January Book Haul

As of now, just be aware that my continued excuse for a large haul of books is 'retail therapy'. We have all heard now how rubbish this year has been so far and it makes us happy to shop for, find, buy, collect, organize, display and read books. So just let us be happy eh? haha.
We said a few posts back that we really should get on top of it and cut the buying out a little but it's not like it's a lot of money, nor do we really spend much money on anything other than the important basics. Overall, it's books really. Not a bad habit to have at all.
Here is what we all bought in January 2020!

The Fire Within by Chris d'Lacey

Paperback

YMCA Charity Shop

The Siren Song by Rob Kidd

Paperback

YMCA Charity Shop

The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson

Paperback

British Red Cross Charity Shop

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

Paperback

Far Place Charity Shop

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Wonderful World of Reading

Hardback

Far Place Charity Shop

Prince Caspian by C S Lewis

Paperback

Far Place Charity Shop

Show Stopper by Hayley Barker

Paperback

British Heart Foundation Charity Shop

Oswiu: King of Kings by Edoardo Albert

Paperback

British Heart Foundation Charity Shop

Malice by John Gwynne

Paperback

British Heart Foundation Charity Shop

The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien

Paperback - Unwin 50th Anniversary Edition

St Oswalds Charity Shop

The Company of Ghosts by Berlie Doherty

Paperback

St Oswalds Charity Shop

The Houses with the Clock in it's Walls by John Belliars

Paperback

St Oswalds Charity Shop

Lord of the Rings Part One by J R R Tolkien

Paperback - Collins Modern Classic Edition

St Oswalds Charity Shop

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Paperback

St Oswalds Charity Shop

Wizardology by Dugald Steer

Hardback

St Oswalds Charity Shop

Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee

Paperback

Tesco

A Pinch of Magic by Michelle Harrison

Paperback

Tesco

The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell

Paperback

Tesco

The Conference of the Birds by Ransom Riggs

Hardback - Signed Edition

Waterstones

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

Paperback

Oxfam Charity Shop

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Paperback

Oxfam Charity Shop

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Paperback

Oxfam Charity Shop

22 books. 14 more than last month but 15 less than our biggest buy month of October 2019. A happy medium? We actually bought 4 brand new books in January too which is a rarity, 2 were on the Tesco 2 for £7 godsend, one was only £4 and the other was a special signed edition that we just couldn't say no to.
I think working to a goal worked a couple of months back so if we aim for under 15 books next month, hopefully we'll have a smaller list in February!

Mr's Goodreads Year in Books 2019

Hello there! Its been a while since I wrote a post here and I know its now February but here is my year in books! Me and Mrs H decided to use the Goodreads breakdown for these post as its convenient and looks great. I know compared to some bloggers/readers 24 books isn't alot but I am very happy with that number.

Look at all of those covers!! I read most of these books in the last 6 months of the year and I'm really happy with the amount of reading that was done. I'm in the middle of reading so many series at the moment and the plan is to get through all of them this year! I have set my Goodreads goal at 30 books for this year which I think is a good realistic goal for myself! We are both hoping to start posting on here more again so keep your eyes peeled for that!!

Pages Per Day // January

In our previous blog post I quickly mentioned some goals regarding page totals etc and wanted to explain a little more before sharing this new series of posts.
Originally, the only goal we had when it came to reading was the aim of reading at least 3 books per month on average. Then I thought about the fact some of the books on my TBR could be 600 pages, while another could be 200...therefore if I read three 200 pages books or one 600 page one would mean I met my total book goal but not the other despite it being the same 'amount of reading' technically. Does that make sense? Haha.
Anyway, at the end of December I decided to track January's daily pages read...

Days 1 - 7 = 104

Days 8 - 14 = 155

Days 15 - 21 = 250

Days 22 - 28 = 194

Days 29 - 31 = 107

Monthly total = 810

Considering the turbulent month we all had, an overall total of 810 isn't completely shabby. I finished 4 books which proves my point about shorter books eh? Mr H did manage to track his pages last month but this month his TBR is two books seeing as one is approximately 1000 pages long! 

Over my three TBR's I've 1008 pages to read and I'm hoping I can push myself to up my daily page totals to at least meet, if not surpass that goal.

We'll check back in next month with hopefully both of our February's pages per day tracked!

February TBR Lists

January was a crazy month. And not good crazy. It seems that since we got married life has been a roller coaster of good and bad moments and when things are like that, extracurricular activities (ie. this blog) have to just get forgotten about. I even considered just deleting the blog altogether but we're going to keep it going a little while longer...
From now posts won't be on specific days and there won't always be two a week as I personally also post on my photo blog Adventures of the Hallows twice a week too! Pop over there to see what our life looks like through daily photos.
But for now, here is our To Be Read lists for February!!

Mr Hallow's TBR List

Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan - 993 pages

Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer [Mrs' pick] - 329 pages

- Page total: 1322

Mrs Hallow's TBR List

The Call of the Wild by Jack London - 199

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman [Mr's Pick] - 341

The Toy Makers by Robert Dinsdale [TBR Jar Pick] - 468

- Page total: 1008

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We thankfully were still able to get a normal amount of reading done in January despite the busyness and set our yearly reading goals, taking our previous year into account, at 30 for Mr H and 36 for Mrs H. There was a planned post talking about our goals etc but meh, there they are! 

That being said, this is sort of why I've decided to include the page totals for our TBR. If we chose 3 books at 500 pages each we are less likely to get through more of the books we want to read. However if we space them out with a big one and some smaller ones together each month, surely it'll be more manageable?!

To end this post I thought I'd include the 'outtakes'. Enjoy.