I don’t have much news from this week, it’s been quite a quiet week really. I’ve been slowly carrying on with my decluttering and have filled another three huge bin bags with either things for the charity shop, or rubbish. I’m still feeling ruthless so will be carrying on with the decluttering for a while yet! I need to get around to clearing some shelf space as currently all the lovely books I got for my birthday are in a box as there is literally no space to put them on any of my bookcases or shelves! Eeeek!
This week I’ve finished reading three books:
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
I had the ebook of this on my TBR for ages but just never got around to it so when I spotted it on an Audible deal recently I snapped it up. I’ve listened to it over the course of a couple of days and it was ok. I think the book has been so hyped for so long that it was going to be a huge ask for it to live up to. It was enjoyable enough but I was a bit disappointed.
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
I love love love this book! It was close to 900 pages long and I’ve read it over the last ten days or so – I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it, and now I’ve finished it I really miss it. It made me remember how much I used to adore reading big books and I’m definitely going to make more effort to read longer books. I highly recommend this book if you haven’t read it yet.
Well-Read Women by Samantha Hahn
This is a book I got for my birthday and I adore it. It’s such a beautiful book and whilst it’s only 112 pages and is predominantly paintings I’ve added it as a read book here because I literally spent a few hours looking at the paintings and reading the quotes. This is a fabulous book for a book lover – I’m definitely going to be buying copies as gifts in the future.
This week I’ve blogged five times:
Sunday: Weekly Wrap-Up (29 Jan) where I shared all my book, blogging and real life news from the previous week.
Wednesday: WWW Wednesday (1 Feb) where I shared what I was currently reading, what I’d recently read and what I was hoping to read next.
Thursday: January Wrap-Up where I wrapped up the first month of 2017, sharing all the books I’d read, links to all my reviews and blog posts, and how my plan to reduce my TBR was going.
Friday: My Birthday Book Haul where I shared my huge haul of books that I was lucky enough to receive for my birthday last weekend.
Saturday: Stacking the Shelves where I wrote about the books I bought myself or received for review over the last seven days.
This is what I’m currently reading:
Books for Living by Will Schwalbe
I completely and utterly fell in love with Will Schwalbe’s previous book so I’ve been really keen to read this one. So far the book is wonderful but unfortunately my copy is from NetGalley and the formatting is making it very hard for me to read. I’m considering putting it to one side for now and buying my own copy to read.
The Good Immigrant ed. by Nikesh Shukla
This is a book that I’ve been wanting to read for ages so when I spotted it for the bargain price of £2.99 on Kindle this week I snapped it up. I’ve read the first four essays so far and it’s a very thought-provoking read. I want to read this slowly and give myself time to really think about what’s being said so I’m reading an essay or two each day. I definitely recommend it though.
Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
When I started reading this it seemed very different from Station Eleven (which I read a few years ago and completely adored) but as I get further into it and more and more layers are peeled back it’s really clear how the author got from here to there. I’m really enjoying this book.
Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian
This book, like the two below, is a really enjoyable novel but my reading of it is being hampered by my struggles with holding a physical book at the moment. The novel itself is really engaging though and I would recommend it.
The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
This is a really heavy , stiff paperback book to hold so I’m struggling to hold it open to read. I’m enjoying the story but may have to give up on this one until I can get hold of an ebook version.
The Age of Bowie by Paul Morley
I’m still enjoying this book but the format is slowing my reading down. My husband is thinking of getting the audio book version as I’ve been recommending the book to him ever since I started reading it so I may well end up listening to it with him.
Update on my TBR…
TBR at the start of January 2017: 1885 (see my State of the TBR post)
TBR in last week’s Weekly Wrap-Up: 1889
Books bought/received for review: 12
TBR Books culled this week: 0
TBR now stands at: 1904
I really hope to at least get my TBR back under 1900 this month – ideally by reading lots of my own books and not accumulating more, but I do need to do a cull at some point too to make room for my birthday books.
I’m linking this post up to Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer’s Sunday Blog Share. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.
How has your week been? What have you been reading? Please share in the comments below. If you write a wrap-up on your blog please feel free to share the link. 🙂
RatherTooFondofBooks 
I love having a de-clutter it makes me feel really productive. I have heard so much hype about The Rosie Project but it’s puts me of because it is so hype. I am really intrigued by The Luminaries. Have a great week 🙂
I’m enjoying my current declutter – it’s liberating to get rid of stuff that I’ve kept for years. The Luminaries was brilliant, I really enjoyed it. Hope you have a good week too 🙂
I absolutely adored The Luminaries – it’s one of my favourite books! I’ll be interested to know what you thought of Last Night in Montreal – I read really enjoyed Station Eleven, but Mandel’s other works seem quite different…
I really enjoyed Last Night in Montreal – it’s different to Station Eleven but I think you can see how she got from one to the other. I love her writing style. I adored The Luminaries too, it’s brilliant!
Hmmmm I’m suitably intrigued! Adding it to the wishlist! 😃📚
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when you get to read it. 🙂
You have such great books you’re reading right now, and I do like the variety. I’m glad you’ve had a quiet week. Sometimes those are the best kind. Wishing you well as you continue to de-clutter.
I’ve seen The Roanoke Girls everywhere and positive reviews for it are starting to appear, I may have to pop over to Netgalley and try my luck 😊
I’ve now finished The Roanoke Girls so hope to have a review up soon. It wasn’t what I was expecting it to be but it was a really good read. I hope you enjoy it if you manage to get a copy.
Looking forward to reading your review! I got a Netgalley copy, I’ve got a few books to read fist then I’ll get to it 😊
I’m glad you managed to get a NG copy, I hope you enjoy reading it. 🙂
A great collection of books, Hayley. I hope you have a good reading and blogging week. Take care:). My Sunday Post – https://sjhigbee.wordpress.com/2017/02/05/sunday-post-5th-february-2017/
Ohh, I’ll have to push forward Luminaries on my tbr.
I really want to read it, but everytime I see how big it is, I change my mind because I’m afraid I’ll be reading for too long and then I won’t have books to review on my blog, so instead I always grab something shorter.
Which is a shame! I’ll have to change that mentality of mine.
I felt the same about The Luminaries – it is such a big book that I kept putting it off. I know that not everyone enjoyed the book but I honestly found it such a compelling read – I wanted to keep reading it and flew through it over the course of ten days.
I remember hearing about The Rosie Project. Sometimes it’s hard for a book to live up to the hype. And yes bookshelf space being at a premium can be tough!
I’m really struggling to make room on my bookshelves at the moment – I need to have a proper cull but I’m at the stage where I want to keep all of the books I currently own.
I was a little disappointed with “the rosie project” as well! I also have “well read women” and I adore it. Now i am going to have to read the Luminaries!! 🙂
I’m glad it wasn’t just me but it is such a shame when a book doesn’t live up to what you hope it will be. The Luminaries seems to get mixed reviews but I genuinely loved it, it kept me hooked all the way through. Well-Read Women is a beautiful book, isn’t it? It’s definitely one I’ll keep going back to. 🙂
You have me going back and digging for my copy of The Luminaries. I started it, struggled for awhile, and then stopped reading. I must have missed something so I’m going to try again based on your comments. Thanks for nudging me!
I hope you enjoy The Luminaries better this time around. I did find it hard to keep track of all the characters at the beginning as there are so many of them but once you get a little way into it it all just seemed to click into place for me. I would recommend reading it in chunks rather than a few pages here and there. I genuinely adored the book.
Oh how I love decluttering! I just find it so cathartic to clear out space and get rid of things – though sometimes I can be a little too ruthless! 😉
I’ve found it very cathartic doing this decluttering as I’ve got rid of things I’ve been keeping for sentimental reasons and it feels so good to have finally got rid. My house feels so much bigger as well as I have room for the things I love now. I wish I was more ruthless with my things but I’m slowly getting there.
Congrats on your decluttering! I got rid of a truck full of stuff when I moved in November. I still have stuff that needs to go I’ve put off to the side in a large box. I need to be better about decluttering. I’m just really bad about getting rid of things.
Thank you. I’m bad at getting rid of things too – I’m far too sentimental about stuff. I’ve been really good this time though and have been ruthless. It feels great to have more space for the things I love now. I go through phases where I’m in the mood to declutter and I have to get on with it while the mood lasts.
I really enjoyed The Rosie Effect so was disappointed as well by The Rosie Project – it just didn’t offer the same voice etc…
I’m keen to read The Luminaries though not sure I want to battle a 900 page novel! But I’ve heard great things about it!
The Rosie Project just felt really flat to me, I almost gave up on it but kept reading because so many people loved it. It’s a shame when books don’t live up to their hype.
I adored The Luminaries – it didn’t feel like such a big book once I got into it as it’s got a great pace to it and I never wanted to put it down.