2019 year in reading

[regshoe]

I'm currently on what will probably be my last book of 2019, the annual re-read of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and when I've finished that I will have read 62 books this year. That's more than I thought, although less than previous years—I seem to need more time between books these days, both to recharge the reading brain and to have time for other stuff.

Highlights (in the order in which I read them—ranking things in preference order is far too difficult) include:

Kingdoms of Elfin by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Armadale by Wilkie Collins

The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

Our Village by Mary Russell Mitford

The Flight of the Heron by D. K. Broster (<333) (although I'm not ranking everything, I will say that this was my absolute favourite of the books I read for the first time this year)

and fifteen books by E. W. Hornung, of which my faves were Irralie's Bushranger and Peccavi.

Altogether I think it's been a pretty good year for reading. I have Plans for 2020 (beyond just 'Piranesi :D :D :D', although that will undoubtedly be an important feature of the next reading year), which I hope to post about soon.

Comments

[pretty_plant]

62 is a nice number. There are many things that can get in the way of your reading activities and I think it is pretty much normal to take a rest from that awfully long book one has just read.

Do you use a book site to keep track of your books or do you note them down? If you note it down, that will seem insanely organized to me.

[regshoe]

Absolutely, it's important to balance things.

No, I keep a handwritten list! Just the titles for each year though, no dates or ratings or anything. I find that writing down the title on my list is a good ritual to have, like I'm saying that that book is done with and it's time to move on—which is why, when I get really absorbed in a book, I sometimes forget to write it down and have to go back and add it out of order later on. :P

[pretty_plant]

That is pretty admirable to be so well-organized. I can never be organized enough to keep handwritten note of anything. I will probably throw the note in some corner at some point and forget all about it.