Reading in Reykjavík

I bought 21 books in January and February, adding, among other things, considerably to my collection of out-of-date guidebooks.  Remarkably, only one of the books in the stack is fiction (guess which one?) While I am not particularly fond of "must read" lists like the one in 1001 Book s..., I do enjoy reading about books others have loved enough to recommend, and it will be fun to go through it and see what it has to say about the books I have read (liking or disliking) and to discover new books to read. However, I have no intention of reading all of the recommendations.  As for the rest, they reflect some of my many interests: pastiche literature, trivia, folkloristics, cooking, history and anthropology.

I started and finished reading more than 60 books in January, which is a personal record. Admittedly, most were in the long novella/short novel range (80-120 pages), with a handful as long as 180 pages, but since they are sold as separate eBooks, they still count as entire books. The page count is probably pretty similar to that of an average month. If I manage to keep this up, I might manage to read an average of a book a day for the year, but I expect I will start to slow down as February progresses. I traded Kindles with a friend and delved into the short romance novels she had collected, mostly series of paranormal-themed novels and one space opera series. This was the reading equivalent of binging on candy - inducing a satisfying rush with lots of calories but little nutrition. But this is just the kind of reading I need at this time of the year: entertaining, with guaranteed happy endings and not much substance. I expect I will probably end up with a massive reading hangover, b...

I'm putting this blog into hibernation for the unforeseen future. I have been reading as much as ever, but my interest in blogging about it has taken a decided downward turn and the blog has been languishing for more than a year. I may stop by now and again if I feel the urge to post something or I want to update the Invisible Library page, but other than that I don't plan on blogging here regularly until my interest in reviewing returns. This may happen a month from now, or a year, or possibly never, I really can't say. In the meantime, why not check out my Photoblog ?

I did this once before (thought I'd done more, but I can't find them). As I have come across more goodies for book-lovers, I decided to do another one. With pictures. And links (just click on the photo and the link will open in a new window). Book pillows Choose between Alice in Wonderland , Sherlock Holmes , and Treasure Island. A book holder   I like the look of these (I haven't tested any of them, but I do own a Little Book Holder. I just haven't found occasion to use it yet.) The Gimble: The Easy Book Clip: The Book Gem: The Little Book Holder: A personal library kit For the inner librarian and for the person who lends out a lot of books and then complains when people forget to return them: Archival book covers Another one for the inner librarian, also for the collector and indeed any other person who insists on keeping their books looking fresh and unread: Library book pockets Buy them from stationery shops or mak...

It just occurred to me that I have reached my goal of reading 60 books from my TBR pile. In fact, by the end of October there were 63 of them, so I exceeded the goal with two months of reading to go. By now, the number is 64 and I am reading what may become books 65 and 66. Yay! The speed with which I managed this is in large part due to the fact that I bought a number of interesting books I couldn't wait to read. It is a sad fact that, once I have bought a book, if I don't read it within a few weeks I start to lose interest in it, and if I own it for long enough I forget I ever owned it in the first place. This is how I occasionally end up buying a second copy (rare, now that I keep a list of the books I own on my smartphone) and also why I sometimes end up culling books without having read them. I had hoped to reach 200 books read in total by the end of the year, but as I have only finished 157 books by now, I expect the final number will be closer to 180. Not that the 20...

I went through reading slump in September. For me, this usually does not mean I read fewer books in a given month, but that I read a larger proportion of books I have read before. I finished a total of 16 books – which is actually above my monthly average – but 10 of them were re-reads (of which three were audio books I listened to for the first time). Out of the remaining six, two were books I had started reading long before and then put aside for some reason. For more than half the month I kept picking up never-before read books, opening them, reading a chapter or two, losing interest and grabbing a familiar book to read instead. This coincided with the beginning of my yearly struggle with the winter blues. As I have mentioned before, I suffer from depression. It is usually mild these days and comes in fairly predictable waves throughout the year, but the downswings are always deeper during the winter and the first signs are usually an increased need for sleep and everything...

I have already read one of the books in the two-book volume at the top of the pile. I was quite happy to find new Regency romances (my favourite sub-genre of historical romance), but I miss the old-fashioned painted covers. The clothing on these photograph covers isn't even historically correct.