Nine books for this month. I feel like I’m slowly getting back to my old ways, reading more and more each month. I also made some inroads with my personal reading challenges this month.
Classic Reads: 2 books! Yes, two classics this month. The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Pursuit of Love. Both excellent.
22 in 2022: 3 books for this. The two classics above count here as well as they are from my shelves, not review titles sent to me, and that was the only condition I set for myself with the 22 in 2022 challenge, that they be my own books, as in, ones I have purchased. The other one I read for this was a new release, The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer. I am normally sent each of Kelly Rimmer’s latest releases for review but I didn’t get one this time and Hachette seem to be no longer using NetGalley, more’s the pity. Anyway, I am a big fan of Kelly Rimmer so I bought a copy.
The remaining six books read were review titles. Given that I often receive six in a week, I probably need to start reading faster…
Until next month…
Theresa Smith Writes 
Gosh, Theresa, I don’t think I could read six titles each week.
And I don’t think I’d want to.
I’m being more firm with the unsolicited books that get sent to me. It’s different if I’ve had a friendly email and I’ve agreed to do the book, but stuff that just turns up in the mailbox is at the bottom of my priorities, and if it doesn’t really appeal, I just don’t do it.
I mean, seriously, I (grudgingly) forgive overenthusiastic publicity assistants and interns with a scattergun approach for failing to read my review policy because they’re new to the job (and obviously haven’t been briefed properly) but head publicists ought to know better than to send me crime and thriller and outback romance and droopy memoirs because I just don’t read them. I’ve been around for 14 years now and I’ve never changed my focus, so they’re just wasting review copies on me.
Don’t let yourself feel pressured!
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Sometimes it’s less pressure and more wishful thinking as I have been getting sent particularly appealing titles of late, right up my alley, so to speak. So I guess I just wish I had more hours in the day! I don’t think I’ve ever (or will ever) read six books a week, but I do long to get back to reading three a week. That would be excellent.
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Apart from titles I request via NetGalley, I basically avoid ARCs now – I was feeling to pressured to read to a timetable, and to read things I wouldn’t necessarily have picked off the shelf – sure, that can lead you to some great books but I;m confident there won’t be a shortage of great books in my life, regardless of the source!
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Very true! I am hopeless with keeping up with my NetGalley arcs. I stopped requesting them a while ago so now I just get them emailed directly from publicists 🤦♀️ woe is me…too many books, lol.
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A nice problem to have, really 😬
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A great month of reading in May and two classics as well! Looking forward to your review of the Oscar Wilde classic and I enjoyed The Dance Tree too! I’ll be reviewing it soon 🙂
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I’m not reviewing Dorian. I adored it but have decided to leave it as a pleasure read with no obligation to review. I haven’t done that for the longest time.
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I can imagine that must be freeing! Did you catch my (scandalous) review of Dorian? https://www.carpelibrum.net/2015/05/review-picture-of-dorian-gray-oscar.html 😬
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No, I didn’t. I’ll have a read. Are we out of sync with this one? 😁
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Oh, you had me fooled! Nice review! I also adore Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Ernest. It reads so well. It’s interesting how you point out that the themes were nuanced, yet, they were so clear back then, enough to lead to Wilde’s downfall.
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Yes, it’s a common phenomena in classics, that what was scandalous at the time seems tame when compared to the writing of today. We both loved the writing, but I wanted more out of the plot and the degradation of Dorian’s soul, so only 3 stars for me.
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