#twofortuesday @TheSpineView

These are such interesting questions! I‘d say a reader. I see a bibliophile as liking beautiful books, owns multiple editions, loves to collect and arrange books, and a reader as someone who‘s just after the words inside. I like nice covers but I don‘t really ‘prize‘ my physical collection. I dog ear and crease books and give them away, so I don‘t think I count as a bibliophile or collector.

I‘ve been meaning to read this for literal years then I saw there was a Netflix show and decided to finally read it. A very sweet, quick read. I read it in one sitting on a cold Sunday evening and it suited the mood perfectly. I‘m excited to read more for sure

Pleased to announce I‘ve finally eaten some Afghan food for #foodandlit this month! My boyfriend saw this food truck on the way to work and we had to walk to the site three different times after failing to find its opening hours online. It was worth it though - I had a chapti kebab wrap which was something I‘ve never tried before, really really nice.

@Texreader @Catsandbooks @Butterfinger

This was a very silly romp and I really enjoyed it. I liked that the setting and characters of this Bridgerton prequel felt fresh and different. By the end of the main Bridgerton series I felt like Julia Quinn was maybe running out of ideas, but the American setting and elaborate very melodramatic amnesia concept were great fun.

I was so excited to read this after finishing Ariadne earlier this year. I did like it, but probably less than Ariadne. I think because I knew the myths better this time around and I felt like humanising Elektra and Clytemnestra to make them into sympathetic characters made them lose a lot of what made them interesting - I liked them more twisted and monstrous personally.

An excellent recommendation from @indiaro and my first georgette heyer! One of my biggest pet peeves is when romances have really rubbish one dimensional side characters and this one had such well developed, fun and interesting side characters. I loved the yearning and the gentle humour. I‘ll definitely be reading more by the author!

#wondrouswednesday @Eggs

1. Hard to choose a favourite! Theatre, watching horror movies, trying new restaurants, travel, studying, socialising in general as I am a very social animal

2. Not in a more official capacity than this - Litsy and tiktok but just for fun

3. A gorgeous independent cafe if I‘m feeling rich and bed if I‘m feeling poor 🥰

I‘m finally embarking on one of @indiaro ‘s favourite books and loving it so much 🥰 I‘ve never read a georgette heyer before and I‘m enjoying it a lot.

This ended up medium for me. All the characters annoyed me and the side characters all felt SO one dimensional, but I liked the writing style and the pacing overall. I think I‘d definitely read another book by the same author and I felt quite swept up in the ending. I just wish there‘d been a bit more depth to the characters and that the main pair had been, well, desirable or interesting.

I‘m around halfway through this one and struggling a bit. I keep feeling like I‘m nearly enjoying it but the characters are just annoying me. It seems to be so popular though, I‘m wondering if anyone else had that problem?

This was really cute and I loved the setting and the general vibe and atmosphere. I didn‘t love the attitudes to relationships 100% of the time - it seemed like people got very possessive on very early dates in a way I wouldn‘t appreciate personally? But it didn‘t ruin the book and I‘d read more by the author.

I really enjoyed the murder plot, I liked the twists and the pacing and the Antarctic setting was really atmospheric and creepy. Having said that, I really didn‘t need the focus on the MC and her substance abuse issues and unresolved feelings about her ex boyfriend. Those things weren‘t really gone into on much detail so it didn‘t really feel deep, just a distraction from the murder. I felt like that could so easily have just not been there

@Texreader @Catsandbooks @Butterfinger

I didn‘t manage to find any Cuban food this month unfortunately, but I am using my last day in the Lake District with my boyfriends family to read this book set in Cuba in the 90s after the fall of the societ Union. I don‘t know that I love the book for the plot and writing but I am enjoying learning more about cuba, I think this is my first ever Cuban novel

#foodandlit

I don‘t really feel I can hold it against this book that I didn‘t like it because it did exactly what it said on the tin. I suppose I was hoping for a post-Bridgerton read to fill the void but this crossed from silly and escapist to just quite wooden and bad. I‘m pretty permissive about historical accuracy and I don‘t get furious about people lacing dresses up wrong etc but this was Too Much For Me

Currently on the train to the Lake District getting some Margery Kempe reading done! I‘m taking an evening class on the book to ease me back into reading Middle English before my masters starts. I‘m really excited to do lots of reading in a really pretty location (hopefully!)

Flawless in so many ways - the writing, the concepts, the structure. It was a masterclass in so many things that a lot of dystopian fiction gets wrong. Yet at the same time the bleakness really got to me and it was quite hard to make myself read because I found myself dreading turning the pages. The amount of absurdity and how futile so many things here were, and how the moments of tenderness got swallowed up by the bizarre world was hard to read.

I haven‘t always seen eye to eye with Hemingway but I really loved this one. I don‘t know if that‘s this book being better than others or my mindset changing, but I liked the simplicity and the way the emotions kind of rose to the surface through the clipped, pared back sentences. The ending felt almost like a classical tragedy, knowing what was coming and not wanting to look.

I never quite got round to watching the Netflix show, but I started the book on impulse and I loved it SO much. I haven‘t found a literary novel this compelling for a long time. I found the writing beautiful but never taxing to get through, and despite knowing next to nothing about chess I found the writing about chess so gorgeous. Beth was a phenomenal protagonist. Even when she did very frustrating things I always felt I understood her

I saw this Christmas romance available for preorder for this winter on Amazon today and I just had to preorder it! I wonder what this says about me… @Clwojick 🎄

Things got away from me a bit this month with the reading challenges if I‘m honest… did not manage to read anything greek in March for #foodandlit but I did manage to go to this really gorgeous Greek restaurant called Nissi in north london! Didn‘t get a photo of it so here‘s one from the internet. We ate WELL there. Excited to get back into it with Cuba this month 🥰

I‘m pretty happy with myself this month! I‘ve read a lot, which was never really at risk of not happening lol, and I‘ve managed 13 workouts which I really am proud of.

For next month I‘m just going to try to keep this going -

1. I want to read five books in preparation for my masters course starting this autumn
2. 13 more workouts

#bfc2022 @wanderinglynn

@TheSpineView #two4tuesday

1. Bluebells for sure! Bluebell woods are probably my favourite time to see nature and I associate them with walks with my grandparents. I wish I got to see them more now

2. I couldn‘t think of anything then mrs dalloway popped into my head, for reasons I‘m not totally sure of. Maybe because I associate her with my grandparents too - they took me on day trips to the bloomsbury group‘s farmhouse near where they lived

Ishiguro is often quite hit and miss for me, but I really liked this one! I didn‘t realise it was his first novel til I was a fair way through and I was impressed. I loved the subtlety and how poignant the unspoken emotions were. I can see how this aspect of his writing developed into the remains of the day, and I also liked how slippery the time periods were.

I normally prefer poirot to marple, and I still do tbh, but I really enjoyed this one! I liked the pace and the ending, which I won‘t spoil, but it was the ending I wanted that I thought agatha christie wouldn‘t have done. So that was a pleasant surprise and the creepy overgrown garden and tumble down greenhouse were so evocative

The reviews said this would make me cry and it did. It was definitely a hard read so soon after losing my grandfather.

Michelle‘s writing style is so special, confessional and honest without being maudlin or melodramatic. I loved the way she wrote about food and Korean culture as a Korean American and I felt so immersed in all of it

Guess who just became a proud first time iPad owner! They always seemed far too expensive then I decided I should get one for when I start my masters course this year. It‘s almost solid reading stuff and the only social media I have in there is Litsy and goodreads in order to avoid distraction. I‘m loving it so much for reading and note taking! Because there‘s no tiktok, messaging or Instagram it means I don‘t feel anxious about screentime numbers

So on my birthday last week I decided to spontaneously book myself a solo trip to Norway! I‘ve never travelled on my own before. I always thought it‘d kinda happen one day but the stars never made it happen, so I just booked it. I‘m so so excited. The trip is at the end of April/start of May and I‘m having so much fun planning, attempting duolingo and finding Norwegian books.

I posted a couple of days ago about how I‘d never got around to reading Moby Dick and then, pretty much immediately, Phoebe reads a mystery posted the first chapter. I thought this was as good a time as any other to embark on the watery part of the world. Wish me luck!

Is anyone else listening?

I really wanted to like this but I just couldn‘t 😕 it felt a bit like a book length version of a PSHE lesson and the characters felt quite cardboard-y to me, more like they were going through the motions to illustrate a point than acting as characters. I found the writing style uninteresting and while I got into the story a bit towards the end, it was just a bit, and just at the end.

#twofortuesday @TheSpineView

1. I do! I read other things as well but classics are probably the things I‘ve read the most of in my life if I have to estimate.

2. I think I‘ve read a lot of the biggest classics but I‘ve never been able to face down moby dick yet. Maybe one day.

Happy birthday to me!!

I am rushed off my feet today teaching and getting to some social plans but I obviously made a bit of time to read on the train.

After a very busy workweek I‘m finally under a heap of covers in my huge pyjamas with the next Bridgerton novel. This is the only one not available through my library and I‘m being very strict on my book buying ban so I made myself wait for my birthday celebration ‘exception day‘ to get it. So now I‘m proud of myself for waiting AND in desperate need of relaxing in bed with some glorious escapism.

Quick book journal update on my attempt to scale #mountbr in 2022! I‘m on a quite strict book buying ban for another 45 days and trying to reduce my owned tbr mountain by 100 books in 2022. Here‘s where we are so far!

Reading through books I‘ve bought but failed to read helps me feel like I‘m earning back wasted money which is a nice feeling.

I‘m a big horror fan and this is a new all time favourite. It felt very old school and the writing was incredible - great build up, great characters and setting, amazing creeping sense of dread, so exciting my heart was in my mouth and I LOVE this version of mermaids. And a bisexual sonar specialist standing against the murderous mermaids boarding the research vessel? Yes please.

I haven‘t done a bingo board with prompts since the winter games but it felt like time to do one again! Excited to give this one a go this month, tho as a mood reader I never do very well on ticking things off on these.

I read the duke and I last year when Bridgerton was airing and I really liked it, but reading this one in advance of the new series I LOVED. i don‘t know if it‘s exactly a better book or if I‘ve just got more into romance than I was, but I was obsessed with this. Perfect balance of banter and yearning.

It took me a while to understand what this book was getting at but once I did, I enjoyed it! I loved the cynicism and quiet wit. It never felt like it was trying too hard to be funny and relatable, which made it more enjoyable when it was funny and relatable. Having worked in university administration, this was definitely relatable for me…

Reading on a plane for the first time in a while! Next time I post I‘ll be in Cyprus 🥰

#two4tuesday

1. I have a whole bunch as friends on goodreads and a few on Instagram tho I haven‘t checked Instagram in about a year - it makes me very anxious so I only check posts about wildlife sanctuaries.

2. I made a tiktok account to post about books recently and while it makes me feel very old it‘s great fun! It reminds me of the tumblr golden age in a lot of ways. Has anyone here explored booktok?

Spending the evening reading the tagged book in bed in honour of @sharread for her memorial readathon. Amazing how we could be linked by our love of reading even though I think we lived thousands of miles apart.

Rest in peace 💙

#sharreadathon

Before the last few months I almost never read romance but now I‘m finding it‘s hitting the spot so consistently. I adored this, I read it in one huge middle of the night binge and I can imagine myself rereading it for comfort when my anxiety gets bad. I loved the banter, the yearning, and the perfect balance of romance to other plot

Though I didn‘t know Sharon at all, it‘s always so sad to lose a member of a community and Litsy was something Sharon and I shared even if we didn‘t know each other. I‘m looking forward to reading in her memory this week 💙

Yes this was very long. Very long. But I loved the slow immersive development of the story and the three central characters were all people whose brains I loved to be inside. For a Victorian novel I thought it was surprisingly not anti Semitic! It wasn‘t 100% not-anti-semitic but it pleasantly surprised me with its human, thoughtful, heroic Jewish characters.

I loved this book so much. It felt like a true great American novel, tender, expansive and managing to do so much without ever feeling pretentious or like it was trying too hard. I loved the simple, spare prose and how rich and subtle the characters were. The two old brothers‘ interactions with the pregnant high school girl made my heart ache. I loved this so much

Excited to report that my #foodandlit meal for February was excellent! My partner and I decided to go to an Argentinian restaurant for our Valentine‘s Day meal (two days late because who wants to celebrate on a Monday) and I‘m happy to report that steak, chimichurri and red wine continues to be the best combination in the world.

I‘m rereading the murder of Roger ackroyd and when I got to this page with the map my mind was FLOODED with memories of reading this for the first time when I was about 13. It‘s amazing how one little page you‘d forgotten can make you remember so much! I remember being all hunched over in bed staring at it trying to solve the mystery

I didn‘t dislike this and I can‘t name loads of things wrong with it, but I also don‘t see myself remembering it loads. Three women who used to feel promising and now have lost their way circle about each other in london. Some nice poignant stuff about motherhood but also… eh, not in the top 20 books about sad millennials I‘d recommend.

Reading the kiss quotient for the v casual, romance-themed irl book club me, @indiaro and @moll have started! On the train back to my parents to pick up some new glasses, first new ones I‘ve had in about 6 years so that‘s very exciting.

Quick #bfc22 update. I‘ve done pretty well at staying motivated January and February - few days when I was ill aside.

The first week of feb I‘ve managed a nourishing breakfast every day, two HIIT workouts, one yoga class and a lot of books. Tho tbh the books were never gonna be the difficult part of the goal.

@wanderinglynn

#wondrouswednesday @Eggs

1. A friend just gave me Winter in Sokcho as a late Christmas present

2. I believe I recently gave Ariadne to @moll

3. Tagged book I just finished yesterday - nostalgic, sweet, poignant, funny, revealing of the hypocrisy of Peruvian society… everything you‘re after from a love story!