This is a bit of a challenge for me because it is really rare for me to give up on a book! I like to think that this is because I find it easy to find something to enjoy in most books: the genre may not be a favourite, but I may like the characters; I may not like the characters but the language could be sublime; I may find the language pedestrian but the plot could be thrilling; the plot might be cliched and quotidian but the ideas and themes might be powerful. And oftentimes, if I do put a book down, its because I was not in the right headspace for it then but I may well go back to it later... a pause does not a DNF make, does it? On the other hand, it may also reflect negatively on me as a person. I am generally a completionist, keen to finish a book - or a series - just because I started it. Yes, I am that sort of person who cannot leave a sidequest incomplete in a game! I also fall foul of the sunk-cost fallacy easily: I feel that when I have invested in a book (the time to start reading it probably more than the price), I must "get my money's worth" from it, even if giving up and finding a book I do love would be a much more enjoyable use of my time. And perhaps my eternal optimism: even halfway through a book, even three-quarters of the way, I might still be thinking This could get better any moment...
Month: Jul 2023
Top Ten Tuesday: Books With One-Word Titles
Many thanks to Angela from Reading Frenzy Book Blog for this theme it is a list of books with one-word titles, which should bring together a range of books from different genres which is always fun! And the rules I set myself are that I will share the most recently added one-word titles in my library, excluding books whose title is the protagonist's name... although I am stretching that a little with the last book on the list!
Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie: Books Set in Rome
This week's freebie topic, I thought I'd use to celebrate the fact that I am going abroad for the first time in ... decades! Unless you count EuroDisney which is technically in France but felt about as French as, well, Disney. I mean, I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it - even I found it hard to be cynical there - but it did not feel real, let alone foreign! And in preparation for the trip I decided to sign up to DuoLingo and learn Italian - which has taught how to ask for a coffee - posso ordinare un caffรจ per favore? or vorrei un caffรจ per favore - how to ask directions - dov'รจ la libreria - and bizarrely philosophical questions such as perche moriamo or che succede quando muori... To the writers and editors of DuoLingo, are you okay? Anyway, as a reader I also wanted to pre-visit in my reading the city where I am going so these are a series of books set in Rome. To be fair, many of these are yet to be read!
Top Ten Tuesday: Book Covers In the Colors of My Countryโs Flag
I do love these cover-themed topics, because they pull together a very random selection of books and are a chance to remind ourselves of books we have loved but half-forgotten, or perhaps books that piqued our interest but then never got read... but maybe that's just me! But in terms of colours for this week's theme, it is the classic red, white and blue...






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