armchairreviewer

What Did Santa Bring?

Merry Christmas everyone! Hopefully you have all had a chance to unwrap your presents, which equally hopefully were book shaped. My family as ever have been very generous in their provision of book-shaped presents and not a moment too soon, as dear blog readers, my TBR pile was down to 9-10 books!!! 9-10 books!!! I was starting to get worried. There is always part of me which finds its quite exhilarating to conqueror a TBR pile, getting around to reading those books which have been there fore quite a while, but then yes there is definitely a much larger part me which starts getting twitchy fingers as the pile begins to drop and wonder how I am going to cope when there are no books left in the pile. But yes thankfully the family came to my rescue and my TBR pile is looking much happy. So below are the mystery goodies that await me in the new year…

I got a signed edition with a personal message from my very thoughtful sister.
Intrigued by this book as it has an actual crossword for you to solve in it. Hopefully I will be able to arise to the challenge.


And yes I do promise to get around to putting up the review of my current read soon. Christmas activity and fatigue/pain have somewhat delayed me. Some Christmas spending money will also be helping my TBR pile to put on some weight (skinny is not attractive in the world of TBR piles lol). The all important question now is decide what to books to buy? Feel free to help me out with some suggestions.

30 comments

  1. The Parnell Hall book is the first of about 18 in an enduring (obviously) series. Each of them has at least one crossword in it. I thought the premise was hilarious, although others around me did not. I confess i’ve lost track of the last few titles, too many books, too little time, etc.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. It’s a sickness, that’s what you have, Katie m’girl! My TBR pile still hovers around 153 books – and my family never adds to it. (In their defense, they wouldn’t no what to get me, and I don’t have the energy to make a list or explain to them how to search for titles.) Fortunately, I have Secret Santa and one other generous friend, so there are two book-shaped packages awaiting my pleasure. As the family doesn’t meet up for another seven hours, I have a bit more stewing to do!

    Happy holidays to you, Kate, and congratulations on your excellent haul!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Probably a good idea no one adds to your TBR pile otherwise your pile might get a bit obese (the cut off point for this of course is debateable). I think a TBR pile that size would make me feel really guilty. I feel better at 20-30 books. More manageable, yet still with some variety. Looking forward to finding out what your books are.

      Like

      Reply

  3. Some very promising titles there! I am particularly intrigued by the Hilda Lawrence as well as Neck and Neck based on how much I’m enjoying the Leo Bruce I am reading at the moment.

    Hope your TBR pile continues to grow and that you enjoy the rest of your Christmas!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. “Lamb to the Slaughter” is the only one on your list that I’ve read. Simply put, it’s a masterpiece and ended being my book of the year back in 2003 (Boy, such a long time ago – It’s hard growing old) I’ll be waiting impatiently for your take on it. Oddly, I never read anything else by Rowe; such things are bound to happen when you let books choose you rather than the opposite.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. Your book boxes have added 2 very welcome arrivals to my TBR pile, and my dear sister added another 2 British Library titles. I have to confess to being like Brad in having a very big TBR stash, but I seem completely incapable of existing any other way!

    Thank you for the choices and other goodies, much appreciated!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. My illusions are shattered by learning that you only have 10 books on the TBR pile! You, who have added so many titles to my own stack in the last year. I guess keeping the pile small is a way to keep things fresh and in check though. Maybe we should all send you a big case of Carr novels to pay you back for all of your recommendations along the way.

    I have four TBRs at the moment.
    1. My ever dwindling pile of John Dickson Carr titles, which I keep as two vertical stacks.
    2. My massive Ellery Queen backlog, which I keep horizontally on a bookshelf like a normal person.
    3. My “classics” stack of various authors. It is currently stacked vertically on top of a bookshelf and looks hilarious as it is 40 titles high. The books in this stack are enough to make anybody jealous, but then again most people reading this post have probably read 80% of them already!
    4. My “modern editions” stack. A short vertical stack of 14 editions that have been published in the last 10 years by publishers such as Locked Room International.

    I’m a bit hesitant to shell out ~$17 on a book when so many classics can be found for far cheaper. For that reason, I use a holiday like Christmas to build out my pile of modern editions from friends and family who are more than happy to gift a book. Today I got:
    -One Paul Halter, growing my as yet to be read stash to four.
    -Three Christopher Bush reprints (but which ones….?)
    -A Theodore Roscoe
    -Two Noel Vindry titles (I bet you can guess both of them)
    -Murder on the Orient Express – it’s actually been hard for me to track down a vintage edition at a reasonable price, so I went for a modern copy when it was offered.
    -Murder of My Aunt by Richard Hull
    -A well known Helen McCloy book.

    Who knows when I’ll get to any of these. I have a habit of keeping the more modern editions for later, but I’m really dying to dig into Halter, Bush, and…well, all of them!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • haha sorry for disillusioning you. My TBR pile may be small but I have actually read over 230 books this year (of which I think 160 or so were mysteries), so I think my TBR pile has a reasonably quick turn around. I like how you have 4 TBR piles lol Though I think some of those came from job lot purchases (I don’t tend to make those for myself). Sounds like you got some good books there. The Hull book is definitely highly entertaining and I look forward to your review.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.