It’s the weekend! I’ve been back at work for a week, and… well, I’m grateful to see the weekend again, ahaha.
Books acquired this week
This week’s mostly been quiet, but I have been impulsively borrowing a bunch of different poetry collections from the National Poetry Library, just trying stuff out and expanding my horizons a bit. Here’s what I grabbed this week:
I’ve had mixed success with my choices this week, but that’s the beauty of libraries! It’s fine to just try stuff out, as I’ve been doing.
Posts from this week
A somewhat busy week, since I did multiple features as well as my usual reviews! Let’s start with the reviews first:
- Fantasy romance (danmei): Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, vol 3, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
- Non-fiction: Pyramids: The Real Story Behind Egypt’s Most Ancient Monuments, by Joyce Tyldesley (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
- Poetry: The Iron Bridge, by Rebecca Hurst (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
- SF/horror: Walking Practice, by Dolki Min (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
- Fantasy comic: Love Everlasting, vol 3, by Tom King et al (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
- Historical fantasy: The Palace of Illusions, by Rowenna Miller (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
- Non-fiction: Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism, by Bill Schutt (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
As ever, some of these reviews are a bit older, since I have a huge backlog and try to post reviews for a range of genres over the course of each week. This list doesn’t represent what I read this week — that’s below in the next section!
Aaand the other posts:
- Top Ten Tuesday: Cool Typography
- Discussion: Book Covers (discussing how covers, even ones that aren’t so great, help the right readers find books)
- What Are You Reading Wednesday
- January Reading Wrap-Up
So a really good blogging week, overall!
What I’m reading
Since I’ve been back at work, it’s been a slow week for reading, though I’ve managed to fit in reading quite a bit of poetry since it’s easy to do that in bits and pieces. So here’s what I’ve finished this week that I plan to review on the blog:
Looks like plenty, but since six of those are poetry collections and one is a manhwa, it’s not as much as it looks, really!
Over the weekend, I plan to read more of Catherine Clarke’s The History of England in 25 Poems, finish volume 7 of the Solo Leveling light novel, and… who knows what else? Hopefully my whim will take me some fun places.
Hope everyone’s had a good week!
Linking up with Reading Reality’s Stacking the Shelves, Caffeinated Reviewer’s The Sunday Post, the Sunday Salon over at Readerbuzz, and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date.
Wow, you did have a busy week! I hope you find plenty of good poems and other books this week, maybe even a new favorite
I always say I should read poetry, and then I don’t.
mae recently posted…Winter Quiet
I’m a bit sporadic about it, but the British National Poetry Library helps, since it’s so risk-free.
Here’s hoping! I feel like reading this weekend, so I’m hopeful for the week ahead.
I love libraries because there isn’t a risk to trying something new. Have a great week!
Cindy’s Book Corner recently posted…Stacking the Shelves #201 Sunday Post #198 Sunday Salon #192
Exactly. Honestly, that’s why I’m very glad to have been able to join a poetry-specific library, because I have very little idea what I like in poetry… but now I can find out, no problems.
I’m saving poetry for when I’m retired. Hahahahaha.
This!!! –> that’s the beauty of libraries! It’s fine to just try stuff out.
Jinjer recently posted…College of One
Hahaha, having done an English lit degree, I guess I got started early. :p
Yay for the weekend! It does look like you have had a good reading week. I struggle with poetry. I decided to try children’s poetry last year for poetry day and didn’t even get on with that. I do however have one book from my childhood that is filled with excellent poetry. I just need more of that
Have a great weekend!
Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog
My post:
https://budgettalesblog.wordpress.com/2026/02/07/stacking-the-shelves-139/
Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog recently posted…Stacking The Shelves
I guess in terms of stuff finished I did, even if I didn’t get as much time for reading as I’d have liked!
Poetry-wise, I can definitely be picky. I like most of Carol Ann Duffy’s work, and Seamus Heaney’s, but otherwise I have little idea of how to find stuff I like. Luckily with the library card I can just explore!
I’m so impressed that you manage to have a back log of reviews and enough to consider the balance of genres over the course of the week! Definitely something I aspire to.
Keira @Keira’s Bookmark recently posted…Personal Curriculum 2026 Q1 | Languages, Reading, Health
I have something like 60 built up, ahaha. A lot of them are for comics, so I need to slow down my posting a bit again until I have some more other genres to sprinkle in…
Libraries are such a great place for trying things out. It’s nice just to pick up a book that you might want to read and know that it doesn’t really matter if you take it back unread.
I hope you’re enjoying A History of England in 25 poems. I really liked the different poems that she chose.
Yes, indeed!
I’m really liking it; the poems are sometimes surprising choices, but really well chosen for a somewhat broader history of Britain. I liked learning about Mary Leapor and “Crumble-Hall”, that was a new one to me.
Pyramids: The Real Story… is going on the TBR list!
Olivia recently posted…Weekly Reading Update 2-7-2026
I found it really interesting, hope you enjoy!
Hope you have a good week!
Bree @ Bibliophilebree recently posted…Sunday #28
Thank you!
I hope you enjoy your books. Have a great week!
Yvonne @ Socrates Book Reviews recently posted…The Weekend Review – February 7th-February 9th
Thanks!
We are so lucky to have a massive library system – something like 15 branches across the city. Plus the surrounding suburbs have their own libraries. I would never read anything new if it were not for the library.
Our local library isn’t so great, and super slow on holds and stuff from other branches. 🙁 But I use libraries whenever I can, especially the ebooks. I find Library Extension super helpful for that!
Libraries are the best! Even when we are on vacation sometimes we go to one just to read in a relatively quiet place.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
Libraries with good reading spaces are the best! A lot of them in the UK are also turning into community hubs, and not always perfect for reading quietly (depending on which floor you’re on), but that’s a good thing too, so I don’t mind too much as long as there is a quiet space somewhere.
I am a person who loves poetry, but it tends to be slow going for me. Even though poetry books are usually short and the poems rarely fill a page with text, it takes me a long time to read a book of poetry.
One of these days I am going to try something by Kingfisher.
Deb Nance at Readerbuzz recently posted…The Sunday Salon: Three Basketball Wins, a Classics Club Spin, and Reading a Book a Day
Yeah, poetry takes some time to unpack! It’s just fitting in well to my available time at the moment since it’s easy to read a couple of poems in between work tasks, etc.
T. Kingfisher’s books are a lot of fun. Maybe Clockwork Boys for a starting point? Or one of the standalones, like A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, which I haven’t read yet but I’m told is fun. (I’m assuming you’re going more for her fantasy over the horror-ish stuff, though I like her horror too.)
I’ve accepted that poetry is not my thing, I think it’s the fault of one of my high school teachers who sucked any joy out of it.
Wishing you a happy reading week
Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out recently posted…It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #SundayPost #SundaySalon
There are so many different styles of poetry that there may well be something out there that you’d still like, but it’s probably not worth trying if it’s not something that calls to you! Life’s short. A fair bit of what I read I don’t love, poetry-wise, but I like the exploration part.
Hope you have a good reading week too!
Your weekly stack had me reeling so I appreciated the poetry disclaimer 😉 I tend to read poetry in fits and spurts and would love to get more consistent with it! Maybe the library is truly the answer to all our problems 🙂 Hope you’re having a great week!
The number isn’t unusual for me, sometimes quite a few more, but it was a busy week and reading took a back seat!
I have We’ll Prescribe You a Cat, but haven’t dove into it yet. Have a great weekend! 🙂
Hope you enjoy. I wasn’t a big fan.