Today is a super exciting day for me! I'm appearing as a guest on one of my favorite podcasts! (Ahhh!) It's Sarah's Bookshelves Live, and you can listen to it here.
I LOVE Sarah's podcast (I subscribe to it, support it on Patreon, and listen to every episode), because she gives amazing book recommendations, is very real/relatable, and isn't afraid to be snarky about a book. If she hated it, she will tell you! I love that.
So I was THRILLED to record with her a few weeks back, and the episode just came out today! We talked about getting out of a Coronavirus reading rut, rediscovering your love of reading after a hiatus (and I share some of these tips for reading more), the amazingness of Ann Patchett, time travel books, the best celebrity memoirs, and we even do some dishing on Anna Wintour and the fashion magazine world!
And of course, I share what has become the famous tenant of the podcast: two old books I loved, two new books I loved, one book I did not like, and one new release I'm excited for. PLEASE listen to the episode (it's so worth it and there are TONS more book recs!), but if you just want to find out what I named for the superlatives above, they are:
-Two old books I loved: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (my review here) and Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradel
-Two new books I loved: All Adults Here by Emma Straub (my review here) and Open Book by Jessica Simpson (my review here. Note: Sarah and I both think audio is a must for this one! I listened to it via Libro.fm, which is my absolute favorite way to listen to audiobooks, because purchases go to indie bookstores, not Amazon. If you want to try it, you can get THREE audiobooks for the price of one with code ALYSSA or just by clicking here. Enjoy!)
-Book I did not love: The Girl He Used to Know by Tracie Garvis Graves (sorry to the many of you who love that book!)
-New release I'm excited for: The Chiffon Trenches by Andre Leon Talley
If you check out the pod, please let me know what you think. (And big thanks to Sarah for having me. I will chat books with you ANYTIME.) More info on it here. Happy listening!
After a bit of a lull, I've made huge strides in my reading this year (as I write this on December 31st, I'm at 119 books read for the year--almost 100 more than last year...! (That said, the 119 number is kind of killing me, so I'm hoping to squeeze in one more today to make it an even 120.)
But one thing has frustrated me about my reading this year: I've been focused on new books. Brand new books--and pretty much exclusively. I get caught up in the #bookstagram culture, tempted by all the amazing new releases, and also feel obligated to read and review any e-books I (very generously!) get free from NetGalley, and there just never seems to be time for the older stuff. And that's so annoying! There are SO many good, existing books out there. So many great books I haven't read. So many books I've already purchased (ugh--sooo many) that are just sitting around collecting dust on my shelves or lurking in my Kindle app.
So, I've decided to do something about that this year, right off the bat.
For the month of January, I'm going to be reading backlist books. Only backlist books. Even if I'm tempted by a great sounding new release. Even when my January Book of the Month box arrives. Even if an ARC of American Dirt somehow magically arrives in my mailbox. I'm calling it my "New Year, Old Books" challenge. It's going to be a little tough, but I'm focused, I'm ready, and I'm excited!
There are so many great books out there that I have long been dying to read, and just haven't gotten around to for whatever reason. I recently went through my existing TBR pile (both real and virtual) and there are already way too many older books that I already own, so I'm not even truly going to make a dent in the old books already in my possession. But I'm looking forward to seeing how far I get!
A few books now on my January TBR list (i.e. books I've, embarrasingly, never read): Bel Canto, A Gentleman in Moscow, Dark Matter, Firefly Lane, The Poisonwood Bible, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance, Sweetbitter, The Rules of Magic, The Dream Daughter, and--ugh--so many more!
My self-imposed rules for the challenge are pretty simple: The books I read this January must be from 2018 or earlier (but I'm going to aim for even older). And I can't buy any of the books I read. But the library is fair game! And I am actually going to allow myself to do new releases on audio though. (I don't know if this is "cheating," but I already own a million new releases on audio and pretty much zero old ones, so I'm just going to do it this way. Also, it takes me forever to get through audiobooks. So, if I don't keep at them, I will absolutely never catch up with those!)
If you want to watch my progress (or, better yet, try the challenge yourself!), you can follow me on Instagram at @alyssaisbooked and via the hashtag #newyearoldbookswithalyssa. Let me know if you are going to participate, so we can motivate each other and exchange some great (old) book recs.
Happy reading--and happy new year!
