A Little Light Reading

I may have mentioned that I like to read. This is probably an understatement. I read all the time - in bed, on the train, when cooking dinner, when washing my hair. I read fast and I get through a lot of books. Having a library just round the corner is very handy but I buy piles of books from a variety of places and unless they're really awful, I don't get rid of many of them.

This post, early on in the days of the blog, looked at some of my bookcases. There's quite a lot of book overflow though and my bedside table is actually a giant square of books that forms my to-read pile. Almost all purchased from charity shops and car boot sales, with a smattering of loaned books mixed in. These pics were actually taken a couple of weeks ago, pre-holiday, so I've read quite a few of them since then.

I do love a good historical biography and I have tons, mostly about women. I'm quite fond of historical non-fiction too. I like to hoover up knowledge about all periods so once I've read the stuff about the seventeenth century and Regency period, I've got a new stash of medieval/Wars of the Roses books to work my way through.

A random selection of fiction. I was very chuffed to snaffle the Monica Dickens paperbacks for 50p each in a little shop in Tunbridge Wells. There's just something so pleasing about the old Penguin covers.

Some historical fiction. I'll be honest, I wasn't smitten with the first of the C.J Sansom trilogy but that may have been due to the huge similarities in plot it shared with another book I'd read not long before it. I thought as the second and third books were cheap, I might as well give them a read and then make a final decision.

A couple of autobiographies. The Stephen Fry kept me amused on holiday and I'm muchly looking forward to his new book.

Works of self improvement. I just don't read poetry - if a poem is quoted in a book then my eyes go straight past it - and I keep thinking that I must get a grip and try some of it. I'll report back if I succeed.

Random mixture of non fiction. I don't want to talk about being a Liverpool fan at the moment, it's really not a good time. I can't work out whether reading it will cheer me up or make me more full of doom.

Can't stop snerking when I look at the cover of The Thirteenth Member

My collectors eye mainly falls upon children's fiction. I don't subscribe to the theory that you should leave children's fiction behind when you leave childhood. Some of my favourite authors and favourite books technically belong on the kids shelves but I couldn't care less. I'm not ashamed of reading them.

Romance/chick lit and crime fiction are quite underrepresented here. I read a fair amount of them but clearly haven't been buying many of them recently. I have a craving for the former every now and then and binge on books from the library. They're mostly froth so I save my dosh for the few authors I really like. As for crime and mysteries, I've just read about 6 Margery Allingham novels and now I'm taking a break from the genre for a little while.

And this is why I like to buy my books secondhand. They are so much more interesting than sanitised, dull modern copies. I love finding a name or an old library stamp in the front of a book. Even better is a message or inscription as it sets off all kinds of thoughts and wonderings about the previous owners.

So that's most of the to-read pile. Would you like any more book chat/reviews/wafflings about my favourites in the future?