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Goals:

* read 25 books
* try to write some reviews
* enjoy myself

Statistics:

Books read: 45
Pages read: 14400
Rereads: 0
New authors: 9
Audio books: 0
Books abandoned: 0

On Kindle January; only read book that are already on my Kindle.

1. Amongst Our Weapons - Ben Aaronovitch
2. Midnight Pass - Bill Thompson
3. No Place to Run - Mark Edwards
4. The Dead House - Dawn Kurtagich
5. Murder at Work - Faith Martin
6. The Woman Who Spoke to Spirits - Alys Clare
7. Home Before Dark - Riley Sager

February:
1. How to Sell a Haunted House - Grady Hendrix
2. Possession - Lee Mountford
3. The Cloisters - Katy Hays
4. Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places - Colin Dickey
5. Darkness Stirring - J.R. Erickson
6. Naida - Dawn Kurtagich

March; only books that are on my Kindle
1. House of Sky and Breath - Sarah J. Maas
2. The Haunting of Morris Inn - Ambrose Ibsen
3. The Last Remains - Elly Griffiths
4. The Cabinet of Dr. Leng - Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
5. The Getaway - Lamar Giles

April
1. The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne - Jonathan Stroud
2. The Exorcist's House - Nick Roberts
3. Calling Back the Dead - J.R. Erickson
4. The Rising Tide - Ann Cleeves
5. The Withering - Ambose Ibsen

May:
1. The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman
2. Evil Whispers - Owl Goingback
3. Murder Never Retires - Faith Martin
4. Salvage - Duncan Ralston
5. A Perilous Perspective - Anna Lee Huber

June:
1. The Seance in Apartment 10 - Ambrose Ibsen
2. The Postscript Murders - Elly Griffiths
3. The Haunted - Bentley Little
4. Wool - Huw Howey
5. The Spite House - Johnny Compton

July:
1. Who Cries for the Lost - C.S. Harris

August:
nothing

September:
1. Black Mouth - Ronald Malfi
2. Episode Thirteen - Craig DiLouie
3. The Other Woman - Ambrose Ibsen

October:
1. The Man Who Died Twice - Richard Osman

November:
1. The Final Girl Support Group - Grady Hendrix

December:
1. Keep Her Secret - Mark Edwards
2. Dread Reckoning - Bill Thompson
3. Murder of a Lover - Faith Martin

First!! :D

Doh! Second, I guess! LOL!

Will I or won't I wipe my Kindle on the 31st so I have a fresh start for 2023?

Bianca wrote: "Will I or won't I wipe my Kindle on the 31st so I have a fresh start for 2023?"

I vote yes. I put it off forever and it felt so good when I finally did it and no longer had a ton of books to scroll through to find what I wanted to read.

You know, I never thought of it that way, but I can see the appeal.
It would definitely make it easier to focus on your selected titles.

Happy reading, either way! :)

Christa wrote: "I vote yes. I put it off forever and it felt so good when I finally did it and no longer had a ton of books to scroll through to find what I wanted to read."

I used to do it more often. Over time I just keep adding books and end up with so many it's hard to choose which one to read.

So, since I finished my current book this morning, I've decided at take the plunge; I've made a list of the books I want to put back and wiped my Kindle. I'm now transferring the books. I'll have to put all them in the right collection, but it's only 24 books, instead of nearly 100.

I will be adding some books, for when I go on vacation next month. But I'll try to keep the number of books below 30, not that that will last long.

I have a collection called "Next."

When I buy a book that particularly interests me, I put that book there. I have found it easy to scroll through that collection and choose my next read.

Question: Is there a way to wipe the Kindle without deactivating it?

My kids surprised me with a Kindle Signature for Christmas, so I want to give my other one to my dad, He's not the most electronically savvy person, so I want to keep it active on my account and add books as needed.

What would you all advise?

Nyssa wrote: "Question: Is there a way to wipe the Kindle without deactivating it?"

I don't think so, but if you wipe it, then log back in with your account, it won't download any books automatically after. So it'll be nice and clean but registered. If you're going to be downloading books to it for him, you can leave it on the library page with the filter set to "downloaded" and then turn on airplane mode and it should be pretty easy for him to navigate without any surprises.

Cool! I'll try that. Thank you!! :)

Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch
I liked this latest one in the Peter Grant/Rivers of London series a lot better than the previous one. This one was a lot less boring.

The first of the year. I think I'm going to try to read only books already on my Kindle in January. I'm going to cheat a little bit, I'm not going to do a full month, but until the 28th. I'm going on vacation on the 30th and that way I can download some new releases on the day before I go (last time I went to that vacation park the wifi was incredibly slow and downloading a book took a long time).

Fourth? Haha.

Midnight Pass by Bill Thompson
Good story, I like that Landry Drake goes further afield in this follow up/spin off series of the Haunted Bayou series. Whilst most previous books (both in the Mysterious America and Haunted Bayou series) center on old mansions, this one is about a haunted, abandoned town. What does annoy me, and it happened in previous books, is that Landry is willing to think the worst of his friend Jake.

Bianca wrote: "Midnight Pass by Bill Thompson
Good story, I like that Landry Drake goes further afield in this follow up/spin off series of the Haunted Bayou series. Whilst most previous books (bo..."

I really need to check out some Bill Thompson books. Not only do they seem to fall right into my areas of interest, they're on KU which is an automatic plus.

Christa wrote: "I really need to check out some Bill Thompson books. Not only do they seem to fall right into my areas of interest, they're on KU which is an automatic plus. "

They're fun, easy reads. Thompson also has two other (finished?) series. And although they aren't ghost stories I do want to read at least one of those this year.

No Place To Run by Mark Edwards
A very good thriller, with a good twist at the end. Edwards was born, and still lives in Wolverhampton in the UK. It's where I went to uni (half the year in Amsterdam and half the year in Wolverhampton). His main character is also from Wolverhampton and he mentions a shopping center we visited. It's always fun to find references like that.

Up next a YA horror of a new to me author.

The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich
A good YA horror novel. There's a short story sequel, about the best friend of the main character. It was a creepy novel, that was hard to put down.

Up next the 11th book in the Hillary Greene series, Murder at Work.

Oops. So after my latest wipe of my Kindle I decided I didn't want to have a lot of books on it anymore. I decided that I didn't want more than 25 books on there.

But then, I'm going on vacation and now have a list of possible reads I haven't got on my Kindle of 11 books, plus one that's released on the second day of my vacation.

I now have 20 books on my Kindle, I should finished at least one more, hopefully two. So I had already upped my maximum to 30, for my vacation. With the plan to keep doing the "only on Kindle" challenge in February, too (after I added my new books). But my list of books keeps growing. So now my latest max on Kindle is 35 books (though if I read two more before the 31st I can keep it down to 30).

Murder at Work by Faith Martin.
A good story, at the end of the story Hillary Greene retires. But she's already having some doubt about it and her superior has already given her a way back; becoming a consultant for the cold case team. Considering this was book 10 and book 20 is going to be released in April it'll be interesting to see where the story goes. At least there is some change and (hopefully) it won't be the same thing over and over again (like many other long running mystery/crime series).

Took me a bit longer to read than anticipated due to a cold and a busy week at work. My next book is the shortest I've got on my Kindle. After that my vacation reading can start!

I had planned on adding new books on my Kindle on Sunday. But I couldn't help myself last night. I bought the books I had planned to buy and transferred those, plus a couple I got before, to my Kindle.

I've now should have enough horror on my Kindle to last my vacation next week. I don't know what it is, but I mostly read horror novels when I'm on vacation.

In February I'm going to continue with only-on-Kindle challenge, except for a couple of releases of my favourite authors that is.

The Woman Who Spoke to Spirits by Alys Clare
I had forgotten it was a historical mystery, and going by just the title and the cover I expected something paranormal. I did enjoy it, though. It's set in 1880 and in comparison to many other historical mysteries this one is, as one GR reviewer called it, "more bawdy", which is certainly true.

The series has three books so far, so I'm going to add the other two to my ever growing TBR list. I'll also add the series to my digital reading journal, that way I won't forget it (hopefully). But that'll have to wait until tomorrow. I've just had a 2 hour battle with iTunes (again) and something went wrong with my library, luckily I had a back up. But I'm now copying all my nearly 6000 songs back to my iPhone, again. For whatever reason the combination of my current laptop, iTunes and my iPhone don't work well. Every time I connect my phone to iTunes on my laptop it deletes all but a handful of songs. It's very annoying having to copy thousands of songs back every time.

January has been a good month, I've read six books so far. Sure they weren't the longest of books (310 pages average), but with only two days I when I didn't read I'm not unhappy. My 2023 reading goal is 25 books, so I'm well on my way.

There's a very small chance I'll finish my current book; today and tomorrow will be filled with cleaning, laundry, errands and packing in preparation for my vacation.

I'm liking my digital reading journal so far. There are a lot of things in there that I won't use (suggested/set challenges, reading bingo, quotes, etc). But I've been good in updating every day. I have a note in Google Keep where every night I write down at which page I'm at in my current book. That way I can calculate how much I've read each day. I can access Keep from my tablet, phone and laptop. So even if I don't have access to my tablet I can keep track of pages read and add it to my journal later.

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
And another added to my favourites list. I thought I would finish it tomorrow, but today I read 240 pages and finished the book. I've also gotten all of Sager's other books.

Haunted house stories are always my favourite, add some gothic elements and my favourite concept; a book within a book, and you got me hooked.

Up next: How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix.

Bianca wrote: "January has been a good month, I've read six books so far. Sure they weren't the longest of books (310 pages average), but with only two days I when I didn't read I'm not unhappy. My 2023 reading g..."

Sounds fantastic, Bianca!! I'm glad the journal is working for you! :)

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Another book I loved. Hendrix is great at making the reader suspend their disbelief. Take the ridiculous and make it real and scary. Of course, many people find dolls/puppets scary without them being possessed.

Possession by Lee Mountford
Another very hard to put down story in the Haunted series. Just two more to go before I finish this series (if the series itself is finished, that is). I like this series, although it's a bit graphic in its violence.

I need to read another 10 pages today to have read 1000 pages this vacation week. Mind you, I don't expect to have a lot of time to read next week since I need to catch up on chores at home and in the store.

The Cloisters by Katy Hays.
Okay, the first half was really slow, the second read faster. But I hate it when the narrator is unreliable or holds things back. I had a feeling this was happening about half way through the book.

I'm now reading my first non-fiction of the year, Ghostland by Colin Dickey, which has been interesting so far. I didn't read anything yesterday (third time this year), since my sister and I went to Amsterdam and were up at six, when we got back we went out to dinner and after I was just too tired to read anything (over 9km of walking and almost 8km cycling). Hopefully today is a quiet morning in the store and I can get some reading done.

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey.
It was different from what I expected. Usually these types of books tell about a haunted place in each chapter (sometimes multiple hauntings if they are linked). But whilst Dickey did that in some chapters in other chapters he started of with a short piece on a haunted place and then linked it to something else. Such as Spiritualism, how the ghost stories are rarely true, architecture and how there are very few hauntings by non white people (unless they fit in a white narrative). I liked the historical and cultural aspect of this book as much as the stories about the haunted places.

The plan to only put new books on my Kindle for my vacation has failed miserably. Which is okay, I haven't gone totally overboard with adding books. I do want to do the on-Kindle challenge in March. Plus I've got a bunch of long books (600+ pages) that I've been avoiding on my Kindle, so I want to read at least one of those before the end of March.

Darkness Stirring by J.R. Erickson
I'm really liking Erickson's Troubled Spirits series, where she's inspired by true crime stories and gives them a paranormal twist. The books are quick and easy and entertaining. This one was no exception, which is about forest where every five years a girl disappears, who went into to the woods with a friend.

Up next a short story sequel in The Dead House series, after that I think I'll tackle Sarah J. Maas's House of Sky and Breath.

The Naida Tapes by Dawn Kurtagich
An good short story. Usually I don't like short stories, but this one felt like a full story, that everything was told that was to be told. It'll be interesting to see if more books will be written for this series.

Up next: House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas. Which is over 800 pages long. Of course, this morning I got an email from Ambrose Ibsen's mailing list that his latest book The Haunting of Morris Inn is now available (original release date was September, but was delayed). I'm tempted to read that one first, but I know that if I don't start reading a long book now I'll keep delaying it more. At least I have something to look forward to.

House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas.
A good story, but I liked the first one better I think. There was just too many things going on and too many story lines.

Up next is the latest Ambrose Ibsen book, which was delayed. After an 800+ page book I need something quick and easy.

The Haunting of Morris Inn by Ambrose Ibsen.
A good story, but for whatever reason it was a slow read for me. I did really enjoy it, but I was easily distracted.

Up next: the latest, and possibly last (for now), book in the Ruth Galloway series.

For almost three months I've been using the digital reading journal on my iPad. I've been using it every day. Keeping track of how many pages I read and logging books and series.

It's been an okay experience. I notice that I like keeping track of what days I read, which days I finish a book and how many pages I read every day.

Although I liked logging books and series at the start of the year. I'm now less enthusiastic about it. I find it a bit of a chore to find pictures of covers, copy them, copy the start rating and enter all the details. I haven't written a review yet. I think this is because I already keep track of the details in my Google Sheets list and on GR I can see all the covers if I want to.

I'll see if I can keep it up for a full year, maybe I'll change my mind. I do want to keep the overview of days read and pages read, I already made a template in Sheets. It doesn't look as pretty, but it will function. Ideally I would love to make my own reading journal for my iPad, with just the things I would like to fill in and make it look nice. However, for that I would have to have Adobe Acrobat to make that and getting it for just that it a bit excessive. I'll have to look into it more at some point.

The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths.
The last book in the Dr. Ruth Galloway series, at least for now. I really enjoyed this series and Griffiths managed to write a good ending, which gives a good closure to the series. However, if she ever decides to write more books for this series the ending is still open enough for that, too.

Up next: the latest in the Agent Pendergast series by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston.

Bianca wrote: "For almost three months I've been using the digital reading journal on my iPad. I've been using it every day. Keeping track of how many pages I read and logging books and series.

It's been an okay..."

I just use a spreadsheet for tracking, but I am not tracking that much. Given a year I can figure out pages per day and stuff if I want. Agreed that sometimes it can be a chore to keep that up to date.

Here's the list of columns I track. I just have to shove it in. Keeping track of author regions is the hardest part sometimes.

Continent, Region, Country, Author, Title, Pages, eBook, YearRead, FictionIndicator, Genre, SubGenre

eBook is just an indicator as the FictionIndicator is (yes or no).

So an entry is something like:
Asia, Eastern Asia, Japan, Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake, 149, 1, 2023, 1, Fiction, Fiction

Just means it was an eBook and general fiction, I tend not to be very specific on the genre, but I like to know if it was a kids book or not and if I am reading things on the phone or not.

With the spreadsheet I can do summary stats on other pages, like books per year, pages per year, most read authors and such.

Agent Pendergast series by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston..."
I've been looking for other authors of this genre. I've downloaded the first one RELIC. THANKS!!

Spacechik wrote: "Agent Pendergast series by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston..."
I've been looking for other authors of this genre. I've downloaded the first one RELIC. THANKS!!"

The beginning of this series is good, but keep in mind that at one point it gets sillier with each book. If I was starting this series and reading books regularly I would have stopped a while ago. With the release of one book every year or so it's doable, though there is some of eye-roll involved.

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "I just use a spreadsheet for tracking, but I am not tracking that much. Given a year I can figure out pages per day and stuff if I want. Agreed that sometimes it can be a chore to keep that up to date."

I've kept a spreadsheet for each year since 2011. The last couple of years I enter book title, author, series, series number, year of release, date started, date finished, my rating, official page number and tick boxes for new author, reread and audiobook.

In that file I made a new sheet for my tracker, I note down the number of pages I read each day and colour code days I read (green), days I don't read (red) and days I finish a book (light blue). Mind you, the number of pages on this sheet don't correspond with the official pages on the first one; I take the page number on my Kindle and since I always convert my ebooks that page number is not the same as the official one.

I've also made a sheet for books I want to read this year. It'll be interesting to see how well I do with that.

Now I have most things in one place. I also track my reading on GoodReads, Fantastic Fiction (only for favourite authors) and in Calibre. But my own spreadsheet is most important.

^Nice.

Too granular for me. I'm pretty lazy.

What I want out of it is the stats for continents, regions, and countries. So I know there are 23 countries I've read more than five books from and 62 countries I haven't read a book from. Those 62 are getting to be incredibly difficult. I should really try to knock off a couple of the easier ones this year.

The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child.

You know those tv series that go on too long, where character that have been killed seasons ago turn out not to be dead. And the story lines get more and more ridiculous. That's the Pendergast series in book form.

Preston & Child have been obviously inspired by the Marvel Universe in this sub-series (yes, this series has sub-series). I won't go into too much detail because that would spoil it. Also, it has a cliffhanger ending, so we have to wait another one to two years for this sub-series to conclude.

Is this book entertaining. Sure, most of them in this series are. Is it infuriating. Definitely. If I had read the paper version I would have thrown it after finishing it (only two other books hold that distinction).

This book made me break my intention to read only books I had already on my Kindle. I bought a new book (also, it was on offer for $0.99).

Bianca wrote: "This book made me break my intention to read only books I had already on my Kindle. I bought a new book (also, it was on offer for $0.99)."

I did the same a few days ago. In my case, it was a next-in-series that I'd been waiting on. I had some digital credits so it was less than a dollar. But I'm really trying not to buy any new books. LOL

I'm sorry this one was a dud for you. I've been wanting to start with Pendergast series. I will strive to avoid the sub-series if I get to that point. :D

Christa wrote: "I'm sorry this one was a dud for you. I've been wanting to start with Pendergast series. I will strive to avoid the sub-series if I get to that point. :D "

Unfortunately this is a sub series that's hard to avoid. It's book 3, 19, 20 and the unreleased 21. If you skip them, especially book 3, you'll miss important info. The Pendergast series has several sub series, those are the fantastical stories. If you know this and just push through it's okay. This last one had just too many things that annoyed me. That is not to say I wasn't entertained and won't read the next. I just don't take this series serious anymore.

Bianca wrote: " If you know this and just push through it's okay. This last one had just too many things that annoyed me. That is not to say I wasn't entertained and won't read the next. I just don't take this series serious anymore."

Ah, ok. I'll just keep all of that in mind when I get to them. I also see that the first book in the series is now in KU so I may get to it sooner rather than later!

Christa wrote: "I did the same a few days ago. In my case, it was a next-in-series that I'd been waiting on. I had some digital credits so it was less than a dollar. But I'm really trying not to buy any new books. LOL"

It turns out the new book didn't have any pages markers (not sure how to call it), it only displayed locations. It's the first book in a really long time not to have page numbers. But I prefer pages over locations, so I had to convert the book in Calibre.

And while I was at it I transferred the books I had planned to transfer this weekend. So I broke my intention of not adding any books to my Kindle and trying to keep the number of books at a maximum of 35. In April four or five books I'm interested in are released, so that doesn't help either.

March has been a good month. I expect to finish my current book today, that'll bring the total to 5 books this month. While I read more books in January (7) and February (6) they were longer books, except for one, one book was over 800 pages. With a total of 2301 pages it's my best month since August last year. Only on one day I didn't read this month.

The weather helped this month; it was very rainy, so I didn't get a chance to go out much. It looks like it'll dry up from Sunday and I hope to go out on more walks, which means less time to read.

I'm way ahead on my reading goal for this year, which is 25 books. I'm currently reading book 18. However, there are lots of changes in the near future: we're selling our house/store and I'll be looking for a new job, moving in with my sister and will be expected to help move my parents. It's not sure when this will happen. The tentative date for closing the store is round July 1.