I'm calling it... Bailing on House of Leaves. At least for now, probably for good but never say never I guess. I read the intro and 2 chapters and it's good but I can already tell it's not the book for me right now. Horror is just not where my brain is at right now.

That knocks off another past #bookspin, and I'm still counting it for #offmyshelf (for on tbr longer than 5 years) since it's off my tbr.

Finished Saga vols 11 and 12. Still love this series.

And I even managed to fit them on the shelf!

I heard that Saga vol 12 was out the other week, and since we were going to the mall anyway and I had a gift card, I thought perfect, I'm treating myself. Then for some reason I figured I'd better check my shelves first... And surprise, I was missing 11. Dunno how I missed it, but glad I checked. Now I'm doubly spoiled and have two Saga volumes to sink into! I think I'll start 11 tonight. #bookhaul

May wrap up post - good reading month, some great reads. The Shots You Take might be my fave for the month. The Way Home and Our Green Heart were also very good. I have Time Loops & Meet Cutes on my June #bookspin cause I didn't think I'd finish in May but then I was really enjoying it and finished last night.

May was another good #bookspin month! No bingos, and I didn't get to one of this month's calls, but I did finish Hidden Cities which was I believe my February #bookspin

Looking forward to the June calls 🙂

@thearomaofbooks - thanks as always for hosting!

June #bookspin list ready to go! @thearomaofbooks

Some more progress on #offmyshelf

Started before: I finally finished Hidden Cities! 🎉 This poor book got shunted aside for library holds and other books way more than it deserved. Anyway, done now.
Newest on tbr: The Way Home. Really enjoyed these two novellas. Peter Beagle, so no surprise there.
Gifted: Our Green Heart. Also enjoyed, and I'm happy I read a gifted book somewhat soon after getting it!

@wanderinglynn

1. My degrees are in Classics, so I have (or had, super rusty now) Latin and Greek. I'd love to learn Old English so I could read...

2. ... Beowulf in the original. I love the Seamus Haney translation.

@TheSpineView #two4tuesday

Almost done this audiobook and finding it very interesting, from a parenting POV as well as thinking about my own phone and social media use. I deleted Instagram today as a result.

He advises time in nature as a good antidote, and calls out ppl observing nature through their phones, taking pics instead of just experiencing. Which made me laugh cause just this morning I took this picture of a gorgeous tree in bloom.

Jumping on the #14books14weeks bandwagon!
There's my stack of 7 physical books, and here's 7 ebooks:
Cecelia and Kate series 1-3
The Good Knight
The Mountain in the Sea
All the Birds in the Sky
Walkaway

Some more progress on #offmyshelf
(One of the) Shortest book(s) on my tbr: Third Class Superhero (no idea if it's actually the shortest, would rather read than check page counts! It's under 200 pgs so close enough)
Self/indie pub'd: The Steel Discord by Ryan Howse (ebook but counting it cause I'm not sure how much indie stuff I have in print, I tend to have more in ebook)
@wanderinglynn

I lucked out at a little free library today!! No way could I leave this behind, I've been wanting to read it for a while. I'll have to find something good from my stash to put in the little free library to pay it forward (cause we all know that, as excited as I am, I'm not finishing a print chunkster like this any time soon 😅).

Just discovered a local indie that I didn't know about so of course I had to visit and of course I had to buy something.

Love these storygraph monthly cover collages.
April was a good reading month!

The stand-out read (listen) of April for me. Highly recommend the audiobook, the songs and music really add to the story and the experience. Loved the language, the story, the folklore. Love it when a highly anticipated book lives up to my anticipation.

Picture is not a river, just the storm management pond near us, but is the only water pic in my recent photos. I saw 3-4 turtles there last walk which makes my heart happy.

April #bookspin quite successful! 11 read including April's bookspin and doublespin and March's bookspin that I hadn't gotten to. No bingos. May's list is ready, let's see how we do. 7 of them are library holds so could be another good month.
Thanks @thearomaofbooks !

Last but not least! Pic 3/3 of my epic used book sale haul. Mostly genre fic and craft books (cross stitch).
A couple romances, a pretty solid score of Bujold and Tanith Lee, a couple fantasy, and a random arc of Charles Yu.
So much fun!
#bookhaul

Here's pic 2/3 of my epic used book sale haul. Mostly lit fic and canlit. I'm excited for all of it tbh but especially the Helen Humphreys.
And yes, this does totally blow my tbr reduction goals out of the water but who cares. #noregrets
#bookhaul

We went to a used book sale yesterday that was fill a box for 15$ ... So boy, did we! 47 books! At that price, I exercised 0 self-control. Many thanks to my partner for carrying said box, cause that was a workout.
This is 1/3 pics of the haul, the kids book portion. I'm especially excited for the Beatrix Potter and the excellent condition Kilmeny of the Orchard.
#bookhaul

March #bookspin was super successful, thanks to all the novelettes and novellas I read. Still didn't get a bingo or read my #bookspin though (I should get to it this month). April's list is already well underway, I've actually finished my #bookspin and #doublespin but I'll post that update when I make my May list

And I think that's it for my very belated wrap up posts

@thearomaofbooks

A bit ridiculous to post March wrap up most of the way through April but end of March/beginning of April was busy busy. I've been working through the nebula nominees, so I also read the short stories and novelettes in March but not counting those in my stats.

February wrap up! Not a bad reading month. My favourite was the tagged. Let's see what March brings.

Feb #bookspin status since I'm not going to finish anything else this month. 4 read and 3 others with progress but not finished. Technically I did start House of Leaves but only got a few pages in before I had to set it aside for a library hold so I'm not counting it yet. I'll get to it... Eventually. Lol
@thearomaofbooks

March #bookspin list! The Nebula shortlist should be announced mid-month so I've saved a good chunk of my list for that. My library hold on the new Ali Hazelwood should also come in. Other than that, it's mostly books I'm in the middle of, so hopefully I'll be able to make good progress on this list!

Thanks @thearomaofbooks 🙂

#bookspin day! The universe has decided it's time I tackle House of Leaves... I put it on my list bc my toddler chose it off my shelves as my next read (thanks 😅) and it's my #bookspin so we'll give it a crack...
And poor Hidden Cities has gotten shoved aside so many times so I'm glad it's my #doublespin. I have less than 200pgs left, I really need to just finish it.

Thanks @thearomaofbooks !

Jan stats! Faves were Capture the Sun and Swordcrossed (why yes, sff romance is one of my favourite genres how could you tell?) but I enjoyed all the books I read this month. A lovely reading start to the year.

Jan #bookspin round up, since I'm not going to finish anything else this month. Read 4, bailed on 1, progress on 2 others. None of which were the bookspin or doublespin, of course. Still progress on the ol' tbr!
@thearomaofbooks

Feb #bookspin list ready to go! Doodles on the side courtesy of my toddler who appropriated my pen partway through to draw that and give herself “tattoos“ all down one leg and foot 🙃
Can't believe it's almost Feb but looking forward to the calls!
@thearomaofbooks

What is it about my focus these days that even though I'm enjoying this book and it's quite good so far, I hit the 30-35% mark and something in my brain is like cool, that's enough for now, let's switch to something else for a bit.
I wonder if it's my reading speed being slower right now. Libby's estimate says it'll take me about 8.5hrs total to read this book. I think I'd have read it in 6 hrs or less before.
Ah well. Onwards!

I'm joining in the #OffMyShelf challenge hosted by @wanderinglynn (thank you!) cause my tbr is very close to maxing out my available shelf space, and who doesn't love a good bingo board! I'm going to count ebook and print owned books, but hoping to get mostly print (see above re: shelf space).
So far 2 print and 1 ebook:
Capture the Sun, pub'd in last 2 yrs
City of Stairs, new to me author
The Full Cupboard of Life, one of a series

Whee Feb #roll100 calls! I've only read 1 from Jan so far (obviously the freebie spot haha) but hopefully will get to most of these eventually. Two of the Feb calls are some of my oldest ebook tbr so I'm definitely looking forward to chipping away at them.

Thanks @puddlejumper !

Most of my current 30ish library checkouts... Yeah that's probably about right for my reading ratio these days, my stuff to kids books. #raisingreaders

I finished Capture the Sun (loved it) and wasn't sure what to start next. Then my library hold on this highly anticipated one came in! Gotta love timing. I'm two chapters in and so far it's great.

I'm giving Storygraph another try! I think I used it for about a week in 2021 or so... So we'll see how long I last this time 😅
But I liked seeing everyone's end of year wrap ups so hopefully I'll stick with it.
I'm llwheeler there too if anyone wants to find me.

#two4tuesday
1. I'm not setting any hard or specific goals in general for next year. But in general, I'm happy that I'm reading some print books again so I want to continue that as much as I can. And I want to be more active here!

2. Really looking forward to the tagged. Also thinking this might be the year I tackle Priory of the Orange Tree... We'll see, I do really want to read it.

Made my January #bookspin list! I have way too many books sitting somewhere in the 10-50% read range so clearing those out, whether by finishing them or bailing, is my focus. Then I've got a couple of library books, a couple highly anticipated new books, and some categories.
Thanks for hosting @thearomaofbooks !

I sincerely doubt I'll finish any more books this year so made my #roll100 list for 2025. Once again it's my entire ebook tbr, and currently only goes to 91! So my January rolls are a freebie space, Too Like the Lightning, and Walkaway.

All I managed this year for #roll100 was 6 read and another 3 started but not finished. So hoping for a bit better result in 2025 😅

Thanks for hosting @puddlejumper !

I spoke too soon when I said I didn't get any books this holiday season! We did Xmas with my in laws yesterday and I got the tagged book. I've been wanting to read her so I'm thrilled! And I've included my husband's book gift, Nexus, because let's be real, I'm going to read it too (and quite likely before he gets to it haha). #bookhaul

I didn't get any books for Xmas/ my birthday but I did get a gift card and some money so #bookhaul time! 5 books and an agenda for the new year, very pleased with my haul. Everything I got was on sale too except Capture the Sun. That's probably the one I'll start as soon as I finish my current physical book.

I hope all of you had/are having lovely, relaxing, bookish holidays. Wishing you all the best.

I thought this collection for charity might be of interest to any cross stitchers here. It's 27 bookmark patterns from great cross stitch designers available for a minimum 15$ USD donation to one of their selected literacy charities. Only available until Nov 17, 2024. Check out @badstitched on Instagram
#litsycrafters #craftersoflitsy

So my plan had been that my library book would take me nicely to October, then I'd dive into whatever was called for #castthedie and #bookspin... Then I bailed on my library book. Started the tagged and then saw that #castthedie rolls were out, and it was called! How fortuitous. After that I'll move on to the others, plus whatever is called for #bookspin since I decided just to expand the same list.

My #castthedie list 😀
I'm somewhat cheating and have two lucky picks (1 and 7) because my list is a mix of print and ebook so I picked one of each. If the lucky pick is called, I'll choose whichever one balances the formats better... Basically I'm just hoping I don't get all print or all ebook called 😅 but really I'm hoping to read both asap so it hardly matters. -end incoherent rambling-

Second half of my #bookhaul! Can't wait to dive into these! (Except actually I can cause the book I'm reading now is really good -- nice problems to have 🙂)

I went to a big used book sale today, first one since before the pandemic... So of course I was not feeling disciplined at all! Very excited about my haul, this is only half of it 🥳

I'm so excited for this #bookhaul! (Not least because between sales, points, and gift cards, it only cost me about 5$ wheeee!)

I already read the gardening book but wanted my own copy for reference. Very much looking forward to others when I can get to them.

You know when you read a book at just the right time and it just hits all the right spots and it's just the perfect read for you? And you can't really articulate why beyond omg I love it it's sooo good 😍 ? And you definitely can't write an objective review?
Yeah, that. This book. Loved it. It's been a while since I've had this particular bit of reading magic, and that makes it even better too.

I do love a how many have you read type list! Even if, as many have pointed out already, this one is very skewed. And of course heaven forbid we get genre cooties on our Serious Best Books list (except Jemisin cause she's exceptional but don't worry Cloud Atlas can't possibly be genre [except it totally is] cause David Mitchell is a Serious Literary Author don't you know - but definitely no romance or fantasy or YA or *gasp* all three!)

Omg I did it, I finished a physical book! First one this year, though I've still been reading lots of ebooks and audiobooks.

I savoured this one and enjoyed being back with LeGuin's intelligent, wonderful writing so much. This was good for my brain.

Spoiled myself with a #bookhaul yesterday. I'm so excited for the Martha Wells! I have to double check but I'm pretty sure they're the only ones of her backlist I didn't have yet. Plus how pleasing that my haul colour coordinates. Gus approves #catsoflitsy

What do these two books have in common?

My almost 2 year old really thinks these characters want high fives ?

(I especially love it cause she pronounces it "high flive" right now)