So Far This Year

I read a lot. I feel like most writers do. Even with that being the case, I feel like, in general, I read more than most. There are always one or two months of the year where I don't read as much as I do in all the other months. That month is usually May. I travel a lot in May; there are two festivals I go to every year on opposite sides of the country, so my opportunity to read is less than usual.

At the end of every month, I usually do a wrap-up of all the books I read that month on my social media, but I was looking at my list today and thought maybe other people would want to know what I was reading, too. Not that I think anyone reads this... not yet... maybe not ever... but still.

So here is the list :

Children of Ruin	Adrian Tchaikovsky
Children of Memory	Adrian Tchaikovsky
Spells of Forgetting	Adrienne Young
The Paris Hours	Alex George
The Maidens	Alex Michaelides
The Starling House	Alix Harrow
The Hunger	Alma Katsu
This Is How You Lose The Time War	Amal El-Mohtar
The Kitchen God's Wife	Amy Tan
Project Hail Mary	Andy Wier
Artemis	Andy Wier
On the Come Up	Angie Thomas
All The Light We Cannot See	Anthony Doerr
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena	Anthony Marra
Anatomy of an Alibi	Ashley Elston
This Is How	Augusten Burroughs
Magical Thinking	Augusten Burroughs
Wayward	Blake Crouch
Pines	Blake Crouch
Heartsick	Chelsea Cain
These Violent Delights	Chloe Gong
Those Across The River	Christopher Buehlman
Calypso	Daniel Sedaris
The Wager	David Grann
Shield of Sparrows	Devney Perry
Rites of the Starling	Devney Perry
Me	Elton John
Hooked	Emily McIntire
The Brothers Karamazov	Fyodor Dostoevsky
Thistlefoot	Genna Rose Nethercott
You Are Not Alone	Greer Hendricks
Thief of Night	Holly Black
Book of Night	Holly Black
Authority	Jeff VanderMeer
Annihilation	Jeff VanderMeer
Acceptance	Jeff VanderMeer
Absolution	Jeff VanderMeer
Universal Harvester	John Darnielle
The Viscount Who Loved Me	Julia Quinn
The Duke and I	Julia Quinn
The Lies I Tell	Julie Clark
Sinners Retreat	Lauren Biel
This Close to Okay	Leesa Cross-Smith
The Paris Apartment	Lucy Foley
The Guest List	Lucy Foley
I Am the Messenger	Markus Zusak
The Gate of the Feral Gods	Matt Dinniman
The Eye of the Bedlam Bride	Matt Dinniman
The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook	Matt Dinniman
The Butcher's Masquerade	Matt Dinniman
Dungeon Crawler Carl	Matt Dinniman
Carl's Doomsday Scenario	Matt Dinniman
The Midnight Train	Matt Haig
The Dead Fathers Club	Matt Haig
Once You're Mine	Morgan Bridges
The Last Story of Mina Lee	Nancy Jooyoun Kim
The Nature of Witches	Rachel Griffin
The Wilderwomen	Ruth Emmie Lang
The Risk	S.T. Abby
True Biz	Sara Novic
The Lost Apothecary	Sarah Penner
The Sun Down Motel	Simone St. James
Wolves of the Calla	Stephen King
The Wizard And Glass	Stephen King
The Gunslinger	Stephen King
The Drawing of the Three	Stephen King
Song of Susanna	Stephen King
Duma Key	Stephen King
A Good Neighborhood	Therese Anne Fowler
Allegedly	Tiffany Jackson
There There	Tommy Orange
The Exorcist	William Peter Blatty

Now some of these books were admittedly rereads. All of the Stephen King books for example. A lot of these were recommendations from friends or bookish groups that I belong to; some were from online lists; some were books that showed up in my Book of the Month box when I was still getting it.

Of all the books listed here, I own... maybe a quarter of the titles. The rest I got from the library. My poor small-town library is very likely scandalized. I always have my holds list topped out, and I borrow about 10 books at a time. I also read several books at a time, reserving different books for different times of day. Usually I have audiobooks for my VERY long daily commute. A book for while I am at work and have downtime, a book for the evening, a book for the gym, a book for before bed. The only time I read the same book in more than one time slot is when I am stuck waiting for new books from the library because of hold times.

I live on a VERY small island that even people less than an hour away have never heard of, and the county isn't very large either, so they usually don't have many copies of anything. They do also carry my books, I should mention that! In the event that I have to wait for books due to hold times and don't have any more room on my holds to request different books, I will extend one book into another time slot. Recently this happened with my commuting audiobook. I finished it, had my holds topped out at the library, and was down to my last Audible credits. I always go to sleep listening to audiobooks, it is a hold over from having my dad read me to sleep everynight, and one that I will never let go of. However, I usually don't listen to new books at night, if I am too engaged I wil have a hard time sleeping, so I usually pick a reread. I am currently listening to The Dark Tower, just finishing the last book. But for a day I listened to The Dark Tower VII on my way home.

Here is what I am currently reading:

Commute: Butcher & Blackbird - Brynne Weaver (audio 2x speed)

Work: Death Do Us Part - Miranda Grant

Gym: Truth - Hernan Diaz

Evening: The Inevitable Ruin - Matt Dinniman

Co-reading with my partner - ACOTAR - SJM

Sleepy Time: The Dark Tower VII (audio 1x speed)

So what are you reading?