February 2015 TBROh, the horror, the horror! It’s always bad in February, the TBR – after all, there’s Christmas, and then my Birthday, and those do tend to attract the booky kind of gift. Which is GREAT, of course, if a little terrifying. I have had a Month of Re-Reading in January in the past but have eschewed that this year … and I don’t think it’s going to happen in February now, either (see Failures, below). In positive news, I did finish eleven books in January (three reviews still to post), which is a better total than I have been getting, but the TBR is looking a little, well, full at the moment.

Feb 2015 coming upI’m currently reading a book about Penguin Books and its editors. It’s a little slow, partly because I’ve recently read a history of Penguin and Allen Lane and one about Puffin Books, and partly because it’s made up of a lot of quotations, but the main text is in small print and the quotations in larger print, which keeps confusing me!

Coming up, I have the next volume in The Forsyte Saga, which I’m very much looking forward to, and then I WILL start on Anthony Trollope’s Barsetshire Novels (see Failures, below). I also have this variety of fiction and non-fiction – political diaries, psychogeography, the Vikings, a novel I know nothing about, a memoir about being and not being a nun, a Virago and a book about books. There’s a nice variety there, anyway.

Ian Sansom booksI also have a Book Confession, in the form of two Ian Sansom books in the Mobile Library mysteries series – Gill kindly offered to pass them to me so here they are, although she assures me that she doesn’t need them back, I can BookCross them when I’ve finished with them, and there’s no rush to do that, so they’ve popped onto the end of that bursting shelf above. I have also acquired a new book about Iris Murdoch, which I will photograph in due course. It’s one of those Hard Books with all philosophy in, so I’ll be gentle with myself when I get to it.

Those failures. Looking through my bookshelf and thinking about my plans for reading for this year, I find that …

  • I have failed to get a Month of Re-Reading in yet, even though I love doing it. I have too many lovely new books, and I’m letting them get out of hand. Some of these have to be read before I re-read.
  • I have failed to start Anthony Trollope yet! I must do that this month. I am SO looking forward to reading him, so I’m going to make a big effort not to let him get shoved aside again.
  • I completely failed to read any WW1 stuff last year apart from Rupert Brooke’s poems. I had a book of general WW1 poems on the TBR shelf ALL YEAR last year, and now it’s being shelved again. Oops.
  • I bought that lovely book of Icelandic saga translations (horizontal on the TBR pic) and set up a Facebook group to discuss sagas: have I opened it more than once? I have not. I must make time for some of these before our wedding anniversary in April.

In successes, well, I did read those 11 in January and if I’ve managed to make room to READ and comment on blogs that I follow, so I’m pretty up to date now, I can definitely make more room for BOOK READING, too. I’ve also got to half-way in my Reading a Century project, counting books read and on the TBR, so that’s quite exciting. Any suggestions for filling in the 60s and 70s gratefully received!

And, one review I didn’t post because it was destined for elsewhere has now been published in the Shiny New Books e-magazine, new edition available now. This is “Merchant Adventurers” by James Evans, which was a very good read – why not pop over and read my slightly-longer-than-the-ones-on-this-blog review, here. Thanks to the Shiny New Book people for thinking of me when the non-fiction was up for grabs!

So I’m not going to moan and maunder and dwell – I’m going to read and enjoy my books, make more time to do so, and not fret if I don’t do what I plan to do, as long as I’m reading!

How are your booky 2015s going so far? Do you have a TBR glut, too?