books, stats

December Stats

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

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

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!

books, stats

November Stats

Books read this month: 39*

New books: 32

Re-reads: 7 (all audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 8

NetGalley books read: 5

Kindle Unlimited read: 9

Ebooks: 10

Audiobooks: 7

Non-fiction books: 1

Favourite book this month: Rivals or The Rom-Commers

Most read author: Simon Brett because of the Fetherings binge plus Charles Paris re-listen

Books bought: we will continue to not talk about it, although I did have a clear out of the bookshelves so that has improved things a little despite the amount incoming..

Books read in 2024: 375

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 741

Genuinely a really solid month in reading, mostly, but not entirely down to the holiday. I’m still quite a long way short of my 50 states though, and a fair few books short on the beat the to-read pile challenge in my journal, so I’m not sure I can complete both of them this year. Doesn’t mean I won’t try though…

Bonus picture: After writing about Avenue Q, this is from the night after that Q concert – with two of the stars, Jon Robyns and Simon Lipkin doing a late night show together in the West End. It was also wonderful.

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

The pile

Books Incoming: Another November post

As I said last week, there were too many arrivals for just one post, so I’m back with a second one. And this is fifty percent preorders (that’s the whole front row), and then a few others. And several of the others are because I’ve been ordering Christmas books – and to get free postage from Waterstones you need to spend more than £30… so I just bought myself something to get up to the value, because I haven’t been organised I’ve just been ordering in dribs and drabs. Anyway, to the actual books: we’ve got the new final Vanderbeeker book which is finally out here in paperback, the next part in the Fangirl Manga and the latest Katherine Center (which I also saw in the shops last week). Then there’s A Star Is Bored which has been recommended by several authors that I enjoy reading, the Roseanne Montillo book about Truman Capote and Ann Woodward and The Divorce Colony, which has been on the list for so long that I forget who recommended it to start with, but which had a price drop. So all lovely stuff hopefully, I just need to stop acquiring things and start reading them…

Have a great weekend!

books, stats

October Stats

Books read this month: 31*

New books: 20

Re-reads: 11 (6 audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 4

NetGalley books read: 2

Kindle Unlimited read: 8

Ebooks: 5

Audiobooks: 6

Non-fiction books: 2

Favourite book this month: Probably A Dark and Stormy Murder

Most read author: Charlaine Harris, with the Lily Bard reread

Books bought: moving on….

Books read in 2024: 336

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 754

A pretty solid month by figures, but still more than I’d like in novellas rather than actual books because that means it’s not reducing either the physical TBR pile or the Netgalley list. Still in the main they’re coming via KU so at least it means I’m getting value out of that membership!

Bonus picture: is it wrong to be proud of a cake?! Any way, I made this and I was so…

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

The pile

Books Incoming: Mid-October edition

So, an unusual month in a way, in that I’ve already read three of the books in this picture. So on the bright side, they’re not on the pile – they’re already off and through. On the downside, there were only two more until I went into Foyles this week and got carried away. Never mind. Four more on the pile is better than it has been. And I have all the Museum mysteries now so I can’t buy any more of those, which is something I guess. Although the Olivia Blackie is a new to me series so that could be dangerous in itself. Wish me luck…

books, stats

September Stats

Books read this month: 36* which seems like more than I was expecting!

New books: 29

Re-reads: 7 (all audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 13

NetGalley books read: 4

Kindle Unlimited read: 8

Ebooks: 4

Audiobooks: 7

Non-fiction books: 5

Favourite book this month: Kingmaker or the Masquerades of Spring

Most read author: Sheila Connolly – four in the Fundraising the Dead series

Books bought: still not counting, because Kuala Lumpur was… book heavy

Books read in 2024: 305

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 747

A pretty solid month I’m going to say helped a fair bit by those long haul flights right at the start. And now we enter the last quarter of the year heading towards the festive season and all the Christmas books…

Bonus picture: Worrals goes East may have been a terrible book, but it did push me over the 200 book mark for the year. Time to up the target!

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

books, stats

August Stats

Books read this month: 29*

New books: 29

Re-reads: 2 (all audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 9

NetGalley books read: 3

Kindle Unlimited read: 15

Ebooks: 0

Audiobooks: 2

Non-fiction books: 0

Favourite book this month: probably Let’s Play Dead by Sheila Connelly, given that I went and bought the first book and third book in the series straight after I finished it and have read the first one already!

Most read author: Patti Benning

Books bought: not counting…

Books read in 2024: 269

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 742

A very bookish month because of Book Con, even if the stats would seem to belie that. Onwards to September and the rush of new books for the autumn!

Bonus picture: I said I went to Kiss Me Kate again… it’s definitely my favourite show of the summer so have another picture!

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

books, The pile

Books Incoming: Mid August edition

I did Book Con last week, but here’s the other stuff that’s arrive in the last month, not including those ones. So we have two books from Persephone Books – on which more next week. The there is Film Stars at Riverlea which came from a friend, two books from the charity shops – The Fixer Upper and Lilian Boxfish Takes a Walk. I said in my post when the new Lady Sherlock came out we would see how long it took for my preorder to turn up – and here is the answer: it arrived on August 8! Then we have Laurence Leamer’s book Hitchcock’s Blondes, which came down in price in hardback and a cozy crime that I got cheap second hand. All very nice.

Happy weekend everyone!