I started the year very happy and optimistic especially when it comes to my reading and it started quite strongly with some very enjoyable reads and new experiences like manga and the saucy type of manga but in recent weeks my reading has slumped.
For many weeks I have literally read a page a day to maintain my Kindle reading streak but over the past ten days of so I have now gone about 5 or 6 days without opening my Kindle. I just feel a malaise and slump and can’t seem to pull myself out of it.
My last reading was finishing Last Testament in Bologna by Tom Benjamin and I haven’t picked up my Kindle since then. This is highly unusual for me, my reading streak was about 150 consecutive days and over 400 weeks in a row. Its very rare I had a missed day unless something cropped up or a server glitch.
I think personal life has contributed to it, as I am currently grieving still for a shock family bereavement in April. It really affected me and though I never saw the person as much as I used to, since his passing I cannot stop thinking about him and how his act and loss has destroyed and forever changed my family and its future. Reading, games are my forms of escapism and they offer little to no comfort for me currently, especially if there are scenes of abuse and self harm.
I am not depressed or anything, just wanted to write my thoughts and feelings and get it off my chest for myself. It is very cathartic to write it out and it helps. Only I probably will read this so its fine.
I feel this year is going to be a slow reading year this year and being a compulsive book buyer I am always acquiring more than I read so I was doing some thinking about how to explore my library and get the most from it. I am a dual media reader having both digital (Kindle and audiobook) and phyiscal copies of books. The audiobook library is fairly easy to nagivate, as is the physical, but the digital library is a big pain to navigate through 6000 + (shocked me too!) books. You never remember every book you buy and most get lost in the shuffle.
I had a brainwave! I will make a spreadsheet of my library and from that use a random number generator to help choose my next read. To my surprise there is no quick and easy way to export your Kindle library. So for a few hours I had to scroll the entire library until it loaded every book and then select all, copy & paste. Unintuitively it pastes as a single column and for example the titles were odd cells and the authors even. So after a chat with AI (one of the few times I have used AI with success). I discovered how to create smart filters and be able to select the data and copy and paste them to be how i wanted it. To my surprise it worked.
I am happy with it and I have decided to colour co-ordinate my library with default black being purchased books, blue being docs (mostly books purchased elsewhere online) and red being manga.
I have tried it a few times and as you can see from my notes it has thrown up an interesting mix of books. Many I have forgotten about and not looked at since I purchased them. It will be fun to see what books it throws up when I decide to use it.
I will try to keep my library updated going forwards, it will only be laziness that prevents me.
I dont really have any plan where this is going but seeing as this is New Years Eve I thought I would do a little post about my reading this year, its only really me who reads this anyway.
I did keep my resolution from last year to update this regularly. Mostly it has been book reviews but also some other things too. I think the coming year I may incorporate more things like journalling and pens and ink, and travel updates.
It has been an enjoyable and interesting year for me reading wise. I have discovered new things I have enjoyed in terms of manga (possibly Ecchi haha) and on the whole my reading has been mostly positive. I am looking through my Goodreads and the only book I have sort of disliked is Shifting The Moon From Its Orbit by Andrea Marcolongo. That one I rated 2 Stars and the rest I have read is 3 Stars and above.
Aside from Christmas books and some Yasunari Kawabata novels I haven’t re-read any books. Which I think is great. I did not manage to finish all my Christmas reading that I planned to, the Anthony Trollope book dragged (1800s romances is not my thing and very annoying) so I jettissoned the rest of my festive reads given the year is ending.
According to Goodreads I have read 66 books for the year and 14056 pages which is the most since 2023. Though not quite up there with 2019 and 2020 where I devoured 38000 pages and 31000 pages respectively (discovered the Mairgret series).
For the year ahead I do plan to re-read some old favourites and explore many new books I have yet to come to. Amongst the favoruties I would like to revisit Macondo in One HUndred Years of Solitude and join Edmond in his quest for revenge in The Count of Monte Cristo.
For new books I hope that this year I can read some Rumpole books by John Mortimer and explore more Graham Greene and finally get around to reading Roberto Bolano. I may dip into Ecchi more, I dont find it a sexy but the plots are amusing and fun. Cartoon corny drawings are just that, not in the least bit sexy as I swear the artists have never seen a human before let alone how the body works. Monster Musume is very funny and outlandish.
I have lots of books to get on with and hope this coming year I buy a lot less of them. Stick to the key series I enjoy like Martin Walker’s Bruno series. All in all I will stick to buying books through the Kindle Daily and Monthly Deals.
A Happy New Year to all who read this, may 2026 be healthy and happy for you all.
Its almost a year with the Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition and I thought I would do a quick review of how I have found it so far. I say almost a year as it has been 9/10 months since I received my Colorsoft just after Christmas. Prior to the Colorsoft I was using the original Paperwhite Signature Edition.
Compared to last year my reading output has increased, I wouldn’t say it was helped by the Colorsoft but I have read only using the Colorsoft. I do notice compared to the Paperwhite the Colorsoft lacks clairty in some aspects but it is not detremiental to the reading experience, I am not a picky person but I know some are. The difference is the screen and how the nature of Coloured e-ink screens means there is an extra layer to the screen that affects the crispness.
I was very lucky that my Colorsoft was one of the first of the non-yellow band batch, I do notice something but I have concluded its the LEDs at the base. There is no sign of yellow and being a frequent visitor of Kindle forums it is a paranoia you can’t shake off.
Home Screen
Inside Book
Image
Zoomed In
Normal Text
Kindle Screenshot
The images above show the device as I see it, I did include a screenshot from another book. The Kabuki book had stylised pages which didn’t make it seem fair for comparison. I also included an in-kindle screenshot.
Does Colour or lack of change the Kindle experience? Im my opinion it hasn’t made it any better or worse. It is wonderful to see covers and images in colour, along with notations but 99% of the time you are reading and text is in black and white. Depending on what you’re reading some of the pictures may be published without colour so there is no difference at all. I was excited to read a Manga on the Colorsfot but then realised only the cover was coloured and the content black and white. It really shone through with comics and I had read a series called Gun Honey and that really popped.
I do think colour is the future and for the first iteration of coloured e-ink Kindles, this is a fine entry and better it will get. Already there are a 16GB model Colorsoft and a Kids version and recently announced Colorsoft Scribe. I am happy with mine and it will do me for many years, perhaps if there is a big jump in quality and features down the line I would get another.
Perhaps they will add features like change of font colour, or page background colours. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here. A slight disappointment for me is the lock screen, I know for longevity and battery it is limited in brightness, but it would be nice if it was backlit a little to be more vibrant at the expensise of battery.
Lock ScreenDevice On
All in all colour or no colour it makes little difference but it is nice to have the choice to enjoy the option of colour. Is it a necessity no, but it is a pleasure and great to have the choice. Though the question with Amazon getting more restrictive is to try a new e-reader or stick. Kobo, Boox, Pocketbook all provide alternatives to Kindle. I would be interested to see the next colour offerings from Kobo and see how they update the Libre Color, that would be what I would go for next, if they make improvements to the device and build quality.
Valley Reviews 