Ahhhhhhh! I can’t believe you’ve said all of these lovely things! 🥹🫶🏾 Thank you so much! Hope you enjoy Chain Gang! You’ve recommended some great books and introduced me to some new authors. I want to check out Absolutely & Forever, sounds like a bit of me! P.S I was howling at this video, you crack me up! 😂
Awww thank YOU, what a lovely comment. Loving seeing your channel growing like you deserve. Delightful to see. Also I am having more and more meetings in the midlands with my work so if you ever wanna IRL book shopping spree or catch up let me know. Also thanks for introducing me to WOB, lethal.
In Memoriam by Alice Winn absolutely destroyed me. The most beautiful and moving book that brings the horror and devastation of WW1 to the fore in a way I’ve never read before. And no, not everyone is gay, but those who are are integral to the plot. It’s such a stunning book. Would love to hear what you thought of it once you’ve done it! Thanks Simon, cheers from Australia. Barbara
No, I know not everyone is gay BUT I do think the amount of queer characters is excessive and unrealistic (and I say this as a member of the community) which I find tricky to not see as being used in an odd way, odd for me anyway.
Great Video! I’ve had a struggle this year with reading, first time ever, usually I read 100+ but so far I’ve only read 15, and the last one in July. So I’m 100% onboard with 10 before the end. I might concentrate on vibes, audiobooks, shorter books.
Ten books I want to read before 2024 1. Kala - Colin Walsh 2. Penance - Eliza Clark 3. Immortal longings - Chloe Gong 4. Silver Nitrate - Silvia Moreno Garcia 5. Godkiller - Hannah Kaner 6. Defiant - Brandon Sanderson 7. The Graham Effect - Elle Kennedy 8. The year of the witching - Alexis Henderson 9. The Gustav Sonata - Rose Tremain 10. Starling House - Alix E Harrow
I’m also not a huge footnoted fan, but the Chain-Gang ones are actually great and add a lot. Feels like Adjei-Brenyah’s voice and anger bleeding into the text and it works so well. I thought it was a fantastic book - hope you enjoy!
Delightful. My tbr before year's end is Feast, Together and Apart, Red Sky at Morning and Troy Chimneys by Margaret Kennedy, House-Bound by Winifred Peck, Epitaph of a Small Winner by Machado de Assis, National Provincal by Lettice Cooper, Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins, and Cold Cream by Ferdinand Mount.
Hi Simon. Just finished a book u recmmended: The Haunting of Alma Fielding. A true, tantalising tale of stranger things I wrote in my Goodreads review. Fascinating how it morphed from the pyschical to the psychological! Thanks for the hrads up.
My ten before the end are a lot of sequels because I’m awfully bad at finishing series: Girls of fate and fury by Natasha Ngan A storm of sisters by Michelle Harrison (currently in the middle of) Aurora’s end by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman The dark forest by Cixin Liu (finished) The year of the flood by Margaret Atwood The theft of sunlight by I. Khanani The hunter and the mage by K. Davis And then Prophet song by Paul Lynch Beloved by Toni Morrison A suitable boy by Vikram Seth
this is a fabulous idea! I vaguely have books I'd like to read by the end of the year, and a couple I've specifically said I'd try to get to in a recent video, but it might do me some good to make a (semi-)formal list
Yes! This video 😍 The moment when sun was shining on Juno's book is simply priceless 🙌 I can't name 10, because with my mood reading tendencies the list honestly changes daily, but just a few I hope to read are Death of a Bookseller, Disability Visibility and My Name is Why (memoir). Happy reading! Hope you'll read most of these.
I can’t commit to 10 specific books before the end of the year. I’m still struggling with my reading, but I’m also a complete whim reader. So, here are a couple I’d like to finish by the end of the year. Shot With Crimson by Nicola Upson is a done deal as soon as I get my ears on the audio (not until December 5th). I’ve done the whole series on audiobook and don’t want to stop now. Can’t wait for this one! The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd Robinson is the chunkster that I really want to read but am intimidated by. I stopped around page 75 months ago, even though I was enjoying it. I just couldn’t get into 560 pages at that point. But I’ve loved her writing before and want to get this one read! I’ll throw in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Roman Stories too. Then I have a lovely stack of festive crime novels that I should be able to get through by the end of the year. And who knows what I’m going to pick up when I come to London, Bath, and Clare in a few weeks that I just have to read right away! 👀
In Memoriam is also on my list. I really want to get to Betty, Trespasses, The Prophets and Cloud Cuckoo Land as they are books I really wanted to get to last year and I can’t believe they are still lingering. I completely agree about Sex Education, but like that they were aware of it with Otis’ comment about it.
I’m glad they were aware but also not sure why they did it anyway. It was like they were trying to be Heartstopper, which is its own thing. Anyway. Thoughts on In Memoriam coming in my final wrap up for the year 😉
I’ve just finished Kala and loved it! I think you’ll really enjoy it. Juno Dawson is on my list for the end of the year too. Hoping to read Shrines of Gaiety before the year is out - need 2023 to have a Kate book in it!
The Shadow Cabinet was fab. I am finishing Fire Rush at the moment but I also have Kala, In Memoriam, Yellowface, Memphis, Severance, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies that’s not ten but there are many more I have acquired that I want to read!
Wow, those were some good tangents!!! You’ve got some amazing books to finish off the year with in those ten Simon! A friend was just in London and picked up Absolutely and Forever for me so that’s one of my ten. Others I will definitely read before the end of the year are Day by Michael Cunningham, Baumgartner by Paul Auster, Julia by Sandra Newman (already hearing WP buzz about that one), The Halt during the Chase by Rosemary Tonks which came out in 1972 but was just rereleased and which is giving me Brother of the More Famous Jack (Barbara Trapido) vibes, America Fantastica by Tim O’Brien, The Happy Couple by Naosie Dolan, Louise Kennedy’s short-story collection The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac, which isn’t out here until early December, Samantha Harvey’s Orbital and of course My Name is Barbra because she’s an icon. Whew!
Oooh you had quite the selection. I quite spectacularly failed on reading my ten before the end, not mad about it though, I could have predicted it. Hahaha.
I don't have 10 specific books picked out but I am working on Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison and also the one Richard Osman put out in September. I have several books "bookmarked" on my library's catalog so I guess those can join the pile too! More cozy mysteries than anything.
Books I want to get to before the end of 2023: ‘The Five’ - Hallie Rubenhold ‘Parable of the Talents’ - Octavia E Butler ‘Crying in H Mart -Michelle Zauner ‘Bad Science’ - Ben Goldacre ‘Calling for a Blanket Dance’ - Oscar Hokeah ‘Her Majesty’s Royal Coven’ ‘On Beauty’ - Zadie Smith ‘True History of the Kelly Gang’ - Peter Carey ‘How to Live. What to Do. - How great novels help us change - Josh Cohen ‘Terry Pratchett- ‘A Life with Footnotes’ - Rob Wilkins
…and I’d love to tell you, Simon 😇 Rouge by Mona Awad The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath The Lighthouse by Alison Moore To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid - I hope you’ll have a lovely time with your ten!
Everytime someone talks about Juno Dawsons series, I am reminded that I want to start it and never do. My reading is curretnly exptremely goverened by my insomniac brain, so nothing long or complex, short and simple and fluff. Nothing wrong with that, but not helping reduce my "books I wanted to read" list :D
Oooh can’t recommend you do enough. The prequel about Queen B (Ann Boleyn and the start of the coven) is coming next July. Nothing wrong with short and simple. We all need variety and different kinds of books at different times.
I hope you like Kala as much as I did. I’m currently listening to The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store March I highly recommended a book a book I’ve just finished Happiness Falls by Angie Kim 🍀👋☘️☕️📚📕📖
Oh good, you are going to tell me about Patchett's Tom Lake, my copy of I Am An Island should be here soon, so I'll read that before the end of the year (maybe), my box of Swingline rubber finger tips (makes page turning easy, I had a job as a clerk for a paper company as a young person, mind numbing). I am also going to read the latest John Grisham, Stephen King and Jo Nesbo, along with 3 light weight Christmas books.😂
I've selected the books I need to read before the end of the year (6 I believe) in order to meet the Alphabet challenge. Some have been sitting on my shelf for a while so I'm excited to get to them!
@@SavidgeReads The idea is to read within a year, books whose first letter of their title start with each letter of the alphabet ("The" and "A" at the beginning can be disregarded) Letters that are difficult such as X and Z can be in the middle of a word. For those this year I have Red X by David Demchuk and Toward Zero by Agatha Christie.
Alice Winn /In Memoriam 👍👍👍 I saw an interview with the author somewhere on TH-cam in which she discussed how she came to use the format she did -- fascinating. If I were to list favorites of the year, this would be one -- very well done (Note: WW1, not WW2). Cheers!
I’m half way through ‘the gunslinger’ and intend to read the whole series. So there’s 7 of my 10 😅 I don’t know what I’ll be reading after, although I’m in the mood for a tear jerker.
@@SavidgeReads I can relate, I’ve only completed a very small amount of series’ and most of them were in my late childhood/early teens. I mostly read stand-alones and have been guilty of starting series’ and never finishing them more times then I care to admit. But, I’ve had the whole ‘Dark Tower’ series (minus gunslinger) sat on my shelf for years just waiting, so I’m determined to finish this one.
Hi 👋🏻 🤓 I’d like to read several of your ten 📚 I have many library loans so I need to read some of those first (as long as I don’t have to return them due to reservations 😬) These include - The Things That We Lost (Jyoti Patel), The House of Doors (Tan Twan Eng), The Furrows (Namwali Serpell) & The Women of Troy (Pat Barker). So many books, not enough time 🥹 xx
Thanks, Simon🌷Tom Lake is among my favourites for 2023. The audiobook narrated by Meryl Streep is fantastic!
Yes that has almost tempted me to listen to it, Tom Hanks almost did with her previous one, I just struggle so badly with fiction on audio.
Ahhhhhhh! I can’t believe you’ve said all of these lovely things! 🥹🫶🏾 Thank you so much! Hope you enjoy Chain Gang!
You’ve recommended some great books and introduced me to some new authors. I want to check out Absolutely & Forever, sounds like a bit of me!
P.S I was howling at this video, you crack me up! 😂
Awww thank YOU, what a lovely comment. Loving seeing your channel growing like you deserve. Delightful to see. Also I am having more and more meetings in the midlands with my work so if you ever wanna IRL book shopping spree or catch up let me know. Also thanks for introducing me to WOB, lethal.
What an absolute delight you are! 🎉🎉🎉
Awwww thank you. That’s a lovely thing to say.
Prophet Song is a mustttt !!!! I’m hoping it wins the Booker!!
I have a feeling it might. But I’ve been very very wrong before. I have it in my suitcase right now.
In Memoriam by Alice Winn absolutely destroyed me. The most beautiful and moving book that brings the horror and devastation of WW1 to the fore in a way I’ve never read before. And no, not everyone is gay, but those who are are integral to the plot. It’s such a stunning book. Would love to hear what you thought of it once you’ve done it! Thanks Simon, cheers from Australia. Barbara
No, I know not everyone is gay BUT I do think the amount of queer characters is excessive and unrealistic (and I say this as a member of the community) which I find tricky to not see as being used in an odd way, odd for me anyway.
Oh my! Kala has just found itself on my wish list 😊.
I can’t believe I’ve still not read it.
You're just a ray of sunshine ☀ #letyourlightshine ❤
Awww thank you so much!
The Shadow Cabinet is excellent. Kala is on my 10 before the end.
I’m really looking forward to both. The HMRC prequel is coming next year which is exciting!
Simon asks, “Have I said Rose Tremain enough?”
No. You can never say Rose Tremain enough.
This is very, very true.
Great Video! I’ve had a struggle this year with reading, first time ever, usually I read 100+ but so far I’ve only read 15, and the last one in July. So I’m 100% onboard with 10 before the end. I might concentrate on vibes, audiobooks, shorter books.
That sounds like a plan. Sometimes we’re slumpy and just need a break. I’ve had that on and off since summer, I found whims help.
I can highly recommend Prophet Song. Loved it 😊
I’m really looking forward to getting to it.
Shadow cabinet is on my tbr x
I’m so excited to read it. Mum’s already read it. She couldn’t wait after HMRC.
Ten books I want to read before 2024
1. Kala - Colin Walsh
2. Penance - Eliza Clark
3. Immortal longings - Chloe Gong
4. Silver Nitrate - Silvia Moreno Garcia
5. Godkiller - Hannah Kaner
6. Defiant - Brandon Sanderson
7. The Graham Effect - Elle Kennedy
8. The year of the witching - Alexis Henderson
9. The Gustav Sonata - Rose Tremain
10. Starling House - Alix E Harrow
Hope you got to lots of these, if not all of them!
I’m also not a huge footnoted fan, but the Chain-Gang ones are actually great and add a lot. Feels like Adjei-Brenyah’s voice and anger bleeding into the text and it works so well.
I thought it was a fantastic book - hope you enjoy!
Hmmmmm. Lol. I shall say no more. Well, until I do. Hahaha.
Delightful. My tbr before year's end is Feast, Together and Apart, Red Sky at Morning and Troy Chimneys by Margaret Kennedy, House-Bound by Winifred Peck, Epitaph of a Small Winner by Machado de Assis, National Provincal by Lettice Cooper, Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins, and Cold Cream by Ferdinand Mount.
Oooh hope you got to some of those, if not all. I only read three of mine.
Hi Simon. Just finished a book u recmmended: The Haunting of Alma Fielding. A true, tantalising tale of stranger things I wrote in my Goodreads review. Fascinating how it morphed from the pyschical to the psychological! Thanks for the hrads up.
Soooooooo pleased you enjoyed it!
My ten before the end are a lot of sequels because I’m awfully bad at finishing series:
Girls of fate and fury by Natasha Ngan
A storm of sisters by Michelle Harrison (currently in the middle of)
Aurora’s end by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman
The dark forest by Cixin Liu (finished)
The year of the flood by Margaret Atwood
The theft of sunlight by I. Khanani
The hunter and the mage by K. Davis
And then
Prophet song by Paul Lynch
Beloved by Toni Morrison
A suitable boy by Vikram Seth
Does the Dark Forest count if you’ve finished? 😉
@@SavidgeReadsI started at the beginning of this month.
this is a fabulous idea! I vaguely have books I'd like to read by the end of the year, and a couple I've specifically said I'd try to get to in a recent video, but it might do me some good to make a (semi-)formal list
I think if it’s too formal it can become a bookish burden. Informal is more fun. That’s something I’m really thinking about for next year.
Yes! This video 😍
The moment when sun was shining on Juno's book is simply priceless 🙌
I can't name 10, because with my mood reading tendencies the list honestly changes daily, but just a few I hope to read are Death of a Bookseller, Disability Visibility and My Name is Why (memoir).
Happy reading! Hope you'll read most of these.
I have done very badly on the reading of these, many are going over into 2024 reading. ha.
@@SavidgeReads don't worry. You're not alone.
I can’t commit to 10 specific books before the end of the year. I’m still struggling with my reading, but I’m also a complete whim reader. So, here are a couple I’d like to finish by the end of the year. Shot With Crimson by Nicola Upson is a done deal as soon as I get my ears on the audio (not until December 5th). I’ve done the whole series on audiobook and don’t want to stop now. Can’t wait for this one! The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd Robinson is the chunkster that I really want to read but am intimidated by. I stopped around page 75 months ago, even though I was enjoying it. I just couldn’t get into 560 pages at that point. But I’ve loved her writing before and want to get this one read! I’ll throw in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Roman Stories too. Then I have a lovely stack of festive crime novels that I should be able to get through by the end of the year. And who knows what I’m going to pick up when I come to London, Bath, and Clare in a few weeks that I just have to read right away! 👀
Whims are great. I definitely want more whims in 2024.
ahhh Daughter is also on my list just for the cover alone!!! she's so mysterious!
She’s so mysterious and so playful with that foiled rainbow cover. Hahaha.
In Memoriam is also on my list. I really want to get to Betty, Trespasses, The Prophets and Cloud Cuckoo Land as they are books I really wanted to get to last year and I can’t believe they are still lingering.
I completely agree about Sex Education, but like that they were aware of it with Otis’ comment about it.
I’m glad they were aware but also not sure why they did it anyway. It was like they were trying to be Heartstopper, which is its own thing. Anyway. Thoughts on In Memoriam coming in my final wrap up for the year 😉
I’ve just finished Kala and loved it! I think you’ll really enjoy it. Juno Dawson is on my list for the end of the year too. Hoping to read Shrines of Gaiety before the year is out - need 2023 to have a Kate book in it!
Ooooh there’s a new Kate book coming next year and I am soooooooo excited for that.
The Shadow Cabinet was fab. I am finishing Fire Rush at the moment but I also have Kala, In Memoriam, Yellowface, Memphis, Severance, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies that’s not ten but there are many more I have acquired that I want to read!
Loved Fire Rush and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, two absolute corkers.
Kala is great! You’ll love it
Wow, those were some good tangents!!! You’ve got some amazing books to finish off the year with in those ten Simon! A friend was just in London and picked up Absolutely and Forever for me so that’s one of my ten. Others I will definitely read before the end of the year are Day by Michael Cunningham, Baumgartner by Paul Auster, Julia by Sandra Newman (already hearing WP buzz about that one), The Halt during the Chase by Rosemary Tonks which came out in 1972 but was just rereleased and which is giving me Brother of the More Famous Jack (Barbara Trapido) vibes, America Fantastica by Tim O’Brien, The Happy Couple by Naosie Dolan, Louise Kennedy’s short-story collection The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac, which isn’t out here until early December, Samantha Harvey’s Orbital and of course My Name is Barbra because she’s an icon. Whew!
Oooh you had quite the selection. I quite spectacularly failed on reading my ten before the end, not mad about it though, I could have predicted it. Hahaha.
I don't have 10 specific books picked out but I am working on Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison and also the one Richard Osman put out in September. I have several books "bookmarked" on my library's catalog so I guess those can join the pile too! More cozy mysteries than anything.
The latest Richard Osman is my favourite of the series.
I have In Memoriam and Let Us Descend on my TBR too but not in the mindset…did you read Trees by Percival Everett? It’s a must read!
Yes. I read it last year. I liked it. Bit of fatphobia I wasn’t sure about but will definitely read more of his work.
Books I want to get to before the end of 2023:
‘The Five’ - Hallie Rubenhold
‘Parable of the Talents’ - Octavia E Butler
‘Crying in H Mart -Michelle Zauner
‘Bad Science’ - Ben Goldacre
‘Calling for a Blanket Dance’ - Oscar Hokeah
‘Her Majesty’s Royal Coven’
‘On Beauty’ - Zadie Smith
‘True History of the Kelly Gang’ - Peter Carey
‘How to Live. What to Do. - How great novels help us change - Josh Cohen
‘Terry Pratchett- ‘A Life with Footnotes’ - Rob Wilkins
Hope you have enjoyed the ones that you have got to.
I just got my copy of Absolutely and Forever from the UK. Rose Tremaine is one of my favorite authors. Kala is definitely a fun read.
I cannot believe I have still not read either of them, shame on me.
…and I’d love to tell you, Simon 😇
Rouge by Mona Awad
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo
Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Lighthouse by Alison Moore
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak
and
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- I hope you’ll have a lovely time with your ten!
Fabulous selection, I have neglected my ten a bit - whoops.
@@SavidgeReadsit’s the same on my end, admittedly. I managed six and the rest will just have to be for next year 😉
Everytime someone talks about Juno Dawsons series, I am reminded that I want to start it and never do. My reading is curretnly exptremely goverened by my insomniac brain, so nothing long or complex, short and simple and fluff. Nothing wrong with that, but not helping reduce my "books I wanted to read" list :D
Oooh can’t recommend you do enough. The prequel about Queen B (Ann Boleyn and the start of the coven) is coming next July.
Oooh can’t recommend you do enough. The prequel about Queen B (Ann Boleyn and the start of the coven) is coming next July. Nothing wrong with short and simple. We all need variety and different kinds of books at different times.
I hope you like Kala as much as I did. I’m currently listening to
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
March
I highly recommended a book a book I’ve just finished
Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
🍀👋☘️☕️📚📕📖
Read The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store this month, thoughts tomorrow on the channel. Happiness Falls is one I am planning on heading to early 2024.
Oh good, you are going to tell me about Patchett's Tom Lake, my copy of I Am An Island should be here soon, so I'll read that before the end of the year (maybe), my box of Swingline rubber finger tips (makes page turning easy, I had a job as a clerk for a paper company as a young person, mind numbing). I am also going to read the latest John Grisham, Stephen King and Jo Nesbo, along with 3 light weight Christmas books.😂
Hahaha. I’m not sure how insightful I could be about Tom Lake apart from say people had told me to read it.
I've selected the books I need to read before the end of the year (6 I believe) in order to meet the Alphabet challenge. Some have been sitting on my shelf for a while so I'm excited to get to them!
Oooh what’s the alphabet challenge?
@@SavidgeReads The idea is to read within a year, books whose first letter of their title start with each letter of the alphabet ("The" and "A" at the beginning can be disregarded) Letters that are difficult such as X and Z can be in the middle of a word. For those this year I have Red X by David Demchuk and Toward Zero by Agatha Christie.
Alice Winn /In Memoriam 👍👍👍 I saw an interview with the author somewhere on TH-cam in which she discussed how she came to use the format she did -- fascinating. If I were to list favorites of the year, this would be one -- very well done (Note: WW1, not WW2). Cheers!
Maybe I need to see that, I have tried thrice with the book and it just has not worked for me, more on that in a video tomorrow.
Interview with Blue Willow Bookshop, in Texas (it's on their YT channel) -- about 9 months ago --
I’m going to have to read the last chapter of HMRC again because I can’t remember what the cliffhanger was! 😂 absolutely brilliant book though
Wasn’t it a corker!
I’m half way through ‘the gunslinger’ and intend to read the whole series. So there’s 7 of my 10 😅 I don’t know what I’ll be reading after, although I’m in the mood for a tear jerker.
I have been absolutely rubbish with keeping up with any series that I’ve started. I need to get back onto them in 2024.
@@SavidgeReads I can relate, I’ve only completed a very small amount of series’ and most of them were in my late childhood/early teens. I mostly read stand-alones and have been guilty of starting series’ and never finishing them more times then I care to admit. But, I’ve had the whole ‘Dark Tower’ series (minus gunslinger) sat on my shelf for years just waiting, so I’m determined to finish this one.
Speed reader ?
Not really, no.
Hi 👋🏻 🤓 I’d like to read several of your ten 📚
I have many library loans so I need to read some of those first (as long as I don’t have to return them due to reservations 😬) These include - The Things That We Lost (Jyoti Patel), The House of Doors (Tan Twan Eng), The Furrows (Namwali Serpell) & The Women of Troy (Pat Barker).
So many books, not enough time 🥹 xx
I have quite a few of those on my TBR. SNAP. Hahaha.
I’ve now read ‘the things that we lost’ (a worthy debut imho 👏🏻🥹)
Happy & Healthy New Year Simon - “keep reading” 🪩 😘📚