I feel like I should make some sort of apology for the lack of posting as of late. I haven’t read anything in almost two months. It started to feel like a daunting task. The books I have on my TBR shelf, as well as on Kindle and Audible. I started to fall out of love with reading because I felt pressured to post about it. My little corner of book blogging, Instagram, and Goodreads is very small. I started to wonder who I was posting for. When I got out of this little slump, life happened.

I had two very lovely summer holidays – zero reading involved – and various flare-ups of my chronic illnesses. I had an unknown severe pain for over a week, and while I was given medication which stopped the pain, the root cause was never found.

Also, for the past year, I have been in a job that I love. From the people to the work, to the pay, everything is in alignment. I enjoy the work I do immensely. When I started my book posting journey, I was in a job that I loathed, a job that was ‘comfortable’ but otherwise soul-crushing, and it took them behaving incredibly badly for me to realise leaving was the best option. I mention this because while I was in this job, I was reading almost every day as an escape for my mind and body. When I read 130 books in 2019, I remember thinking it was this huge achievement and while, yes, it was, it was also a huge cry for help. In my current job, where I feel so much peace and validation, I’m not spending every minute reading as my life is flowing with ease and I am making time to do other things.

My mental health is stable, my reading drive is not. My reading tastes have definitely changed over the last few years. Generic Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Romance hold little appeal to me. I loathe a love triangle and will strangle myself over reading another ‘morally grey character’ who actually has no redeeming qualities and belongs in a dustbin! While my family are avid readers of Cosy Crime, I cannot stand a book where I’ve worked out the ending from the first chapter. It’s a waste of time. I still enjoy Thriller Crime books. I have my staple series, but I’m less likely to pick out a new series. I cannot do Psychological Crime books or any books involving married couples. They ick me the wrong way and give me a nausious adrenaline feeling that is hard to shift.

I have been reading more Reverse Harem books, both Supernatural and Fantasy. It was quite a sudden shift for me. It really stemmed from reading FanFiction and wanting to find something outside that scope. I do have very strict requirements for reading them. There must be equal parts plot and smut; if the latter is too much, I will get bored. It must have strong character development and a plot that drives the story. I steer clear of books that have a heavy ‘bully enemy-to-lovers’ tag because I have found that most of these have bully characters who should have been put in prison for being the shittiest of beings, and yet somehow the FMC ends up with them, and the reader should be pleased by it. I have quite often read the first book in a series and not continued. I think this happens because a lot of books in this genre are self-published, and that leads to a decline in structure, plot, character development, and spelling, which I just can’t deal with. If I can, I try to see, especially when using Kindle, which books are published by a publisher and which are self-published, and avoid the latter.

I am also reading fewer children’s books for 9-12-year-olds. Again, there are a few series I picked up over the years that I have continued, but it hasn’t been something I’ve sought out. I tend to read these books as palette cleansers between heavier reads, but I also just enjoy their simplicity and the fact that there is no hidden message lurking between the pages.

I listen to more audiobooks when I commute to work or when I am working on spreadsheets and need my mind to focus. I am also listening to a lot of Podcasts.

It has been more difficult to quiet my brain of late. It is always running faster than I can catch it. I haven’t been able to focus myself in for a read because my brain keeps wandering. Then, of course, there is my current predicament. I was involved in the world’s slowest car crash. I say this because I was going under 5mph and stopped a second too late. The other driver and I were not hurt at all by this. Their car took minor damage. Mine took damage, but not a horrific amount; however, as the car is over 10 years old, the insurance might opt to write it off rather than fix it. It’s currently being ‘evaluated’. This leaves me without a car because my silly self didn’t want to pay extra for a courtesy car!! You might think this home-bound life would have me reading like crazy. But actually, it’s just instilled the need for a massive spring clean and a clear-out of all the stuff I do not need.

I will not give any empty promises. I will not assign myself a goal or a challenge. I intend to just read when I feel like reading and post when I have written a review. I’m not sure I can offer much more consistancy than that at this moment.

To give you some insight, here are all the physical books on my TBR list:

• The Curator by Owen King
• Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
• False Witness by Karen Slaughter
• Goldilocks by Laura Lam
• The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
• House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas
• House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
• Thread Needle by Cari Thomas
• The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
• Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
• The Last Word by Elly Griffiths
• Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths
• Darkness Falls by Robert Bryndza
• The Long Call by Ann Cleeves
• The Last to Disappear by Jo Spain
• A Kiss of Hammer and Flame by Amy De La Force
• The Graveyard Girls by Rita Herron
• The Couple’s Secret by Lisa Regan
• The Whisperwicks by Jordan Lees
• Crowfall by Vashti Hardy
• The Storm Keepers Battle by Catherine Doyle
• The Danger Gang by Tom Fletcher
• The Girl Who Could Move Shit With Her Mind by Jackson Ford
• Citadel by Kate Mosse
• Sepulchre by Kate Mosse
• The Ghost Ship by Kate Mosse
• Alchemised by SenLinYu
• Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
• The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths
• Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
• Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
• Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
• The Maidens by Alex Mihcaelides
• The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd Robinson
• Poison Memories by Helen Phifer
• The Sign of the Devil by Oscar Muriel
• Welcome to Glorious Tuga by Francesca Segal
• Two Broken Girls by Rita Herron
• The Sleeping Girls by Rita Herron
• The Perfect Lie by Jo Spain
• The Botanist by M. W. Craven
• Dead Ground by M. W. Craven
• Girl Forgotten by Karin Slaughter
• The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter
• The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter
• Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
• A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin
• In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin
• Knots & Crosses by Ian Rankin
• Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
• Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
• Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch
• Whisters Underground by Ben Aaronovitch
• Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch
• The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch
• Th Stand by Stephen King
• The Shining by Stephen King
• Under the Dome by Stephen King
• The Mist by Stephen King
• Billy Summers by Stephen King
• The Body by Stephen King
• 1922 by Stephen King
• Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
• Never Flinch by Stephen King