I still award a score to all the books I read – recorded on my Reading List page. I score out of 10, including half points (so out of 20 really!). Those scores are only snapshots of course, and some books fade from your memory as others, which maybe scored lower initially, stay or grow. Read More
Category: Year in Review
Review of the Year #2 – 2022 – Time for Book Stats!
I always say this, but this post really is my favourite of the year! The master spreadsheet is still going strong. I love playing with all the data, mining it for nuggets of information that will tell me if my reading habits have changed. In truth, they bobble along generally, but there are some general Read More
2022 Reading Plans
For my 2021 reading goals I had simplified things down to just two targets. Diversity in reading – I hope to increase reading in translation and by BAME authors. However, my male:female reading ratio will be what it will be – I do not choose books because of the author’s gender, never have. Joining in elsewhere Read More
Review of the Year #3: 2021, Books of the Year!
I still award a score to the majority of books I read – out of 10, including halfs (so out of 20 really!). Those scores are only snapshots of course, and some books fade from your memory as others, which maybe scored lower initially, stay or grow. I read 150 books this year, of which Read More
Review of the Year #2 – 2021 – Time for Book Stats.
I always say this, but this post is possibly my favourite of the year! The master spreadsheet is still going strong. I love playing all that data to mine for nuggets of information that will tell me if my reading habits have changed. Without further ado, here are the charts (accurate to 25 December). Books Read More
Review of the Year #1 – 2021, A Year of Reading and Blogging
As always, I’m saving my books of the year for the 31st, but today I plan to share some other blogging highlights, discovered authors and the few disappointments of my reading year. (By the way, the cute calendar comes from Asking For Trouble). Let’s go through the year first… JANUARY – saw the start of the Read More
Life According to Literature 2021
I’ve done different versions of this in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2016, 2011 and 2009 – where it originated is way back in the ether somewhere. The questions evolve and vary over the years as people have fun and adjust them – and this set comes via a long chain to Davida at The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review, but I’ve kept a Read More
2021 Reading Plans
Firstly 2020 Reading Plans – How did I do? State of the TBR – I did actually read ten more books than 2019 from the TBR that I’d owned before 2020 began, but over the year I’ve added loads to it too. Blame it on lockdown browsing. However, I’ve decided that now I’m 60, I’m Read More
Review of the Year #3: Books of the Year!
These days, I’ve given up trying to limit my choices to an established number characteristic of best of lists, long or short. I’ve had a good year of quality reading, awarding 10/10 to no fewer than 26 books – so 20% of my reading approx. Those scores are only snapshots of course, and some books Read More
Review of the Year #2 – Book Stats!
I always say this, but this post is possibly my favourite of the year! The master spreadsheet is still going strong. I love playing all that data to mine for nuggets of information that will tell me if my reading habits have changed. Without further ado, here are the charts (accurate to 25 December). Books Read More
Review of the Year #1 – A Year of Reading and Blogging
I’m saving my books of the year for the 31st, but today I plan to share some other blogging highlights, discovered authors and the few disappointments of my reading year. Let’s go through the year first… JANUARY – was the beginning of The Japanese Literature Challenge 13 which carried on until March. I read The 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
Year End Review 6: It’s my BOOKS OF THE YEAR!
This year I’ve given up trying to shoehorn my selections into a set number, be it 10, 12 or a baker’s dozen. My list has as many categories as I felt I needed – which ended up as 18 this year. Without further ado, here they are: Best fictional biography: Murmur by Will Eaves – Read More
Year End Review 5: The Stats!
This is possibly my favourite post of the year! I love playing with my master spreadsheet, all that data to mine for nuggets of information that will tell me if my reading habits have changed. Without further ado, here are the charts (accurate to 25 December). Books & Pages I read slightly fewer books this Read More
Year End Review 4: Non-Fiction
I managed to increase the amount of non-fiction I read this year once again – I seem to be going up by one or two NF books per year! So in 2019 I read 33 non-fiction books (up to 25 December), making 25.3% of the total this year. Thanks to taking part in the Wellcome Read More
Year End Review 3: In Translation
I’ve given books read in translation their own section over the past couple of years to keep up the pressure on myself to read more widely from other countries. This year, I failed to keep up with last year’s success at 25 books (18%), managing just 18 (14%) up to my cut-off day of 25 Read More
Year End Review 2: The Disappointments
The DNFs I still find it difficult, even after all my decades of reading, to stop reading a book. However, this year I was a little tougher on myself and I had more DNFs than previously.. Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien – (75/480 pages) – This was for book group, but Read More
Review of the Year 1: The Discoveries
I’m kicking off my review of my 2019 reading year by sharing a few of the authors I discovered for the first time and now want to read much more of – and poetry! Charlotte Bingham Bingham’s volume of memoir MI5 and Me (reviewed here) which covers her later teens in the late 1950s when Read More
Midsummer review
Picture from http://pinetribe.com/celebrate-midsummer-abroad/ A quick post to pick out a few highlights from my reading year so far now we’re halfway through – and I’m on track to emulate last year, having read about the same number of books 68 vs 71 last year, and close to the same number of pages 18300 vs 18500 Read More
Year End Review #6: My Books of the Year!
And finally, in my review of my reading year, it’s my Books of the Year. I always save this post for last, in case there’s a late entry. I’ve given up trying to keep the list to a dozen and have ended up instead with a baker’s dozen, plus some runners up. All of these Read More
Year End Review #5: The Stats!
I still love compiling this post each year. I consult my trusty spreadsheet which has over ten years of basic data on it, and pull out some comparative figures about my year of reading. The top graph is accurate up to yesterday, the others to Boxing Day! For those of you who don’t like the Read More
Year End Review #4: Non-Fiction
This isn’t going to be a long post, as I’ve talked about a lot of my non-fiction reading this year recently during Non Fiction November (see here), but since that post, I’ve added several more books to that list, making my non-fiction total 31 in 2018 as of today. That’s just about 22% which is Read More
Year End Review #3: In Translation
Last year I gave books read in translation their own review – the aim was to encourage myself to read more in 2018 – I managed just 14 (10%) in 2017. This year, (up to Christmas Day cut-off) I’ve read 25 novels originally published in other languages which is just under 18%, so I’ve done Read More
Year End Review #2: The Disappointments
The DNF and the DNGS This year I was perhaps, lucky in my reading – there was only one book that I gave up on having got a little way in, despite its fab cover, and that was The Testament of Loki by Joanne M Harris. I won’t dwell on this, but you can read Read More
Year End Review #1: The Discoveries
I’m kicking off my review of my 2018 reading year by sharing a few of the authors I discovered for the first time and now want to read much more of. Kent Haruf Others have praised this author for years and I truly don’t know why I resisted reading him. I finally picked up Our Read More
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I nearly always fail when I set resolutions, so no reading resolutions for 2018. Instead, I shall have reading ‘try harders’. In 2018, I will try harder to read: From my TBR – I own more books than I have time to read before I die! From my TBR – I need to save money. Read More
Year End Review #6: My Books of the Year!
And finally, in my review of my reading year, it’s my Books of the Year. I saved this post for last, because since Christmas, I have just read a book which had to be added to this list. I tried to keep the list to a dozen, but it’s ended up as 14 – but Read More
Year End Review #5: The Stats
This is the post I love writing each year. I consult my trusty spreadsheet which now has over ten years of basic data on it, and pull out some comparative figures about my year of reading. These are accurate up to the book I finished reading yesterday! Books and Pages Read Very close to last Read More
Year End Review #4: In Translation
I’ve also decided to give books I read in translation a separate mention this year, if only to try and spur me on to do better in 2018. I was shocked to find that I’ve only read fourteen novels in translation this year, just over 10% of my reading; last year I read 27, (of Read More
Year End Review #3: Non-Fiction
I decided to give Non-fiction it’s own review this year because I’ve read 20 titles – the highest number I’ve read in a year, making up fractionally under 15% of books read. This is a trend I hope to continue, for I’m enjoying non-fiction more these days, but as you’ll see below – the areas Read More