Category: Book Musings (Page 11 of 31)

April whizzed by! We celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary and I had a week off work, pottering around at home and seeing some of the beautiful Dorset countryside. Read a few books, but more about that in another post soon. Here is my TBR from May. Three bank holidays too! Though Sarah has lots of jobs around the house lined up… I have three books on Wales to read this month and quite a lot of books on walking.

Still Reading

Three Women of Herat: Afghanistan 1973-77 – Veronica Doubleday

 

Review Books

Isles at the Edge of the Sea – Jonny Muir

The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist – Tim Birkhead

The House of Islam – Ed Husain

On the Scent: Unlocking The Mysteries Of Smell – And How Losing It Can Change Our World – Paola Totaro and Robert Wainwright

Swan: Portrait of a Majestic Bird, from Mythical Meanings to the Modern Day – Dan Keel

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover – Nick Garbutt

RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife: 3rd edition – Peter Holden & Geoffrey Abbott

Reconnection: Fixing our Broken Relationship with Nature – Miles Richardson

One Fine Day: A Journey Through English Time – Ian Marchant

The Possibility of Life: Searching for Kinship in the Cosmos – Jaime Green

Once Upon a Raven’s Nest: A Life On Exmoor In An Epoch Of Change – Catrina Davies

Shaping the Wild: Wisdom from a Welsh Hill Farm – David Elias

The View from the Hill: Four Seasons in a Walker’s Britain – Christopher Somerville

Across A Waking Land: A 1,000-Mile Walk Through A British Spring – Roger Morgan-Grenville

Brittany – Stone Stories – Wendy Mewes

Minor Monuments – Ian Maleney

Real Dorset – Jon Woolcott

Taking Flight – Lev Parikian

 

Other Books

The Last Overland: Singapore to London: The Return Journey Of The Iconic Land Rover Expedition – Alex Bescoby

A Walk in the Park: The Life and Times of a People’s Institution – Travis Elborough

Wanderers: A History of Women Walking – Kerri Andrews

Wild City: Encounters With Urban Wildlife – Florence Wilkinson

Endurance: 100 Tales Of Survival, Endurance And Exploration – Ed. Levison Wood

Vuelta Skelter: Riding The Remarkable 1941 Tour Of Spain – Tim Moore

The Ten Equations That Rule The World And How You Can Use Them Too – David Sumpter

Waypoints: A Journey On Foot – Robert Martineau

Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present And Future – Tom Bullough

The Passengers – Will Ashon

Between The Chalk And The Sea: A Journey On Foot Into The Past Gail Simmons

 

Challenge Books

The Overstory – Richard Powers

Elegy For A River: Whiskers, Claws And Conservation’s Last, Wild Hope – Tom Moorhouse

Bloom: From Food to Fuel, the Epic Story of How Algae Can Save Our World – Ruth Kassinger

 

Poetry

Two Cures for Love: Selected Poems, 1979-2006 Wendy Cope

 

Photobooks

The Golden Valley: A Visual Biography of the Garw – Phil Cope

 

Fiction

The Fell – Sarah Moss

 

So my aim of having slightly shorter TBRs really isn’t working… Any from that list that takes your fancy? Let me know in the comments below.

 

Well, March was a good reading month. I managed to read a total of 18 books in the end, with three of them reaching 4.5 stars. Natural history has just reached the top of my genre chart too, with six, the same as fiction. Faber are top of my publishers list probably because of the poetry. I only bought 29 books too..

 

Books Read

Taxtopia – The Rebel Accountant – 4 Stars

Another Gulmohar Tree – Aamer Hussein – 2 Stars

Falling Away – David Banning – 3.5 Stars

The Women Who Saved the English Countryside – Matthew Kelly – 3.5 Stars

The Road: A Story of Romans and Ways to the Past – Christopher Hadley – 4 Stars

These Envoys of Beauty – Anna Vaught – 4 Stars

The Last Sunset in the West: Britain’s Vanishing West Coast Orcas – Natalie Sanders – 3.5 Stars

Nightwalking – John Lewis-Stempel – 4 Stars

Cane, Corn & Gully – Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa – 3 Stars

Manorism – Yomi Sode – 3 Stars

Quiet – Victoria Adukwei Bulley – 3.5 Stars

Afropean – Johny Pitts – 4 Stars

In the Shadow of the Mountain – Silvia Vasquez-Lavado – 3.5 Stars

The Travel Writing Tribe – Tim Hannigan – 4 Stars

Extraordinary Clouds – Richard Hamblyn – 3.5 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Nomad Century – Gaia Vince – 4.5 Stars

Two Lights – James Roberts – 4.5 Stars

One Place De L’Eglise – Trevor Dolby – 4.5 Stars

 

Top Genres

Fiction – 6

Natural History – 6

Poetry – 6

History – 5

Travel – 4

Memoir – 3

Fantasy – 3

Science Fiction – 3

Photography – 2

Environmental – 2

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 4

Simon & Schuster – 3

Particular Books – 2

Allen Lane – 2

Little Toller – 2

William Collins – 2

Monoray – 2

Summersdale – 1

Sandstone Press – 1

Fum D’Estamps Press – 1

 

Review Copies Received

The Possibility of Life: Searching for Kinship in the Cosmos – Jaime Green

Once Upon a Raven’s Nest: A Life On Exmoor In An Epoch Of Change – Catrina Davies

Shaping the Wild: Wisdom from a Welsh Hill Farm – David Elias

Cry of the Wild: Tales Of Sea, Woods and Hill – Charles Foster

In Sardinia: An Unexpected Journey in Italy – Jeff Biggers

Minor Monuments – Ian Maleney

 

Library Books Checked Out

The Lost Rainforests Of Britain – Guy Shrubsole

One Thousand Shades Of Green: A Year In Search Of Britain’s Wild Plants – Mike Dilger

Spring Rain – Marc Hamer

Between The Chalk And The Sea: A Journey On Foot Into The Past – Gail Simmons

Am I Normal?: The 200-year Search For Normal People (And Why They Don’t Exist) – Sarah Chaney

Ten Birds That Changed The World – Stephen Moss

Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future – Tom Bullough

 

 

Books Bought

Better Than Fiction: True Travel Tales from Great Fiction Writers – Ed. Don George

Walking With Plato: A Philosophical Hike Through the British Isles – Gary Hayden

Almost French: A New Life in Paris – Sarah Turnbull

Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire – Simon Winchester

Best of Lonely Planet Travel Writing – Ed. Tony Wheeler

The Last Overland: Singapore to London: The Return Journey Of The Iconic Land Rover Expedition – Alex Bescoby (signed)

Travels With Epicurus: Meditations from a Greek Island on the Pleasures of Old Age – Daniel Klein

A Rose for Winter – Laurie Lee

Prehistoric Britain from the Air – Janet & Colin Bord

Spain – Jan Morris

Three Rivers Of France: Dordogne, Lot, Tarn – Freda White

Italian Journeys – Jonathan Keates

From Source to Sea: Notes from Walking 215 Miles Along the River Thames – Tom Chesshyre

Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth – J.R.R. Tolkien

Poets of the Great War: Edward Thomas – Edward Thomas

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals – Oliver Burkeman

Jumping Ships: The Global Misadventures of a Cargo Ship Apprentice – David Baboulene

Prehistoric Dorset – John Gale

Fresh Woods Pastures New – Ian Niall

The Cuckoo in June: Tales of a Sussex Orchard – David Atkins

Mysterious Britain: Ancient Secrets of the United Kingdom and Ireland – Janet & Colin Bord

Ley Lines: Their Nature and Properties : A Dowser’s Investigation – J. Havelock Fidler

Human kind: A Hopeful History – Rutger Bregman

Period Piece – Gwen Raverat

Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change – Jared Diamond

Green and Pleasant Land: Best-Loved Poems of the British Countryside – Ana Sampson

The Lost Whale – Hannah Gold (signed)

Time Junction – Helen Solomon (signed)

Wild Embers: Poems of Rebellion, Fire and Beauty – Nikita Gill

 

Any from that huge list that take you fancy, let me know in the comments below

Tiny bit late posting this! Sorry. Here is the list of books for my April TBR that I hope to make serious inroads into. We’ll see…

 

Still Reading

Notes from the Cévennes: Half a Lifetime in Provincial France Adam Thorpe

One Place De L’Eglise: A Year Or Two In A French Village Trevor Dolby

 

Blog Tour

More Numbers Every Day: How Data, Stats, and Figures Control Our Lives and How to Set Ourselves Free Micael Dahlén & Helge Thorbjørnsen

 

Review Books

Isles at the Edge of the Sea Jonny Muir

The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist Tim Birkhead

The House of Islam Ed Husain

Three Women of Herat: Afghanistan 1973-77 Veronica Doubleday

Polling UnPacked: The History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls Mark Pack

On the Scent: Unlocking The Mysteries Of Smell – And How Losing It Can Change Our World Paola Totaro and Robert Wainwright

The Serpent Coiled in Naples Marius Kociejowski

Swan: Portrait of a Majestic Bird, from Mythical Meanings to the Modern Day Dan Keel

Seining Along Chesil: Voices From A Dorset Fishing Community Sarah Acton

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover Nick Garbutt

RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife: 3rd edition Peter Holden & Geoffrey Abbott

Falling Away David Banning

The Angel Of Santa Sofia Josep M. Argemí Tr. Tiago Miller

Reconnection: Fixing our Broken Relationship with Nature Miles Richardson

One Fine Day: A Journey Through English Time Ian Marchant

Coast of Teeth: Travels to English Seaside Towns in an Age of Anxietyy Tom Sykes

The Possibility of Life: Searching for Kinship in the Cosmos Jaime Green

Once Upon a Raven’s Nest: A Life On Exmoor In An Epoch Of Change Catrina Davies

Shaping the Wild: Wisdom from a Welsh Hill Farm David Elias

 

Other Books

The Last Overland: Singapore to London: The Return Journey Of The Iconic Land Rover Expedition Alex Bescoby

A Walk in the Park: The Life and Times of a People’s Institution Travis Elborough

Wanderers: A History of Women Walking Kerri Andrews

Far From The Light Tade Thompson

The Lost Rainforests Of Britain Guy Shrubsole

The Treeline: The Last Forest And The Future Of Life On Earth Ben Rawlence

Iconicon: A Journey Around The Landmark Buildings Of Contemporary Britain John Grindrod

Rosewater Tade Thompson

 

Challenge Books

The Overstory Richard Powers

Bloom: From Food to Fuel, the Epic Story of How Algae Can Save Our World Ruth Kassinger

 

Poetry

The Catch Fiona Sampson

 

Photobooks

Hide and Seek: The Architecture of Cabins and Hideouts Sofia Borges, Sven Ehmann & Di Ozesanmuseum Bamberg

 

The intention of shorter TBRs seems to have gone! I read 18 in March so Would like to do the same again in April.

Any that you’ve read or that take your fancy let me know in the comments below.

Why use a spreadsheet at all?

I started making a note of the books that I was reading after I got about three chapters into a book and realised that I had read it before. That was back in 2002 and I began by keeping a list in a Word document. It dawned on me a while after that that I really should be keeping that information in Excel and I transferred the data over in 2009.

I see those who use all manner of different methods to keep a track of what they are reading and a list of books on their TBR list, but for me, a spreadsheet is the best method. It works similarly to my brain, and I can compartmentalise the blocks of data in a way that suits me. It is also a great way of getting lots of pertinent facts out about my reading habits and the way that they have changed over the years.

 

My different spreadsheets

I have two main spreadsheets that I use. One is called New Books Read Dashboard and the other is TBR Master. (I need to sort the names out…).

New Books Read Dashboard has five tabs:

Overview which is my dashboard for this sheet

Running Sheet, so I can keep a track of everything that I have read in the current year

Main Data, which is where I have a list of every book that I can remember having read, as well as my yearly reading lists which I have kept since 2002. (There are several books from childhood reading missing, some of which I must add, but there are some that I know I will never be able to recall).

Stats where I use pivot tables to drag information out from the Main Data tab and the final one i

Lookups which is now common across all of the spreadsheets.

TBR Master has evolved from two sheets. One had a list of all the library books that I had on loan and another sheet had a list of review books that I have been sent. I had since added to it quite a lot and it now has eight tabs! These are:

TBR Dashboard which is mostly pivot tables of the information in the tabs,

TBR Plan which is where I attempt to pull together the books that I want to read for the coming month.

Library Books is the list of books that I currently am borrowing from the library.

Review books is a list of books that I have been kindly sent by publishers (And is way too long!!).

Own book is something that I have started recently, where I have been logging the many many books that I buy.

Borrowed books tab is also self-explanatory and believe it or not, only has two listed on it.

Virtual TBR is where I log books that I want to read but as yet have not got a copy. I really need to tie this in with my Good Read’s want-to-read selection.

Lookups which is the same as in New Books Read Dashboard and other sheets.

 

Those are the two main spreadsheets that I use day in and day out. I also have three specifically for reading challenges; a general one, a natural history one and one for my World From My Armchair challenge. I then have a further 17 spreadsheets that are for awards, such as the Wainwright, Stanford Dolman, Portico and so on. There are then numerous others that contain lists of books from authors, publishers and other random lists that I haven’t quite got around to sorting out yet.

 

How I Use Spreadsheets

When I first moved over from a list in a document to a spreadsheet, I only had four columns, author and title, year read and so on, but as time has gone on I have added extra columns to be able to get meaningful data out.

I now have ten columns of information that make up what I call my core set. These all appear in the same order in each (ok most as I still haven’t updated them all yet) of the spreadsheets that I use. This means that I can copy information easily between each spreadsheet without having to change anything. I know that it is always going to be the same.

 

Core Columns

Title: Pretty self-explanatory really, it is the title of the book.

Author: Also, self-explanatory. I use Ed. for editor and Tr. and translator where necessary

Gender: I have a dropdown that is either male or female. I haven’t included the various other genders out there at the moment.

Publisher: This is the name of the publisher. I rarely read self-published books now, but I use Self in that column when I do so.

Pages: This is how many pages the book has, including indexes etc.

ISBN: A record of the ISBN of the edition I am reading.

Publication Date: This is the date that the edition I have recorded was published

Binding: I have three choices here, Hardback, Paperback and ebook.

Price: This is the price of the book on the cover, not necessarily what I paid for it!

Genre: I have three choices on this dropdown, Non-fiction, fiction, and Poetry

 

Dashboards

It is all very well having the data in my spreadsheet, but it isn’t much use if I cannot extract meaningful or useful information. I have started using simple dashboards now in some of my sheets as I have found this is a good way of summarising the data. Most of this I do through pivot tables, these are a clever way of taking big dollops of data and distilling it into easy-to-read information. I also use various formulas to sum and count very specific pieces of information, normally to do with reading challenges.

In my TBR Master sheet, I use most pivots so I can see how many books are on my reading plan for the month, review copies that I have got outstanding, books on my virtual TBR and how many books I have. It kind of works at the moment, but there are gaps in what I want from this sheet at the moment.

 

Lookups

One of the key parts of each of the spreadsheets is the tab titled Lookups. This sheet is now being included in all new spreadsheets that I am doing and this is what it looks like:

In this tab, all the data is in specific named areas and are formatted as a table. This makes the data validation fairly easy to do and the dropdowns in each spreadsheet match each time. It might not be for everyone, but I find it helps me.

 

Pros & cons

When I first set about thinking about the ways that I wanted to improve my spreadsheets I set about it using good old pencil and paper. It took a lot of thinking and sketches before coming up with the current solution. I have been using these modified sheets for just over a year now and mostly this has worked really well. However, I have seen ways to make improvements and that is going to be covered in the next post on this.

Even though it is the shortest month, February always seems to drag. I have no idea why it feels that way. Didn’t quite reach my target of 16 books, but I am happy with 15, including three five star books this month! So here is what I read

Books Read

The Bookseller’s Tale – Martin Latham – 4.5 stars

Wahala – Nikki May – 3 stars

The Ship Asunder – Tom Nancollas – 3.5 stars

Dandelions – Thea Lenarduzzi – 3.5 stars

Pharmakon – Almudena Sánchez Tr. Katie Whittemore – 3.5 stars

The Quiet Moon – Kevin Parr – 4 stars

Sea Fever – Stuart Franklin – 3 stars

RSPB How to Photograph Garden Birds – Mark Carwardine – 3.5 stars

Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis – Wendy Cope – 4 stars

Asian Waters – Humphrey Hawksley – 3.5 stars

Park Life – Tom Chesshyre – 3.5 stars

Walking With Nomads – Alice Morrison – 4 stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Eating to Extinction – Dan Saladino – 5 stars

This is a brilliant exploration of the global food system and the perilous state it is in because of our reliance on only a few species of Food. We need to start bringing more diversity into the food system as soon as possible.

Under The Blue – Oana Aristide – 5 stars

Even though this is about the catastrophic effects of a global pandemic, this is a brilliantly written story of three people who are trying to get to safety.

The Lost Orchards – Liz Copas & Nick Poole – 5 stars

I love books on orchards and this one about the discovery of the apple trees that were once thought lost is quite magical.

 

Top Genres

Normal service is starting to be resumed…

Natural History– 4

Fiction– 4

Poetry– 3

Science Fiction– 3

History– 3

Fantasy– 3

Photography– 2

Travel– 2

Politics– 1

Environmental– 1

 

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber– 3

Simon & Schuster– 3

Particular Books– 2

Little Toller– 2

William Heinemann– 1

Peepal Tree Press– 1

Basic Books– 1

Bardwell Press– 1

Serpent’s Tail– 1

William Collins– 1

 

Review Copies Received

Two Lights: Walking through Landscapes of Loss and Life– James Roberts

The Last Sunset in the West: Britain’s Vanishing West Coast Orcas– Natalie Sanders

More Numbers Every Day: How Data, Stats, and Figures Control Our Lives and How to Set Ourselves Free– Micael Dahlén & Helge Thorbjørnsen

Cry of the Wild: Tales of sea, woods and hill– Charles Foster

The Flaw in the Crystal: And Other Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair– Ed. Mike Ashley

 

Library Books Checked Out

Nightwalking: Four Journeys into Britain After Dark– John Lewis-Stempel

Cane, Corn & Gully– Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa

Manorism– Yomi Sode

Quiet– Victoria Adukwei Bulley

The Last Overland: Singapore to London: The Return Journey Of The Iconic Land Rover Expedition– Alex Bescoby

Wayfinding: The Art And Science Of How We Find And Lose Our Way– Michael Bond

The Catch– Fiona Sampson

Ravilious & Co: The Pattern Of Friendship– Andy Friend

The Road: A Story of Romans and Ways to the Past– Christopher Hadley

All My Wild Mothers: A Memoir Of Motherhood, Loss And An Apothecary Garden– Victoria Bennet

Waypoints: A Journey On Foot – Robert Martineau

Grounded: A Journey Into The Landscapes Of Our Ancestors– James Canton

 

Books Bought

The Meaning of Liff– Douglas Adams & John Lloyd

The Old Drift– Namwali Serpell

It’s Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels– Polly Evans

The London Nobody Knows– Geoffrey Fletcher

West with the Night– Beryl Markham

The Wild Flowers of Dorset– Stuart Roberts

Spanish Lessons: Beginning a New Life In Spain– Derek Lambert

A Short Philosophy of Birds– “Philippe J. Dubois & Élise Rousseau”

Write It All Down: How to Put Your Life on the Page– Cathy Rentzenbrink

Travelling Light: Journeys Among Special People and Places– Alastair Sawday

I Remember: Farming Memories of Lincolnshire– George L.A. Lunn

Back to Nature: How To Love Life – And Save It– Chris Packham & Megan McCubbin

Castles and Forts– Colin Pomeroy

Landscapes of Legend: The Secret Heart of Britain– John Matthews & Michael J. Stead

Two Degrees West– Nicholas Crane (Signed)

 

Any from this long list that you have read? Any that you now want to read? Let me know in the comments below (now they are working again)

After the website falling over at the beginning of the week I am back online. Mostly… I am still not getting any emails through at the moment though. ANyway, a couple of day late, here is my TBR for March:

 

Still Reading

The Travel Writing Tribe: Journeys in Search of a Genre Tim Hannigan

 

Review Books

The House of Islam Ed Husain

The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist Tim Birkhead

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover Nick Garbutt

Swan: Portrait of a Majestic Bird, from Mythical Meanings to the Modern Day Dan Keel

RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife: 3rd edition Peter Holden & Geoffrey Abbott

Isles at the Edge of the Sea Jonny Muir

Notes from the Cévennes: Half a Lifetime in Provincial France Adam Thorpe

Polling UnPacked: The History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls Mark Pack

On the Scent: Unlocking The Mysteries Of Smell – And How Losing It Can Change Our World Paola Totaro and Robert Wainwright

The Serpent Coiled in Naples Marius Kociejowski

Books Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval Gaia Vince

Two Lights: Walking through Landscapes of Loss and Life James Roberts

The Last Sunset in the West: Britain’s Vanishing West Coast Orcas Natalie Sanders

More Numbers Every Day: How Data, Stats, and Figures Control Our Lives and How to Set Ourselves Free Micael Dahlén & Helge Thorbjørnsen

Falling Away David Banning

 

Other Books

Nightwalking: Four Journeys into Britain After Dark John Lewis-Stempel

The Last Overland: Singapore to London: The Return Journey Of The Iconic Land Rover Expedition Alex Bescoby

Afropean: Notes From Black Europe Johny Pitts

In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage Silvia Vasquez-Lavado

Another Gulmohar Tree Aamer Hussein

A Walk in the Park: The Life and Times of a People’s Institution Travis Elborough

Wanderers: A History of Women Walking Kerri Andrews

 

Photobooks

Extraordinary Clouds: Skies of the Unexpected from the Beautiful to the Bizarre Richard Hamblyn

 

Poetry

Manorism Yomi Sode

Quiet Victoria Adukwei Bulley

Cane, Corn & Gully Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa

 

Challenge Books

The Overstory Richard Powers

Bloom: From Food to Fuel, the Epic Story of How Algae Can Save Our World Ruth Kassinger

 

Quite a few to get through, but there are a number of really short books in that list. Any that you like the look of?

Didn’t January drag on and on? it always feels so long. But we made it to February and I like that there is more light in the evenings now too. One advantage of a long month is I can get more read and in the end finished 18 books!

Books Read

Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales For Christmas Nights – Ed. Tanya Kirk – 3 Stars

The Metal Heart – Caroline Lea – 3 Stars

The Peckham Experiment – Guy Ware – 3.5 Stars

Robot Overlords: Robots Never Lie – Mark Stay – 3.5 Stars

Treacle Walker – Alan Garner – 3.5 Stars

Gnomon – Nick Harkaway – 4 Stars

The Crow Folk – Mark Stay – 4 Stars

Babes In The Wood – Mark Stay – 4 Stars

The Golden Mole – Katherine Rundell – 3 Stars

Escape from Model Land – Erica Thompson – 3.5 Stars

Green Unpleasant Land – Corinne Fowler – 4 Stars

Millstone Grit – Glyn Huges – 4 Stars

What Remains? – Rupert Callender – 4 Stars

We Saw It All Happen – Julian Bishop – 3.5 Stars

England’s Green – Zaffar Kunial – 4 Stars

 

Book(s) Of The Month

Restoring The Wild – Roy Dennis – 4.5 Stars

Hothouse Earth – Bill McGuire – 4.5 Stars

England on Fire – Stephen Ellcock& Mat Osman – 4.5 Stars

 

 

Top Genres

This is something that you are not going to see very often:

Fantasy – 3

Fiction – 3

Science Fiction – 2

Poetry – 2

History – 2

Natural History – 2

Maths – 1

Miscellaneous – 1

Environmental – 1

Art – 1

 

Top Publishers

Simon & Schuster – 2

Faber & Faber – 2

Gollancz – 1

Chelsea Green – 1

William Heinemann – 1

Peepal Tree Press – 1

British Library – 1

Little Toller – 1

Icon Books – 1

William Collins – 1

 

Review Copies Received

Invisible Friends: How Microbes Shape Our Lives and the World Around Us – Jake M. Robinson

Reconnection: Fixing our Broken Relationship with Nature – Miles Richardson

RSPB How to Photograph Garden Birds – Mark Carwardine

RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife: 3rd edition – Peter Holden & Geoffrey Abbott

Falling Away – David Banning

The Quiet Moon: Pathways To An Ancient Way Of Being – Kevin Parr

One Fine Day: A Journey Through English Time – Ian Marchant

Across A Waking Land: A 1,000-Mile Walk Through A British Spring – Roger Morgan-Grenville

Pharmakon – Almudena Sánchez Tr. Katie Whittemore

The Angel Of Santa Sofia – Josep M. Argemí Tr. Tiago Miller

 

Library Books Checked Out

Treacle Walker – Alan Garner

The Ghost of Ivy Barn – Mark Stay

All In: How we build a country that works – Lisa Nandy

 

Books Bought

The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury

Dent’s Modern Tribes – Susie Dent (signed)

The Unofficial Countryside – Richard Mabey

Next to Nature: A Lifetime in the English Countryside – Ronald Blythe (signed)

The Unseen University Challenge: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Quizbook – Terry Pratchett & David Langford

Messengers: City Tales From a London Bicycle Courier – Julian Sayarer

The Road to Le Tholonet: A French Garden Journey – Montagu Don

Experimental Landscapes in Watercolour: Creative techniques for painting landscapes and nature – Ann Blockley

The Photographs Of HG Ponting – Beau Riffenburgh

Dorset Pilgrimages: A Millennium Handbook – Peter Knight & Mike Power

Crossing Open Ground – Barry Lopez

Interpreting the Landscape from the Air – Mick Aston

A Croft in the Hills – Katharine Stewart

Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village – Ronald Blythe

Out Of The Valley: Another Year At Wormingford – Ronald Blythe

Solomon Time: Adventures in the South Pacific – Will Randall

Being a Beast: Adventures Across the Species Divide – Charles Foster (signed)

Orison For A Curlew – Horatio Clare

Saxons & Vikings – David A. Hinton

Railway Stations – Mike Oakley

The 8.55 To Baghdad – Andrew Eames

Cleopatra’s Needle: Two Wheels by the Water to Cairo – Anne Mustoe (signed)

 

Are there any in that long list that take your fancy?

How many books did you manage to read in January?

Let me know in the comments.

 

February! All ready! And January seemed to last so long. Anyway, you’re not here to listen to me witter on about why I can’t understand time, you’re here to see what I have planned to read this coming month. So here are the books I will be picking from:

 

Still Reading

The Travel Writing Tribe: Journeys in Search of a Genre Tim Hannigan

Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them – Dan Saladino

 

Review Books

The House of Islam Ed Husain

The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist Tim Birkhead

Asian Waters: The Struggle Over the South China Sea and the Strategy of Chinese Expansion Humphrey Hawksley

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar Hardcover Nick Garbutt

Swan: Portrait of a Majestic Bird, from Mythical Meanings to the Modern Day – Dan Keel

Dandelions – Thea Lenarduzzi

Pharmakon – Almudena Sánchez Tr. Katie Whittemore

Handbook of Mammals of Madagascar – Nick Garbutt

The Quiet Moon: Pathways To An Ancient Way Of Being –  Kevin Parr

RSPB How to Photograph Garden Birds – Mark Carwardine

RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife: 3rd edition – Peter Holden & Geoffrey Abbott

The Lost Orchards: Rediscovering The Forgotten Cider Apples Of Dorset – Liz Copas & Nick Poole

 

Other Books

Walking With Nomads Alice Morrison

Under The Blue – Oana Aristide

Wahala – Nikki May

In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage – Silvia Vasquez-Lavado

Park Life: Around The World In 50 Parks – Tom Chesshyre

The Bookseller’s Tale – Martin Latham

The Spymasters: How The CIA’s Directors Shape History And The Future – Chris Whipple

The Ship Asunder: A Maritime History In Eleven Vessels – Tom Nancollas

A Walk in the Park: The Life and Times of a People’s Institution – Travis Elborough

Wanderers: A History of Women Walking – Kerri Andrews

 

Challenge Books

The Overstory – Richard Powers

Bloom: From Food to Fuel, the Epic Story of How Algae Can Save Our World – Ruth Kassinger

 

Poetry

Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis – Wendy Cope

 

Photobooks

Sea Fever – Stuart Franklin

Are there any that you have read or that take your fancy? Let me know in the comments below

Another year passes at what feels like warp speed, and it seems like no time at all since I was writing my best of 2021. Another 190 books later and I have cobbled together a list of my favourite reads from the past year.  First up are some honourable mentions that I gave 4.5 stars to:

 

Nests – Susan Ogilvy

Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree – David George Haskell

The Nutmeg’s Curse – Amitav Ghosh

The Book Of Pebbles – Christopher Stocks

Silent Earth – Dave Goulson

Take My Hand – Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Living with Trees – Robin Walter

Before Mars – Emma Newman

Atlas Alone – Emma Newman

Ravilious: Wood Engravings – James Russell

This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends- Nicole Perlroth

The Ravens Nest – Sarah Thomas

 

And here are my five star reads:

Lost Dorset: The Towns David Burnett

Orchard: A Year In England’s – Eden Benedict MacDonald & Nicholas Gates

A Natural History Of The Future – Rob Dunn

Moneyland – Oliver Bullough

The Nanny State Made Me – Stuart Maconie

The Draw Of The Sea – Wyl Menmuir

The Book of Trespass – Nick Hayes

Smelling the Breezes – Ralph Izzard & Molly Izzard

 

And my book of 2022 was Field Notes – Maxim Peter Griffin

I finished 190 books in 2022, the same as 2021 and many other years previously. I did reach my Good Reads Target again.  Here are my stats for the last years reading.

My total pages read was 50636  (29 pages less than last year!) and my monthly average of books was 15.8 again. This broke down into these monthly totals:

January – 18
February – 15
March – 16
April – 15
May – 16
June – 17
July – 18
August – 16
September – 16
October – 16
November – 14
December – 13

Author Splits

Male – 117

Female – 73 38% of the total

BAME – 12 6% of the total

 

Sources

Review – 78

Library – 82

Own – 30 copies

 

Genre

Non-Fiction – 156

Fiction – 17

Poetry – 17

 

Random Stats

Longest Book – Putin People by Catherine Belton – 624 pages

Shortest Book – Garden Bugs by Marianne Taylor, Stephen Message – 12 pages

The total cost of the books read was £3,324.41

 

Most Read Author

Emma Newman with four books read

 

Stars Awarded:

5 Stars – 9
4.5 Stars – 12
4 Stars – 82
3.5 Stars – 52
3 Stars – 32
2.5 Stars – 3
2 Stars – 0
1.5 Stars – 0
1 Stars – 0

 

Genres

I use a spreadsheet to keep a note of the types and genres of books that I read. These are detailed below:

Natural History	38
Travel	26
Poetry	17
Memoir	14
History	14
Science	9
Fiction	9
Environmental	7
Science Fiction	6
Photography	5
Books	4
Mental Health	4
Social History	3
Art	3
Landscape	3
Language	2
Fantasy	2
Folklore	2
Weather	2
Miscellaneous	2
Biography	2
Gardening	2
Technology	2
Economics	1
Cycling	1
Military	1
Britain	1
Spying	1
Engineering	1
Conspiracy Theories	1
Food	1
Architecture	1
Maths	1
Politics	1
Dorset	1

Publishers

These are the number of books read by each publisher. Eland were top last year. but only six of the top ten were independent this year

William Collins	9
Faber & Faber	8
Bloomsbury	8
Gollancz	6
Eland	6
Unbound	5
Elliott & Thompson	5
Little Toller	5
Jonathan Cape	4
Profile Books	4
Canongate	4
Picador	4
John Murray	4
Quercus	3
Duckworth	3
Saraband	3
Allen Lane	3
Head of Zeus	3
Bradt	3
Riverrun	3
Summersdale	3
Pan Macmillan	2
Hodder & Stoughton	2
Mudlark	2
Basic Books	2
Headline	2
Michael Joseph	2
3 Of Cups Press	2
Amberley	2
Birlinn	2
Aurum	2
Granta	2
Simon & Schuster	2
Lund Humphries	2
W&N	2
Fly On The Wall Press	2
Fum d’Estampa Press	2
Bantam Press	1
Welbeck	1
Mudlark Press	1
Octopus Books	1
Sceptre	1
Thames & Hudson	1
Longbarrow Press	1
The Dovecote Press	1
Reaktion Books	1
Two Roads	1
Alien Buddha Press	1
Vintage	1
Stonechat Editions	1
Old Street	1
WH Allen	1
Oneworld	1
Viking	1
World Editions	1
Northus Shetland Classics	1
Yellow Jersey Press	1
Chatto & Windus	1
Short Books	1
Corsair	1
Halsgrove	1
Icon Books	1
Oxford University Press	1
Welbeck	1
Harbour Books	1
September Publishing	1
Particular Books	1
4th Estate	1
BBC Books	1
Haus Publishing	1
Self	1
Mainstone Press	1
Melville House	1
Cassell	1
Harper Collins	1
Pelagic Publishing	1
Dovecote Press	1
Hutchinson Heinmann	1
Harvill Secker	1
Calon Books	1
Transworld	1
Rider	1
Chroma Editions	1
Daunt Books	1
UIT Cambridge	1
Chelsea Green	1
The History Press	1
Mitchell Beazley	1
Ebury	1
Penguin	1
GMC Publications	1
Jonathan Ball	1
Pan Macmillan	1
Atlantic Books	1
Salt	1
Sandstone Press	1
Phoenix	1
Doubleday	1
Gallery Press	1