Tag: The pile

books, stats

May Stats

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Books read this month: 31*

New books: 22

Re-reads: 9 (all audiobooks)

Books from the to-read pile: 2

NetGalley books read: 3

Kindle Unlimited read: 14

Ebooks: 3

Audiobooks: 9

Non-fiction books: 0

Favourite book this month: really hard to pick between Mona of the Manor, You Should Be So Lucky and The Winner Bakes It All

Most read author: Margery Allingham because of the ebooks

Books bought: 5 books and 6 ebooks and one preorder

Books read in 2024: 171

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf (I don’t have copies of all of these!): 740

I’m going to call this the month of Kindle Unlimited, because it’s true really. I’ve read so much from there this month for various reasons, but it’s really justified its subscription price.

Bonus picture: another Lagos picture. Not that you can really tell!

*includes some short stories/novellas/comics/graphic novels – including 8 this month!

announcement, The pile

Now we are ten…

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I mean this is slightly late because it was early May that I started this endeavour, and this is the very last day of May, but it’s still May so it still counts. Anyway, it’s been a decade since I started this blog – can you believe it? I can’t for sure. Anyway, the to-read pile that I started this blog to try and guilt myself into reducing remains enormous, but I don’t think there is anything left on it that was still there at the start so that’s something.

It’s quite a small something because the pile has graduated from the little shelves and a stack hiding behind the sofa to a big (if narrow) Billy bookcase and another (little) stack in front of it, but the main thing is that I’ve had a blast writing about all the things I’ve read, and I’m still enjoying it as well. Thank you for reading – I’m off to have a small celebration.

Maybe I should buy a book to mark the occasion?

books, The pile

Books Incoming: mid-May edition

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If this had been last weekend, there would only have been two books in this picture. I bought the Roman Beaird and the Rory Carroll at the airport on the way to Pisa. But then I went into Foyles on Monday night, and bought the new Alexandria Bellefleur and the Kayla Olson, and when I got home on Thursday the other two had arrived – after taking so long (in the way that second hand orders often do) that I had forgotten I had ordered them in the first place!

books, The pile

Books Incoming: Mid-April

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I’m back with another stack of books that I’ve managed to acquire some how. There’s two pre-orders here – the new Vinyl Detective and Steven Rowley’s The Celebrants, which has been out in the US for ages but has only just got here. Then there’s my two purchases on the way to Portugal – which were When Grumpy Met Sunshine and Death at the Chateau. Then there’s the books I brought back from Portugal. Seven Scamps was a belated birthday gift and the two Julia books are loans (I think!) from the same friend. The Patricia Wentworth, Susan Elizabeth Philips and Jenny Colgan were acquisitions from the book exchange in Portugal. And then at the very back is Delayed Rays of a Star which was an impulse purchase second hand. So just a few then…

Have a great weekend!

books, The pile

Books Incoming: Late March Special edition

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So I’ve pulled the trigger on an emergency Books Incoming because the pile of books that have arrived was getting very tall and a little wobbly, and that was before the arrivals while I was in Portugal. So here we are. To be fair, the mid-month post was early this month, and the photo was taken before Manila, so it was more a late February arrivals situation, but still. Ahem.

Half of this post is preorders of new releases – the RuPaul (which is signed!), the Armistead Maupin and the two Angela Thirkells – as Virago appear to have decided to release some more, which is going to mean another rearranging of the bookshelves! Then we have the airport purchases on the war to the Philippines – the Nita Prose sequel to The Maid and the new Tessa Bailey because I was intrigued by the idea of a golf romance!

The actual Manila purchases are the Beverly Jenkins, Susan Elizabeth Philips – which I have read but via the library and was such a bargain I couldn’t leave it in the shop and the final part of Angel Catbird which you can just about see at the back. And finally there’s the Diane Mott Davidson, which as I mentioned in the Goldy Schulz post is the last reasonably priced one that I can find.

And that’s it – as if it wasn’t enough! – until the next post at least and the pile is already not that small…

The pile

Books Incoming: (early) Mid March edition

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As the title says, this is slightly earlier in the month than it would usually be, but as you know, I’ve been Away for work and I was planning all of this out before I went and this just seemed to make sense. Anyway, what you’re seeing here are the books in Ann Granger‘s Campbell and Carter series that I haven’t read yet, a book in the Herring series that I picked up in Foyles the other week on a whim, the new Martha Waters that I mentioned the other week and a couple that you’ve already heard about – At First Spite and one of the volumes of the Fence series. I know that I’ve got a lot of stuff arriving in March – because I’ve got pre-orders in but also because I always buy books at the airport and for the trip and I try to go to bookshops in countries that I visit and so there’s a chance there’ll be more from that. So watch this space!

books, The pile

State of the Pile: 2024 edition

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Not going to lie, I didn’t want to do this post because, well you’ll see. But I do try to be honest here and so here is some transparency…

We enter 2024 with the to read pile bigger than ever. I’d love to say that all the books in front of the shelves are borrowed, but they’re not. I’ve just expanded beyond the shelves – which I said I wouldn’t do. It’s been a little this way all year, but has got worse in the last few months as I’ve been away from home a lot and so reading off the kindle and not physical books, and while I was trying to finish off the 50 states. So my goal for this year is to try and get back into *just* having the bookshelf of unread books and not piles nearby too. Wish me luck everyone…

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: December 18 – December 24

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Happy Christmas everyone! I hope you’re all having a delightful day filled with whatever you want to be doing and hopefully lots of lovely food. And that you got the books you wanted of course. I’ve checked off another four of my missing states so I may still get the list finished before the end of the rest! Wish me luck.

Read:

Tempest by Beverly Jenkins

The Christmas Book Club by Sarah Morgan

Six Geese a’ Slaying by Kathleen Bacus

Maggie Moves On by Lucy Score

The Ape Who Guards the Balance by Elizabeth Peters

Cowboy Dancing All Night by Jessie Gussman

Love in Winter Wonderland by Abiola Bello*

Started:

If Only You Knew by Kristen Higgins

Still reading:

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Animal, Vegetable, Criminal by Mary Roach

Seven books bought and another preordered – there’s a sale on Beverly Jenkins and I needed to get the new Rivers of London ordered.

Bonus photo: a pile of presents (not for me) because if can’t post another gratuitous Christmas picture on actual Christmas Day when can I?!

*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, The pile

Books Incoming: Mid-December

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Here we are with the pre-Christmas book haul. The Judi Dench was a whole saga, because the first copy went missing in the post and I didn’t think Simon at Big Green Books would have another one, but I got really lucky and he had a return. Which I got delivered to my parents’ house just to be safe! Then there’s a little batch of career novels which I treated myself to, another of the Edward Marston ship mysteries and two books from Foyles last week because I can’t help myself! Now depending on the amount of books I get for Christmas you may get a Christmas special books incoming, but I’m not sure yet, so I’m reserving the right to change my mind and bundle it all into January!

Have a great weekend everyone!