Tales from the Loathly Lady

A pretty fast group this time! I was doing pretty well at getting my shelves down, and then I had a birthday and also a craving for some historical romances and now I'm back up nearly to where I was. Whoops!

( No trends to comment on this time! Other than a tragic tendency to Not Like Other Girls Syndrome. )

And that's all for this time! Next time, my resumed battle to reduce my TBR shelves a bit!

How has this year already had three months in it? It's already time to talk about what I've been watching and what I've been making since the year began.

( The obligatory cut! )

More media than usual this season, that was nice! We'll see how spring goes.

I had been doing a bit of savoring, and then I've finished 5 books since Sunday! Some weeks I just need to read all the stories I can, I suppose, and I've had some fun ones to read. I finally seem to be making proper inroads into my TBR shelves!

( A pretty mixed group both in genre and enjoyment! )

And that's all for this time!

The year has been off to quite a rough start reading-wise, as you will see. I should have DNFed more than I did, but I will quickly acknowledge one book I decided not to finish, Starless by Jacqueline Carey. I liked the Kushiel's Dart trilogy by Carey, but I made it about 100 pages into this one before I gave up. Not a bad book, just not what I wanted. Ah well! On to the ones I did actually finish.

( Never nice to start the year with three misses you thought would be hits! )

And that's my first group! Those first few were very very rough, and I feel like I was struggling my way back to something better after that, but hopefully this next group will treat me better! I'm already halfway through a good one, thank goodness, and I'll be careful about my next few picks to make sure I stay on the right track.

I have read 5 books since my last post! I'd thought I would do more, but I spent the last few days of the year blazing through a whole lot of writing to get one last fic posted on the AO3, and it's not as though I didn't already read a whole bunch this year, so I'll take it.

( A few last books to see the year out! )

And now, as always, my top ten for the year, and some statistics about my reading overall.

My top ten, in no particular order:

• Stars, Hide Your Fires by Jessica Mary Best
• Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
• Paladin's Faith by T. Kingfisher
• Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall
• Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
• The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard
• Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
• System Collapse by Martha Wells
• Scholomance Series by Naomi Novik
• Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Overall, I read 165 books this year, thankfully 21 down from last year, which was a bit excessive. I didn't do a great job of savoring, as I had vague hopes of last year, but still, I read some good ones this year!

Of these books:

• 24 were rereads, down even from the year before, which was pretty similar to this year
• 9 were nonfiction, a vast change from the last two years of 3 apiece! Doing my book bingo really helped with that
• 6 were graphic novels, doubled from last year
• 2 were poetry, both by the same author
• 87 were SFF, which is drastically down and feels wrong somehow! Maybe I miscounted?
• 65 were romances, again down, but I think that's because there was a bit less fantasy/romance crossover
• 15 were mysteries (including the Beka Cooper books and Fugitive Telemetry), a new category for me to track
• 24 were written for YA or lower

That is my reading from the year, all summed up! I'm glad I met goals like getting a blackout on my book bingo card, which I intend to try again this year, and I did read at least a bit less than last year, but I just don't know if I really do much savoring, as a reader. Even when I take a long time to read something, it's reading in 100-page bursts several days apart. So I don't know if I should ask something of myself that simply isn't terribly feasible! In absence of that goal, I'll stick with book bingo, and trying to be better about putting things down when I'm not enjoying them, a perpetual goal I'm not great at.

What are your reading plans for the year?

If this is shorter than usual, it's because I'm writing this while charging my devices on day four of a power outage! Said power outage is also why I am writing again so soon, and I'm already 3-4 books into my next set of ten. Not having power doesn't leave me much to do but haul water and read, given most of the rest of my area is out too and there's still a pandemic so I don't want to go many places!


( Indie fantasy romances of varying quality and the last of my book bingo. )

And that's all for now! This power outage is definitely helping me through my TBR shelf, at least.

Here we are again! I am continuing to do battle with my TBR shelves, and making ... at least some amount of progress. I sometimes try to get my shelves empty sometime in December just for the sense of completion, but that's definitely not happening this year, phew.

( Some good books, and my very complicated feelings on the new Crusie. )

And that's all for this time! Next time will have the new Freya Marske and and some Murderbot, and we'll see what else jumps off my shelves! My life should get much less busy after the 20th of this month, so I will have more time to dive into some of the books I haven't had the attention for, or at least I hope so!

It's that time again! Summer is over, and here's the somewhat scanty list of things that I have been watching and otherwise consuming.

( The summer of murder mysteries, improving some DM skills, and no sewing at all. )

Someday my ability to consume more media will return to me, and I shall feast!

Just stuffing a whole lot of reading in before the end of summer! To be fair, there were several novellas in here and one nonfic I skimmed more than properly read.

( Pretty sure at least four of these are novellas, actually! )

And that's all for this time! Lots more romance novels coming up, and hopefully a variety of other things as well, including my continued forays into Goddard. Anyone read anything particularly amazing lately? My preorders are way thinner in the last few months of the year than they were at the beginning, so I'm on the lookout for other reads to get me through.

Rather a short span for my average this year, this time! This is partly because of some airport reading but largely because only one book was a bit of a slog, which was a very nice thing indeed.

( A broad variety, including two nonfic, some poetry, some short stories, and some delightful sci fi romps. )

And there we are! Probably won't be quite as quick this next time, but who knows, I have a lot of books I'm excited about coming up.