February is short and my reading was constrained by a blogging backlog and a surge in real life commitments. However, I found time to sort out my library membership, which predictably means a HUGE tower of books by my bedside – and it was my birthday, so any chances of keeping my own book hoard under control was a pipe dream.

Reading Round-up 

• Wintersong – S. Jae-Jones     
• A Gathering of Shadows – V E Schwab      
• Crucible of Gold – Naomi Novik    
• The Book of Etta – Meg Elison     
• Confessions of a Bad SF fan: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K Dick       

Review Round-up

• The Moor’s Account – Laila Lalami    
• Tongues of Serpents – Naomi Novik   
• A Darker Shade of Magic – V E Schwab     
• The Cats of Seroster – Robert Westall     
• Bitesize Books: Sunbolt – Intisar Khanani     
• The Book was Better (or was it): The Prestige      
• Space Opera Sunday: Consider Phlebas | The Player of Games | Use of Weapons

Stacking the shelves

It was my birthday this month, so I allowed myself to trade in my points of books bought for books read: with 6 off the shelf, I could buy 2, so err, I rounded up and bought 5. What?

Conscious demographics

My annual challenge is to read diversely and to love every book. This year I’ve made things a bit more complicated with subsidiary challenges and more fun with the Game of Books.

• 1 male (7%) / 13 female (93%) / 0 trans, non-binary or genderfluid (0%)
• 3 (21%) – by authors of colour / 6 (43%) prominently featuring POC / 4 HEAs
• 0 (0%) – by LGBTQIA authors  / 6 (43%) featuring LGBTQIA characters / 1 HEAs

Challenges

• 14 / 10 books or novellas
• 3 / 2 books by authors of colour
• 1 / 2 non-SFF books of which 0 non-fiction
• 2 / 2 classic SFF books
• 6 / 6 – off the shelf
• Game of Books score: 70 / 50

On HEAs: I’m already conflicted about how to track these as I’m mid-series on several books so it can’t possibly be a HEA yet.