Wave goodbye to 2015 and prepare yourself to screw up the date on forms for a little while. This was a pretty good year for me, actually. There was a stint of four years or so there where it felt like every year was worse than the next, but we’ve leveled out and I’m in a pretty decent place right now. Everyone I know is relatively healthy, I’m living with a girl I love, we’ve had a dog for over half a year and haven’t killed it yet. There’s certainly a lot of room for improvement, but I’m optimistic for 2016. The Weblog I had big plans for this weblog…

Books Acquired: Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb Homeland by Cory Doctorow Books Read: Daemon by Daniel Suarez Stephen Fry in America by Stephen Fry The Best of Robert Service by Robert W. Service Red Rising by Pierce Brown The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka Happy New Year! I was supposed to be away visiting family for just one week over Christmas, but our plane couldn’t land the day I was supposed to leave, so I was stuck there for an extra four days. I just landed last night and am very happy to be home. Despite the trouble leaving, I had a fun holiday this year. One of the better ones…

Books Acquired: None. Books Read: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde Without Feathers by Woody Allen A couple of the books I picked up to read this month were to finish up the 2015 TBR Pile Challenge, which I was lagging behind on a bit. I’m currently in the middle of Stephen Fry in America, which will finish that off. I’ve decided to only go for nine of my classic picks for the Back to the Classics Challenge this year, so I’ll be finishing that up…

Books Acquired: None. Books Read: Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks I was a naughty book blogger this month with only one book read. It happens sometimes. I do most of my reading currently in bed, something I’m hoping to change, and I’ve been falling asleep quick this month. Despite this, I’m still a couple posts behind, so maybe it was for the best. I’ll finally be catching up with myself in November. Not book related, but we did spend a week in California earlier in the month, visiting Disneyland and doing a bit of shopping. With the Canadian dollar as it currently is, this is not a great time…

Books Acquired: Asian Pickles: Sweet, Sour, Salty, Cured, and Fermented Preserves from Korea, Japan, China, India, and Beyond by Karen Solomon Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde & Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson Books Read: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Poison Belt by Arthur Conan Doyle Atonement by Ian McEwan Saga, Volume 5 by Brian K. Vaughan The first book in the acquired list this month was a random gift from my girlfriend! A book on pickling that looks fantastic. I love kimchi and pickled radish and hot sauce and anything with a…

Books Acquired: Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore Books Read: Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Non-Fiction by Terry Pratchett Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe High Fidelity by Nick Hornby How are we over a week into the month already? Time just slips away these days. We spent last weekend camping in Tofino, which was a little whirlwind of a trip that didn’t offer much downtime, so I didn’t get any reading in during that. It wasn’t a complete waste, as far as bookish concerns go, because I did get to pick up a copy of…

Books Acquired: Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory Sex Criminals, Vol. 2 by Matt Fraction Books Read: 14 by Peter Clines The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells Sex Criminals, Vol. 2 by Matt Fraction The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood I’m not sure where this month went. I feel like I jumped forward in time a few weeks somewhere. For a good chunk of the time we were dealing with exciting dog issues. Paisley had a hot spot on her tail, so we had to have her in a cone until it healed. Unfortunately, since the injury was on her tail, she could still reach it with a…

Books Acquired: None. Books Read: The Lost World by Michael Crichton Walking on Glass by Iain Banks Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein This wasn’t the best blogging month (three posts, where did the time go?), but it was an enjoyable reading month. It’s been incredibly sunny here, the hottest June we’ve had since I moved here actually, so I’ve had a great time walking Paisley and listening to audiobooks. They’re a life-saver for dog walking. There was a Steam sale at the beginning of the month, so I’ve sunk a lot of my free time into gaming these last few weeks.…

Books Acquired: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson City of Thieves by David Benioff The Human Factor by Graham Greene Thud! by Terry Pratchett A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie The Lost World by Michael Crichton The Star’s Tennis Balls by Stephen Fry The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton The Club Of Queer Trades by G.K. Chesterton The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett I Dreamed of Africa by Kuki Gallmann Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov Boneshaker by Cherie Priest Ship Breaker by…

Books Acquired: None. Books Read: In the Ravine and Other Short Stories by Anton Chekhov French Lessons by Peter Mayle What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund This month started off strong, but during the last couple of weeks I barely read ten pages a night, and I haven’t been listening to my audiobooks as much either. Those lulls in reading happen though, and I can start to feel a change in the last few days already. No books purchased this month either, but that will all change tomorrow when my favourite used book sale takes place. Previous years have proven quite fruitful, so I’m sure I’ll have…