My Reading Life

 

I just spent an hour or more going over the books I read and recorded on Goodreads this year and last year.  I wanted to find all the books I rated five stars and then to look for more books by those authors.  In the last month I have rejected at least ten books that I brought home from the library or downloaded for my Kindle app. Sometimes I just take those rejected books off my "to read" list on Goodreads or the "For Later" list at the Princeton Library.  Sometimes I shelve them as "abandoned" on Goodreads and then write a "private note" as to why I abandoned them.  I never rate a book one or two stars.  If that is all it was worth to me, I probably abandoned it.  I know authors look at these reviews so I don't want to disparage any books publicly. 

Goodreads statistics show that I read over 1400 books in the last ten years.  I abandoned 140.  10%!  I know however that I give up on more than 10%.  Recently I came home with six books from the Princeton Library and I read two of them.  

I found 59 books in 2023 and 2024 that I rated five stars.  I jotted down the names of the books and the authors.  My next project will be to find other books by those authors.  Sadly, I have read everything Nicholas Rhea wrote before he died.  I will have to wait for more mysteries by Martin Walker or memoirs by Niall Williams and his wife Christine Breen. Hal Borland wrote many years ago.  

I wondered if I had recorded reading Jim's biography of R. H. Charles when it was published a year ago.   I had neglected to do so!  So I rated it five stars and wrote a review--the first reader to do so.  I think probably the target audience for such an academic book does not use Goodreads.  So the average rating as it stands today is "five stars."  

Goodreads saves me from rebuying books.  I get lists from EarlyBird books in my email and when I check to see what Goodreads readers think of a book before I make a purchase, I see that I have already read it--or rejected it.  I put books on a request list at our wonderful Princeton Public Library or if it is not there, I can often find out of print books at Better World Books or the used book list on Amazon.  I purchase a few books from Amazon every month for my Kindle app--for 99 cents or $1.99 or $2.99. 

In my retirement, I have plenty of time to read and am grateful to have ways to find books that I enjoy and appreciate.  

One more thing about my reading.  In the last year or so I have found email addresses for several authors and let them know how much I appreciated their work.  I have had lovely responses from each one making me realize it was worth the effort to find a way to contact them.  

--------------June 29  I checked out four books from the library yesterday and have returned two of them today.  I have rejected one more.  I hope I can enjoy one out of the four.  I don't want to read mysteries that are too ugly.  I don't want to read about adultery.  A problem is that when I finish a book that I really appreciated, it is hard to find another one that measures up.  I finished Doris Kearn Goodwin's An Unfinished Love Story and it was wonderful.  Novels and mysteries don't compare with her personal account of the 1960s through her going through boxes of memorabilia with her husband in the months before his death.