#TopTenTuesday Changes In My Reading Life

Top Ten Tuesday new

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

  • Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
  • Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
  • Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Changes In My Reading Life. The main change in my reading life in the past few years has been starting this blog and it has brought about quite a few changes in my reading habits.


  1. I take notes as I read (or use the highlighting facility on my Kindle) to make it easier when I come to write reviews
  2. Getting involved in blog tours has exposed me to new authors, including self-published authors, that I wouldn’t otherwise have come across
  3. I now have access to advance reading copies via NetGalley or direct from publishers
  4. I’ve learned lots about social media, especially Twitter and Instagram which I’d never used before
  5. I’ve been introduced to the wonderful online book community and enjoyed interacting with other book lovers from all over the world
  6. I’ve learned I have a thing called a TBR pile…and it’s grown
  7. I now create a monthly reading schedule so I don’t miss blog tour dates or other review commitments
  8. I’m constantly adding books to my wishlist or TBR pile through reading the fabulous reviews of other book bloggers
  9. I’m reading more books than I did before (but not enough to keep up with number 8!)
  10. I’ve ventured into the world of audiobooks

What changes have taken place in your reading life?

#TopTenTuesday Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

Top Ten Tuesday new

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post. Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Books With An Autumn Vibe. I’ve taken my inspiration from the first stanza of John Keats’ well-known poem, ‘To Autumn’. Links from the book titles will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.


To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Autumn by Ali Smith
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller
At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier
The Shady Side of Town: Reading’s Trees by Adrian Lawson & Geoff Sawers
Blackberry and Wild Rose by Sonia Velton
Jonah’s Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston
The Bees by Laline Paul
The Summer Springsteen’s Songs Saved Me by Barbara Quinn

Bitter OrangeThe Shady Side of TownBlackberry & Wild RoseThe BeesTheSummerSpringsteen'sSongsSavedMe