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I think it’s great that you support your local library so much 😍 maybe there is just a balance to be found between reading library books and reading the books on your own shelves? But I think it’s perfectly okay to go through phases with both ☺️

I get really excited about the library as well although my goal this year has been to try to read from my shelves. My dnf rate so far is 25% which is lower than usual (30-34%). I think that's probably because I'm reading more from my shelves whereas I take more chances with library books.

Added a few to my list from this! Interested in what you’ll think of Revival Season. I read it a few years ago and it wasn’t for me but I’m curious if it’s for you, and/ or if I’d feel differently now.

I am not gravitating towards new releases, as I noticed that they often are not mentioned a year or two later (e.g Nightcrawling was among many booktubers favourites of 2022, but I haven't heard about it since). My mid-year stats are very satisfactory! I have 7 goals for the year and have reached all (for 6months) of them: 1. No adding US books to my tbr for 2024 (I had 23 already, took one off my tbr and added another, so that's fine) 2. Read 12 African books (read 9 so far) 3. Read 12 Non-fiction books (read 8 so far) 4. Re-read 12 books that I rated 4☆ and more (read 5. In December, I mostly reread, so that goal will be reached easily) 6. Read 6 classics/modern classics (read 11) 7. Read 96 books or 30000 pages (read 54 books and 16000 pages) An extra stat that is not goal-related: 9 DNF's I love looking at your stats and goals as well as sharing mine😊!

I work at a public library and I am constantly exposed to new titles both in our library system and in ones we are able to borrow from. It makes focusing on my personal physical tbr very difficult! lol. Most of the time I try to alternate between personal and library books. This "sometimes" works. lol. I just try to remind myself that I am blessed to be surrounded by choices. 💕💕📚📚

The road to Dalton and the two literary crime books have peaked my interest 😊 love your descriptions x

All you need to know is that I'm a member of five libraries and that I'm trying to get my number of owned books from three digits to two unsuccessfully for years. Now draw your own conclusions.

I love your channel and your reading but I do think borrowing books from the library, keeping them, not reading them, sending them back then re borrowing them ( a 100 loans and only 27 read plus another 18 out ) is a bit selfish. Makes it harder for others who would like to read them and can’t afford to buy them. Like I said I really enjoy your channel but this does seem extremely excessive and I’m sorry but a bit selfish.

I have 30 books out from the library. Yes, 30! And the last 2 books I read were books I own, so it's like I'm not even trying! I don't even remember what most of these books are about or why I put them on hold in the first place. And some are books I suggested they purchase, so I should at least prioritize those. (I excuse not reading them by telling myself I've curated many of my library's better books, which will hopefully bring those books to the people in my town. That's a valuable service, right? 🤣 )

I've honestly got no idea how many are on my tbr - I think maybe about 150💀💀 These all sound super interesting - especially Pretty Baby and Haven!

I hope you get to the realm of the elderling books! I finished the series in the last couple of months and really loved it, the books get bettter and better througout the series i think. Would love to hear your thoughts on them!

I've also done a similar thing with my library. I keep requesting and borrowing books and then not reading them. I think it's ok as it's supporting the library, but each reservation is 90p, so it can add up and be a bit silly if I'm not reading most of the books! I have 12 books out at the moment and I'm waiting for 3 more to come in. After that I'm definitely going to focus on my own unread books, as I'm trying to get my owned tbr down this year.

I really like the Realm of the Elderlings audiobooks and I find audiobooks a great way to reread, especially if you combine with physical reading. I know some people don’t like the narrator for Farseer and Tawny Man, they do have quite old fashioned posh accents for some reason but I think once you get used to it they do a good job giving life to the story!

Albus crashing your videos in the background makes me think he's trying to provoke you into giving him his 15 min of fame. I'm now very intrigued to see his mischievous face on screen 😊. It's got nothing to do with the fact that I'm obsessed with cats, none at all😂

I loved The Luminaries and I think the main characters are actually the 2 women. The meeting at the beginning doesn't last long and it's worth the read, I think.

I loved Fellowship Point. Such richly developed opposites, elderly lady characters. Without going into too much I felt it went a bit too saccarine at a few points for my liking personally, but it was only just shy of a 5star. Girlhood, complex womens relationships, highly think you would like Strike Your Heart by Amelie Nothomb. Absolute short, sharp hit for me.

I do the same thing: get tons of library books, prioritize finishing them, often at the cost of reading the books I've been interested in enough to actually purchase! I need to wean myself from the library and focus on reading from my personal library. You got me interested in that Catton book The Rehearsal! 🎉🎉🎉

I am in Canada - would b be happy to get books to you from here - I could probably get you stuff at a lower price and with less shipping cost!! :)

I've said exactly the same thing about David Nicholls. His book Us was long listed for the Booker, if that had been written by a woman it never would have got near the Booker.

I’ll definitely be purchasing Road to Dalton and Damages. I’m currently listening to Little Monsters and the full cast narration is wonderful! However, I’m about to punch Adam and Ken virtually in the face 😂Abby has just gotten a couple digs in though, so I’ll soldier onwards! Wonderful articulation of these reads, as always ❤❤

I own over 400 unread books. I am a public librarian. There is no excuse for this behavior. And yet, here we are. I am trying to read them down, but it isn't stopping me from buying more books. I might have a problem.

I think that policing book would have left me confused and unsettled with the contrast in commentary 🤔

Hey Mercedes, I haven't seen you pop up in my feed for ages! I'm going back and checking out some videos I've missed. Hope you're doing well. I recently started working at a library and everytime I'm there I end up borrowing somehing 😅

The only one I've read is Haven and i really liked it. Like the sound of The Rehearsal.

Watching this so many months later lol I've been terribly behind on booktube this year (and I'm having a kind of a terrible reading year, too) but I really appreciate you including me <3

I've not read Gallant, but I've read other VE Schwab books and they're good - very readable, not too serious - usually lots of peril and adventure and the prose isn't like wattpad. As long as you like fantasy I think you'll like Schwab. Her Darker Shade of Magic books are worth a read too.

the Eagle of the Ninth was a childhood fave of mine so I am biased, it is great. It isn't fantasy, it's historical fiction. And the POV character is like 20, so it might not quite be what you are expecting. But please do try it.

Gallant is deffo not too fast paced at all, of course it’s small so things have to develop “quickly” but it doesn’t feel fast whilst reading - it’s very very vibey I loved it for all the reasons people hated it 😅

I really hope you get to reading A Flat Place - it's such an excellent memoir and it was also personally very meaningful to me in renegotiating how I contemplate memory and inhabiting my own space. Also, it makes me so happy to see Plain Bad Heroines on the shelf behind you - loved that novel. 💛🐝

I've read Haven and The Circle, so i vote for those two.

I completely share your reluctance to read multi-generational sagas. A particular example recently was the wonderful North Woods by Daniel Mason. He drew lovable interesting characters. Then just when you had fallen in love with them he deserted them and moved on 50 years.

I currently have 125 physical books, and 700+ on my kindle 😬 I would love to get it to around 30 physical books (excluding my 1001 BTRBYD and non-fiction books), I stopped going to the library and reading much on my kindle to try and achieve this but haven’t been very successful as I can’t stop buying new releases. I have 10 preorders arriving in the next 3 months.

for whatever it's worth, only the first chunk of The Luminaries is about that group of men chatting. the actual protagonist who has by far the most scenes is a woman, who you meet as soon as those dudes are done yapping at that meeting that opens the novel lol

I've only read one of these which is Rainbow, Rainbow. I remember really enjoying some of these - quirky details and very specific and unexpected situations with nuance too. I particularly liked the one about the lesbian couple trying for a baby and the one about the office worker and their nephew. I will say I did find some of the stories a bit deliberately uncomfortable and a bit ick but not in a good way, or some fell a bit flat - still, that makes me want to see you review it to see how you feel about it. As for my 'already owned TBH', it's a bit longer than I like atm because life and poor concentration have got in the way of reading...There's currently 13 physical books and 8 kindle books (and some audiobooks but I'm not so bothered by that as I know I just get to them) which isn't *too* many but it feels like its building up

i have around maybe 5-7 unread books in my home i cant handle more than that i get nervous . But on my goodreads tbr i have 300 books . I dont let it go up more than that

I really enjoyed Haven, a bit slower than my usual taste but worth it. I DNF'd Rainbow Rainbow only because it was much darker than I was expecting and I wasn't in the mood for it (it was kind of a mismatch with the cover for me).

Care Work is amazing!! I read it physically and with audio simultaneously and that was a great experience. It's really a quite accesible read. Same for Post-Traumatic, it's intense and confronting but really really good. My tbr is around 380 books, which is ridiculous, but I also really love it haha. It's slowly reducing but I'm also constantly unhauling unread books which no longer interest me as much. I go through phases where I'm into a really specific genre and buy a lot within that genre, but then after a while my interest shifts and I have all these unread books left.. Using the library is a bit more difficult for me, since I read mostly in English and my very Dutch library rarely has any books in English (and I don't like reading Dutch translations of books originally written in English). I do use Everand, but predominantly for audiobooks!

Salt Houses is on my TBR as well. Happy reading!

I don't know if you've read it but I think you would really enjoy Firekeeper's daughter by Angeline Boulley (it's YA but still highly recommend it)

I'm getting my library reservations page ready for the wrap up!! Just bought Coco Mellors' first book, so hope the second is great. Like the sound of Speak Okinawa as well x

I am picking up Haven today from the library. I will let you know how I get on. Thanks Mercedes.

I just read The Rehearsal a few months ago and feel the need to re-read it, if only because I never fully grasped what the hell was going on lol. Still enjoyed it

I love Liz Moore and plan to read all her books! I enjoyed Heft more. Would recommend that you should read The Words of Every Song

I really liked Gallant. I don’t remember feeling it was all that fast paced. The size of my tbr is larger than I’m comfortable with at the moment, but it’s smaller than it was at the beginning of the year.

It has been great to see frequent videos again from you! It seems like you are excited about reading again. I loved Salt Houses. I think I liked it more than The Arsonist’s City. I would give Woman of Light a pass. I found it to be just kind of meh.

I would not clarify Woman of Light as a Western. At all. I enjoyed it, despite usually not liking historical fiction. We're mostly focused on one character if I remember correctly. I gave it 4 stars (had an ARC), the only problems were for me a few weird descriptions (especially concerning eyes) and it ended too early for me. I'd recommend it.

I loved Haven and Between Two Moons.

I loved The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton :)

Mercedes, have you ever read Red Sister by Mark Lawrence? It’s fantasy and leans pretty grim rather than epic, but it’s coming of age story about a girl, found family, magical nunnery for orphaned girls, fight training, themes of queer love. So well done, it’s a trilogy, and I devoured every single one of them and I’m very picky when it comes to fantasy.

Regarding Haven ; look up Skellig Michael. Part of the last Star Wars movie was filmed there. It’s off the coast of Kerry. Look up the tv adaptation of The Luminaries.