Category: Book Musings (Page 8 of 32)

March always seems to drag a bit, but it is a longer month so more reading time. I had three book events too this month, The London Book Fair and then in the evening to Stanfords to hear Mike Parker talk about his new book, All The Wide Border. Then I was in Shaftesbury for the Reading The Land Literary Festival, where I heard Charles Foster and Sophie Pavell speak about their books. Really enjoyed all of those. Anyway here is what I read and bought and was kindly sent by publishers this month

Books Read

Where The Seals Sing – Susan Richardson – 2.5 Stars

The Britannias: An Island Quest – Alice Albinia – 3.5 Stars

Very British Problems: Still Awkward, Still Raining – Rob Temple – 3.5 Stars

Very British Problems: The Most Awkward One Yet – Rob Temple – 3.5 Stars

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art – James Nestor – 3.5 Stars

One Thousand Shades Of Green: A Year In Search Of Britain’s Wild Plants – Mike Dilger – 3.5 Stars

Why Women Grow – Alice Vincent – 3.5 Stars

Cold Fish Soup – Adam Farrer – 3.5 Stars

Modern Fog – Chris Emery – 3.5 Stars

Now is the Time to Know Everything – Simon Moreton – 4 Stars

Hermit: A Memoir Of Finding Freedom In A Wild Place – Jade Angeles Fitton – 4 Stars

The Rosewater Insurrection – Tade Thompson – 4 Stars

Book(s) Of The Month

Spring Rain – Marc Hamer – 4.5 Stars

Sunken Lands: A Journey Through Flooded Kingdoms and Lost Worlds – Gareth E. Rees – 4.5 Stars

Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel – 4.5 Stars

Top Genres

Travel – 12

Fiction – 8

Natural History – 5

Memoir – 4

Poetry – 3

Humour – 2

Science – 1

Gardening – 1

History – 1

Biography – 1

Top Publishers

Bloomsbury – 3

Eland – 2

Canongate – 2

Sphere – 2

Salt – 2

Saraband – 2

Influx Press – 1

Harvill Secker – 1

Lydstep Lettuce – 1

Harper North – 1

Review Copies Received

Peat and Whisky: The Unbreakable Bond – Mike Billett

Enchanted Islands: A Mediterranean Odyssey – A Memoir of Travels through Love, Grief and Mythology – Laura Coffey

Set My Hand Under The Plough – E.M Barraud

A Year Of Garden Bees & Bugs: 52 stories of intriguing insects – Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton

Cairn – Kathleen Jamie

In All Weathers – Matt Gaw

A Sunny Place For Shady People – Ryan Murdock

Library Books Checked Out

Footmarks: A Journey Into Our Restless Past – Jim Leary

Island to Island : From Somerset to Seychelles – Sally Mills

Steeple Chasing: Around Britain By Church – Peter Ross

The Laundromat: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite – Jake Bernstein

Books Bought

Rambling Man: Travels of a Lifetime – Billy Connolly

Crypt: Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond – Alice Roberts (Signed)

Grey Skies, Green Waves: A Surfer’s Journey Around the UK and Ireland – Tom Anderson

Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain – Matthew Green

A Writer’s World: Travels 1950–2000 – Jan Morris

Bread And Ashes: A Walk Through the Mountains of Georgia – Tony Anderson

Finding Hildasay: How One Man Walked the UK’s Coastline and Found Hope and Happiness – Christian Lewis

Stalin’s Nose: Across the Face of Europe – Rory Maclean (Signed)

The Wild Rover: A Blistering Journey Along Britain’s Footpaths – Mike Parker (Signed)

All The Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between – Mike Parker (Signed)

Map Addict – Mike Parker (Signed)

Forget Me Not: Finding the Forgotten Species of Climate-Change Britain – Sophie Pavelle (Signed)

Kings of the Yukon: An Alaskan River Journey – Adam Weymouth (Signed)

Curlew Moon – Mary Cowell – Female (Signed)

The Enchanted Places – Christopher Milne (Signed)

The Condor’s Feather: Travelling Wild In South America – Michael Webster

Another Breath Of Border Air – Lavinia Derwent

Elephants: Birth, Death, & Family in the Lives of the Giants – Hannah Mumby

The Great Railway Bazaar – Paul Theroux

New Reading the Landscape: Fieldwork in Landscape History – Richard Muir

Small Worlds – Caleb Azumah Nelson

Smoke in the Lanes: Happiness and Hardship on the Road with the Gypsies in the 1950s – Dominic Reeve

A Pilgrim in Spain – Christopher Howse

Along The Enchanted Way: A Romanian Story – William Blacker

Dorset Dialect – Gill Newton

Tequila Oil: Getting Lost In Mexico – Hugh Thomson

Rena Gardiner: Artist and Printmaker – Julian Francis & Martin Andrews (Signed)

So are there any from that huge list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.

Another month passes and that means that I have been thinking about the next batch of books to read. These are an eclectic mix and an attempt to get some of the review books that I have been kindly sent by publishers, read and reviewed. So here it is:

Still Reading

Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year Ed. Jane McMorland Hunter

A Cloud a Day Gavin Pretor-Pinney

A Year Of Garden Bees & Bugs: 52 stories of intriguing insects Dominic Couzens & Gail Ashton

Steeple Chasing: Around Britain By Church Peter Ross

Other Books

Information: The New Language of Science Hans Christian Von Baeyer

Ireland’s Green Larder: The Definitive History of Irish Food and Drink Margaret Hickey

Small Worlds Caleb Azumah Nelson

Hothouse Brian W. Aldiss

Review Books

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

Blue Mind: How Water Makes You Happier, More Connected and Better at What You Do Wallace J. Nichols

Black Ghosts Noo Saro-Wiwi

Minor Monuments Ian Maleney

The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East Barnaby Rogerson

Cornish Horrors: Tales from the Land’s End Ed. Joan Passey

Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the coming of the Romans Francis Pryor

Human Origins: A Short History Sarah Wild

Set My Hand Under The Plough E.M Barraud

Hunt for the Shadow Wolf: The Lost History of Wolves in Britain and the Myths and Stories That Surround Them Derek Gow

In All Weathers Matt Gaw

Utter, Earth: Advice on Living in a More-than-Human World Isaac Yuen

The Long Unwinding Road: A Journey Through the Heart of Wales Marc P. Jones

Hedgelands: A Wild Wander Around Britain’s Greatest Habitat Christopher Hart

Library Books

Walking The Bones Of Britain: A 3 Billion Year Journey From The Outer Hebrides To The Thames Estuary Christopher Somerville

Secret Britain: Unearthing Our Mysterious Past Mary-Ann Ochota

The Gathering Place Mary Colwell

Footmarks: A Journey Into Our Restless Past Jim Leary

Wounded Tigris: A River Journey through the Cradle of Civilisation Leon McCarron

Poetry

Mystic Orchards Jonathan Koven

February has passed at about 19,000 miles an hour and suddenly it is TBR time again. It is a little bit longer this time so here we go:

Other Books

Hermit – Jade Angeles Fitton

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art – James Nestor

Why Women Grow – Alice Vincent

Cold Fish Soup – Adam Farrer

Very British Problems: Still Awkward, Still Raining – Rob Temple

Very British Problems: The Most Awkward One Yet – Rob Temple

Review Books

Black Ghosts – Noo Saro-Wiwi

Now is the Time to Know Everything – Simon Moreton

Minor Monuments – Ian Maleney

The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East – Barnaby Rogerson

Cornish Horrors: Tales from the Land’s End – Ed. Joan Passey

Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the coming of the Romans – Francis Pryor

Human Origins: A Short History – Sarah Wild

Library Books

Where The Seals Sing – Susan Richardson

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

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

Secret Britain: A Journey Through The Second World War’s Hidden Bases And Battlegrounds – Sinclair McKay

Spring Rain – Marc Hamer

The Rosewater Insurrection – Tade Thompson

Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel

Poetry

Modern Fog – Chris Emery

Any that you like the look of from the books above? Let me know in the comments below

Another month rolls by and as January always takes so long to get through, I almost forgot about posting this! I saw a post a little while back about #ReadIndies a February project to read some of the amazing books on your TBR from the Independent Presses that we are still so lucky to have in this country. It is being co-hosted by Kaggsy’s and Lizzy’s Literary Life. Whilst it is aimed at getting people to read from publishers who have five employees or less, I have stretched it a little to include Unbound and Bloomsbury!

So here are my book for February’s TBR:

Reading Through The Year

Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year Ed. Jane McMorland Hunter

A Cloud a Day Gavin Pretor-Pinney

Still Reading

Crawling Horror: Creeping Tales of the Insect Weird Ed. Daisy Butcher & Janette Leaf

Other Books

Cold Fish Soup Adam Farrer

Other Books As the Women Lay Dreaming Donald S. Murray

Other Books Aromabingo David Gaffney

Other Books The Museum of Cathy Anna Stothard

Review Books

All Around The Year Michael Morpurgo

Where Furnaces Burn Joel Lane

Minor Monuments Ian Maleney

The Christian Watt Papers: Memoirs of a Fraserburgh Fishwife Christian Watt, Ed. David Fraser

The Narrow Smile: A Journey back to the Northwest Frontier Peter MayneReview Books The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East Barnaby Rogerson

Cornish Horrors: Tales from the Land’s End Ed. Joan Passey

Library Books

Apple Island Wife: Slow Living In Tasmania Fiona Stocker

The Only Gaijin In The Village Iain Maloney

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

Footprints In The Woods: The Secret Life Of Forest And Riverbank John Lister-Kaye

Poetry

The Hero and the Girl Next Door Sophie Hannah

2023 was a strange year with several significant events taking place, most notably Sarah being given the all-clear from breast cancer. I didn’t have quite as many five-star reads as normal, either from the 190 books that I read. First up are some honourable mentions that I gave 4.5 stars to:

Restoring The Wild: Sixty Years of Rewilding Our Skies, Woods and Waterways – Roy Dennis

Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant’s Guide – Bill McGuire

England on Fire: A Visual Journey through Albion’s Psychic Landscape – Stephen Ellcock& Mat Osman

The Bookseller’s Tale – Martin Latham

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

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

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

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

The Serpent Coiled in Naples – Marius Kociejowski

The Lost Rainforests Of Britain – Guy Shrubsole

Rosewater – Tade Thompson

Taking Flight: A Celebration Of The Miraculous Phenomenon Of Flight – Lev Parikian

Real Dorset – Jon Woolcott

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

Grounding: Finding Home In A Garden – Lulah Ellender

The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives – Katie Holten

La Vie: A Year In Rural France – John Lewis-Stempel

Wild About Dorset: The Nature Diary of a West Country Parish – Brian Jackman

Ravenous: How To Get Ourselves And Our Planet Into Shape – Henry Dimbleby

High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest In Russia’s Haunted Hinterland – Tom Parfitt

Rural: The Lives Of The Working Class Countryside – Rebecca Smith

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

The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish Journey – Tim Hannigan

Life At Full Tilt: The Selected Writings of Dervla Murphy Dervla Murphy – Ed. Ethel Crowley

Singing Like Larks: A Celebration Of Birds In Folk Songs – Andrew Millham

Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone – Jackie Morris

And here are my five-star reads:

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

Under The Blue – Oana Aristide

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

Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir Of Poverty, Nature And Resilience – Natasha Carthew

The Swimmer: The Wild Life Of Roger Deakin – Patrick Barkham

Seriously Funny: The Endlessly Quotable Terry Pratchett – Terry Pratchett

And My Book of the Year:

Bibliomaniac: An Obsessive’s Tour Of The Bookshops Of Britain – Robin Ince

Of all the 190 books that I have read in 2023, these are the ones that had covers that I liked the most. They are in no particular order and my favourite is at the bottom.

And my favourite cover of 2023 is:

Are there any of those that you like? Or do you have a cover from this year’s reading that really stood out to you? Let me know in the comments below.

I finished 190 books in 2023, the same as 2022 and many other years previously. I did reach my Good Reads Target again.  Here are my stats for the last year’s reading.

My total pages read was 49071 50636  (1565 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 – 18
April – 15
May – 16
June – 17
July – 16
August – 16
September – 14
October – 16
November – 15
December – 14

Author Splits

The total cost of the books read was £2908.17

Most Read Author

Mark Stay with five books read

Stars Awarded

5 Stars – 7
4.5 Stars – 26
4 Stars – 48
3.5 Stars – 66
3 Stars – 30
2.5 Stars – 10
2 Stars – 3
1.5 Stars 0
1 Star 0

Genres

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

Publishers

These are the number of books read by each publisher. Amazingly I read books from 99 different publishers. William Collins were top last year. Only four of the top ten were independent this year, something that I need to address in 2024!

2024 Intentions

Blogging

As I have said before, I have always tended to think of myself as a reader who blogs rather than just a book blogger. This is shaping how I blogged last year and even more so in this coming year. I will be scaling back the number of books that I will be reading and reviewing this year because of a mini-family crisis that needs some of my attention.

Books

Review Books

I am forever grateful for every single review copy that I receive. I am making a concerted plan to work through all of the review books that I have been sent and much reducing the number that I request still further. That said, I would be delighted to receive some of the books that were on my anticipated list…

My Own Books

I have been cataloguing the books that I have in the past few months, and have found several duplicates, some of which I have passed on and others will be given away on social media channels occasionally. I have passed 2000 books so far and have a growing list of books that I want to read and pass on.

Library Books

I have managed to reduce the number of books that I have out from the library and on one card even got down to half full! But I know that I can do better on this and I am aiming to have only one shelf of library books. I am not that far off achieving this.

Reading Plans

I am fairly happy with the mix of books that I am reading at the moment. I feel that I got the balance right between travel writing and natural history books last year, but as these ake up the bulk of my collection, then I want to read more of them. I also want to read more science fiction and fiction, because, hey, why not? I also have some other intentions detailed below, that whilst not set in stone, I would like to achieve.

Female Authors

I am going to keep my target of reading women authors at 40% for 2024.

BAME Authors

I had my target set to 12 last year and I am going to set the same again for 2024. Slowly more BAME authors are being commissioned in the genres that I like reading, but it is sadly too few still.

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Aiming again to average at least one a month for this. Science fiction is good for expanding the mind and as Terry Pratchett says: Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can.

Fiction

I don’t read or buy a huge amount of fiction, but I do have a lot around that I have acquired or been sent. This year I am going to make an effort to read at least one fiction book a month. I probably won’t review them, but it depends on the book.

Poetry

I am aiming to read one poetry book a month this year.

Photobooks

I have bought an awful lot of art & photobooks in the past two years and I want to read some of these books next year. Aiming to read at least around six of these in 2024.

Literary Awards

Last year I was a bit better at reading some of the shortlisted books from my favourite prizes (as usual). I did manage to read some from the minor prizes too, but still have a long list of books that I haven’t quite got to read yet… The same list of prizes from last year:

Wainwright

Stanford

Royal Society

Baillie Gifford

Arthur C Clarke

I would like to read some of the winners from other prizes too, including:

The Republic Of Consciousness Prize

Rathbones Folio Prize

Women’s Prize for Fiction

Jhalak Prize

The Portico Prize

Challenges

I quite like book challenges. It is a way of finding new books that you might not have come across before to fit a particular brief. It kind of follows my philosophy of reading widely and reading deeply.

The World From My Armchair Challenge

My ongoing challenge is to read a travel book set in or that passes through every country, sea and ocean in the world. I did really badly at this last year as I only read one book (!!!) for the challenge. Aiming to read at least twelve for this and there will be an update on a blog post sometime in February.

Nature Challenge

There is no challenge this year for the Nature group that I am in so I will roll over the books that I didn’t read to this years reading to complete it.

20 Books of Summer

This is run by the blogger, Cathy of 746 books. I normally sign up to read 20 books and will do so again this summer. Last year was the first time I completed it too!

Other Bookish Stuff

Cataloguing Books

I have started cataloguing my books now. I have catalogued five bookcases and have five more to go, plus the piles that are scattered hither and thither around the house. So far I have 2150 books and actual shelf locations for about half of them. In the end, I decided on a spreadsheet rather than using an app. I have found several duplicates and these have been passed on. Around 10% of my collection is signed too, I hadn’t realised that I had so many books scribbled in by the author.

Spreadsheets

I wrote about this back in 2023 here. I have now made further refinements and will write another post about these changes later in the year. So far these changes seem to be an improvement on what I have used up until now.

Bookshelves

I wrote a blog post showing all my shelves here. I have drawn up a plan for what genre of books that I want on which shelf, and this will be implemented following me reading a clearing out a fair number of books. There will be a mid-stage post later in the year when I have made significant progress on tiding up!

Here is my January TBR. It is much shorter than normal, because of reasons that I mention in another post that I am still writing at the moment.

Still Reading

Ravilious & Co: The Pattern Of Friendship – Andy Friend

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

Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year – Ed. Jane McMorland Hunter

Other Books

Hemingway’s Chair Michael Palin

And The Mountains Echoed Khaled Hosseini

Review Books

Crawling Horror: Creeping Tales of the Insect Weird Ed. Daisy Butcher & Janette Leaf

Cornish Horrors: Tales from the Land’s End Ed. Joan Passey

On Writing and Failure Stephen Marche

Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness Alastair Humphreys

Scenes from Prehistoric Life: From the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans – Francis Pryor

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

Poetry

A Local Habitation Norman Nicholson

Library Books

Elixir : In The Valley At The End Of Time Kapka Kassobova

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

The Turning Tide: A Biography Of The Irish Sea Jon Gower

November is a strange month, the evenings are dark, but it doesn’t have any of the bling of Christmas. It is also a short month, so I never feel I have the time to fit books in, in the headlong rush to the end of the year. But it was a good month for reading, with three books of the month. Here they are:

Books Read

The Ghost Of Ivy Barn – Mark Stay – 4 Stars

Lost Acre – Andrew Caldecott – 3 Stars

Prophet – Helen Macdonald & Sin Blaché – 3.5 Stars

A Line Above The Sky: On Mountains And Motherhood – Helen Mort – 2.5 Stars

Heavy Time: A Psychogeographer’s Pilgrimage – Sonia Overall – 3.5 Stars

Windswept: Life, Nature and Deep Time in the Scottish Highlands – Annie Worsley – 3.5 Stars

Morning In The Burned House – Margaret Atwood – 3 Stars

On the Scent: Unlocking The Mysteries Of Smell – And How Losing It Can Change Our World – Paola Totaro and Robert Wainwright – 3.5 Stars

The Possibility of Life: Searching for Kinship in the Cosmos – Jaime Green – 4 Stars

A Life in Car Design – Oliver Winterbottom – 3 Stars

Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in the Woods – Lyndsie Bourgon – 3.5 Stars

In Sardinia: An Unexpected Journey in Italy – Jeff Biggers – 4 Stars

Book(s) Of The Month

Singing Like Larks: A Celebration Of Birds In Folk Songs – Andrew Millham – 4.5 Stars

Bibliomaniac: An Obsessive’s Tour Of The Bookshops Of Britain – Robin Ince – 5 Stars

Seriously Funny: The Endlessly Quotable Terry Pratchett – Terry Pratchett – 5 Stars

Top Genres

Fiction–28

Travel – 22

Natural History – 22

Poetry – 17

Memoir – 13

Fantasy – 9

History – 7

Science Fiction – 7

Environmental – 4

Science – 4

Top Publishers

Faber & Faber – 12

Simon & Schuster – 6

Bloomsbury – 6

Little Toller – 6

Penguin – 6

William Collins – 5

Jonathan Cape – 5

Headline – 4

Doubleday – 4

Elliott & Thompson – 4

Review Copies Received

Local: A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness – Alastair Humphreys

Library Books Checked Out

Elixir : In The Valley At The End Of Time – Kapka Kassobova

Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel

Mischief Acts – Zoe Gilbert

52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time – Annabel Streets

Books Bought

Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year – Ed. Jane McMorland Hunter

The Flying Sorcerers – Ed. Peter Haining

The Wizards of Odd : Comic Tales of Fantasy – Ed. Peter Haining

The Hawaiian Archipelago: Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands – Isabella Lucy Bird

Lore Of The Land: A Guide to England’s Legends, from Spring Heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys – Jennifer Westwood & Jacqueline Simpson

Then We Sailed Away – John Ridgway, Marie Christine Ridgway & Rebecca Ridgway

I Came, I Saw: An Autobiography – Norman Lewis

Honey and Dust: Travels in Search of Sweetness – Piers Moore Ede

Into the Heart of Borneo – Redmond O’Hanlon

The Road to Oxiana – Robert Byron

Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes – Robert Louis Stevenson

Who’s In The Next Room? – Thomas Hardy & various

An Area of Darkness – V.S. Naipaul

Christmas Ghost Stories – Various

Monet in the 20th Century – Various

The Art of the Lord of the Rings – Wayne G. Hammond, Christina Scull & J.R.R. Tolkien

Tibetan Foothold – Dervla Murphy

Leaves from the Fig Tree – Diana Duff

London is a Forest – Paul Wood

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

Dress & Textiles – Rachel Worth

The Unadulterated Cat: The Amazing Maurice Edition – Terry Pratchett

Isle of Purbeck in Pen & Ink – Roy Carr

Travels as a Brussels Scout – Nick Middleton

Uneasy Rider: The Interstate Way of Knowledge – Mike Bryan

An Encyclopaedia of Plants in Myth, Legend, Magic and Lore – Stuart Phillps

Photographing Flowers: Inspiration*Equipment*Technique – Sue Bishop

So any from that huge list that you have read, or now seeing them, now want to read? Let me know in the comments below.