Yes, you did read that right. I have read 60 books in just 4 months. No, I didn’t spend all day, everyday reading. Yes, I still managed to work, look after my children and keep the house looking (semi) presentable.
How it happened:
When I started this year, I had no intention of reading so many books. Usually, I only manage one or two a month. But, my 14-year-old set me a challenge and I am super-competitive. She said that she thought there was no way I could read more books than her this year, and so it began.
Books have always been an escape for me, but taking on this challenge has led to me finding and reading more than I ever could have imagined. I started the process by working through some books I had kept from my childhood and teenage years, but very quickly ran out of things to read. Then, I started working my way through my daughters books.
Through this process, I have discovered websites such as World of Books and Awesome Books, which sell brilliant second-hand books at incredibly reasonable prices. I would highly recommend them to anyone who is a keen reader. It has honestly saved me a fortune. I also started book swapping with friends, posting books to each other as we finished them and found that my local community had a book swap page on Facebook which meant that I could give away books while the charity shops were closed.
I have found that my taste in books is a lot more varied than I thought it was. Usually, I would stick to fantasy fiction or trashy romance. Books which are easy to read and don’t take a huge amount of concentration. But, I have discovered that actually I enjoy so much more than that. I discovered the truly phenomenal Matt Haig, some brilliant self-help books and so many books with deep messages resonating through them.
At the moment, despite my mammoth efforts, my daughter is still winning. But, I’m determined to close the gap between us and I am hopeful that by the end of the year I can overtake her.
Back in January, I never thought I would have managed 60 books within 4 months. I can’t wait to see what the total is at the end of the year!
The 60 books I have read so far this year:
(books in bold are my recommendations)
- Midnight Sun
- The Organised Time Technique
- Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
- The Twelfth of July
- Across the Barricades
- Into Exile
- A Proper Place
- Hostages to Fortune
- Private Peaceful
- The Hunter
- The Chase
- The Kill
- The Outsiders
- The Radleys
- Secret Vampire
- Daughters of Darkness
- Enchantress
- Dark Angel
- The Chosen
- Soulmate
- Where the Crawdads sing
- Huntress
- Black Dawn
- Witchlight
- The Host
- Cursed Child
- You are a Badass
- Eat That Frog
- Mr One-Night Stand
- Warm Bodies
- Marriage Made in Italy
- The Boy who made Them Love Again
- The Cattleman’s Ready-made family
- Lovely Bones
- The Miniaturist
- The Muse
- Tattooist of Auschwitz
- The Midnight Library
- Cilka’s Journey
- A Perfect Paris Christmas
- Librarian of Auschwitz
- Saboteur of Auschwitz
- The Story of Forgetting
- The Last Act of Love
- Landline
- Eleanor & Park
- A Thousand Splendid Suns
- American Gods
- Behind her eyes
- War Horse
- Marigold (my book)
- Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
- A street cat named Bob
- Waiting for Anya
- Eric Idle – autobiography
- The New Girl
- More than a Feeling
- The Humans
(Bold indicates books I would recommend)