Another month and another reading wrap-up. We seem to be getting better by the month. September saw me get through 5 books. In October I managed 6. This month? A ground-breaking (for me) 7 books. Of course, one of the Bookstagrammers that I follow called her wrap-up of 7 “respectable”. Something that, in the bookish world at least, means rubbish. Still, some people’s respectable is another person’s triumph. I don’t remember the last time I managed to get through 7 books a month. It was definitely not since I graduated and I graduated way back in 2011. So I’ll take it.

Number of books read: 7– Thanks to a few audiobooks, I almost managed 2 books a week this month.
Number of physical books: 3
Number of eBooks: 0
Number of audiobooks: 4

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

I started this book on the first of November and finished it 4 days later. I thought this would be an easy read but I really didn’t get into it. It just kind of bored more. It was just another really obvious and simplistic YA crime thriller. I don’t now if its a problem with YA in general or just that YA authors don’t think their readers want anything too complicated. All I do know is that all the YA crime thrillers I’ve read have been far too easy to solve very early on.

Great Goddesses by Nikita Gill

I’m always unsure about contemporary poetry. Especially after my experiences with Rupi Kaur and Amanda Lovelace. I just don’t get their style of Instapoetry. They talk about “writing” them as if the process takes a long time. It’s just a sentence with weird line breaks. Is that really something that you need to think about that much? Anyway, I decided to try Nikita Gill’s collection despite this mistrust because I love Greek myths. It was better than most of the contemporary poetry I’ve read recently but it quickly got boring.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (Audiobook)

This first of my many audiobooks and one that I’ve had in my library for a while. This is one of Audible’s original dramatisations and has an amazing cast of British actors. With Catherine Tate and Philip Glenister, every character is really brought to life. Not only is the original story an incredibly exciting adventure but the dramatisation really adds something to it. You really feel part of the story and it has a lot of fun in telling it.

Jeff Waynes’ The War of the Worlds: The Musical Drama (Audiobook)

Another Audible Original dramatisation of a classic. This is the audiobook that convinced to go back to Audible after such a long time. I couldn’t put off listening to this for any longer. I love The War of the Worlds. I love Jeff Waynes’ musical version. I love Michael Sheen. There was no reason not to listen to it and there was no way that I wouldn’t instantly love it.

The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell (Audiobook)

My sister bought a copy of this book on our last visit to The Bookshop in Wigtown. She and mother both loved the memoir but I never got round to reading it. I think I bought it when it was an Audible Deal of the Day a while ago. So, now I was on my audiobook binge, I decided to listen to it. I started off loving it but I found myself getting slowly annoyed by the narrator. As I said in my review, the phrase “Okay, Boomer” is the perfect response to so many of his issues with modern life. I just couldn’t get beyond his personality enough to really like the book.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman (Audiobook)

I love Neil Gaiman and Coraline is one of his greatest works. It’s the dark and dangerous fairy tale that I wish I’d read when I was growing up. It’s like Alice in Wonderland getting the gothic treatment. Last weekend, I decided to start listening to the audiobook and hearing Neil Gaiman reading it himself really did bring the book to life. The Other world that Coraline finds herself in is another one of Gaiman’s amazing pieces of world-building. That man has a great imagination even if it is a little bit dark.

The Wall by John Lanchester

Rating to be confirmed.

So, I haven’t officially finished this book at the time of writing this post but I will definitely finish it today. That means it counts as a November read. I kept seeing an advert for this book at my train station and it clearly got to me. I was desperate to read it. After all, any book that links itself to 1984 is something you need to give a chance. I was dubious that the connection was as strong as I was being led to believe but it was an interesting premise.