I read quite a lot, and always have at least a couple of books on the go, but at the beginning of the year I thought I’d take things a little more seriously and set myself a bit of a reading challenge.

I hoped to read at least 50 books and I wanted to make an effort to get through at least some of the books that have adorned my shelves for years and I’ve never got round to.

I ended up reading 87 books, which was a bit of a surprise, but wish I’d included the books I read-aloud to my two youngest sons as part of their lessons – there are a few I’d really like to recommend and it would have pushed me over the hundred mark I reckon.

I was pleased with the mixture of books I managed to get through, especially some of the classics, and it was lovely to read some books written by friends. It was definitely tempting to focus on shorter books to get numbers up, but how could I resist two Marian Keyes novels I hadn’t read before?

It would have been great to have all the books together at the end of the year to photograph in a pile or on a shelf, but as a lot of them were borrowed from the library, this just wasn’t possible.

Here are my top 5, in no particular order:

Dracula by Bram Stoker – this was a surprise as I really wasn’t sure I’d enjoy it at all as I’m not a horror fan.

Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss – the descriptions of Iceland are wonderful and made me desperate to travel there.

Circe by Madeleine Miller – I adore the Greek legends and this was so original and gripping.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens – is there anyone who doesn’t love this?

Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks – tragic in places, but I loved all the espionage and sneakiness.

I really enjoyed having a challenge for 2021, so I’ve decided to do a different one for 2022 – each month I’m going to read a book recommended to me by someone else – I’ll be posting on social media at the beginning of the month asking for suggestions, so keep a look out and give me some good suggestions!

Happy reading.x