Tag: books

End of Year Post

Well as with previous years of saying I will post here I have failed yet again but this year has been one of failure in general, not the most productive or happiest year, in terms of productivity and personal life.

My reading has seriously took a hit this year and I was bogged down by The World by Simon Sebag Montefiore for much of it, a book that took forever to read despite how enjoyable I found it.

In my Goodreads challenge of 25 I got up to 19 (at the time of writing) which is easily 1/3 or 1/4 of my usual reading output. I didn’t finish many books but I have read for the best part of the year with only 34 days missed according to Kindle Reading Insights. I’m doing this on the 29th December and won’t be missing reading on the next two days.

One positive for my reading is discovering the genre of LitRPG and particularly the series Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. A thoroughly enjoyable, funny and wonderful series. I’m eagerly awaiting the audiobook for Book 7, the books are incredible and the audiobooks further enhance them.

For 2025 my goal is to read daily and not miss so many days but finish more books, hopefully I can focus and keep that goal. For a number I will set an initial goal of 25 and once I feel in my rhythm bump it up to 52 so a book a week, or maybe just set it to 52 to begin with. I really want to grow my enjoyment of books again, this year was a write off as far as that is concerned. I am toying with the idea of a soft reading list so I have something to stick to, hopefully I don’t buy as many books this year (famous last words).

Happy New Year and I’ll try to be more regular here.

Phantom Architecture by Philip Wilkinson

Although I started this several months ago I didn’t really start reading it properly until last week. I had previously dipped in and out of it. But once i devoted my time to it, what a very interesting and enthralling read, some very quirky, interesting and downright strange designs. It would have been interesting to see some of them come fruition like a giant pyramid crypt in London for 5 million bodies, or a giant elephant in Paris. If they had been built I wonder how they would be perceived today?

A great selection and quite interesting, not a difficult or dense read at all. A bit more details would be nice but a minor quibble. The book has some great illustrations and photographs from more modern times of the models and plans for the buildings and communities.

It does make me curious what contemporary designs are ongoing that will end up future phantoms. Perhaps the proposed Neom in Saudi Arabia will be a future Phantom or drastically different to how we are expecting it today.

Diary of A Nobody by George Grossmith

My first book of the year and to start the year with a fun, entertaining read. Given I am keeping a diary again this year The diary of A Nobody seemed a good start. Although dated the humour does shine through and having listened to a snippet of the audiobook read by Martin Jarvis, I likely will listen/read it again. I feel the book will be enriched with narration.


I don’t know if that was how the humour was in those days but the jokes are often at the main characters expense, Mr Pooter and his bad jokes like how with his friends Mr Cummings and Mr Gowing. He notes that “Cummings is always going, Gowing is always coming”. a lot of fun wordplay in the humour.

A more funny read this time around and as such I will bump it up to 5* on Goodreads.

So that’s one down for the year, not sure what to read next. I may post individual reviews here or maybe a few at a time, depends on my output I guess and what I’m reading.

New Year, New Posts!!!

A New Year and new beginnings and promises. I’d like to start with wishing all who read this a Happy New Year and hope health, happiness and prosperity finds them.

For me this year I’m hoping to keep this updated more regularly (famous last words) and maybe diversify the content here. Though the name is ValleyReading It won’t just be a book or reading blog. I will also post stuff from my other interests such as wet shaving Shave of The Days (SotD) and a new interest of mine anime and manga, mostly Attack On Titan which I love.

For shaving I’m starting the year growing a bit of a beard, though I may shave it soon as I have a slight breakout of excema so I may shave this week to sort that and enjoy the use of one of my recent razors (Rockwell T2 Stainless Steel or Tatara Masamune).

In terms of anime I’m looking forward to watching Attack On Titan again, I enjoyed it immensely from start to finish and I would like to watch the English dub of the final episode which is coming out this weekend (7th January). I would also like to watch more of One Punch Man which I am enjoying very much as well as Death Note. I have several others lined up to watch and the Attack On Titan manga which I’m 5 books into out of 34.

Finally my reading flagged last year when I discovered Attack On Titan and it is no lie that I was and am completely consumed by it and its lore, fan theories etc. So my reading took a hit. I was on about 35 or 38 books when I discovered it and I was flagging on my reading goal of 50 books until the end of November (I would have smashed it by June if I didn’t discover AoT). I finished the year with 61 books thanks to my Christmas reading, which I always make time for and enjoy very much.

This year my goal is set at 25 which is easily accomplished and just merely used as a placeholder. My true goal remains to read daily whether its a short book, a chapter or a page. It all counts. I also wish to read longer books. I started reading The World by Simon Sebag Montefiore (1350 pages) 18 months ago and been dipping in and out of it. I hope to finish it this year! As a challenge I would like to read Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce too.

My first book of the year will be a short one and a humourous one. The Diary of A Nobody by George Grossmith. I have read it before and thoroughly enjoyed it. Seemed a nice choice to start the year with, though usually I start with a Yasunari Kawabata novel either Thousand Cranes, Beauty & Sadness or Snow Country.

So that’s my plans for this bit of internet over the next year. Let’s see how we get on!