I’ve been a little remiss in getting this post written; even now, I’ve had to force myself to write it rather late. I’m not sure what happened, other than I had to travel a little last week and then somehow all possible spare time got away from me.

With January done, the new year feels properly initiated. I kept things fairly low-key with book shopping, but I couldn’t help myself with picking up some here and there.

Enough jabbering, on to the books!

New Books

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is a book I’ve heard a lot about, most specifically with respect to its hardcore content. That’s not something I necessarily shy away from, but in the past it’s been a mild deterrent in a subconscious way, I think. Having stomached American Psycho last year, however, I feel like it won’t be a big deal. I don’t know when I’ll get around to this, I haven’t read a Palahniuk novel in a while, but it’s good to have on hand, and it’s always easier to pick up a second-hand book on a whim.

On the same outing, I purchased a used copy of Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones, feeding into my casual desire to read more of her library of work. Though I ultimately picked this book up because it happened to be there, I also find this book appealing for being a standalone story. Sometimes, the idea of a fantasy book kicking off a series is fatiguing, so it’s nice to find one that isn’t as much of an investment.

On a separate thrifting trip I ended up picking up The Inner Life of Animals by Peter Wohlleben; I really enjoyed the author’s book The Hidden Life of Trees, so I’ve been meaning to pick this one up for a while. Part of me is a little disappointed that I chose a copy that doesn’t match the style of his Trees book, but I wasn’t in the mood for letting a good second-hand copy pass me by. Perhaps uncharacteristically, I decided to forgo the design of the book a little.

Novel Discoveries

This section is a little scant once again, though I just haven’t been coming across many books that I’ve wanted to put on the old to-read shelf. I’m trying to get “BookTok” videos back into circulation so that I see some more recommendations, but things are still limited.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a book that I may have learned about there, or I maybe learned about it from another blog’s WWW post. Regrettably, I cannot remember. The book has a really interesting premise, though, involving a cafe that offers its guests the opportunity to travel back in time; the catch is, you can only do it once, and you have to be back before your coffee gets cold. From what I understand, it is less about changing history and more about what moments or people you would revisit if given the limited opportunity. Apparently, this goes on into a series as well, but it sounds like it’ll be good reading on its own too.

Closing Thoughts

Have you ever found your typical sources for book recommendations to be drying up a little? Even with some BookTok videos making it back into circulation on the app for me, it’s often just lists of horror books for some reason, and lately none of them have been grabbing me. I check out what other blogs are reading all the time, so I’m not sure what the reason for the dry spell is.

I hope everybody adjusted to the new year all right, January can feel a little iffy sometimes.

Until next time, thank you for reading.