Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post

Posted August 1, 2026 by Nicky in General / 0 Comments

Happy weekend! And whew, I need it.

Books acquired this week

I told myself I was really going to try not to get any more books before my birthday, but I’d forgotten that I’d preordered Dinosaur Sanctuary volume eight, and then one of my (brand-new) fillings broke and I had to head back to the dentist. And I really liked the first volume of this danmei…

Volume two of After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine took a little finding (in the end I ordered it from Travelling Man, of all places, thanks to my wife spotting that they actually had it in stock) but it arrived yesterday, woooo. I might even read it this weekend!

Posts from this week

As ever lately, it’s been a busy week on the blog, so good thing I’m going to do a roundup! Here goes, starting with the reviews:

Non-fiction: William Tyndale and the English Language, by David Crystal (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
Poetry: First Rain in Paradise, by Gwyneth Lewis (1/5 stars, “didn’t like it”)
Manga: Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide, vol 1, by Mone Sorai (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
Fantasy: Brigands & Breadknives, by Travis Baldree (4/5 stars, “really liked it”)
Non-fiction: Life Changing: How Humans at Altering Life on Earth, by Helen Pilcher (3/5 stars, “liked it”)
Horror: The Sea Hides Its Dead, by Megan Bontrager (2/5 stars, “it was okay”)
Non-fiction: A History of the World in 50 Pieces, by Tom Service (3/5 stars, “it was okay”)

As ever, most of these are not recent reads, except for The Sea Hides Its Dead, because of the way I spread out my reviews to avoid spamming everyone with sixty million manga reviews at once! I have tons of reviews pre-written and all ready to go, when the right moment comes.

Aaand of course, here are the non-review posts now:

What I’m reading

First up, the little preview of books I intend to review soon, having finished them this week! I had a good weekend for reading, but tailed off once we hit the work-week — it was busy, and also the dentist stuff… Anyway, here they are!

Earlier in the week I had very specific reading plans, but I’ve decided to abandon them — they stopped sparking joy! Now my main plan is just to try to clear the deck a little bit so I have space for books for my birthday: we have a specific day planned out for me to buy plenty, so I’d better make space!

So chances are I’ll read After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine vol 2 this weekend, and dive into some of the other books that’re waiting for me, like John Wiswell’s The Dragon Has Some Complaints.

As ever, though, it’ll ultimately be whatever I feel like.

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.