01 | January | 2023

A year ago, I decided to take stock of everything I’d read the previous year and added a space to keep track of books as I’ve always been bad at tracking stuff. So far so good. In 2021, I managed around 51 books included a few novellas a a short story. In 2022, that has dropped to 22 24 titles including novellas and maybe a short story.

I tend to find reading challenging in years in which major life changes occur; things like deaths, change of job, moving house and so forth. Just prior to Christmas 2021, we exchanged contracts on a house in the Highlands and moved in at the end of February 2022. I settled in quicker than usual, surprisingly so. I was at least familiar with the area having visited many times. Plus it was so nice not to be Sydney anymore, away from the city. Lush trees and gardens as far as the eye can see and a lovely sense of space.

But still, I struggled to read and find momentum. I have finally joined a book club for the first time in my life. This is in part to find encouragement to read more and beyond the stuff I usually read. Another part is to get to know folk locally ie engage with the place I now live. That has been fun and invigorating and looking forward to hanging out more in 2022.

I continued to buy of course though I don’t think I bought as much, at least in part because a key publisher moved their release time to 4am my time and books sold out by the time I woke up. That’s been an interesting effect of covid times: limited releases are selling out quickly. It used to be the case that I had days or weeks to make a decision. For many titles now, they seem to sell in under 30 minutes, or even 10. The price of titles on the secondary market have increased too with some of those titles doubling or tripling in cost within months of release. I decided I wasn’t going to pay those prices and so if I miss on first release then I miss altogether and that’s ok though there is the occasional sad tinge.

Regardless I have ended with some gorgeous editions and more books than I can ever read. And they all look good on the shelves – I must get round to blogging about my new bookcases and posting photos. I achieved a life dream of hiring carpenters to build built-in bookcases, with movable shelves, and they look fab.

I managed to squeeze in 22 24 titles in 2022, finishing the last one on the afternoon of the 31st, a beautiful edition of The Neverending Story from Folio Society. I then started the next book, Blitz by Daniel O’Malley, which is his third book in the Checquy series (starting with The Rook). That will likely be the first book finished on 2023.