Another year, another photo of the TBR pile
Chocolate Orange for scale.
Not pictured - all the 99p bargains on the Kindle that I am definitely going to read.
Happy reading, everyone!
Here’s all the books I bought or was given in 2024 and haven’t read yet… Hoping to make a dent in them. We won’t talk about all the books sitting on my kindle…
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An incomplete TBR pile. I’ve got more somewhere but can’t find them at the moment. Probably still in a box after moving house over two years ago.
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Just downloaded this :
(Thanks for the recommendation @Malva ) so looking forward to that once I’ve finished my current read!
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Shall I post in here about my reading over the Christmas break or is that better off in the 2024 thread?
- 2024 thread
- 2025 thread
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Progress report
I’m very into it at the moment. I always find it quite interesting how I think a lot of books like this and Infinite Jest and Gravity’s Rainbow feel a lot more widely “palatable” (?) now than they may have done in the past cause they’re incredibly interactive experiences not so dissimilar to non linearly reading the Internet or a video game narrative or something. With each episode situating me in a new writing style and kind of gradually parsing what internal experience Joyce might be trying to externalise, I’ve found it kind of similar to playing The Case of the Golden Idol over the past week.
I can see why people find it such a life affirming work to read though - I think amidst every attempt to reduce things down (people into economic units of work and consumption, art into content, everything into transactions, etc.), it’s just a wonderful celebration of how the most everyday person’s internal life can transcend all of that, how the most ordinary experiences contain multitudes of possibilities and weird tangents
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Oh just seen that thread is locked. So will post here!
Have had a good reading stretch over the Christmas break.
Alan Moore’s From Hell came up on a books podcast I listen to, so I checked it out of the library. Had no idea it was so chunky, felt a bit daunted, but it’s one of the best things I’ve read in ages. Dense, thought-provoking, feels like it captures a world so vividly… I’m still working through the appendices.
I reread The Dark Is Rising, starting on the solstice. I love the opening of this book, the sense of a cosy family home with all its noise, warmth and squabbling, with the bitter dark encroaching from the outside. Some of the magic stuff gets a bit convoluted for me (same issue I have with some of Alan Garner’s books) but I love the overall atmosphere this book creates and look forward to revisiting it over future Christmases.
Another library book, but this time quite a big disappointment: Rare Singles by Benjamin Myers. I’ve loved pretty much everything I’ve read by him, but this was poor. Sentimental, patronising and I just didn’t buy his writing about an opioid-addicted black man from Chicago.
Have also been slowly reading Dominion which was a Christmas prezzie. Written by one of the guys from The Rest is History podcast, it’s a big history book about the impact Christianity has had on the Western world. Not sure about it yet, but only a few chapters in.
This year, like every year, I’m aiming to cool it on the buying books front, and read more of my library.
Happy reading!
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No TBR pile as I am a library girly
I’m aiming for 20 books this year after reading 14 in 2024 - my most read year ever! (Slow reader, only read before bed so fall asleep after a page or two)
Currently reading: Death Valley by Melissa Broder.
Next up: Wicked.
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That’s a nice list.
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I read A Guest in the House recently and really enjoyed it, tag me with your thoughts when you’ve read it pls!
Managed 95 books last year which is a ridiculous high, doubt I’ll be near that this year as got some bigger books to get into.
Nearly finished The Memory Police which I’m enjoying, have also just started Brooklyn Crime Novel as it was to hand and I’ve renewed it 7 times already. Need to get through the library loans so I can jump in to Absolution, Intermezzo and North Woods.
Also really not liking the recent changes on the Goodreads app, need to check out moving over to storygraph.
A friend of mine has started a project on John Milton’s Paradise Lost, reading one of its 12 books a month this year. Link here for anyone who wants to join in!
This is my pal’s book! 
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Yeah, I was shocked by this book as well. How is it the same author? I gave up after a quarter of the book, so I’m glad I didn’t miss much from the rest of it.
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Woah
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2024 - 26 books read (with eyes and ears)
TBR manageable but I’m unlikely to get too stuck in as I’m mostly a kindle wanker. Definitely going to do Saga, Mongrel, Orbital and Hungry though
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started reading noughts and crosses by Malorie Blackman cos i’ve never read it, turns out reading YA fiction when you’re in your 30s isn’t very fulfilling. will read it til the end anyway
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I remember liking it a lot at the time but yeah, I was indeed a YA back then
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