Happy New Year! & some Reading Resolutions

Happy New Year everyone! I usually spend some time on New Year's Eve looking back over my reading for the year & I did that yesterday. I read 154 books in 2010, mostly fiction (89) & mostly by women (98) so no surprises there.  Thank you for all the comments on my posts about my books of the year. I'm always amazed that so many of us love middlebrow novels, Golden Age mysteries & 19th century classics. Thank goodness publishers are finally catching up with us by reprinting many of these forgotten authors so that we can rediscover them.

It's the first anniversary of this blog tomorrow. I've enjoyed blogging & I'm mildly surprised that I've kept going all year. I started the blog while I was on holidays & I thought that once I was back at work I just wouldn't find the time to post. But that hasn't happened. I've become addicted to checking my visitor stats & love receiving comments so thank you to everyone who visits. I've been surprised & pleased at the many kind comments from readers. Thanks for the comments & recommendations. I'm sure we all have gigantic tbr piles but the more the merrier!

Now, on to resolutions. I made an excellent start last year with my plan to buy fewer books & read more from the tbr shelves. Unfortunately I fell off the wagon in the middle of the year & it's trundled off without me. So, the only resolution I'm making is to get back on that wagon again & add books to my wishlist rather than buying them the minute they take my fancy. I have a few books on preorder from the Book Depository (including some of the new reprints of Mary Stewart) so I won't be completely deprived of the sight of packages on my doorstep.

I'm going to spend a couple of days rearranging my tbr table. I've already put Rogue Herries by Hugh Walpole back on the shelves. I wanted to read it because it was one of Nella Last's favourite books & I'd just read Nella Last in the 1950s where she mentions it several times. But, the mood has passed. Mrs Ames by E F Benson has also gone back to the library pile. My online group has decided that January will be Mapp & Lucia month (actually I think it was my idea. Rush of blood to the head after my lovely Folio Society boxset arrived). So, I'll be reading the first of the series this month & Mapp & Lucia have usurped Mrs Ames's place on the table. Villette is still there. I've read it several times but I read the latest issue of Bronte Studies & it was a special on Villette & now I need to read it again. I'm determined to read the Highland Lady because I also have the sequel on the tbr shelves & she's getting impatient. Lord Peter is hovering because I may have had a touch too much aristocracy lately. I've just read Jill Paton Walsh's new Wimsey mystery & Debo Devonshire's memoirs, Wait For Me! I'm also watching Downton Abbey. I'm getting my Lords, Ladies, Dukes & Duchesses mixed up as it is. Convent on Styx by Gladys Mitchell is a convent school story reprinted by Greyladies Press. I've only read the first chapter but I think I'm going to love it.

I've also been enjoying downloading free e-books to my new e-reader. I worked out how to download EPub files & I've had a lovely time loading up the reader with enough books to keep me going for some time. Girlebooks & ManyBooks have so much to choose from.

So, there you have my plans for the coming year, such as they are. Abby & I survived the 40 degree temperatures of yesterday (I was reading Debo & watching Downton Abbey. Abby was asleep under the coffee table in the flow of the air conditioner). Today is gorgeous after the cool change. Grey, cloudy, cool breezes rattling the blinds, Abby asleep in the garden. I tried to get a photo of her under the coffee table yesterday but they turned out quite muddy so here's a favourite shot from the dozens I've taken of her over the last year. Happy reading to everyone in 2011.