture: another picture from the holiday…

*often includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – only 1 this month!

Books read this month: 33*

New books:26

Re-reads: 7 (6 audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 10

NetGalley books read: 8

Kindle Unlimited read: 6

Ebooks: 3

Audiobooks: 6

Non-fiction books: 1

Favourite book: of the things that have been published Agnes Aubert but also the upcoming Nora Breen sequel

Books bought: lets just skip over this because that Saturday in Leicestershire was a lot and that’s before anything else I did…

Most read author: Jess Kidd with Murder at Gulls Nest and the sequel

Books read in 2026: 92

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 598

A pretty solid month all in. I was actually quite surprised when I came to put this together because I thought I had more novellas in there than I did, but actually my dedication to the NetGalley list and reading from the pile at weekends has paid off a bit. Not as good on the non-fiction front though, so that’s something to work on – and it’s Good Friday today so maybe Easter weekend is my opportunity. All the motorsport is cancelled after all!

Bonus picture: Leicester Square Theatre right back at the start of the month ahead of a recording of The Horne Section podcast – complete with former Taskmaster contestant special guests!

*often includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – 4 this month!

Books read this month: 29*

New books: 23

Re-reads: 6 (5 audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 3

NetGalley books read: 11

Kindle Unlimited read: 9

Ebooks: 1

Audiobooks: 5

Non-fiction books: 1

Favourite book: Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter

Books bought: 9 books and 9 ebooks – it was all going really well until the last 10 days of the month when the Heated Rivalry books went on offer and then the damn burst on a bit of physical book purchasing too.

Most read author: hard to tell because it’s probably among the audiobooks – either Ngaio Marsh or Elizabeth Peters, because the Falcon at the Portal is now the longest book I’ve read this year and I’m a way through the next one too, but I’ve also done four Inspector Alleyns.

Books read in 2026: 58

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 599 – this is back a little again because I’ve added a bunch of the 2026 releases that I either want to read or have copies of via NetGalley. So hopefully that will come down again as I read them!

Firstly an apology that I’m posting this so far into March, but there were a few things that I wanted to talk about in the first week of the month that couldn’t really wait, and so this was the thing that got bumped. A pretty good month in reading to be honest. I’m pretty pleased with the number of books on the list from NetGalley, even if the to-read pile list is a bit shorter. I’m still some way off getting the list down to where I want it, but progress is progress.

Bonus picture: Unexpected stained glass spotted while wandering through Soho.

*often includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – 7 this month!

Books read this month: 31*

New books: 26

Re-reads: 5 (all audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 5

NetGalley books read: 5

Kindle Unlimited read: 12

Ebooks: 4

Audiobooks: 5

Non-fiction books: 2

Favourite book: Meet the Newmans

Books bought: 4 actual books (3 of them in Sheffield), 1 pre-order placed, 5 ebooks

Most read author: Goodreads tells me that the Elissa Sussman is the longest book I’ve read this year so far so it must be that!

Books read in 2026: 31

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 597 (I told you I’d done a cull!)

January started well, but then sailed a little bit off course on account of that entire week of skating in Sheffield. Which was amazing and I regret nothing. The week of recovery I regret a little bit more, but hey these things happen. There are more novellas on this list than usual – because at times that was all my fried little brain could cope with, but also because Patti Benning writes annoyingly readable things and I kept going straight on to the next one but also because Amazon dropped another Valentines Novella collection with a bunch of romance authors I like and I ended up reading those instead of finishing off some of the things I had on the go. I’d like to think February will be a better month in reading, but the Winter Olympics start on Friday and we all know how much I love the Olympics. And given that I can only watch one thing at a time and I also have to work, the reading may get a little sidelined in favour of figure skating, skiing and sliding,

Bonus picture: Another picture from my fabulous week in Sheffield!

*often includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – 10 this month!

Books read this month: 35*

New books: 29

Re-reads: 6 (5 audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 7

NetGalley books read: 6

Kindle Unlimited read: 10

Ebooks: 7

Audiobooks: 5

Non-fiction books: 2

Favourite book: Tough to choose between Season of Love and Second Chance Romance

Books bought: lets not talk about it

Most read author: Really hard to say because there weren’t any repeats ths month except Georgette Heyer rereads. So lets say that

Books read in 2025: 381

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 829 at the end of the year, but has now gone down after the cull I mentioned in yesterday’s resolutions post.

I finished the year pretty strongly once I had finished off my last states I actually managed to read some Christmas books and get some more NetGalley books off the list too. I’ve already said a lot about 2025, so there’s not a lot more to say here for once. But as we are now well into January, it’s time to look forward!

Bonus picture: one last Christmas photo – from Liberty’s main hall, it’s the good ship Liberty!

*often includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – 6 this month!

Books read this month: 30*

New books: 26

Re-reads: 4 (all audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 6

NetGalley books read: 1

Kindle Unlimited read: 8

Ebooks: 11

Audiobooks: 4

Non-fiction books: 1

Favourite book: hard to pick – the Phryne Fisher was bittersweet but lovely, the Helen Ellis was fun and I still really, really love Romantic Comedy even if I didn’t love the audiobook narrator’s rendering of the male characters!

Books bought: moving on…

Most read author: Jenn McKinlay if we’re looking at the new reads, Dorothy L Sayers if we include the re-reads too.

Books read in 2025: 346

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 802

I wrote a whole list of books that I was going to read in November at the start of the month, and then about a week later I did an audit of the 50 states challenge and realised that I needed to throw the original list out of the window. And so my major achievement for the month is ticking 16 (!) states off the list. Eight of those were already on either the virtual pile or the physical pile and another four came from Kindle Unlimited, so that was pretty good too. Now I just need to keep the momentum going and tick the last states off – we’re into single figures now so it’s very, very doable…

Bonus picture: I finished the beat the to read shelf bookcase in my journal. All of those green colours are mysteries of various types so you can see a bit of a pattern there…

*often includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – 3 this month!

Books read this month: 32*

New books: 27

Re-reads: 3 (2 audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 7

NetGalley books read: 6

Kindle Unlimited read: 11

Ebooks: 3

Audiobooks: 4

Non-fiction books: 4

Favourite book: Probably What You Are Looking For is in the Library

Books bought: lets skip over this…

Most read author: Jill Churchill – two more Jane Jeffreys books

Books read in 2025: 314

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 802

So after the progress of September on the NetGalley and pile front, October wasn’t quite as strong. The bright side is that the six NetGalley books I did read include all of the October releases, so for once I’m keeping pace with that, but the list is being somewhat propped up by novella and Kindle Unlimited. A lot of them were me trying new mystery series – and not always to great success. But if you don’t try them you don’t know, and I guess at least I’m getting the value out of my KU subscription!

Bonus picture: After the clock change, I’ve got sunrise on the train again – as opposed to dark until London – for a week or two. And this week the colours were amazing, although the frost in the fields is a sign of the weather to come…

*often includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – 9 this month!