Tag: books

Sunday Summary – 14th February 2021

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Hi guys – Happy Valentine’s Day and welcome to today’s weekly Sunday Summary update. I hope you’ve had a great week wherever you are? Mine has been pretty good. I’ve been kept busy at work and I’ve been spending my evening binge-watching TV (quite unusual for me, but I’ve enjoyed it!).

Aside from that, I shared an audiobook review for Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo on Tuesday. It was the review I was supposed to share last week but just needed a bit more work before I was ready to publish it. I have to confess that this was my only post this week, despite my plans to share a second review later this week. I’ll be honest with you… I just didn’t get around to it. I love Dreams of Gods and Monsters and I need to get the review right to do it justice.

 

Books Read

I’ve made some more progress with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets this week. AS of last week’s Sunday Summary update, I was a third of the way through the book. I’m now nearer two thirds through and I’m looking forward to finishing the re-read of this book.

I’ve also listened to a little more of A Game of Thrones since my last update. Not much, but a couple of chapters here and there makes a difference. I still have a good few hours to listen to but I’m going to start listening to my audiobooks on my commutes again. It works out at an hour a day roughly, so it all helps.

 

Books Discovered

 

I haven’t made the most progress on reading or blogging this week, but I have made up for it in other ways. This week I celebrated my birthday and I was very lucky to get a number of books gifted to me! I received the Nevernight trilogy by Jay Kristoff in paperback and also two clothbound classics – Frankenstein and Animal Farm.  I love each and every one and I can’t wait to re-read them all!

 

Coming Up…

I’m going to share the review I didn’t get around to for Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor. To make sure I get the chance to do it, it’s the only review I’m planning on sharing this week.

I’ve been inspired by my current read to take part in a Harry Potter-themed book tag. I enjoyed reading the Harry Potter tag shared over on the blog All You READ Is Love and so I want to share my own answers to this! It’ll be a nice light read for you guys and fun for me to draft. I hope you enjoy it as much as I will.

 

Until next time, have a great week and I’ll see you in my next post!

 

 

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Sunday Summary – 7th February 2021

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I’m back with another weekly update in today’s Sunday Summary post! Have you had a good week? I certainly have! It’s been a long one, but worth all the effort. You may recall that I have mentioned that I have been sitting exams for work over the last year or so. Well, I sat my last exam on Wednesday and the good news is, I passed! My grade technically remains provisional until mid next week, but after that, it will be official and I will have my qualification at last! I actually sat my last exam remotely at home, which was a very strange experience… but good that it meant I knew I could sit the exam regardless of the Covid situation.

I only shared one out of my two planned blog posts this week. My January wrap-up post went live on Wednesday; naturally in the lead up to the exam my priority was revision, so this was posted afterwards. As shared in last week’s Sunday Summary update, I was supposed to share an audiobook review later this week. However, I didn’t quite finish it in time. It has been nearly a year since I finished listening to it and so it took some time to cast my mind back to the events of the book and my thoughts on it. I’m pleased to say it’s nearly ready to be published, so you can expect it soon.

 

Books Read

My main reading priority this week (aside from last-minute studying) has been Fire and Blood by George R. R. Martin. It has been on my bedside for most of the week and I’ve been going up to bed with a cup of tea to read. I’ve enjoyed this over the last few nights, and I am now over a couple of hundred of pages in. Most would probably baulk at the idea of this being light, bedtime reading… but I’m enjoying it and that’s what counts!

I decided to take a different read up to bed last night for a change of pace. I’m loving reading Fire and Blood, but at over 700 pages it is an epic that will take me a bit longer to read. I also highly doubt I’ll be popping it in my backpack to take to work for lunchtime reading either, so I wanted something else for this. Instead, I chose to pick up the second book in the Harry Potter series and continue my re-read. I don’t want to stretch out the time between reading them too long either. Since about this time last night, I have read 80 pages, which is a third of the book already!

 

Books Discovered

Once again, nothing to see here, which is a miracle! I’ve been avoiding the bookshop and its temptations deliberately…

 

Coming Up…

My first plan for the week is to get my audiobook review for Crooked Kingdom (the one I was supposed to publish this week) completed and published. There isn’t too much to do so I’m looking to share that post by Tuesday at the absolute latest!

Later in the week, I’m going to share yet another review. I have a good deal to write and given that I’m still reviewing non-blog tour books that are nearly a year old so to speak, I need to get on it. With that in mind, I’m going to review Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor. It’s the last book in a trilogy I absolutely adore and I can’t wait to share this one with you!

 

I hope you have enjoyed today’s Sunday Summary post and I wish you all a fantastic week to come. What are you reading?

 

 

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Sunday Summary – 31st January 2021

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Hello everyone and welcome to today’s Sunday Summary update from me! I hope you are all keeping safe and well wherever you are. It has been a pretty uneventful week for me personally; I left the house once for food! Other than that, I’ve just been working from home, preparing for an exam I’m sitting next week and spending my evenings as I do; knitting, watching TV, reading etc.

On the blog, I’ve been somewhat productive. Earlier this week I shared my 25 Bookish Facts About Me post. That was both fun to write and also a bit of a challenge. Try and come up with 25 facts about you – because some of the facts are so random and for the most part unremarkable day-to-day, they’re hard to think of!

Later this week, I shared a blog tour review for A Remedy in Time by Jennifer Macaire. I have read a good deal of her books by now and I love her writing, so even though I had decided I wasn’t going to sign up for as many tours this year, I was willing to make an exception for her. Realistically I would probably have picked this up and read it at a later date, so I might as well have done now and hopefully done my part for the tour! This is the last tour I signed up for though. Nothing else is planned at the moment, although I won’t rule out reviews for other ‘regular’ names here or promo posts for tours instead.

 

Books Read

I’ve spent a lot of this week on exam preparations, so I’ve done a bit less reading than I’ve been averaging over the last few weeks. That said, I have been doing a bit of reading before bed the last few nights. I’ve made more progress with Fire & Blood by George R. R. Martin. I’m really enjoying reading about the history of the Seven Kingdoms and beyond in the lead up to the events of the main story. A good deal of it is vaguely familiar as it comes up in the main series as well. And this is my idea of light reading to wind down at night… what does that say about me?! Haha!

As if Fire & Blood isn’t Game of Thrones-y enough, I’ve also made more progress listening to the audiobook for the first book in the series. I now have just less than 14 hours left to listen to, which will sound like loads – but it’s roughly the last third of the book.

 

Books Discovered

I haven’t added any more books to my list this week… so nothing to see here!

 

Coming Up…

You may have noticed that I didn’t set myself a reading list in January. In my pledge to get back to reading and enjoy a more relaxed pace, I’ve decided to switch things around. Instead of writing a post on what I was going to do (or at least try to) at the beginning of a month, I’m going to write a wrap-up post of what I actually did do at the end of a month instead. It’s a lot less pressure and it means I can pick and choose what I read when, as opposed to setting a restrictive list and then having to stick to it. I’ll be sharing my first wrap-up post at the beginning of the week.

Later in the week, I’ll be sharing yet another book review in my mega backlist! I’ve decided that this week’s review will be for an audiobook I listened to last year. It’s the second book in the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo, called Crooked Kingdom.

 

That’s all from me in today’s Sunday Summary post! Until next time, I hope you have a lovely week!

 

 

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25 Bookish Facts About Me

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Hi guys and welcome to today’s post! I wanted to do something fun and share some of the more random bookish facts about me. I thought it would be a good way to help you get to know me. This is a book tag, however, I decided to take part having seen a few versions of the post online. I haven’t been tagged; I just liked the idea and decided I wanted to do it for myself! 

So, here are 25 bookish facts about me that you may, or may not have known: – 

 

1. I used to pretty much exclusively read fantasy when I was younger.

2. As a teenager, I couldn’t read more than one book at a time.

3. As a high school student I volunteered in my school library.

4. My favourite authors growing up were Jacqueline Wilson and Meg Cabot.

5. Non-fiction is my least frequently read genre (excluding those I don’t read at all!)

6. I’m not a big user or advocate of Netgalley, but thanks to blog tours and such I have a feedback ratio of 73%, which is just less than the recommended 80%.

7. My TBR is just over 200 books long – yikes!

8. The longest book I’ve read is IT by Stephen King. The edition I have is a whopping 1,396 pages and took me 2 weeks to read.

9. I don’t really have a preference in the e-reader/physical book debate. Both have their merits, and that’s why I like a healthy mix of both.

10. I have never read the Twilight series and frankly, from what I’ve heard I don’t think I ever will either. No hate, just not my thing okay?

11. Autumn is my favourite time of year to read. The nights are starting to draw in and it’s the perfect excuse to draw the curtains, lock the door and cosy in with a good book.

12. My favourite author of all time is George R. R. Martin.

13. I’ve only started listening to audiobooks in the last few years and they have really grown on me. I wasn’t sure if I’d take to them at first.

14. I have copies of all the A Song of Ice and Fire series (aka A Game of Thrones) published to date in all formats (physical, audio and e-reader).

15. I have never finished a book and rated it 1 star. If it’s that bad (in my opinion) I won’t finish it and don’t rate it.

16. I picked up my first Stephen King book (The Green Mile) only 3 and a half years ago. I haven’t looked back since!

17. I don’t borrow books from the library very often…

18. In the last four years (2017-2020) I have read 239 books.

19. My average rating on Goodreads is 4.32 stars out of 5.

20. I have never been to a book convention or literary festival.

21. Starting my blog is the reason I read as much as I do. Without it, my interest would probably have waned.

22. Book blogging is like a full-time job, but it’s a fun one!

23. I have a general rule that I will only buy and keep physical copies of books that I’m sure I’m going to read again. Otherwise, I’ll buy it on kindle or I’ll take them to a charity shop when I’m finished with it.

24. I hate cracking the spine of a paperback, so I always try to stretch it before I start reading to minimise the risk of damage.

25. Reading is my way of escaping reality. I spend more time reading than any other hobby.

 

I would like to say that this was quite an easy post, but actually trying to come up with all these facts was more challenging than I anticipated! 

What bookish facts do you have to share? 

 

 

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Sunday Summary – 24th January 2021

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Hi guys and welcome to today’s possibly slightly hastily written Sunday Summary update post. I’ve had a very busy weekend doing a bit more redecorating in the house. I only finished at 8 pm this evening, so apologies if this post reads a little rushed as a result. But, my hall, stairs and landing look really nice now so it was worth the effort!

My week was comparatively normal. Aside from working from home, I’ve been studying for an upcoming exam and the usual reading and blogging. I shared my first blog post of the week on Tuesday and featured the top ten reads of 2020 that I didn’t get to. My next post after that didn’t go live until yesterday, but I wanted to take my time and get my thoughts together for my review of Rags of Time by Michael Ward.

 

Books Read

As of last week’s Sunday Summary update, I was just about to finish Midnight in Chernobyl, as I had 40 pages left. I’m pleased to say that I did go on to read those on Sunday night and so I finished this book last week.

I’ve read a second book in its entirety this week, finishing it earlier today in a break when I was waiting for a coat of paint to dry. I’m taking part in a blog tour next week and so I wanted to get the book read in plenty of time before then. I signed up to the blog tour for A Remedy in Time by Jennifer Macaire as I have read a number of this author’s books to date and I love her writing. As a rule, I’m not really signing up to review any books for blog tours, but I signed up to this at the end of last year as an exception, given that I would probably have continued to read her books anyway. It was a nice and light historical fiction read and I can’t wait to share my thoughts next week.

I’ve also listened to more of A Game of Thrones this week, but especially yesterday when starting the decorating. I just love it so much and I’ve listened to around half the audiobook now.

 

Books Discovered

I saw a tweet from an author I love talking about a book series I hadn’t heard about. Having read a bit more about it, I decided I liked the sound of it enough to give it a try. The first book of the series is called Priest of Bones by Peter McLean. I’ve added this to my TBR to try the series. I hope I’ll enjoy it as much as I think I will!

 

Coming Up…

Next week I’ll be sharing a couple of posts in addition to my usual weekly update. I want to start off the week on a lighter tone, as I’ll be sharing a review later in the week. I’ve seen a fun post idea of sharing 25 bookish facts about me, and so I want to share this with you in the next few days.

I’ll be sharing my blog tour review of A Remedy in Time on Friday, which I hope you can join me for!

Then, last but not least I’ll be wrapping up the week as usual in next week’s Sunday Summary update.

 

That’s all from me for now though – have a good one and I’ll see you in the next post!

 

 

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Book Review: Rags of Time – Michael Ward

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Hi everyone and welcome to today’s book review of Rags of Time by Michael Ward. I very kindly received a copy of the book in exchange for review last year and I’m looking forward to finally sharing my thoughts with you here. Before that though – here are the details of the book: –

 

Rags of Time – Michael Ward

Rags of Time by Michael Ward | Goodreads

London.

1639.

Thomas Tallant, a young and ambitious Spice Merchant, returns from India to find his city in turmoil.

A bitter struggle is brewing between King Charles I and Parliament, as England slides into civil war. The capital is simmering with dissent. The conflict is ready to boil over.

But Thomas soon has other troubles to contend with. A wealthy merchant, Sir Joseph Venell, is savagely killed; then his partner Sir Hugh Swofford plunges to his death, in the Tallant household.

Suspicion falls on Thomas, who is sucked into a mire of treachery and rumour within the City of London. As the merchant struggles to clear his name, he becomes captivated by the enigmatic Elizabeth Seymour, whose passion for astronomy and mathematics is matched only by her addiction to the gaming tables.

Pursued by the authorities, Thomas races to unmask the real killer who claims a third victim to implicate him further, toying with his future in a deadly cat and mouse game.

In a desperate race against time, Elizabeth applies her powers of logic and deduction to unearth the clues that will point to the killer, but her way is barred by a secret message from the grave.

Can she crack its code before Thomas, now a wounded and exhausted fugitive, succumbs to the chase?

And, if she succeeds, has Thomas the strength to face his tormentor and win his life and reputation back?

Rags of Time is the first book in an engaging and entertaining new historical crime series, set during the upheaval of the 17th Century.

 

My Thoughts…

I am a huge fan of historical fiction and Rags of Time gave me the opportunity to try something completely new. Set in 1639, it’s a new time period of British history for me. Whilst the events of the book are fiction, the political and religious tumult within the book reflects the difficulties King Charles I experienced in his reign. This particular historical period isn’t one I’d had much exposure to before reading Rags of Time, and so I enjoyed reading something new!

I also enjoyed the more immediate action taking place in the book. Merchants are dropping like flies and Thomas Tallant finds himself prime suspect of the murders. Desperate to prove his innocence, he takes in interest in the murders in the hopes of discovering the truth to clear his name. But the Magistrates are after him, and with men of such power on his tail, he feels the walls closing in around him.

The wide array of characters within the book adds a lot of colour and intrigue to the narrative. From those trying to help Thomas clear his name to the men who set out to prove him guilty, an array of relationships build a dense web within Thomas must navigate. I think this aspect of the book is very well-written. There are a lot of moving parts in the book and so the character relationships are consistently shifting in line with the action.

There is plenty of action in the book to keep all readers entertained. In his efforts to maintain his innocence, Thomas finds himself in wild chases through the city and undertaking covert operations to uncover information. With the help of the incredibly intelligent Jane Seymour, can Thomas prove his innocence? Well, you’ll have to read Rags of Time yourself to find out because I won’t be spoiling it for you!

Thanks to the author Michael Ward for a copy of the book in exchange for a review. It was a pleasure to read!

 

 

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Top Ten Tuesday – Books I Meant to Read In 2020 but Didn’t Get To

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Hey guys and welcome to today’s Top Ten Tuesday post! Today’s topic is Books I Meant to Read In 2020 but Didn’t Get To… and if that doesn’t sum up 2020 for me then I don’t know what does! I made ambitious plans last January, ignorant of how the year was going to pan out for me. I’ve already talked about the reasons a lot, but ultimately I didn’t meet any of my goals.

The most important goal in relation to today’s post was my aim to read the 25 oldest books on my TBR. I made a noble attempt and managed to read 7 in full, but I also DNF’d 3. A lot of these were old additions to the TBR… we’re talking 2014/2015 when I first started using Goodreads. That’s why I wanted to get around to them, but also to see if my reading taste has changed. If anything, I think I’m a lot more open to different genres when I was then. Some of the books added were pushing the boat out on what I normally read so I’m happy to accept some of the DNF’s. Others had every right to be firm favourites but just didn’t work for me at all (Good Omens by Terry Pratchett – I’m looking at you!)

So, as you can see I have plenty of material for the Top Ten I didn’t get around to! I also wanted to write this post about it as my new goal for this year is to pick up where I left off and read more exclusively from the TBR… no ARCs, no new review requests etc. So, which ones am I looking forward to the most? Let’s get into it! Rather than a paragraph for each book, I’ve split my ten into genres groups that I’ll talk more generally about.

 

Fantasy

 

It’s hardly surprising that a number of books on this list are from the fantasy genre. As a teenager, it was pretty much all I read. These books are all by authors I love. I have already read at least three books by each and I’m confident that I’m going to really enjoy the books listed above. Brandon Sanderson and Stephen King I have read more recently. It has been a number of years since I read a book by Mark Lawrence, so I’m excited to get stuck in!

I think it’s funny that I am coming to this Stephen King novel now having read several of his other books in different genres. I’m pretty sure I added The Talisman with the intention of using it as a ‘step into’ trying his writing before exploring his more extensive horror genre books! Look how that worked out!

 

Science-fiction

 

Science-fiction is another genre that pops up again and again. I didn’t read a lot of it when I was younger, but I definitely have a healthier appreciation for it now. I added Dune to my TBR after being gifted a copy for my birthday a few years ago. I’m glad it was given to me as I really like the sound of it. I have had an experimental skeet at the first few pages before and I’m hopeful I’ll be enjoying this one too.

The Feedback Loop is quite short compared to my average read, but still, I love the sound of the plot. It will be the first thing I have read by this author too, so it’ll be a completely new experience for me.

 

Classics

 

If someone had told me ten years ago that one day I would be reading classics by choice, I’d have laughed at you. If you also told me that I’d re-read and come to enjoy the classic novels I hated studying for school, I wouldn’t believe you. And yet, I am reading them. For the most part, I am enjoying them. I’ve only DNF’d one so far and that’s The Catcher in the Rye. I’m not put off by this though and I’m looking forward to trying more classics!

 

Historical Fiction

I love historical fiction novels too, so their inclusion on this list shouldn’t be a surprise either! The two locations and time periods for each book’s setting are very different, but I have read similar books before that I’ve really enjoyed them. The Book Thief is set in Nazi Germany in WW2 and Hild in 7th century Britain.

WW2 is one of my favourite historical time periods to read about. You could call it a bit of morbid fascination given the atrocities real people lived through in these times. It’s horrible to think about but equally, I think novels set in this period have a lot to tell us. It’s a reminder not to make the same mistakes again.

 

So, those are my Top Ten Books I Meant to Read In 2020 but Didn’t Get To. Have you read any of them, or do you intend to in 2021?

 

 

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Sunday Summary – 17th January 2021

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Hi everyone and welcome back to another weekly update in today’s Sunday Summary post! I hope you have all had a good week? Well, as good as in the circumstances anyway!

We’re still in lockdown 2.0 here on the Island, so it’s safe to say I haven’t been up to much. Aside from dialling in for the 9-5, my days have been spent (mainly) knitting, reading and blogging. I’m making a jumper at the moment and the section I’m doing takes so long as I’m knitting in the round for both the body and the sleeve. It’s over 330 stitches per round, and I need to do this until the section is 15” long. Just over halfway at the moment… but it should speed up once I have that bit done!

I’ve also shared a couple of blog posts with you earlier this week. My first post of the week was a look back at my Top Reads of 2020. I always like to recap my favourites of the year – they are good posts to look back on and I love to share my recommendations. That’s what Reviewsfeed is here for after all! Speaking of recommendations, I also shared my book review for Chimeborn by Daniel Curry yesterday. It’s not very often I feature reviews for children/young adult audiences, but I really enjoyed reading this myself!

 

Books Read

 

This week I managed to get back to reading Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham. When the news about our circuit-breaker lockdown came nearly two weeks ago, my motivation to read this stalled. The last thing I wanted to read about was a disaster! But, I was able to pick this up again early on in the week. As of this update post, which I’m writing early Sunday evening, I have 40 pages to go until the end. Finishing Midnight in Chernobyl is tonight’s job before bed.

I’m glad I got back into this one. I don’t read non-fiction very much in the grand scheme of things, but I really should. I’ve picked up more in the last year than I ever have done previously and I’ve really enjoyed every single one. I really need to broaden my horizons a bit and try to pick more up habitually.

As well as physical books, I also listened to a bit of A Game of Thrones whilst doing some of my knitting yesterday. Listening to audiobooks when knitting, or painting… things that involve using your hands but don’t require too much thought. Even so, I’m that familiar with the story from reading the book previously (three times) and watching the TV show (I can’t tell you how many times) that I don’t have to concentrate to follow what’s going on.

 

Books Discovered

My TBR can breathe a sigh of relief as I haven’t added any more books to the already crushing weight of the current pile since last week’s Sunday Summary post!

 

Coming Up…

I want to start next week with another Top Ten Tuesday post. Having found out what this week’s topic is, there is no shortage of books that can be put on this list. Remember last year’s Beat the Backlist challenge that I didn’t complete? You’ll probably find a lot of books from that on Tuesday’s “Books I Meant to Read In 2020 but Didn’t Get To” post. I also want to share this post as I want to tackle these books this year. For definite.

Later in the week, I’m going to share another book review. I have a few review requests to finish up and this week I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the historical fiction novel Rags of Time by Michael Ward.

And of course, last but not least I’ll be back with you next week for another Sunday Summary update.

 

I hope you have enjoyed today’s Sunday Summary catch-up! What have you been reading this week?

 

 

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Sunday Summary – 10th January 2021

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Hi everyone and welcome to today’s Sunday Summary weekly update post! I hope you are all keeping well?

This week has been… unusual, to say the least. In fact, no, that’s an understatement. This time last week everything was normal here on the Island. This weekend, we’re back in full lockdown. It’s crazy how quickly it’s happened, but fingers crossed the decisiveness of the Government is the right decision to eradicating it again. So, aside from a food shop, I’ve been home since Wednesday.

On a more positive note, I have been able to put my time to good use both here and in terms of reading. On Thursday I shared my 2020 Wrap Up post, in which I looked back at my reading goals for last year and how I did with them. I’ll give you a spoiler – I didn’t do great… but for good reasons. Hop on over and check that post out if you haven’t already!

Yesterday I took part in a blog tour and provided a promo spotlight post for When the Children Come by Barry Kirwan. It’s a sci-fi novel suitable for young adult and adult readers. I read a thriller by the same author last year (under the pen name J. F. Kirwan) and honestly, it’s up there as one of my top reads of the year! I have no doubt When the Children Come is just as good, so it was a pleasure to be able to take part in the tour.

 

Books Read

As of last week, my current read was Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham. It’s still a current read, but I must confess I have shelved it for a few days having only read 12-13 pages or so since last week’s update.

When the news hit on Tuesday evening that we would be going into lockdown, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I tried to pick up Midnight in Chernobyl as a distraction but didn’t get very far at all. Then, I tried knitting, but my heart wasn’t in that either. I put on an episode of A Game of Thrones (I’m re-watching the last season, slowly) but after 20 minutes I gave up on that too.

In the end, I went up to bed quite early for me and started to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling. Re-reading these books is one of my goals for this year, and I needed something light-hearted. It worked, and I managed to read about 50 pages or so that night before going to bed. I’ve carried on reading it over the course of the week, and I actually finished the book yesterday evening.

I still wasn’t quite in the mood to return to Midnight in Chernobyl yesterday, although I think I’ll be able to pick this up again now. So, after much debate and telling myself that no, I couldn’t do another re-read of A Game of Thrones  1) again and 2) as well as Harry Potter, I picked up Fire & Blood by George R. R. Martin instead. Fire & Blood is a book about the history of the universe A Game of Thrones is set in, covering the 300 years before events of the main series. I felt it was a good compromise and I’ve really enjoyed what I have read so far. I’m 61 pages into this 700-page behemoth, but I love it!

 

Books Discovered

There aren’t any new books on the TBR this week, I’m pleased to say. I have been reading more blog posts by other bloggers again (a habit I got out of), so this might change in the weeks to come. But for now, no news is good news!

 

Coming Up…

In an effort to get through some of the backlog of reviews I have, I am going to be sharing another book review with you next week. This particular book is a copy I received in exchange for a review. It’s very reminiscent of Harry Potter. My reading of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone this week has reminded me that I still haven’t reviewed Chimeborn, written by Daniel Curry. So, I think it’s time I share my review with you all!

As it’s the beginning of the year and we are still thinking about the progress and such I made last year, I also want to share a post about my favourite reads of the year. I hope you can tune in for that one too!

As always, I’ll conclude the week with another Sunday Summary post.

 

That’s all from me for now though! Have a good week, stay safe and I’ll hopefully see you around!

 

 

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2020 Wrap Up Post

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2020 was a crazy year. I don’t think that’s a stretch of the imagination for absolutely anybody at this point. It also, strangely, ended up being one of my busiest years personally. Unfortunately, not as much in terms of blogging and reading as I had hoped, but that’s okay. I’ve come to the realisation that in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter.

Before I get into my blogging and reading progress of the year, I’d like to tell you a little bit about the other things I ended up doing in 2020 as well. Ultimately, this played a part in the amount of time I had to commit to blogging and reading.

 

Background

At the end of 2019, I decided that I wanted to move house. I’m not going to go into the ugly details, but let’s just say they were external forces that drove me to that decision. Moving house is a huge undertaking at the best of times, but I ended up moving in May 2020, during the middle of lockdown here on the island. We were delaying the move as per guidelines, but unfortunately again, other factors meant it had to go ahead. That meant my family couldn’t help me as they had planned to, and whilst I was able to use a removal firm on the day, the rest was up to me. There were many tears on the day and my parents had to watch me bawl my eyes from the doorstep (unable to come in but dropping off some food) once I got here, but with the help and advice of my mum and dad I got it together and within a couple of weeks of moving in I had everything straight.

But that’s where the rest of the work began. The house I ended up moving into had some very interesting decoration, to say the least! Pretty much none of it was to my taste, so within a couple of months of moving in I started redecorating. What can I say, I had holiday to take from work and nowhere to go with it!

Whilst I had anticipated moving, I hadn’t really considered that I’d end up spending so much free time working on the house after I moved in. It’s not a problem, and ultimately I’m happier because I’ve spent the time making this place mine. It does mean, however, that it ate into my free time for reading and played a part in my not reaching my goal of 80 books last year.

What I also didn’t expect was how lockdown would affect me. When it was first announced, I was obviously upset that I couldn’t see anyone. But, I stupidly thought to myself, right I’ve got all this time to kill – I’ll read more. How I can laugh at myself in hindsight. What I didn’t expect was how much of a distraction lockdown would be and actually… I couldn’t concentrate on reading all that much. At least, not to start with. Some days were better than others.

So you see, there were multiple factors that contributed to my not reaching my already very ambitious goal of 80 books last year. I thought I would be disappointed with myself if I didn’t, but strangely I’m not. I know I read at every opportunity I could and wanted to, and equally, I didn’t force myself to read things I didn’t want to either. When I wanted to do something different I enjoyed other hobbies… saw my friends and family (sorry, feel bad for saying it but it’s true) and did the things I wanted.

My other challenges also flopped a little. Whilst I started off well, reading less also took its toll on my attempt to read more of the older books on my TBR. I was still signing up for blog tours and such, and so these took priority and my challenge fell off the radar. My final challenge was to read more from my local library. Ha! With covid, that went down the pan too. I did check to see if I could borrow electronic editions, but most of the time they weren’t available at my library. Maybe I’ll be better at this throughout this year (once it re-opens again)? 

Anyway, there’s the background. And now, onto the books I read last year! My final end of year stats are:

I think I DNF’d the highest number of books I have ever recorded in a year in 2020. I think this is in part because I started to go through my TBR and my reading tastes have changed since I added the books several years ago. That’s not always the case… in fact, some of the best books I read last year were added to my TBR four or five years ago!

There were definitely more hits than misses. All in all, I think there was a pretty good proportion of books that I knew I was going to love and some more adventurous read that I want to try. Some of those worked, but those I put down definitely fall into that category.

To summarise this year wrap up post, here is a list of all the books I read last year and their star ratings: –

 

2020 Books

Have you read any of the books on this list? Or any of them on your TBR? Let me know in the comments!

 

 

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