Well, regardless of whatever else I do with my blog I always knew this would be the first post of 2016.
The headline is: I read 31 books last year and I am pleased with that!
General Observations
Before I dive into the books I read and the figures, a few thoughts. I am happy as I say with how much I read but also how I read. I seem to have re-gained a joy in reading. I’m also stressing less about how much I read, what to read next and whether to abandon a book. I haven’t seriously looked at my TBR in months.
I’ve been using the library more – mainly cos it’s a nice place to hang out when I’m at a loose end on a weekend, but hanging out leads to borrowing books – but I have still been buying new ebooks. I do try to avoid it but honestly it’s no tragedy if I buy a book for 99p (or even £2.99) and never read it. It’s like Netflix – I’m paying to have access to a book I may read one day.
What hasn’t changed is my memory. One of the things that went along with my I-don’t-seem-to-enjoy-reading-anymore whines was my now terrible short term memory. The fact that I only have to put a book down for a couple of days to have lost significant details, and that even with a longer book read continuously I still lose parts of the beginning by the end. I think it’s an age thing. Maybe I can improve it by getting more sleep and drinking more water. But it’s not as much a detriment to my enjoyment as it seemed.
Truth is I was depressed. And anxious. And those things don’t lend themselves to the mental effort of imagination that reading a book requires. But I’ve recovered somewhat and the enjoyment has come back.
After some thought I’ve decided to split this post into sections. Next up is figures!