January is always a tough month for me due to very sad memories but this year I focused on escaping into books as much as I could and as a result I’ve had a great reading month. Here are the 23 books I read in January….
Spiders from Mars by Woody Woodmansey (my review is here)
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polinski by Samantha Geimer
Everything You Told Me by Lucy Dawson (my review is here)
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
Relativity by Antonia Hayes (my review is here)
Landline by Rainbow Rowell
How Much the Heart Can Hold by Carys Bray et al
Lies by TM Logan (my review is here)
Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller
Her Every Fear by Peter Swanson (my review is here)
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Loving the Life Less Lived by Gail Marie Mitchell (my review is here)
The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr
Hold Your Own by Kate Tempest
Howards End is on the Landing: My Year of Reading from Home by Susan Hill
Rattle by Fiona Cummins (my review is here)
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
The Girl Before by JP Delaney (my review is here)
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan
The Life of Rylan by Rylan Clark-Neal
Blood Wedding by Pierre Lemaitre
I managed to review eight of the above books, along with two the two titles below which I’d read at the end of 2016 but didn’t get a chance to review them at the time. Click the titles to read the reviews if you’d like to:
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
While You Were Sleeping by Kathryn Croft
I’m planning reviews for at least a few more of the above books so hopefully they’ll be up on my blog soon.
I also wrote blog posts about my Top Ten Fiction and Top Ten Non-Fiction reads of 2016. I shared my Reading Bingo 2016 results, which was a lot of fun. I hadn’t planned my reading to fit the bingo challenge so I was thrilled to find that I got a full house! I also wrote a post about my Christmas Book Haul.
I then confessed to the State of my TBR and my plans to reduce it this year. I started the year with 1885 books (that I already own) on my TBR and as of the end of January my TBR stands at 1901 (not including the 6 books I’m currently reading). In fairness, I have read quite a few books off my TBR in January but I also had my birthday and my lovely husband bought me 21 books! I feel like I’m doing well with my TBR considering how many books I added to it with gifts and review books. I really hope to get my TBR back to around 1885 this month and then I’ll be (sort of) back on track to try and reduce it.
One of my other aims this year was to read some of the longer books that have been languishing on my shelves for a long time and I’m sticking to that so far. In January I read two books that were over 500 pages each – The Poisonwood Bible and The Book of Strange New Things so I’m pleased with that. I’m also currently reading The Luminaries, which is almost 900 pages long. It’s important to me to read books that I’ve owned for a long time and still not read so I need to focus on that a bit more this month.
I’ve used Goodreads to track my reading for quite a few years now and I’ll continue to do so but I recently found a spreadsheet online where I can track my reading in more detail. I’m finding it fascinating to see where my habits lie when it comes to the books I read. This is the lovely YouTuber who kindly shared her spreadsheet Portal in the Pages
How was your January? Did you read any good books? Please tell me what your favourite book from January was, and if you have a January wrap-up post on your blog please feel free to share the link below.
RatherTooFondofBooks 
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I thought my TBR pile was big but 1901! Woooh! That’s astonishing. Would be interested to hear your thoughts on And Then There Were None. I remember when I was just starting on crime (about 4-5 years ago) and I read it I was literally going crazy with the brilliance of the plot.
I know, it’s out of control! I only dared admit to the size of my TBR this year and I really want to get it smaller. And Then There Were None was brilliant – I wanted to review it but it’s hard to write about it without giving anything away. I couldn’t believe how clever it was – it made me want to re-read it straight away so I could notice how it all was done.
So glad you enjoyed it, it is a masterwork. She counted it as her best work. Know what you mean about reviewing it though!
You got quite a lot of reading done! And I really admire your commitment to digging into the TBR. I need to do that, myself.
Thank you! 🙂 I’m not doing so well with reducing my TBR at the moment but at least I’m roughly keeping it steady. I definitely want it to be smaller by the end of the year.
Holy moly I thought my TBR pile was big! Currently at about 155. I feel much better about it now 🙂
Glad I made you feel better about your TBR! I definitely need to work on mine this year, I really want it to be reduced by the end of 2017.
Wow! 23 books in January – that’s incredible. And it was a lovely range of books, too… The Kate Tempest poetry collection has caught my eye and I’ve never read The Poisonwood Bible and I think I should. Best of luck with trimming your TBR pile – I’m trying to do the same, though it has grown significantly since Christmas. Here’s hoping February is also a really successful reading and blogging month, without the underlying sadness.
23 books! Amazing!
I see some titles I’ve read and loved: Wishful Drinking, Landline, While You Were Sleeping, The Girl Before….and I definitely want to check out The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski.
Have a great February!
TWENTY-THREE!!! Wow! That’s rather impressive.
And extending much love to you my dear. I’m sorry January’s a hard month for you. But what an amazing accomplishment!
Stay well ❤
You read Keeper of Lost Things? Did you review it? It’s not showing me a link to it.
Twenty-three books is amazing! And two over 500 pages! WOWZER! You had a great reading month.
https://girlof1000wonders.wordpress.com/2017/02/01/chit-chat-january-2017/
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You have such a great ‘reading month I ‘read 11 and thought that was loads but 23 is an am amazing amount I hope this Month is a great month for you.
http://readingawaythedays.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/january-wrap-up-2017.html
I was shocked at how many books I read in January – I’m not working at the moment though so I have time to read. Eleven is a great amount in one month. I hope February is a another fab reading month for you.
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