I don’t really like to impose restrictions on my reading. That way lies the spectre of reading block! A good balance between own books and review copies/blog tours is essential, and I was happy with how that went last year. The key statistic from 2022 was looking at where my books came from. For the Read More
Category: Reading & Reviewing habits
The Inside and Out Book Tag
I got this tag from Calmgrove, who got it from Bookforager who got it from someone else. (I wonder what its ‘R-number’ is? 😀 ) 1. Inside flap/back of the book summaries: Too much info? Or not enough? Unless I’m in a bookshop browsing, I try not to read blurbs in too much detail. In a Read More
Belatedly, my reading plans for 2020
I don’t intend to make formal New Year’s reading resolutions, but I do have plans! 1. State of the TBR It always has been out of control. I used to take part in the TBR Dare annually, in which participants tried to only read from their TBR from 1st Jan to 31st March. That was Read More
Literary Genre Fiction – let’s discuss
Earlier this week, Rebecca took part in a tag on the subject of literary fiction (see here), and after defining what literary fiction is for you and picking some examples, the tag asks, “Name a brilliant literary-hybrid genre novel.” Rebecca chose The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell – which I read many years ago, and Read More
My life in Comics and Magazines
Back in 2011, I published a post back on my old blog about this subject. Now my habits have changed again, so I thought it was a good time to edit and republish an updated version… I’ve always loved comics and magazines. As a child in the 1960s, I remember looking forward to getting rolls Read More
Bloggers & Book Groups – Keeping the Mid & Backlist Alive?
I originally wrote this post in November 2010, and was going to reinsert it back into my blog’s timeline (it was one of my missing posts). However, it occurred to me that the subject I was discussing then, is even more pertinent today, so I’ve brushed it down a little and updated it to get Read More
How I’ve Read – Revisited
Nurturing my reading habit I’ve been adding old book reviews that failed to transfer over from my old blog to this one in the hope that I can finally erase the old blog. I came across a post which I wrote in March 2010, which I felt was definitely worth revisiting, so I’ve edited my Read More
Reading habits: Male vs Female Authors
Elle wrote a thought-provoking post a few days ago titled Am I a Sexist Reviewer? about how she actually reads a fairly even split of female:male authors, but doesn’t blog about all the novels by men, as she finds more to talk about in general in novels by women. It got me thinking about the Read More
The Pleasure of Vicarious Reading …
I promise I’ll have a book review for you very soon – honest! Until then, I thought I’d natter about something that occurred to me the other day. This was after I’d commented on Jane’s best of 2014 post which she styled as A Box of Books for 2014, and her reply to me. I Read More
Rewarding YA reading for Grown-ups! Let me persuade you…
I’m in my early fifties prime (!) and I’m not afraid to say that I love reading modern YA books now and then … but only good ones, naturally. By using the term ‘YA’ here, I’m distinguishing them from those books we usually call ‘children’s classics’ (which still appeal to readers young and old alike). I’m Read More
Midweek Musings …
Dear Readers, I am smitten! No, not a new man in my life, but a book. Finally, inspired by Simon’s Guest post on Vulpes Libris, I dug out my copy of The Diary of a Provincial Lady, by E.M. Delafield. By page two, I was lapping it up, and I shall be dipping into this Read More
Scoring books, some musings on the subject
There are two definite camps in the book blogosphere: those who give/find useful star ratings, and those who don’t. I’ve always been in the former camp, but I do recognise that ratings are no more than a highly personal snapshot of opinion at time of publication. I started out giving whole stars out of five, Read More
Annabel's Midweek Miscellany
It’s so long since I did a bits and pieces post – it’s only worth doing when you’ve the requisite bits to talk about though… Firstly, advance warning to local quiz fans – The Mostly Bookbrains Literary Quiznight is returning in April, Friday 19th to be precise. No further details at the moment, but all Read More
Falling in love again …
The Joys of Re-reading I don’t do much re-reading. I have too many unread books to get through, both new shiny ones and more of those which have been languishing on the shelves for far too long. Once in a blue moon though, I will re-read a book – just a couple a year usually. It Read More
Appearing elsewhere …
Just a short post to say that today I’m appearing elsewhere … My bookcases and I are over at Savidge Reads. Answering Simon’s questionnaire about my bookcases (and let’s face it, my mountainous TBR), was great fun and I am delighted to be taking part in his regular feature. I took a bag of books Read More
Book Stats – Review of 2012, and aims for 2013
I posted about my books of the year a couple of weeks ago here. Now it’s time, as I always do, to take a light-hearted look at the stats of what I read… Life must be getting busier, as each year I seem to be reading fewer books. I say that firmly with my tongue Read More
Character forming – Book then Movie or Movie then Book. Discuss:
There have been many posts about the merits of which order to do things in for novels that have been made into movies (or TV series). These tend to concentrate on the differences in plots made to give films the required conclusions, and the excising of large chunks of plot and/or characters in the novel Read More
Book Stats – Review of 2011
I told you about my Books of the Year a few weeks ago here, but another thing I like to do at the end of the year is compare my reading stats. Being an inveterate list-maker and cataloguer this always appeals to me, and actually I’ve had a different type of reading year in 2011 Read More
A Miscellany of Gaskella’s 2010 Midweek Miscellany posts
In 2010, I used to do a regular(ish) Midweek Miscellany post – full of bits and pieces. As I’ve been adding back all the reviews lost in the transfer process from old blog to new, what to do with posts like these has become a bit of a quandary, as some of these snippets are Read More
If a picture paints a thousand words …
Recently Simon T at Stuck in a Book set a challenge. To find a picture that represents your reading tastes – he’s collating entries here. I thought for a while about this, and came up with two pictures – a cheat I know, but I couldn’t find a singleton. This represents a lot of things to me … Read More
Simon’s Meme – What Your Books Say About You
Simon T at Stuck in a book developed this meme. Simon S at Savidgereads has since done it, and both have made fascinating reading. It’s a development of the ten random things about yourself type of meme. So I thought I’d have a go too. Here’s how to do it… 1.) Go to your bookshelves… Read More
That Latin motto – update …
Last month, I came up with a personal motto for the blog:- Never leave home without a book But mottoes are so much better in Latin. I loved Latin at school, but last studied it in 1976 and that was the Cambridge Latin course which worked by osmosis rather than grammar drill. So I got Read More
Devising A Bookish Motto …
For fun I’ve been twittering about devising a bookish motto, which once tweaked may become the new subtitle of this blog. The phrase ‘Never leave home without a book’ sums my reading strategy up nicely. Now it needs to be translated into Latin … Many moons ago I did get an ‘A’ for my Latin Read More
My Easter kid-lit feast
I’ve decided that in the run-up to Easter, I shall concentrate on children’s literature and ya (young adult) novels. Like many readers, and notably dovegreyreader’s recent theme of revisiting her inner child, I get an awful lot out of reading proper children’s novels, the best of which are the equal of any adult book. However Read More
To star or not to star …
Opinion has always been divided about whether or not to give ratings for books – be it points out of ten, stars out of five, or any other system you choose. When all is said and done, the words written about a book reveal far more than a mere rating. So why bother with the Read More
Synchronicity & Serendipity
Sometimes in the book blogosphere we’re all looking at books of the moment – several reviews will be posted about a new book or a title in the news – there’s a synchronicity about it all … Take the book I’m reading now for instance – Warwick Collins new novel The Sonnets which puts Shakespeare’s Read More
The only problem with bookswapping …
… is that you end up with the same number of books. Maybe I should have joined one of the other forums – there are quite a few now. The most radical is Bookcrossing (http://bookcrossing.com/) where the basic principle is that you release books into the wild for people to discover. Each book gets an Read More
Genrification … that’s the name of the game?
If a fiction book is labelled chicklit, or Science Fiction, does it put you off? – Possibly … Sci-Fi was one of the most spurned, if not the most derided genre of novels until chicklit came along. Personally, I can’t see anything wrong with either genre – in principle … Now I have to defend Read More
What makes a good choice for a book group?
I maintain that the best books for book groups are those that provoke discussion – titles that not everyone will like, or genres you don’t usually read for instance. Most important though is not to get stuck in a rut, by reading totally different types of books each month. The book group I belong to Read More
What’s your relationship to your reading?
Can you have more than one book at a time on the go? In other words are you a serial monogamist or a two-timer in your relationship to your reading materials? I’m always impressed by people who can manage to read several books at a go, swapping between them as the mood takes them and Read More
