Reading Wrap Up — August 2023
My attempt to read more of the books already on my shelves came unstuck spectacularly in August. Until then I’d been chipping away at the TBR and exercising restraint over purchases of any new books. The prospect of ending the year at least 10% down on the previous year seemed doable..
But it’s now highly unlikely that will happen. My TBR at the end of August stands at 294 — only three lower than at the end of 2022 . Unless I have a run of DNFs in the last quarter of this year and decide to give away a load of books unread , I can’t see that situation improving markedly.
So how did things get out of control?
First of all my husband “donated” these books from his TBR.
I say donated but really what happened was he put them to one side for donation to a charity and I decided they couldn’t leave the house until I’d given them the once over.
Then a fellow blogger from Wales, Kath at NutPress, made a donation from her TBR — yes there’s a bit of a theme there.
I can’t put all the blame on other people however because I also contributed to my own downfall with a few purchases. The photo shows just the physical books, I haven’t even counted the digital versions that I’ve added to my e-reader. Because they’re not physically in my line of sight, I always forget I have them.
You know how some people hoard tins of food to protect them against the day when supplies are scarce? I think I’m hoarding books just in case the price of paper rockets to astronomical levels, forcing publishers to cease printing anything new. It could happen you know — the cost of everything else has gone up markedly and there are more gaps on the supermarket shelves than I’ve seen in decades.
But that’s enough doom and gloom stuff. Can I find something positive to share with you from my reading journey this year so far?
Of course I can!
Twenty Books of Summer
August was the end of #20booksofsummer23, hosted once more by Cathy at 746books.com. I opted for the entry level of ten books, knowing that I’d never manage twenty. In the past six years that I’ve taken part in Cathy’s project, I’ve never read more than 15 and this year I’ve been a particularly slow reader.
In the circumstances I’m happy I reached the target of ten. My strategy of choosing ten titles and five back ups worked out well — usually I develop an aversion to everything I put on my original list and end up doing lots of substitutions. But this year I read seven titles from my primary list and two from the back up list. I used only one substitution because I never made it to the book club meeting which discussed Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo. So I switched it out for Days At the Moriaski Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa.
My two favourites were If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor (I’ve loved everything I’ve read by him so far) and Mr Mac and Me by Emma Freud favourites. So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell was the most disappointing, elegantly written but lacking the emotional pull of his earlier novella, They Came Like Swallows.
Now all I have to do is write six reviews (yes I’m that far behind) and #20booksofsummer will be done for another year.
Explore the World
Two more squares have now been ticked off on my Wanderlust Bingo card though this did require a little creative manouevering of previously completed squares.
SouthEast Asia won’t be a problem because I have a copy of First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung, a memoir of a girl whose family lived through the Cambodian genocide. For Europe I have some novels from Germany, Italy and Portugal. But I’m going to struggle with the Middle East so if you have any suggestions please let me know otherwise I’ll have to rely on the Trip Fiction site.
Great job with your 10 books of summer (here’s to being realistic about our reading lists!) – and I love the Wanderlust Bingo. A few books I can recommend are The Island of Missing Trees, The Last Girl, The Arsonist’s City for Middle East and The Wolf Den (Europe).
I actually bought The Island of Missing Trees last week!
For the Middle East I’d suggest Jokha Alharthi’s “Celestial Bodies” set in Oman https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2022/08/29/book-review-jokha-alharthi-trans-marilyn-booth-celestial-bodies/ and we all have these kind TBR donors, don’t we!
Thanks Liz, I will take a look at that, Hopefully the library will have a copy
I like your reason for continuing the accumulation of print books and similarly (when I feel guilty) take comfort in knowing I have plenty of backup! Middle East novel recommendation: The Teacher by Michal Ben-Naftali. Takes place in Tel Aviv. Also, fwiw, The Undertaking by Audrey Magee, in your donated pile, I thought was quite good.
For the Middle East, I would suggest Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa. Interesting and excellent.
LOL, I love the fact you’ve suffering from receiving ‘donations’! But just think how well you’ll cope if there’s ever a shortage of books. You’ll always have tons of choice!
I could even make money by renting out my books if there were ever a publishing famine 🙂
Well done for getting through what you did finish reading, always something to be celebrated! And I shall enjoy the reviews whenever they appear – I however have to get a review down – in draft at least – as soon as possible after reading or else I forget my main points, even if I don’t schedule it for a week or more after completing it.
The Esther Freud novel is one I want to read – I’ve enjoyed articles by her that I’ve read as well her early autofiction Hideous Kinky – and when we stayed in Southwold we walked through Walberswick where she lives, and ate at the modern pub which replaced the house in the novel, though we never saw the house itself.
I should really follow your good practice because I do forget details and then have to refer back to the book and find the page etc
I forgot that the Freud book is based on real life in terms of Macintosh actually living in that village for a time.
So glad to hear you liked If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, it is one of my all time favourite novels.
i didn’t think when I started it that I would enjoy it – the narrative was so fragmented and I couldn’t work out who was who. But it took hold of me. I particularly loved the sections about the older couple
He’s a writer who has never disappointed me. I’ve loved all his books.
Last time I used Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak for the Middle East (Turkey – which I would not have thought was in the Middle East, but according to Wikipedia it is). I really enjoyed it.
As for hoarding books – well, I suddenly found I was very grateful for my long TBR when the bookshops and libraries all closed for months in 2020, so ever since I haven’t really worried about being a book hoarder!
The Wikipedia info is odd. It does list Turkey as one of the countries in the Middle East yet when you look at the Wikipedia page for Turkey itself, it says it is on the border of Southeast Europe and West Asia.. The country is also trying to become a member of the European Union.
You’ve done quite well, I’d say, what with people putting their own books in your way too. Travel Bingo has been on my radar for quite a while, but Desert? Space? Yep, and the Middle East? All tricky. And then I lack the IT skills to put my chosen books on the Bingo card. All in all ….
I didn’t think when I started the bingo that it would be this difficult. But the rule that you can use a country only once does limit some choices….
It does. Some squares are soooo much easier than others.
Think of the TBR as a nice, warm comfort blanket. After all, books are excellent insulation. I spotted two Mingarellis in Kath’s donation which I’m sure you’ll enjoy. Happy reading, Karen.
Everytime I enter the attic space where my TBR resides I shall now think of it as a comfort blanket 🙂
For middle eastern fiction, how about Touba and the Meaning of Night by Shahrnush Parsipur https://www.feministpress.org/books-n-z/touba-and-the
Thanks for the recommendation, I’ve not heard of that author
I can highly recommend The Parisian by Isabelle Hammad for your Middle East read. Despite its name it is mostly set in Palestine.
And I see you even have an Australian book on your new tbr just in time for AusReading Month 😁
Thanks Brona, The Parisian does sound good. I particularly like the fact it is WW1 but seen from the perspective of someone other than British or German.
That’s what I really enjoyed too.
I’m going with the second part of Naguib Mahfouz’ Cairo Trilogy for the Middle East box – Google insists Egypt counts as Middle-East! I loved the first part a couple of years ago – Palace Walk. I always find it a difficult box to fill. Last time I used an adventure thriller set in Israel, which I don’t think would be your kind of thing – The Twisted Wire by Richard Falkirk.
I didn’t think of Naguib Mahfouz – I’ve seen his name mentioned on several blogs and thought about reading something by him but never got around to buying one of his novels. The Palace Walk does sound good.
If I can avoid thrillers/crime I’d prefer to. It’s not that I don’t read them but they’re not my favourite genre
#bookproblems are the best problems! And…I like the idea of failing “spectacularly” if one is going to fail! It’s a great comfort that you are well prepared in case of an epic publishing dearth! Happy reading Karen!