Reading into 2016
I confess to being an inquisitive person. According to my mother I was destined to become a journalist because I was born asking What? Why? Where? How? This doesn’t seem particularly remarkable to me (don’t all kids endlessly question?) but who am I to destroy a mother’s belief in her intuitive powers?
The blogosphere allows me to indulge my curiosity (some might call this nosiness) to the full about other people’s reading habits. I love the idea that reading, which is, by its nature a solitary occupation, can become social when I discover that someone thousands of miles away has similar tastes in authors or topics or is even reading the same book I’m reading.
I had an idea about using the turning of the year to notch up this curiosity factor by asking fellow bloggers to share what they are reading at the exact point when 2015 turns into 2016.
To join in with #readinto16 all you need to do is to share what you are reading at midnight on December 31, 2015. There’s an incentive for joining in – the chance to win something new for your bookshelves.
How to join in with #readinto16……
- You don’t have to be reading at midnight. You’ll all be too busy partying probably, sipping that coupe de champagne or giving your best rendition of Auld Lang Syne. Just share what your current read is or what’s on your nightstand/bedside table.
- Tell us about the book and why you are reading it. What made you choose it? Is it by a favourite author? You wanted something cosy to suit the time of the year? etc etc.
- Publish your post on January 1 if possible (assuming of course you are suitably recovered from the revels of the night before!). If you are using that day to recover from the excesses of the night before, then just publish when you feel sufficiently awake. But if you want to be in with a chance to win a giveaway (see the details below) please post by Friday, January 15
- Unless you are of a shy and retiring nature, take a photo of yourself with the book. You can be creative as you like…..
- If you’d like tweet about this idea to get more people joining in. that would be wonderful. Please use the hashtag #readinto16
The Giveaway…
I’m going to give one lucky person one of the books listed below (your choice). They are all novels that were my favourite reads from this year. I’ve included links to my reviews of six of them and to Goodreads for the seventh which I haven’t got around to reviewing yet.
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
Old Goriot by Honore de Balzac
Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The Snow Kimono by Mark Henshaw
A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar
The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
I’m going to send the prize to the winner via Bookdepository, so make sure they deliver to your country.
If you would like to be in with a chance of winning one of these please leave a comment on this post when your #Readinto16 post is published. Add a link back to your post. Winners will be selected randomly on Saturday January 16 and announced the following day on BookerTalk.
Hope you all like this idea and will join in…..
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I love this. I’ve been reading The Well of Lost Plots in the Thursday Next series which I’m really enjoying! I started it on my flight back to Boston before NYE, but haven’t really read much since.
I see that someone commented on that book that only the well-educated should read it. so that puts me out of the equation then!
I think you’d enjoy it. So many of the characters are borrowed from classic literature you’d appreciate it.
Ok then, you persuaded me to take a look 🙂
Love the idea thank you! I am reading ‘And he show went on: cultural life in nazi occupied Paris’ by Alan Riding, love the intricate details of history during the war, and keep being amazed by human nature. Also have started I am Malala on the 31st.
That book on Paris sounds interesting – we tend to forget I suppose that there was still a cultural life in the city no matter how hard that must have been
Thriving cultural life, pretty surprising.. Its fascinating, I am enjoying every moment of it
Wonderful idea! 🙂
Glad you like it. Are you going to join and post what you were reading at that time?
Happy new year! Here’s my post for the Reading Into 2016: https://teaandpaperbacks.wordpress.com/2016/01/01/readinto16-what-is-on-my-bedside-table/
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I have been hosting first book of the year at Book Journey for the last three years. I love to see what everyone is reading into the new year 🙂 Had to check out your pics here as well. Happy New Year!
Sorry Sheila, I didn’t mean to steal your idea
Happy New Year! My First Book of 2016 post went live this morning! I was signed up for Sheila at Book Journey’s First Book of 2016 photo collage event first, so I’m linking the same post up to yours and hers. Love seeing what everyone’s reading and hope to meet some new-to-me bloggers this way, too. Thanks for the giveaway offer!
http://baystatera.com/first-book-of-2016-with-sheila-bookjourney-karen-bookertalk-readinto16/
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Thanks for promoting #readinto16 Deborah and for taking part yourself.
Well here we are on the 1 January 2016 and for a change I’m reading! Visit me here to see what I chose https://cleopatralovesbooks.wordpress.com/2016/01/01/read-into-2016/
Thanks for creating this for me to nose at everyone else’s choices!
Thanks for playing along with this Cleopatra – it was lovely to see a new photo of you beyond the one in your profile. Kate Morton is one of those authors I haven’t been able to get into – I tried two by her but decided the style just wasnt for me. Pity because I know so many people rate her
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Well it’s New Year’s Day and the book I was reading last night was All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville West. I was away on Xmas holidays and got caught short without enough books to read so somewhat reluctantly picked this up. And what a great surrpise – it’s fantastic. It’s so clever, witty, satiric, tender – she writes like a dream. What a treat to start the year with such a good book in progress. If the rest of my year’s reading is any match for this it will be a stellar year!
I have this one on my classics club list to read. its not the easiest one to find in bookshops or in the library though so it might take me a while.
thanks for joining in the fun….
What a lovely idea. I’ve jumped the gun rather by posting this morning at Literaryramblingsetc and can’t wait to get reading in 2016. Happy New Year, Karen, and looking forward to finding out what your final read of 2015 is.
Enjoyed reading that wrap up post for 2015. Did you finish A Little Life??
Yes, I have reached page 720 of what was an unputdownable but challenging read. It’s our book group choice for mid month, so will be very intrigued to hear what everyone made of it. It’s definitely a 10/10 book, but still pondering over how I felt about certain elements of it. Need to digest a little…
I’m pretty sure you are going to get divided opinions!
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What a fun idea! I definitely won’t be reading at midnight. I won’t be partying either. I’ll be sleeping! I am, to my family’s amusement, not a night person and am generally in bed by 9:30 even on weekends. But then I am usually up by 5 during the week and between 5:30 and 6 on weekends at which point I make fun of all the late sleeping lazy people 😉 I don’t know yet what I will be reading before sleep on the 31st, I am almost done with my current before bed book, but I will definitely try to remember to post about it on the 1st!
By 9.30pm I will only just be settling down for a few hours relaxation (catching up on blog comments, writing reviews etc, a bit of tv) before bed. I’m not a night owl but neither am I a lark…..not sure what label to give myself really
This is a great idea! I already know what I’ll be reading, so I’ve written my post early. It’s set to publish a little after midnight on the first. Here it is, though be aware you won’t be able to see it until January 1. 🙂 Thanks for hosting, and Happy New Year!