And here we are again, it’s been another week! As with last week, I’ll be linking up with a few different posts: Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, and the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz. If you know of any other similar linkups, let me know; I’m eager to do some more socialising on blogs, after a quiet couple of years.
For me, it’s been a relatively quiet week: plenty of work and studying to do, but no major crises or something. I’ve been trying to get in plenty of reading time, so I can reach my goal of reading 400 books this year, but I’ve also had commitments to my raiding group in Final Fantasy XIV, etc. Slowly does it!
Books acquired this week:
Technically, I haven’t had any new books this week, but I still have parts of my massive haul from my holiday to show off. This time I’ll show off what I got from Bath’s branch of Waterstones, which surprised me by having a broader selection of classic crime than I’d usually expect in a Waterstones (which can vary a lot depending on the interests of local booksellers).
I also picked up a non-fiction book I’ve been eyeing for a while, and I’ll also include here a book I grabbed in Topping & Company and should’ve included in last week’s haul, but which got forgotten!
Which leaves my haul from Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights, which I’ll put up next week!
Posts from this week:
I’m still posting quite a few reviews per week to keep up with my reading output, so here’s a quick roundup:
- The Black Spectacles, by John Dickson Carr (4/5 stars)
- Castles of the Welsh Princes, by Paul R. Davis (4/5 stars)
- Across the Green Grass Fields, by Seanan McGuire (3/5 stars)
- Evergreen Chase, by Juneau Black (3/5 stars)
- Adrift: The Curious Tale of the Lego Lost At Sea, by Tracey Williams (3/5 stars)
- Gideon Falls vol. 1: The Black Barn, by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, and Dave Stewart (3/5 stars)
- Overkill: When Modern Medicine Goes Too Far, by Paul Offit (4/5 stars)
And as well as reviews, I posted for the usual Top Ten Tuesday linkup with some non-fiction titles I’ve really enjoyed:
What I’m reading:
I’ve started quite a few books at once, trying to figure out what I’m feeling most right now. I most want to finish Kate Strasdin’s The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes, this weekend, and I’d like to finally get back into Deanna Raybourn’s The Impossible Impostor. Something about the latter just wasn’t working for me — mostly I wish they’d communicate, and also I’ve peeked ahead at the ending and it makes me sad.
I’ve finished quite a few books this week, so here’s a sneak peek at books I’ll be reviewing sometime soon:
Not pictured, a couple of my textbooks that I’m counting as read because yaaay, I’m pretty close to finishing up the courses. I’m counting them toward my reading goal, ’cause darn it, I read them — but I’ll spare the blog the review of Heymann’s Control of Communicable Diseases Manual.
So that’s me for the week; how’s everyone else doing?
So many people have reading goals with a certain number of books — I wish you luck achieving yours. I like to take it easy and just read when and whatever I feel like, no enumeration, no goals!
best, mae at maefood.blogspot.com
I actually have the goal to remind me to take the time to read, more than anything else. It’s been trickier than I thought this year, but it really does help to have general goals to remind me I need this time to unwind. 🙂 It’s amazing how moralistic some people get about it, either way.
Good luck with achieving your reading goals this year. Four hundred books read in one year? That is quite a daunting goal. This year, for me, I will have my lowest number of books read in a year in a long time, but it’s because I stepped away from judging the Cybils Awards this year. The Cybils always added two hundred picture books to my Books Read totals. So I am with you in counting everything—textbooks? definitely!—in your book total.
I’m actually not far off meeting it! I thought it was gonna be an easy one, actually, because I was way ahead for most of the year… but studying has got in the way a bit. Not that it’s a big deal if I don’t make it!
That’s a lot of reading. Good luck on meeting your goal! Definitely count that textbook.
Thank you! I’m getting close. And I’m having fun.
I really love those classic crime covers!
They’re pretty great! Especially the British Library Crime Classics — they always look so good together.
I’ve done terrible with my reading the last few years, I hope ’24 is my comeback year.
In the end, it doesn’t matter how much you read as long as you have fun, in my books — but I do wish I was a bit more consistent about it, myself. Sometimes I read sooo much. Good luck with 2024!
I don’t read many books at once, but I think it’s a great idea for figuring out what you are in the mood for. Have a great week!
The only problem is the books I get a bit of the way into and then forget about, hahaha. Sometimes I just return them to my TBR pile for a day when they suit my mood better…
Those covers are so evocative! I love the look of Who Killed The Curate.
Maybridge Castle looks great too.
That publisher is new to me, so I’m very interested to see if their selections are generally as good as the British Library ones! Fingers crossed.
I’m literally just finishing up Deanna Raybourn’s A Curious Beginning, like at the last 10 pages, and the story isn’t bad but I find myself not really warming up to the characters. You’re way ahead of me with An Impossible Imposter. I’m sorry to hear they’re not communicating well with each other, that’s one of my pet peeves. I’m not planning to continue the series but I hope it gets better for you.
I normally find them really nice for light reading, but this one… nope, nope, just stalled totally. I peeked ahead a bit and it seems like things maybe get better? I need to get on with it, haha.
I do enjoy a quiet week! I need one or five of those right now. Wow, 400 books? That’s an amazing goal! Good luck reaching it. I like your mystery selection that you obtained at Bath Waterstones. Is the book store location in the town of Bath? I visited there several years back and didn’t see a books store. I did visit Waterstones in London though. Very nice!
Oh, Veronica and Stoker can be so frustrating with their non-communication! I skimmed An Impossible Imposter and went directly to A Sinister Revenge, which was a lot better read for me.
Yep, in the city! There’s actually quite a few — I had a recommendation list of 10, and I only got to 3 of them, but they’re pretty close together. Waterstones and two indies, Mr B’s Reading Emporium and Topping & Company. They were all really good!
It’s good to know I’m not the only one… I think I’ll skim it, too!