When I posted last on here it was my intention to update the blog regularly with my reading progress but for one reason or another I didn’t seem to get around to it, which is a shame. This coming year I will make more of an effort to update and maintain this site, it will be my goal, regular updates (not that anyone will read them).

On to this pasy year, it has certainly been an eventful one this year. My trusty Sony Reader PRS-650 bit the dust and for my birthday I received an 8^th Gen Kindle and subsequently upgraded to a 10^th Gen on Black Friday. They have, along with Amazon in general changed the way I read, so convenient and cheap, some cracking deals on books for 99p or pocket change.

Kindle Unlimited has been great too and through it I have discovered some books and authors that I now count amongst my favourites.

Initially I had a goal of 24 books for the year, conservative estimate but I think I achieved it by March. Aside from one day that I can remember I pretty much stuck to my reading daily goal. I also read more frequently such as in the car, when waiting around and now I take my Kindle everywhere with me. Can always fit in a few pages here and there. I finished at 98 books read for the year and since March and my birthday they are almost exclusively digitally read, just so convenient and easier to take when heading out.

I also discovered Audible and have completed and thoroughly enjoyed several titles on there, most notably being Shogun by James Clavell, I read and listened to it. Audible is superb and my library is currently has 31 titles. They have some superb deals and the credit pricing is reasonable and a book s far more palatable for a £7.99 credit than £30+ purchase price. Whisper-sync is also something I never heard of prior to both using a Kindle and Audible, it is fantastic and accounts for most of my Audible library where you buy the ebook and get the audiobook at a vastly discounted price and progress in either copy carries forward between devices.

That’s enough waffling about Kindles, this is supposed to be about books. Onto the stars of the show…

I didn’t realise I had read so much but by reading a bit each day I seem to have raced through hell of a lot of books, not too quickly though that I can’t recall them, one or two were forgettable but on the whole I enjoyed almost all of what I read this year. Gosh 93 books and over 26000 pages read. Seems a lot when you take stock and look at the figures. My detailed yearly reads can be found here.

I made some great discoveries this year, the biggest being detective fiction. Having stumbled upon and loving several series most notably Marco Vichi’s Inspector Bordelli series of 6books (so far) a wonderful light hearted journey to 1960’s Florence with the titular Inspector and his underling Piras. Another Italy based dectective I very much enjoyed was Valeri Valero’s Commisario Soneri, a mondern day dectective in the misty City of Parma, quite enoyed him but Bordelli jut shades it for me. A final series I enjoyed was Martin O’Brien’s Jacquot series of books, following French detective Daniel Jacquot in Marseilles and regional Provence. I am currently 5 books into that 9 book series and have loved every one so far.

This coming year I have no plans for anything specific beyond finishing a few series and starting others. As for a set goal I would set a token goal of 36 books for the year and much like last year read daily with quality over quantity.

That said some specifics I would like to knock off are:

• Complete The Asian Saga by James Clavell (6 books)
• Complete Daniel Jacquot series by Martin O’Brien
• Make a dent in Maigret series by Georges Simenon
• Read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• Read The Sea of Fertility Quartet By Yukio Mishima
• Re-read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Re-read The Chronicle of The Black Company by Glen Cook

Aside from those I will see where my interests take and hopefully I can discover lots of new favourites and enjoyable reads. I don’t expect to reach 98 books and I’m not even going to try. If I can achieve one of my bullet points above I will be very happy. The most important thing for me is to get enjoyment in reading.