Category: Reading

  • New Year, New Challenge

    Happy New year! It’s another year, so it’s time for another challenge. I’m no longer restricting myself to free books so my pool of choice is now vast. That’s great, but it can make it hard to decide what to read. So I’ve decided to try an alphabet challenge. For as long as it takes…

  • Free Reading Challenge: The book I bought this week

    Okay, so my free reading challenge is nearing its end. You would think the finish line being in sight would make me better able to stick to only reading free books. And I could stick to my rules if I wanted to. But this week I’ve bought a book that fits into none of my…

  • My free reading challenge: straying outside my genre

    I read a lot of YA fiction. Reading is a high priority in my life. I work, I’m a mum, I write books myself (45.5k words through Nanowrimo – whoop!) and I still squash in reading 2 – 3 books a week. I’d be lost without them. But I can get a bit jaded. Just to…

  • Free Reading Challenge: How much is too much?

    Finding Free I’ve spoken before about how I’ve found books to read for my free reading challenge. I’ve surfed Amazon (not a brilliant success), found books from e-mail promotion companies, and from recommendations on Facebook and Twitter and signed up to blog tours (much more successful). Just lately, I’ve also signed up to several author newsletters…

  • This week’s challenge: writer or characters?

    This is slightly off-topic from my free reading challenge (once more: “I read some books” makes for a less than fascinating post), but my blog this week was prompted by a question on twitter about whether readers prefer standalone novels or series. It’s one of the “rules” of independent publishing that series sell vastly better than…

  • My free reading challenge: Peaks and Troughs

    Down in the dumps I missed posting last week, but you didn’t miss much, I promise: “I did some reading” makes for a less than riveting post, so I spared you all. I also didn’t blog because I was at a bit of a low point, reading-wise. I spent much of the week mildly disgruntled (well,…

  • My free reading challenge: temptation!

    My quest to read as much as I like without spending money on a book for myself until Christmas continues… Dear and lovely readers, this week was hard. Offspring found an unspent book token, so we headed off to Waterstones to spend it. A will of iron Now, that’s not the hard part. I’m –…

  • My free reading challenge: lost in Netgalley

    I signed up for Netgalley recently. I wouldn’t have bothered, but a book I’d requested to review for a blog tour was only available via Netgalley, so I got myself an account. I’ve tried to be disciplined, I swear I have. But it’s a bit like another bookshop – except one where most of the…

  • My free reading challenge: I bought a book – but I can’t read it yet

    This week I have something a little different to report because I have pre-ordered a book which costs actual, real money. It comes out before Christmas (so, while my free reading challenge is on-going), but it also comes under my exception of buying a book by a friend to support their launch. Unbearable suspense It also…

  • My free reading challenge: independent writers oozing with talent

    This week has been more reading, reading, reading to slim down my TBR pile. Most of the books I’ve read in the past couple of weeks have been independently published because it turns out independent publishers are mostly the people I know and thus their books are the ones I get to hear about. All my…