Tackling The TBR-The Final Tally!

For 2019 I made a big effort to reduce my TBR by buying less, getting stuff read and getting rid of the things that I just don't want to read from my bookshelves and my ereaders Maurice and Myrnin! I did a regular post to show my progress-what came into the house, what I read and DNFed and what was taken off the TBR.

I set out this year to finally make a dent in my ever increasing pile. It started with a decision to  buy only the books I REALLY wanted, not just everything that sounded half decent. I tried to stop impulse buys and stick to things I would generally want and like-new books in series I follow, political diaries, books behind the scenes of Game of Thrones etc. This way I was still treating myself to books I wanted but not going overboard. I also kickstarted my year by imposing a winter book buying ban through December and into January which helped me get into better booky habits! I also tried to read as much as I could which wasn't always easy as being tired, sick or unmotivated led to a few reading slumps through the year! I did a mixture of things like Summer Reading List, Royal and Alphabet challenges, mood reading...just to try and keep myself reading. It mostly worked and my slumps were less severe than last year.

Thirdly, I went through my TBR looking at what I had. Using reviews on Goodreads and Amazon I went to 1 and 2 star reviews to find the reasons why they were rated low or DNFed. This helped me decide if I still wanted to read each book. Slow books with dreadful MCs and love triangles were binned as I would DNF them, thus saving myself a bit of time. Negative reviews tend to have more detail and are useful tools when doing an ereader book cull! Books deemed too gory, too much action and fast paced were kept and will live to fight another day!

Here is my final 'week'.

Dec 22nd-31st

TBR Start Total: 906

BOOKS IN: 0

BOOKS OUT: 

Books Read: 3

Books DNF: 1

Others Deleted From TBR: 3

Rereads this year: 5

New Total: 899

********************

TARGET 999 by December 31st.

Jan 1 start total-1199
Feb 1 start total-1150
Mar1 start total-1124
Apr 1 start total-1108
May 1 start total-1083
Jun 1 start total-1062
Jul 1 start total-1051
Aug 1 start total-1018
Sep 1 start total-991
Oct 1 start total-973
Nov 1 start total-934
Dec 1 start total-923
Dec 31 final total-899

This year I removed 300 books from the TBR and this total includes everything I bought in as well. My target was to get to under 1000 books by the end of the year, a target I actually hit at the end of August!

Top Ten Tuesday-Favourite Books Of 2019

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/

NB: I don't follow or leave comments on blogs run by Google Plus, or DISQUS as I refuse to join something just to leave comments, and I won't allow them to follow new people, update my profile or post tweets 'on my behalf'. I won't comment on any blog that makes me sign in using another account. 

The best ten books I read this year!

1) George RR Martin-A Dance With Dragons

2) SM Wilson-The Extinction Trials Rebel

3) Rhiannon Frater-As The World Dies

4) SJ Larsson-Megalodon Apex Predator

5) Jeffrey Archer-The Prison Diaries

6) Hunter Shea-The Montauk Monster

7) Chris Jameson-Shark Beach

8) Norman Tebbitt-Upwardly Mobile

9) Game of Thrones-Costumes, Art and Photography

10) Jaye Wells-Sabina Kane series

Blogmas #31-Challenge 2019 Final Updates

Here we go, the final look back at this year's challenges! It was a relief to finally be done with them as it was too much like hard work towards the end!

Completed August 2019! I'm pleased to have done this one and to have found a really enjoyable X book to finish it off! 
 
A) A Dance With Dragons
B) Booked 4 Murder
C) The Chalk Man
D) The Devil's Fingers
E) Ebola K
F) The Farm
G) Gameland
H) Hope's End
I) Independent Study
J) Jack and Jill
K) The King Is Dead
L) The Last Bastion Of The Living
M) The Mage in Black
N) No God Is Safe
O) Operation Antarctica
P) Premonitions
Q) Quinsey Wolfe's Glass Vault
R) Red Headed Stepchild
S) Secret Lives Of Rockstars
T) The Testing
U) Unexpected World
V) Victoria & Abdul
W) The War Mage
X) X-Variant
Y) Yuma
Z) Zombies, Run!

Completed December 2019! I didn't think I'd get an X so that was a great surprise to discover a shark book that fitted the bill!

A) A American-Going Home
B) Boyd Craven-Flirting With Death
C) Courtney Konstantin-Prepared
D) Diana Anderson-Premonitions
E) Eric S Brown-The Squad
F) Rhiannon Frater-The Last Bastion of the Dead
G) George RR Martin-A Dance With Dragons
H) Hunter Shea-Antarctic Ice Beasts
I) Mike Ingram-Bosworth 1485
J) Joelle Charbonneau-The Testing
K) Kealan Patrick Burke-Jack and Jill
L) Lee Murray-Into The Mist
M) Matt Shaw-Voyage To Hell
N) Nicholas Woode Smith-Cape Zero
O) Orlando A Sanchez-The War Mage
P) Peter Bramley-Henry VIII & His Six Wives
Q) Del Quentin Wilbur-Rawhide Down
R) Nick Robinson-Election Notebook
S) Saul Tanpepper-Gameland
T) Harley Tate-Darkness Begins
U) Shaun Underhill-Survive
V) Jeff VanderMeer-Annihilation
W) William H Weber-Defiance
X) Xavier Maniguet-The Jaws Of Death
Y) Michael Yowell-Sliggers
Z) Joseph Zuko-Jim's First Day

I was running out of time so I didn't get the last two done but I'm happy to get most read.

1) Bobby Akart-Axis of Evil (Lone Star #1) (DNF)
2) Bobby Akart-36 Hours (Blackout #1) (DNS)
3) Bobby Akart-The Loyal Nine (Boston Brahmin #1) (DNS)
4) WR Benton-Premonition of Death (Fall of America #1) (DNS)
5) Lee Murray-Into The Mist (read)
6) Lee Murray-Into The Sounds (DNS)
7) Donna Galanti-Joshua & The Lightning Road (DNF)
8) Jeff VanderMeer-Annihilation (read)
9) Meg Collett-Fear University
10) Alex Hughes-Clean (DNF)
11) Adam J Wright-Lost Soul (DNF)
12) Norman Christof-Destination Lost (read)
13) Seth Skorkowsky-Damoren (read)
14) Suzanne Lazerar-The Secret Life of Rock Stars (read)
15) Michael F Haspil-Graveyard Shift
16) Lisa Blackwood-Betrayal's Price (DNS)
17) Bobby Adair-Ebola K (read)
18) Ania Ahlborn-The Shuddering (read)
19) Saul Tanpepper-Gameland (read)
20) Hunter Shea-The Devil's Fingers (read)

Not very successful as I was culling books off the challenge all year but at least I dealt with some of them which is better than nothing!

1) A American-Going Home (The Survivalist #1) (read-3 star)
2) Annie Berdel-Alpha Farm (Prepper Chick #1) (DNF)
3) Justin Somper-Allies & Assassins (Allies & Assassins #1) (read)
4) Michael J Sullivan-The Crown Tower (Riyria Chronicles #1) (DNF)
5) Candace Robinson-Quinsey Wolfe's Glass Vault (Glass Vault #1) (read)
6) Candace Robinson-The Bride of Glass (Glass Vault #2) (DNS)
7) Conn Iggulden-Darien (Empire of Salt #1) (DNF)
8) Belinda Bauer-Snap (DNS)
9) Boyd Craven-Breaking Point (read-2 star)
10) CJ Tudor-The Chalk Man (read-3.5 star)
11) Seth C Adams-If You Go Down to the Woods (read)
12) Thomas E Sniegoski-The Demonists (DNF)
13) Pierce Brown-Red Rising (DNF)
 

The idea is to read books with a royal theme ie Kings, Princesses, Queens, Dukes, Knights, Castles, Kingdoms, Quests etc. This challenge is hosted by Adriana Garcia over at https://shesgotbooksonhermind.blogspot.com/ .

Completed August 2019! 15/15 books for the challenge. 

1) David Baldwin-Henry VIII's Last Love (read)
2) Shrabani Basu-Victoria and Abdul (read)
3) Jane Bingham-The Tudors (read)
4) Lady Colin Campbell-The Royal Marriages (read)
5) Lady Colin Campbell-Diana in Private (read)
6) Margaret Campbell Barnes-My Lady Of Cleves (read)
7) Justin Somper-Allies & Assassins (read)
8) Laurien Gardner-Plain Jane (read)
9) Anna Pasternak-Princess In Love (read)
10) Diane Haeger-The Queen's Mistake (read)
11) Peter Bramley-Henry VIII & His Six Wives (read)
12) Kate Emerson-The Pleasure Palace (read)
13) Mike Ingram-Bosworth 1485 (read) 
14) Suzannah Lipscomb-The King Is Dead (read)
15) Dickie Arbiter-On Duty With The Queen (read)
 

SERIES TO BE FULLY READ 
I am pleased to have made decent enough progress with this, completing the Jaye Wells series and half of the DD Barant series. Hopefully I'll finish that one next year. I was disappointed not to get to the other urban fantasy series I selected but I just wasn't in a UF mood this year! I still hope to get to them next year if I can. I did get a few other trilogies and series completed. I think I picked too many series which was doomed to failure. I'll do this challenge again next year but a revamped version.

1) DD BARANT-BLOODHOUND FILES
1-Dying Bites (re-read)
2-Death Blows (read)
3-Killing Rocks (read)
4-Better Off Undead
5-Back From The Undead
6-Undead To The World

2) JAYE WELLS-SABINA KANE 
1-Red Headed Stepchild (read)
2-The Mage In Black (read)
3-Green Eyed Demon (read)
4-Silver Tongued Devil (read)
5-Blue Blooded Vamp (read)
 -Fool's Gold #0.5 (read)
 -Violet Tendencies #2.5 (read)
 -Rusted Veins #5.5 (read)

3) MLN HANOVER-BLACK SUN'S DAUGHTER 
1-Unclean Spirits
2-Darker Angels
3-Vicious Grace
4-Killing Rites
5-Graveyard Child 

4) CHRISTINA HENRY-BLACK WINGS
1-Black Wings
2-Black Night
3-Black Howl
4-Black Lament
5-Black City
6-Black Heart
7-Black Spring 

5) KELLY MEDING-DREG CITY 
1-Three Days to Dead
2-As Lie the Dead
3-Another Kind of Dead
4-Wrong Side of Dead
5-Requiem For the Dead
6-The Night Before Dead 

6) JOELLE CHARBONNEAU-THE TESTING 
1-The Testing (read-5 star)
2-Independent Study (read-4 star)
3-Graduation Day (read-4 star)

7) JR TATE-DAMAGED CLIMATE
1-Tornado Warning (read)
2-Drought Warning (read)
3-Blizzard Warning (read)

8) RHIANNON FRATER-AS THE WORLD DIES 
1-The First Days (read) 
2-Fighting To Survive (read) 
3-Siege (read)
-Untold Tales vol 1 (read)
-Untold Tales vol 2 (read)
-Untold Tales vol 3 (read)
-Untold Tales Deadly Night (read)
-Untold Tales A Very Fort Christmas (read)

9) DIANA ANDERSON-PREMONITIONS
1-The Farm (read)
2-War (read)

10) GREIG BECK-PRIMORDIA
1-In Search Of The Lost World (read)
2-Return To The Lost World (read)
3-Re-Evolution

11) KW CALLAHAN-PANDEMIC DIARIES 
1-Shelter In Place (read)
2) Flee On Foot (read)
3) Pandemic Pioneers (read)

These are individual books that I've read to either complete a series I've been reading or to catch up with what has been published so far in an ongoing series.

1) George RR Martin-A Dance With Dragons part 2 (read) 
2) SM Wilson-Extinction Trials 3: Rebel (read)

GOODREADS CHALLENGE

Congrats!

You have read 201 books of your goal of 200!

201/200 (100%)

Around The Blogs With Chuckles

We all enjoy snooping and lurking on other people's blogs right? Why not share those entertaining things you found with other readers and bloggers too! Welcome to Around the Blogs with Chuckles, where I take time out to show you some of my favourite blog posts from the previous seven days and link you up so you can check them out. 

This week! The last ATBWC for the year! 

1) Dog Characters In Books
Stephanie Jane shares five of her choices.
http://stephjb.blogspot.com/2019/12/5-books-1-theme-dog-characters.html 

2) Book Review-This Is Not How It Ends by Rochelle B. Weinstein
Jenea goes contemporary
https://jeneasbookobsession.net/review-for-this-is-not-how-it-ends-by-rochelle-b-weinstein/ 

3) Natural Remedies for Food Poisoning
Get ready for those Christmas parties!
https://www.askaprepper.com/how-to-make-a-natural-remedy-for-food-poisoning/ 

4) Book Review-Legionnaire by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole
Bookstooge goes SF.
https://bookstooge.wordpress.com/2019/12/24/legionnaire-galaxys-edge-1-%E2%98%85%E2%98%85%E2%98%85%E2%98%86%C2%BD/ 

5) Book Review-Twas The Night Before Christmas by Jacqueline Frost (#2)
Carole goes seasonal cozy.
https://carolesrandomlife.blogspot.com/2019/12/review-twas-knife-before-christmas-by.html 

6) Book Review-You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
Mogsy goes thriller.
https://bibliosanctum.com/2019/12/22/audiobook-review-you-are-not-alone-by-greer-hendricks-and-sarah-pekkanen/ 

7) Mini Reviews 
AJ shares some recent book reads.
http://ajsterkel.blogspot.com/2019/12/mini-reviews-i-know-what-you-read-last.html 

8) Book Review-Meg & Jo by Virginia Kantra
Barb's review.
http://bookertsfarm.blogspot.com/2019/12/such-lovely-read-meg-and-jo.html 

9) Book Review-Night Shift by Robin Triggs
Erica's review.
https://www.ericarobynreads.com/book-review-night-shift-by-robin-triggs/ 

10) Book Review-Slash by Hunter Shea 
Erica goes horror.
https://www.ericarobynreads.com/book-review-slash-by-hunter-shea/ 

Blogmas #30-The Book Statistics

It's that time of the year again...Pie Charts for my Reading Statistics This Year!

FICTION & NON FICTION

SERIES & STANDALONE

For this category, I've included some that are listed as series in the stand-alone section. These include the Berenstain Bears and two Tudor Court 'series'. The reason for this is they are not a continuing story with the same characters. The Bears books are all life lessons with no accepted timeline or continued story. The Tudor books are all from the time period but have different MCs so they are more stand-alone than series and can be read in any order. Only fiction books are counted in this total.

AUTHOR GENDER

Co-Authors come under mixed and Unknown is where I have no information on author gender ie I only have their initials. This total includes non-fiction books.

GENRE

Other includes cozy mystery, thriller and children's books. Again, if you add zombies to horror, that would be the dominant category but I like to have them in categories of their own. I can see that my UF category is way down and my non fiction has risen.

MONSTERS

This chart includes non fiction about the monsters. It doesn't include every creature I read about this year, just showing my favourite categories!

Blogmas #29-The End Of Year Survey 2019

There doesn't seem to be an actual hosted Annual End Of Year Survey by Jamie over at https://www.perpetualpageturner.com/ this year so I'm doing last year's questions again and skipping out most of the blogging section and a few questions related to romance and book crushes which aren't relevant to me.

Number Of Books You Read: 201
Number of Re-Reads: 4
Genre You Read The Most From: Horror

1. Best Book You Read In 2019?

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?  
I loved the first book in this series but was so disappointed by this one that I didn't complete the trilogy.
 

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?  
I like my political memoirs but this was one of the best, covering his military training, work as a commercial pilot, electioneering and fascinating career in politics as well as his experiences during and after the Brighton Bomb terrorist attack. Fascinating man! 

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?
I don't push or recommend books at all. There are some I showcase on my blog that other people might add to their TBR or wishlist. However, a few people expressed an interest in this one so I'll use it.

 
5. Best series you started in 2019? 
Z Children looks like it has real potential-and it has zombie children! Also in HVZA liked a different look at the zombie apocalypse, showing the outbreak happening as life continued on semi normal.

 
6. Best Sequel of 2019? 
This is the second book in the series about the Tudor Court by this author and I've really enjoyed both and will read the rest next year! It didn't come out in 2019 but I did read it this year so that counts!

 
7. Best Series Ender of 2019?
I loved this trilogy and it came to a satisfying ending. Dinosaurs and giant spiders!!!

 
8. Favorite new author you discovered in 2019?
This was my first creature feature by this author and I certainly intend to try more!

 
9. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
I'm not much for the time travel side of the SF genre but this book was surprisingly good for one I selected based on a title starting with X for an Alphabet Challenge!

 
10. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
Despite the content it was hard to stop reading this one.

 

11. Book You Read In 2019 That You Would Be MOST Likely To Re-Read Next Year?
I don't usually re-read books so quickly as I have so many books on my TBR to get to but I do REALLY want to read this whole series again right now!

 
12. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2019?
There were a few good covers but this was gorgeous!

13. Most memorable character of 2019?
Giguhl the demon who turns into a hairless cat, is addicted to the shopping channel and is involved in Demon Fight Club and manages a paranormal roller derby team!

 
14. Most beautifully written book read in 2019?
Beautifully presented rather than 'written'

15. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2019?
I don't read self-help books of any kind but these books by one of my favourite TV stars are part memoir and part self-help and I found it fascinating. The lessons he shares on how to be a better person and defeat fear was as interesting as his military and Everest adventures.

  
16. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2019 to finally read? 
This has been on my TBR for too long but I finally read and loved it!

 
17. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2019? 
'Sour Grapes and Fudge. That is socialism.'

 
18. Shortest Book You Read in 2019
Probably this re-read...

19. Longest Book You Read In 2019
I think it would be this one at 728 pages. It took a good few days to read this bad boy!

 
20. Book That Shocked You The Most
Plenty people warned me about this book being weird and it certainly was...but what shocked me was how dull it was! It bored me, the characters held no interest and I didn't much care what happened!

 
21. One True Pairing 
I'm not generally one for romance but this established couple were great together, despite everything they went through.

 
22. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year 
A tie for this one! Ken and Lenore in the first, Giguhl and Brooks/Pussy Willow in the second!

23. Favorite Book You Read in 2019 From An Author You’ve Read Previously
I'll always grab a shark book by this author and the covers are all great too!

24. Best Book You Read In 2019 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure/Bookstagram, Etc.:
I don't really get recommendations from other people but I did read a few books that I saw on friend's blogs. This was the best one, a good mystery-thriller.

 
25. Best 2019 debut you read? 
Didn't read any debut novels published this year. This non fiction book seems to be the first by the author so I'll use this.

 
26. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year? 

27. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read? 
I love these fun rhyming humour books!

 
28. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2019? 
No book made me cry but certain animal deaths in this book did get to me.

29. Hidden Gem Of The Year? 
These books were all better than I expected them to be.

30. Book That Crushed Your Soul? 
No such thing.

31. Most Unique Book You Read In 2019?
It's not unique as such other than the circumstances-a former British politician and famous author getting jailed for perjury and writing prison diaries. Prison Diaries never interested me until I read and loved these books. 

32. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)? 
The Remaining by DJ Molles. They kill the bloody dog! He is an intelligent and faithful hound who keeps his human safe in the zombie apocalypse and what happens? He gets infected biting one of them and gets put down without a second thought, the poor boy, and nobody seems to CARE!!! It made me mad and I won't read on with the series.

 

1. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2019? 
Getting the darn TBR total from !
 
2. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year? 
The mad rush this December trying to hit my Goodreads total and finish my challenges.
 
3. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?
Yes, most of them. Did 15 books for the Royal Challenge, took part in Nonfiction November and read 10 books, read books for my own series catchup and ebook/paperback challenges and completed both Alphabet Soup challenges.
 

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2019 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2020?
George RR Martin-Fire and Blood 

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2020 (non-debut)?
Martha Wells-Network Effect. I LOVE Murderbot and I'm so excited to be getting a full novel this time! And ART is back!!! May feels a long way away...

 
3. 2020 Debut You Are Most Anticipating? 
None so far. All the ones I want are parts of series or new books by favourite authors.

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2020? 
The next book in the Alison Weir Tudor Queen series is out in paperback early next year and I can't wait to get my hands on it and catch up reading the others in the series.

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2020?
I want to continue reducing the TBR pile, catch up with a lot more series and do some of these tidying up tasks I keep putting off ie sorting my Goodreads shelves and writing reviews of some kind to fill the gaps left on books I read years ago and never reviewed. Ugh!
  
6. A 2020 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone (if applicable): 
I don't read ARCs.