Tag: The pile

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 17 – March 23

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Another good week – nice books and good entertainment when I wasn’t reading with a theatre trip, Formula One on the TV (albeit still in a somewhat antisocial timezone) and a bit of a day out on Sunday too. And it’s starting to feel like spring. The temperatures have improved and it’s light when I catch the train to work now. Of course the clocks haven’t changed yet, so I’m about to be plunged back into darkness but I’ll enjoy a few days of being able to see the alpacas in the field when I go passed them while I can – it’s been a long old winter.

Read:

Hand in Glove by Ngaio Marsh

The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths

Dead Water by Ngaio Marsh

The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths

Ruth’s First Christmas Tree by Elly Griffiths

Murder Below Deck by Orlando Murrin*

Juliet Overseas by Clare Mallory

To Catch a Raven by Beverly Jenkins

Started:

The Oscar Wars by Michael Schulman

Still reading:

The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovitz*

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Ummmmm. A few. Because y’know I’m reading the Elly Griffiths back to back and acquiring the next one(s) in the series as I go…

Bonus picture: Kirby Hall this weekend, where we went out to get some culture

Hilariously, the secondhand book sale selection had one of the Puffin Island books in it – the first time I’ve seen any of them in person for ages. It’s like I willed it into being by writing about them on Friday!

*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 10 – March 16

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Well I can confirm that I am in a full on binge of the Ruth Galloway series. I read three this week, but I also spent a couple of hours tramping around central London after work one day looking for the next in the series at a sensible price (new and secondhand shops, from Charing Cross Road to St Pancras. It was good exercise and in one shop another customer liked my bag (from Strand Books in New York) so much he asked if he could take a picture of it. So that was fun. Anyway, we’re halfway through March, I’m not halfway through my NetGalley books for the month, and I’m acquiring books at a rate of knots. But I’m having fun doing it and I did make some more progress on Cher’s memoir, so I’m not too cross at myself.

Read:

Singing in the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh

A Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths

False Scent by Ngaio Marsh

The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths

The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths

My Big Fat Fake Marriage by Charlotte Stein

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie

Started:

To Catch a Raven by Beverly Jenkins

The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovitz*

Still reading:

Murder Below Deck by Orlando Murrin*

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Well as you could tell from Books Incoming, quite a few. That is to say four paperbacks bought and a pre-order arrived plus one ebook and another book preordered.

Bonus picture: the rather delightful wool display system in a haberdashers store in Soho.

*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 3 – March 9

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Another busy week in life and reading – complete with a migraine in the middle to add to the mix. Anyway, a good proportion of actual books, even if some of them were new purchases rather than from the shelf. And I did get another one off the long running list. Yay me.

Read:

Off With His Head by Ngaio Marsh

The Ten Teacups by Carter Dickson

Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh

The House at Sea’s End by Elly Griffiths

Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld

A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths

A Traveller in Time by Alison Utley

Started:

Murder Below Deck by Orlando Murrin*

Still reading:

Abdication by Juliet Nicolson

Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher

Ummmm. Quite a few books acquired. And it’s not just the Kindle offers post that’s responsible – there were also a couple of actual books…

Bonus picture: out by the canal in the lovely spring weather at the weekend

*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.

books, stats

February Stats

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Books read this month: 30*

New books: 20

Re-reads: 10 (9 audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 2

NetGalley books read: 5

Kindle Unlimited read: 10

Ebooks: 3

Audiobooks: 9

Non-fiction books: 1

Favourite book: Hard to decide – either The Favourites or The Crossing Places per my stats page on Goodreads

Most read author: hard to tell because only one book finished for everyone except the Ngaio Marsh and Agatha Christie re-listens, but I did start a second Elly Griffiths book so maybe her?

Books bought: too many

Books read in 2025: 61

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 760

A solid month in the end, although a fair few novellas and audiobook re-listens in there. Onwards to March!

Bonus picture: A relic of my student days is that I am unable to resist a cocktail with Midori in it, even if it comes with googly eyes.

*includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – including 5 this month!

The pile

Books Incoming: Mid-February 2025

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For once I have already read half of these. So they’re not going into the pile – but straight onto the shelves – or in some case to the parents for them to read. Who knew I could do that. Actually it’s probably one of the most me things ever – the mood reader buys books and immediately reads them instead of everything waiting on the shelf. Anyway: the ones I’ve read are the Richard Coles, the Nev Fountain and the second Vicki Delany. The Elly Griffiths is the next for me in the series after I remembered about them when mum’s book club read the first one. And then the other two are cozy crimes I had a read of when I was in Waterstones Picadilly and Gower Street and liked the look of. So not adding too much to the pile but not exactly restrained either!

books, stats

January Stats

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Books read this month: 31 *

New books: 19

Re-reads: 12 (all audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 5

NetGalley books read: 2

Kindle Unlimited read: 8

Ebooks: 4

Audiobooks: 12

Non-fiction books: 1

Favourite Book: Paradise Problem (although the final part of the Fangirl Manga was also really good)

Most read author: excluding the Ngaio Marsh and Kerry Greenwood audiobooks, Diane Mott Davidson and Vicki Delany with two each.

Books bought: Five books and three ebooks

Books read in 2025: 31

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 760

A very busy month in real life, and a set of stats held up by the fact that it’s the start of the new year and audiobook relistens count to the total again. Relatively restrained on the purchasing front – mostly helped by the fact that a lot of what I wanted to read was in Kindle Unlimited.

Bonus picture: my favourite sign from my visit to Bookends at the start of the month

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

The pile

Books Incoming: Mid-January 2025

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It’s that time again – my latest batch of book arrivals. So we have one one post Christmas, panicky 50 states purchase that didn’t turn up in time and will get used for this year (The Children’s Blizzard), three purchases in Carlisle in Bookends – including a replacement for my awol copy of Goodbye to All That in the same edition of the original, and a Christmas themed murder mystery bought in January. Restrained really.

books, stats

December Stats

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Books read this month: 38*

New books: 28

Re-reads: 10 (all audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 6

NetGalley books read: 0

Kindle Unlimited read: 18

Ebooks: 4

Audiobooks: 10

Non-fiction books: 3

Favourite book this month: Cure for the Common Breakup or Christmas is All Around

Most read author: Kerry Greenwood because all 10 of those audiobooks were Miss Fisher mysteries and no other author got on the list more than once because there were a lot of states to tick off…

Books bought: 2 preorders, 6 ebooks, 1 book. Most of the six were to fill in missing states, although Kindle Unlimited did a lot of that work for me.

Books read in 2024: 413

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 756

A month spent frantically ticking off the missing states in the 50 states challenge because that was infinitely more achievable than the idea of me carrying around physical books the whole month to try and finish that challenge, or in fact buying the kindle versions of books on the shelf to do it that way (because that is Defeating The Point). But I got there in the end, and the full list of what ticked off what is coming up in the next few days. All in all, a pretty good year in reading – 413 is my highest ever total, but I’m under no illusions that that’s because of the sheer number of cozy crime novella series I’ve read this year. But I couldn’t have completed the 50 states without them this year, so goodness knows what I’ll do next year if I do it again. I will try and pace myself better if I do it again – the mad dash in December isn’t a lot of fun and it meant I didn’t finish any NetGalley books last month because they didn’t fit the missing states. I need to work on that. I think I have done better at keeping my requests there down, but I always say that and I’m not sure it’s true. Anyway: here’s to a fresh start and a fresh slate in January!

Bonus picture: Goodreads tells me over 100k pages last year. Wowzers.

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

The pile

Books Incoming: Christmas arrivals

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A four book haul this Christmas so far, with two from this year’s list, another from my long term wants list because I didn’t know what had been bought already when I got another request for books (and didn’t want to spoil the surprise by asking the people who I knew had bought from it already!) and an unexpected middle grade fantasy which looks really good. I do love a boarding school story. I’m hoping there will be one more to come – but we’ll see! Anyway, the Kennedy-related portion of the to-read pile is replenished as well as the 1930s notables one. And now I can take a look at what might have hit the Boxing Day sales and see what else I would like to acquire…

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

books, The pile

Books Incoming: Christmas-themed Edition

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This is actually the final part of last month’s bumper crop of arrivals – I’ve been holding back in case I impulse bought any more festive books, but I think I’ve done the lot now, so I’m risking it. Here we have the Christmas Three Dahlias, the new Martha Waters Christmas book and the Most Wonderful Crime of the Year aka a locked room Christmas mystery, which since I bought it has gone into KU which is a tad frustrating but hey, the paperback is pretty.

Have a great weekend everyone!