Just finished the last of the 9 Expanse books and the very next book I pick up is the first of the 10 books of Malazan Book of the Fallen. Didn't plan on getting into another huge series, it just happened! 🪐🐉📚💙
Really enjoyed the first 2 of the Old Man's War series, and have just discovered the next one my library holds is ... number 7! Hmm. I bet that one doesn't get borrowed often. And guess I need a trip to a used bookshop to see if I can track more down. 🪐📚💙
July reads… featuring 2 space opera sci-fi, 1 cozy sci-fi, an epic renaissance fantasy, a gothic witchy horror, a time-loop book and a contemporary novel about trans lives. Good books, good range! Only one not for me: On the Calculation of Volume. I like more action. And characters. 📚💙
August TBR challenge time! Author not UK/US - Reconnaissance by Kapka Kassabova (Bulgarian-New Zealander); and book with a long journey - Temeraire by Naomi Novik. Challenge going well! 📚💙
Runalong Womble@runalongwomble.bsky.social · 8mo agoYou want to clear some of that TBR Pile - my annual challenge may help! www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2025/12...
Excellent article about buying books you don't read and how it contributes to well being 📚💙 And love that the Japanese have a word for it! #tsundoku theconversation.com/why-you-keep...?
Why you keep buying books you don’t read – and why it feels so good
Why a pile of unread books is not stressful, yet a pile of unread emails is.
theconversation.com
Recent read - and a bit of a surprise as I recently told someone here I wasn't into witchy books! It starts as a story of a mute/drugged woman in a rocking chair in an old New Orleans house; and a young doctor in San Francisco who has weird things happen to her. OK,intriguing start...
Five living writers that you’ve read five books by each: Margaret Atwood Robin Hobb Katharine Kerr VE Schwab Becky Chambers and many more!
E.V. Caldwell@evcaldwell.com · last mo.Five living writers that you’ve read five books by each: Terry Pratchett George RR Martin S.A. Chakraborty Lois McMaster Bujold Robin Hobb
Trying out a June reads post: Favourites: - Seek the Traitor's Son - The Devils - Old Man's War - Red City Good reads for different reasons: - Poseidon's Wake - The Fireman - The Girl with a Thousand Faces Not for me: - The Book of Guilt - The Poet Empress 📚🪐💙
Time for my July TBR challenge books! A book with an empire – starting, ending or changing - Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay; and a whole series - didn't have a whole series on TBR so chose the last 3 books of The Expanse, James SA Corey. Have the rest of year to finish those. 📚🪐💙
Runalong Womble@runalongwomble.bsky.social · 8mo agoYou want to clear some of that TBR Pile - my annual challenge may help! www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2025/12...
Why didn't I like this more?? Maybe if I hadn’t read Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, which is excellent & has a similar premise? It seemed too easy a read given the dark topic, and just didn’t make me think enough. Even what is meant to be the big ethical question is really…not. Opinions?? 🪐📚💙
Juggling library holds, TBR reading challenge and next in various series can be challenging. So I've just now added an "Up next" section to my LibraryThing app so I don't have to keep working it out. And...here it is Ta-dah!!🎉 🪐🐉📚💙
1/ Loved the first half of this, where we work out why & how old people are being drafted into a space force. Thought the second half lost it's way a bit, and then it finished strong. I felt he didn't take enough advantage of how old they are in the second half 🪐📚💙
A recent DNF. Really expected to like this but I just didn't get it. Kept expecting it to get better but eventually I had just had enough of the 2 characters effectively being told they really COULD do better. I realise I didn't get to the reveal, googled it later. 🐉📚💙
I don't read a huge amount of sci-fi but really enjoyed this one! An odyssey into far flung parts of space. Good characters, excellent writing and interesting mysteries. And I REALLY wasn't expecting the elephants... 🐘🪐📚💙
Current read: The Fireman. Joe Hill is right up there with his Dad Stephen King in showing the horror of well meaning but deluded people trying to do what they think is the right thing... 📚🪐💙
June TBR challenge: A book with less than 150 pages - Exit Strategy is just over but I didn't have anything smaller on TBR; and a book with more than 500 pages - The Fireman doesn't look so impressive on a tablet, but it definitely qualifies at 700! 📚🪐🐉💙
Runalong Womble@runalongwomble.bsky.social · 8mo agoYou want to clear some of that TBR Pile - my annual challenge may help! www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2025/12...
Unexpectedly, a non-book post.. my son has just suggested a 5km run together when we catch up in 8 weeks, so there's a challenge! Just realized I haven't run 5km since 2022 😬. Ready, set go... 🏃♀️
Love Sunday afternoons meandering through the library, found some good ones this week! 📚🐉🪐💙
Introduce yourself with 10 bands you've seen live: Foo Fighters Red Hot Chili Peppers Arctic Monkeys Bruce Springstein & the E Street band Herbs Stray Cats Split Enz When the Cat's Away The Swingers Boston Thus showing both my age & geographical location to those who know...
Nighttime Tea@nighttimetea.bsky.social · 3mo agoIntroduce yourself with 10 bands you've seen live: Murder By Death Judas Priest Agalloch NIN AFI Garbage Venom Opeth Bonobo Beats Antique And then I moved to the middle of fucking nowhere and saw only one band in like a decade.
It seems ridiculous to talk about a book so well loved & widely read as this one. But yes, now I get it. It was daunting to start as it's SO big and it has so many characters at the start. Many characters disappeared shockingly quickly though...
@tuftymctavish.com @runalongwomble.bsky.social (and friends) @fairygrrl97.bsky.social @readingintandem.bsky.social @craigbookwyrm.bsky.social
Nellie Cubed@nelnelnellie.bsky.social · 3mo agoName 5 fellow bibliophiles you’d never have met (and would have had fewer book recommendations) without #BookSky. @ladyjane.bsky.social @becadreads.bsky.social @jeffvandezande.bsky.social @alexp336.bsky.social @barbnatividad.bsky.social 📚💙
A travel article about Christchurch, New Zealand that includes 2 bookshops & a library in a 12 hour itinerary! My kind of review. Have been to the library there, it is indeed excellent. Will check out those bookshops on the next trip. 📚💙 www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/12-ho...
12 hours eating, drinking and exploring in ever-evolving Christchurch
Christchurch’s hottest new additions and old-time favourites.
nzherald.co.nz
Totally enthralled by this book. Enjoyed isn't the right word for a book with so much of the horror and despair of war. The MC wakes more than a year after the resistance lost the war, having lost a significant part of her memory. Much of the story is about how & why. Dark & compelling... ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐📚🪐💙
A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett is another enjoyable trip into the world of investigators Ana and Din. See my book review here: toomanyfantasybooks.blogspot.com/2026/05/revi... (Thanks to Netgalley and DelRey for an ARC.)
Review - A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett
toomanyfantasybooks.blogspot.com
TBR challenge for April - random choice (used random number generator) is Shadow's End by Sheri Tepper. Haven't read any of hers before. The Stand by Stephen King which is the one that appeals to me most. Also daunting... it's HUGE. Have been wanting to read for ages tho. Challenge going well! 📚🪐💙
Runalong Womble@runalongwomble.bsky.social · 8mo agoYou want to clear some of that TBR Pile - my annual challenge may help! www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2025/12...
Have seen so many people in book groups online talk about pallet cleansing or palette cleansing and I can't stop thinking of warehouses & painters... 📚💙
Good evening! I'm reading Labyrinth's Heart, last of the Rook and Rose trilogy by MA Carrick, so good, enjoying this trilogy so much.
OK, I admit I got a bit carried away at the library. Especially as I'm currently reading something else on my tablet. But what could I do??? They all look so good. 📚🪐💙
Read Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir recently, SO surprised & happy to read so many references to New Zealand culture in the John chapters. But wondering what people from other parts of the world thought about those? Or does it just get lost in the general weirdness that is the Locked Tomb series? 📚🪐💙
Wow, I just loved this book & devoured it over one long weekend! I love a good con artist story and this one just kept unfolding layers & layers throughout. Loved the Venetian style setting, the political intrigue, the character growth. The Mask of Mirrors by MA Carrick. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐📚🪐💙
