Books #27

[Caffeine Fiend]

Good Afternoon book besties. I have been telling mini caffeine fiend Id take them to the library since last summer. I finally went today.

Could have checked out about 50 books. Welp.

I was very good and only checked out 3 as you only get 4 weeks however all from my wishlist

The Other Half of August Hope - Joanna Glen
Hello Beautiful - Ann Napolitano
Good Material - Dolly Alderton

I am so pleased with this little haul. Only downside all hard back which I dont really enjoy but I think 2 at least arent out in paperback yet.

 

[cherrymoon]

Finished one book in march, this is going to hurt by dr adam kay 🥲 I’m 80% into the most fun we ever had and still listening to none of this is true.
Work has been insane, I’m a massive ball of stress rn.

 

[nbt]

Here are my March reads. Still going with The Wife Upstairs (enjoying it, despite the comparisons to Verity) and Nightcrawling. I’m really hoping to finish both today so I can start afresh tomorrow.

I think a few of you would enjoy Nightcrawling. I’ve had it quite a while and might have even got the recommendation from here?

Stand out for me was Seventeen.

 

[killtheold]

I just got the new Coco Mellors book on netgalley and I’m so excited! I know Cleopatra & Frankenstein had a mixed reception on here but I loved it.

 

[LaBlonde]

I live HP as well, I don't know if it's just nostalgic for me, in part it probably is, but it's just such a great magic world. It's not an accident so many people love it.

I don't like the films though

the world building in hp is outstanding - like you say, it’s no surprise people became so invested in it because there’s so much to it. even the family trees and the backstories of random background characters.

i wouldn’t say i was a huge fan - i like it, especially as it got darker in the later books - but i will forever love it for how much it made people love BOOKS. i don’t know if we’ll ever see the actual news reporting on midnight launches and the books arriving into stores and everyone freaking out again. i remember queuing outside whsmith at 11pm for the fifth one 🥲

 

[Honeystar]

Had a pretty good month and very pleased with 6 considering The Ink Black Heart is over 1000 pages and really is about three books

Book of the month has to be the trial and very much looking forward to the second one coming out. Did really love The Switch too so that’s a close 2nd.

 

[Lola Ruby]

Really been inspired by a friend to get back into reading - I'm sure many people in this thread will recognise being a total book fiend when they were younger but getting out of the habit thanks to our phones etc! I'd be lucky to read even a few books a year but determined to change that. I'm on Goodreads now which really motivates me to read more and is great for finding recommendations. Plus seeing my friend zip through books on there pushes me to up my reading game I've set my 2024 reading challenge to 50 books and have finished 7 so far (although 4 of those I started last year so not sure if they count? Ha)

Currently reading Before the Coffee Gets Cold and can already tell it's not going to be one of my faves unfortunately! I find the writing quite clunky and there's a lot of repetition although that might be down to the translation? We'll see!

 

[nbt]

I’m reading Snap by Belinda Bauer and listening to The Dream Home by TM Logan.

One has a character called Adam While and the other, a character called Adam Wylie

What are the chances of reading both at the same time?

 

[cill2019]

Has anyone read Butcher & Blackbird and recommend it?
Its all over my fyp on tiktok and currently 99p in kindle deals for this month!

I’ve just listened to it on audio and it is I LOVED IT!
---
Just reading the HP chat from yesterday. I failed one of my exams at uni and had to resit because I was reading Order of the Phoenix instead of studying I queued up at Waterstones at Midnight to get it not my brightest moment

 

[Honeystar]

Totally agree re the chat on books/affordability.

When I was a kid 20 years ago, I was a huge reader but owned very few books of my own, pretty much all the books I did own had come from book tokens that I got for y birthday, and that’s even with my mum working in a book shop.

I used to live in the local library, in fact my favourite childhood memory is my Dad taking me every other Saturday and waiting for me whilst I spent ages devouring the shelves and picking out my 8 books, and we’d then go to a little cafe afterwards for egg sandwiches and a can of coke.

I love browsing Waterstones or the works but I do think the fact that I now just buy a book if I like the look of it has devalued them in a sense, but I suppose it’s like anything these days, we get it all instantly and in abundance

 

[cill2019]

Wee trip to the Works this morning. Picked up the new Paige Toon with the pretty pink sprayed edges and also Godkiller by Hannah Kaner. Girl maths is telling me that because I cancelled the preorder which was more expensive and I returned something to Asda these were free! And actually because the works was cheaper I made a profit

 

[emmer_moans]

I just saw this on Instagram, it made me laugh It is a reel but I screenshot the cat's expression here.

 

[ordinaryjelly]

also, currently reading the adventures of amina al-sirafi by shannon chakraborty (i think it’s a waterstones book of the month? that absolute dreamboat got me with it at the till anyway) and it is so much fun. if you don’t particularly like deep fantasy but love good adventure novels i would strongly recommend it. especially if you like those adventure novels to have pirates

Did you slip him your phone number when he passed the book to you?

This is such a slow burner.

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

Currently reading Book Lovers by Emily Henry and I don’t know if I’m just in a bad mood but urgh it feels so twee I’m surprised because I loved her other books
Plodding on with it to see if it gets better

I HATED Book Lovers.

Nora urgh
MMC dont even know his name Urgh
The sister double Urgh
The setting. Urgh

Pretentious, wankery fuckwits. The lot of them

I dragged myself through it. I loved Happy Place though which most people disliked

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

Is it just me that doesnt want to read something that someone tells me I 'must read'

Same with tv shows and food and just about anything tbh.

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

Totally agree. I think we expect books to be really cheap now, probably fuelled by 99p deals. It does make them more accessible to people who couldn't afford full price though, if they can't get to a library.

Since starting reading from the library over the last year I've saved so much money (and finances was my main reason for moving to borrowing over buying). I also feel a bit icky about buying from amazon when I can get from the library and avoid supporting them.

Also since moving to the library instead of buying, it feels more exciting for me as I have to wait for the book to become available and then I'm more motivated to read it as I have limited time. I am lucky that my library is v good and has a great selection, and usually a decent number of copies.

Yes I really missed that point from my post that buying books is a huge privilege. Books should be accessible to everyone and access to a variety of books from a young age is so important. Without the library Id never have become the reader I am.

 

[LaBlonde]

Starting Where the crawdads sing today! I know a lot of people have given this book very mixed reviews so I’m looking forward to diving in to see what I make of it. I have a horrible cold and I am very stressed so I am looking forward to sitting on my sofa reading all weekend.

i feel like everyone on this thread looks at me like when crawdads is mentioned it activates my fight or flight response at this point. intrigued to know what you think of it!

 

[vanilla cupcakes]

I’m so out of the habit of checking the kindle store I forgot it was monthly deal day
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slightly late but my march reads. all month I’ve been beating myself up thinking I was having such a bad month but looking back I’ve really liked most of the books I’ve read. unraveling oliver was underwhelming, and truth be told wasn’t my favourite from kia abdullah but enjoyable enough, the others I really loved! hard to choose a favourite because they’re so different but think they’ll be up there with my best of the year

 

[kcab0231]

Just finished none of this is true - Lisa Jewell absolutely loved it, started it this morning at the hairdresser and just finished it as I couldn’t put it down!

thanks to all those who reccomended it

 

[LaBlonde]

Does anyone else get cross when reading a book? I read Let Me In by Claire McGowan over the weekend and I was furious with the characters. Weak, scheming and totally unlikeable. There was one surprise character that saved the book for me though so all was not lost.

constantly i can cope with unlikeable characters in general (provided that there’s some growth or self-reflection, or they at least get called out in some way) or if they’re really fun villain types but i cannot cope with books with unlikeable characters where either (a) the author doesn’t know they’re unlikeable (b) we’re expected to root for them and everything happens exactly as that character wants or (c) they remain in the same state at the end of the book that they were at the start.

i’m thinking in particular of conversations with friends where i wanted a landslide to take that entire villa into the ocean.