{"id":10422,"date":"2025-01-08T22:30:47","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T22:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/a-year-in-books-the-book-lovers-sanctuary\/"},"modified":"2025-01-08T22:30:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T22:30:47","slug":"a-year-in-books-the-book-lovers-sanctuary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=10422","title":{"rendered":"A Year in Books \u2013 The Book Lovers’ Sanctuary"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Welcome to a new year! May 2024 bring you all the happiness, joy, peace and of course health that you would wish for \u2013 whether you find that through reading, exercise, family, food or faith.<\/p>\n

It has been a challenging year with its ups \u2013 a fantastic holiday to Rome, taking daughter and wife abroad for the first time in their lives \u2013 and some very significant downs. My dad is facing the last leg of terminal cancer and I have found it difficult to manage that especially as we live\u2002four hours away from them. It would be easier in many ways if we were able to do some of the day-to-day practical help but we can\u2019t. Alongside that, my daughter\u2019s autism has been triggered by starting new school \u2013 and by Christmas. The long week between school breaking up and actual Christmas was difficult for her. And work has been \u2026 hectic, culminating in an Ofsted Inspection just before Christmas\u2026<\/p>\n

In response to the challenges this year, I can see that my reading habits have adapted: cosy comfort reads seem to have come to the fore, and I have read fewer books in total. Partly<\/strong> that may<\/strong> have been due to my subscribing to Final Fantasy XIV as well\u2026 And I know I have slacked off on my book reviews this year.<\/p>\n

And what was I reading as the new year rolled in this year?<\/p>\n

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You can see on the graph a promising start, January to April followed by a marked drop! Still, 46 books is not bad at all and I don\u2019t every set myself targets or reading lists \u2013 there are too many of those at work! \u2013 so the 60 \u2018target\u2019 was a very rough guide. After all, having reading a couple of Claire Keegan\u2019s books this year, size does not equate to quality \u2013 her novels (novellas?) are exquisite and incredibly brief and beautiful. <\/p>\n

In 2022, I had read 59 books; 2021 was 56. <\/p>\n

The graph does pretty much track with the challenges of the year: it was about April that my dad\u2019s condition became more obviously terminal and his health started to decline noticeably.<\/p>\n

According to my trusty spreadsheet, and Amazon\u2019s page counts for its books, we can also look at the number of pages read this year and the totals are<\/p>\n