What I was Reading and Why in 2020

Hello everyone, how are you? I’m doing well thank you. The weather this weekend has been absolutely fabulous. It’s been the type of weekend that makes you fall in love with fall. Not exactly a reading weekend as I’ve been doing a lot of outside clean up but I’ve been reading nonetheless. In fact, I finished Akata Warrior, yeah! It was no fault of the book or author that it took me a few months to finish. As the book came to a close I got to thinking there might be a third installment, which would be awesome. After a quick google search I’ve learned that there will be a third book! While at times I felt a little impatient with the story, it was still a great story. Without a doubt, Nnedi Okorafor is original. 😀 More on that later, for now, here’s what I’m reading and why.

I’ll start with what I still haven’t finished:

• Voyage of the Basilisk (Memoirs of Lady Trent, #3) by Marie Brennan
• Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom
• Kind of Coping by Maureen Marzi Wilson
• In Search of Black History with Bonnie Greer by Bonnie Greer (Audible audio)

I’m also still reading the e-book I received through a giveaway for The Bone Jar (Detective Lew Kirby, #1) by S.W. Kane

Most recently I finished Talon (Talon, #1) by Julie Kagawa (Audible audio) and Far from the Tree by Robin Benway (Audible audio). Talon I’d say is a 4 star read. It’s a teen/YA novel. It’s good, it’s just not great, but I am now listening to Rogue (Talon, #2). Far from the Tree (which I think I mentioned last time) is contemporary fiction and I’d say a 5 star.

As I just mentioned I’m listening to Rogue (Talon, #2) by Julie Kagawa through Audible audio. I’m also going to start The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell, a memoir (Audible audio). I figure since the latter is non-fiction I can listen to them at the same time.

The reason I’ve been excited to tell you about what I’m listening to and why is because I found a new method for deciding whether or not to listen to a book. Last year when I started back listening to audio books, I confused myself trying to pick which book to listen to. Do I listen to it or do I want a physical copy? Well, I have an answer (sort of).

Quite often Audible holds sales for a large selection of books. My favorite sale is the buy one, get one for one credit sale. I have discovered books because of such a sale, like Wild Seed by Octavia Butler (awesomely strange story which I do believe is being made into a movie with the help of Nnedi Okorafor of all people!) but I would really prefer to knock my TBR down instead of scrolling the titles to see what I might like. To make this easier on myself I’m slowly going through my Goodreads’ “Want to Read” list and adding most books (when available on Audible) to my Audible Wish List. This way if they are on sale or part of a sale Audible will show me. So by default I will pick said books to listen to instead of wait and buy a physical copy of. Why not grab them on sale right?

Another very cool thing about this tedious task of adding all my books to the list, is that sometimes I come across books that are already quite cheap, under $10. While I don’t immediately buy them all it’s good to know I have affordable options. One more reason to pick up such books in the audio format.

And another even cooler bonus to this process is Audible’s new Plus Catalog. These are books that are included in your subscription, meaning you get them for free! Of course if you leave Audible you leave the books, they aren’t yours. While there haven’t been a ton of books I’ve found are part of this catalog I have found quite a few. This excites me and makes my next listen that much easier of a decision. Let’s see… I believe it’s about 20 books, give or take, from my Goodreads’ TBR that are part of the Plus Catalog. That’s 20 FREE books!!! The Talon series by Julie Kagawa is in the catalog and has long been on my TBR. It feels great to go back to some older interests of mine and check check check them off!

In a beautifully nerdy way I’m thrilled with this kind of randomization in my reading process. The Diary of a Bookseller is one of the many books in the Plus Catalog that I have the pleasure of adding to my library. Here are some others:

• The entire Talon series by Julie Kagawa (5 books, fantasy, YA, 2014-2018)
• The Test by Sylvain Neuvel (science fiction, 2019)

• The Red Thread by Ann Hood (contemporary fiction, 2010)

• The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane (memoir, 2012)

• Timekeeper by Tara Sim (fantasy, YA, 2016)

• Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth (contemporary fiction, 2019)

• Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh (literary fiction, 2019)

• The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco (fantasy, YA, 2017)

As you see that’s a pretty nice variety of books with some diversity in authors as well. I’m not sure if I’ll power through the Talon series one after the other, I might. Or maybe I’ll do some co-reading, listening to other books while listening to the Talon series.

Then when the next sale pops up hopefully there will be some books from my super wish list included in the selection. If my memory serves me correctly, Audible does add to the Plus Catalog. By the way, I don’t get any kind of kick back or anything from Audible, might be nice though given how much I talk about it! Lol.

So that concludes this post. I hope you enjoyed it. Maybe it gave you an idea to create a wish list for yourself. I’m thinking this is really going to help my reading, especially the random nature of it. Stay posted to hear what I think and what I get started on next!

Thank you so much for your time! Stay safe and well.