Favourite Books of the Year So Far:

I know, I’m late to the party, but I wanted to get this up.

Before July started, I had read 51 books. I’m on track to read roughly 110 this year, which is my new goal, but let’s focus on the first half of the year.

I had some good reading months, and some naff ones, but I’ve managed to whittle down 51 books to five *really* great ones. Most of them, if not all of them actually, are historical. We’ve one non-fiction, and then the rest are historical fiction, mainly set in the Victorian period.

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The Binding by Bridget Collins

I find it hard to believe this is Collins’ debut novel. It was complex, emotional and original.

Reminiscent of the 19th century, people can visit book binders to rid themselves of painful or treacherous memories. Once bound, their memories lose the power to haunt them. Emmett Farmer, our protagonist, is sent to be a binder’s apprentice. His curiosity is peaked when he is forbidden to enter the room in which the books are stored, and by the arrival of the lordly Lucian Darnay, with whom he senses a connection with.

The Binding had such an innotivate storyline, taking something we are familiar with and turning it on its head. Who would have thought that books could possibly be someone’s unwanted memories? It’s immersive and beautifully written, with an unexpected romance and an excellent set of characters. A must read!

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Lockdown Reads // Top 5:

Hello… it’s been a while.

I haven’t really felt like blogging – my master’s just emotionally drained me and I turned to bookstagram as a way of sharing content (@bookishbyron_). I want to get back into writing about books, especially as I loved it so much, and it was a way of expressing my passion for classic literature. So… as a way to fill in the all of those months of silence, let’s talk about the books I’ve been reading during lockdown.

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The Murder of Harriet Monckton

I bought this rather chonky book last year and I’ve been putting it off because of it’s size. I’m not usually bothered by big books; I’ll happily pick up a 1,000 page novel and read it. I just wondered how you could drag out a murder mystery for 500 pages?

I was stupid to put it off for so long.

It’s set in 1843 as we follow an investigation into the mysterious murder of Harriet, who was found poisoned behind her local chapel. It’s based on a true story – I don’t exactly know how much of it was fictionalised, but it was bloody brilliant. I was kept in suspense the whole time, and didn’t see that final page plot twist (oh, god, so good). I wasn’t phased by the general slowness of the story, and I enjoyed being able to dip in and out of different perspectives.

Just a really great book.

2020 Reading Goals:

Like everybody else, I’m trying to squeeze my end-of-the-year bookish posts in the few weeks left of 2019. I wanted to talk through my reading goals for the next year…

I’m someone who prioritises reading. It’s what I like to do in my spare time. I rarely watch television and I have little-to-no social life, so reading is basically my whole life (the sad thing is, I’m not even joking). But I’m not someone who forces myself to read, and I don’t like to set myself specific TBRs or say I’ll read a massive amount of books.

You don’t know where life will take you.

So I like to go easy on my goals. But let’s discuss them anyway…

–  Let’s start with the good ol’ Goodreads challenge. I usually set my target at 30. That’s 2.5 books a month. I think that’s pretty do-able, but I want to read *at least* 4 books a month, so I’m upping my challenge to 50 (for a nice rounded number).

– I really, quite desperately want to get back into reading classics, specifically Victorian classics. I used to read so many in 2018 before my Masters killed my joy for them. I want to find my passion again, so I want to read at least two classics a month, with one of them being Victorian. In total, I should have read 24 classics in 2020.