with january coming to a close...

I thought I should try and record the books I have read. I'm interested to see how much I actually do re-read. I think it might be as often as every-other book, and I might try and make it every third, instead. It's not that I have anything against re-reading. In fact, as a teacher, I encouraged and embraced it, but I have found so many new "favourite" authors as an adult that I want to keep exploring.
The year started out with a re-read. On our way from Manchester to Hertfordshire, I spent some time with Nabokov's Strong Opinions, Robin McKinley's Chalice, and Trollope's Barchester Towers. At which point, I ran out of books and had to borrow George Orwell's essays (already read) and, finally a new book, How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World (which is a fun book for the skeptic you may know...). That was the first week of January. After that, I returned to the complete Harry Potter (although I added the new Beedle the Bard), and Tokyo Zero, the Vicky Bliss mysteries (by Elizabeth Peters), and Mercedes Lackey's Bardic Voices. New books though, include one by Kate Elliot and Iain M Banks' Matter (and Banks is one of my discovered-as-an-adult-favourites). I'm also in the middle of Mr. Steadfast, which is part of a series started by its more famous companion, The 39 Steps. I'm finding it charmingly anachronistic. There are more than a few references to a job being "more than should be asked of any white man", but the basic flavour of the book is enjoyable suspense.
Not a bad haul for a month; although I have a sneaking suspicion that I have definitely left some off the list by mistake. There are definitely a LOT of re-reads on that list. For now, I will claim that it is because I am slowly reacquainting myself with my library. It probably also has something to do with wanting to be surrounded by familiar things at the beginning of a new life in a new country. I wonder what the next month will bring.