May Reading Round Up

With a total of almost 30 hours spent on planes in May, I thought I would get a lot of reading done. Unfortunately, flying makes me sleepy at the best of times, and my brain decides that reading is the perfect way to fall asleep when I'm in the air, so I actually didn't get much done at all. In fact, I think I would have read more if I'd been at home the whole month. Oh, well!

May Reading Round Up

Somehow my most stressful months always end up being great reading months. Probably because I like to hide from all responsibility by burying my head in a book instead! The good news is I somehow managed to meet all my deadlines and still read six books. Don't ask me how. Just know that I did. 

April Reading Round Up

April was not a good month for my reading. I can't even use the usual excuse- sure, I had some deadlines but they were all in the first two weeks. Beyond that? I think I was just a bit lazy! I'm making a promise to myself that May will be better!

March Reading Round Up

It's nearly April so I should probably combine this post with next month's, especially as we're three weeks in and I haven't even finished one book yet (it's a chunky book, to be fair!), but I feel guilty about the complete and utter lack of content. Can't wait until I've finished these next two essays and I have time to blog again! Still, March was a pretty good reading month. Six books- and some big books at that- which kind of makes up for April's impending disappointment!

Book Wishlist // Little Black Classics

If you ask me, the Little Black Classics are genius. Super cheap introductory volumes of classic authors? Yes please! I have a bunch of the first run (you can see my collection here) After the success of the first collection, Penguin released a second batch and they are cheap as chips! £1 for the books of around 60 pages, and £2 for those that are around 120 pages, they're ideal quick reads to try out those authors who may have intimidated you before. I definitely know that feeling!

February Reading Round Up

I went from reading 14 books in January to just 3 in February. That's not great, is it? I don't even know why it dropped so much- I was way busier in January than I've been this month. Perhaps it's because I don't have any short books left over, or because I've been tackling the bloody massive Order of the Phoenix for a couple of weeks. Either way, there's no denying that February wasn't the most productive of reading months.

World Book Day Wishlist

If you're anything like me, you don't need an excuse to buy cute, bookish gifts. If you are one of those people who needs a bit more convincing, good news! It's World Book Day and that means you have the perfect reason to treat yourself to some literary goodies. Have a look at my picks for some inspiration.

Hogwarts Express t shirt // Matilda book worm sweatshirt // Mad Hatter pin Roald Dahl notebooks // Pandora book charm // Book journal Personal library kit // Rebecca mug // You Are Here bookmark The Great Gatsby Penguin book bag // Literary Listography book // Deluxe Gruffalo gift set Yes, that's a fancy Gruffalo box set. Yes, I'm an adult. No, I don't have kids. I just love the Gruffalo, OK???
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Book Wishlist // Blogging & Career

Every book I've ever read based around blogging has been a massive disappointment. That doesn't mean I've given up hope though. I've heard some really great things about a number of books which are all waiting patiently in my Amazon wishlist. If you want to up your blogging or career game (or both!), then hopefully these are perfect!

Reading Wrap Up // January

Look at all these books, guys! Look at them! Count them- there are 13 but I forgot one when I took the photo. I read fourteen books in January! That's nearly a whole quarter of my yearly target. Woohoo! 

How I rate books

In my last reading round up post, I mentioned that I've been using a percentage system to rate my books. Before, I used to just apply the old 5-star approach but I found I gave pretty much every book 3 stars. It also didn't give me much in the way of comparing books. Having a specific number makes it a lot easier to rate books. It took me a little while to decide on my criteria but I've come up with a simple system and I'd like to share it with you.

Book Wishlist // True Crime

I've spoken before about how much true crime fascinates me. For some reason, crime fiction has never interested me, and horror gives me nightmares for weeks, but if it's a true story, I'm all over it. A lot of my Amazon wish list is dedicated to this subject but I've chosen a select few to share with you.

2017 Reading Goals

I'm very, very good at setting reading goals... and I'm very, very bad at completing them. I may still have two books unfinished from my summer reading challenge. With this in mind, I've decided to keep 2017 fairly unstructured. I want to read 60 books over the course of the year (this was my plan for 2016 but I only managed 52) but I'll only pick a handful of specific books to read, so I have the freedom to choose as I go along. 

December Reading Wrap Up

December turned out to be a surprisingly good reading month for me. Considering I had so much going on, I was amazed to finish five books. Admittedly, three of them are tiny but that's not the point!

November Reading Wrap Up

I miss writing book reviews. I loved them so much but the problem was a) they took forever to write and b) nobody ever read them. It just got easier to stop. Of course, I include the books I've read in my 101 in 1001 reviews each month but I feel like I want to start talking more about them, rather than just "here's a photo of some books". Because of this, I've decided to create monthly reading wrap up posts where I can share what I thought about each book without going into a full, in-depth individual review.

Spooky Book Wishlist

You know me, I love a creepy book or two. My Amazon wishlist is about 98% books on death and true crime, so what better time to share some of my coveted texts than Halloween? Just don't judge me, OK?

Summer TBR Revisited

I never learn! Even after my summer 2015 goal of 13 books was too ambitious, I still thought it was perfectly feasible to read 15 books this year. Yeah, that didn't happen. I did do much better than last year though and finished 11 of them, which is four more than I managed last time!

Try a Chapter

I currently have over 120 books on my TBR. That's a lot of books. In fact, I bought a new bookshelf specifically to house my unread books and, erm, it turns out they don't all fit. It's a real problem. The downside of this- apart from the fact that I am at a very real risk of being buried alive under a pile of books- is that I never know which book to reach for next. Every now and then I'll set aside a group of books to read, such as my Summer TBR, and completely ignore any others until I've made it through that selection. It helps in terms of narrowing my focus and feeling less overwhelmed but I do start to get frustrated because I'm so desperate to read others. The Try a Chapter tag seems like the perfect solution- choose those books you've been meaning to read and have a go at the first chapter. Hopefully one will scream out at you and you can prioritise the rest accordingly. Or at least, that's the plan.

Book Wishlist // Japanese

Remember when I read a Haruki Murakami book every other week? It's been a long while since I read one of his books and there is an ear-description shaped hole in my literary life. I do have one of his books (Wind/ Pinball) on my TBR shelf so I'll have to put that at the top of my list. However, I do want to explore more Japanese authors and I have a fairly substantial selection in my wishlist!

Book Wishlist // Classics

I love classic literature, although I don't read nearly enough of it. In fact, I didn't even start reading classics until a couple of years ago when I tried Frankenstein and fell in love. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I fell for that old stereotype of classic literature being stuffy and dull. Since my enlightenment, I've developed a long list of books that I'm eager to read.

Book Wishlist // Victorian Society

It seems crazy to me that so many bookworms aren't into non-fiction. For me, there is nothing more fascinating than developing new knowledge, and learning is the best way to do that. The vast majority of my Amazon wishlist is non-fiction and, in fact, around 41% of my TBR (yes, I did the maths) is factual. It will come as a surprise to nobody that the topic I read about the most is death but I'm also completely enamoured by Victorian society. For a time, I planned to study Victorian history at university (until I realised I'd have to complete both years of my tedious Tudor history A level and I was not down with that!). I have a fair few Victorian-themed books waiting to be read, but also have a lot more on my wishlist.