INTRODUCTIONS

Welcome to Club Read! Please take a moment to introduce yourself to others in the group whom you may not have met yet. You might give us your first name, where you are from, what kind of reading you like, and what your reading plans are for 2024 (if you have any).

Since it's nice to remember who's who, I will create a list below as people introduce themselves or create a thread. If I miss you or make an error, please message me.

AlisonY / Alison / County Down, Northern Ireland
Ameise1 / Barbara / Zürich, Switzerland
Ann_R / Lisa / California, USA
AnnieMod / Annie / Arizona, USA (from Bulgaria)
arubabookwoman / / Tampa Bay Area, Florida, USA
avaland / Lois / southern New Hampshire, USA
avidmom / / southern California, USA
baswood / Barry / Gers, southwest France
BLBera / Beth / Minnesota, USA
bragan / Betty / New Mexico, USA
Cariola / Deborah / Pennsylvania, USA
chlorine / Clémence / Paris, France
cindydavid4 / Cindy / Phoenix, Arizona, USA
cushlareads / Cushla / Wellington, NZ
dchaikin / Dan / Houston, Texas, USA
dianeham / Diane / Cape May, New Jersey, USA
dianelouise100 / Diane / Birmingham, Alabama, USA
dicentra8 / Inês / Portugal
Dilara86 / Dilara / western France
dukedom_enough / Michael / southern New Hampshire, USA
edwinbcn / Edwin / Netherlands (recently China)
ELiz_M / Liz / Brooklyn, New York, USA
FlorenceArt / Florence / Paris, France
icepatton / Corey / North Carolina, USA now in Japan
Imouto / Keiichi / Japan
janoorani24 / Janiece / Seattle area, Washington, USA
japaul22 / Jennifer / DC Suburbs, Northern Virginia, USA
Jim53 / Jim / southeast Pennsylvania, USA
jjmcgaffey / Jennifer / Alameda, California, USA
JoeB1934 / Joe / Denver, Colorado, USA
Julie_in_the_Library / Julie / Greater Boston area, Massachusetts, USA
karspeak / Karen / Florida panhandle, USA
KeithChaffee / Keith / Los Angeles, California, USA
kidzdoc / Darryl / suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
kjuliff / Kate / New York City, USA (from Australia)
labfs39 / Lisa / southern Maine, USA
leamos / Andrea / Canada (from Mexico)
lilisin / Lilisin / currently in Japan
lisapeet / Lisa / New York City, USA
LolaWalser / Lola / Toronto, Canada
mabith / Meredith / West Virginia, USA
markon / Ardene / near Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Milda-TX / Milda / Texas, USA
NduguSune / Sune / northwest Denmark
Nickelini / Joyce / Vancouver, Canada
OscarWilde87 / / near Cologne, Germany
qebo / Katherine / Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA
rachbxl / Rachel / Belgium (from England)
raton-liseur / / Brittany, France
rhian_of_oz / Rhian / Perth, Australia
RidgewayGirl / Kay / Bloomington, Illinois, USA
rocketjk / Jerry / Harlem, New York until May then Mendocino County, California, USA
rv1988 / Rasdhar / Singapore
SassyLassy / / South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada
shadrach_anki / Anki / Nashua, New Hampshire, USA
Simone2 / Barbara / Netherlands
stretch / Kevin / Indiana, USA
TheYankeeIrregular / Leslie / Indiana, USA
thorold / Mark / The Hague, Netherlands
torontoc / Cyrel / Toronto, Canada
trifolia / Monica / Flanders, Belgium
ursula / Ursula / Germany (from USA)
valkyrdeath / Gary / England
wandering_star / Margaret / Japan (British)
WelshBookworm / Laurel / Minnesota, USA
Willoyd / Will / Otley, Yorkshire, UK
wood0360 / Samantha / Minnesota, USA
Yells / Danielle / SW Ontario, Canada

My name is Lisa, and I've been a member of LibraryThing since 2008 and a member of Club Read since 2011. I've also been the administrator for Club Read the last couple of years. I love the people and conversations on Club Read and consider it my LT home.

I like to read international literature, and I log relevant reading in Reading Globally and The Global Challenge. I also belong to the Holocaust Literature Group. Unlike the last two years when I participated in the Asian and then African literature challenges, this year I am going to return to my usual serendipitous reading m.o. I have so many good books on my TBR that are shouting my name!

When not on LT or reading, I'm busy homeschooling my two nieces (aged 7 and 4). You can see my children's book collection under the username labfs39kids. I also like to garden and feed the birds. I've recently returned to my home state of Maine after 14 years in the Pacific Northwest and 2 years in Florida.

My name is Ardene, and I've been a member of LT for (gulp) 18 years, and active on Club Read since 2018. I read some literary fiction; a lot of science fiction, mystery and fantasy; and any nonfiction that catches my eye. Diane's poetry thread last year was helpful in whetting my appetite for some poetry as well.

I am planning to start singing with a group this winter (I think rehearsals start in February), and I am currently sewing curtains for my miniSUV in hopes of doing some car camping around Georgia (and further afield once I retire in a few years.)

This year I'm hosting The Greenhouse, a thread to post about reading about natural history, climate change and the environment (fiction or nonfiction). My personal thread is here. Please stop by and say hello!

Hi All,

My name is Florence, I am 60 and I live in Paris, France. I don't plan my reading but I go through phases, and the current phase is focused on comfort reading, which in my case means mostly fantasy romance. My native language is French, but I seem to read mostly in English. Anything that wasn't originally written in English or French, I try to read in a French translation. I almost exclusively read e-books, most of them from Kobo where I have a monthly subscription. I'm very bad at updating my LT library so the books you see there are a rather random pick of books I have read once, have bought, or would like to read some day.

As I mentioned, currently my reading involves a lot of fantasy romance, of varying quality. I also read short stories, mainly from tor.com, and some non fiction, often articles and sometimes books. In 2023 my non fiction reading was mostly about Africa and feminism/patriarchy. Also a little about anarchism.

Hi, I’m Mark, from The Hague in the Netherlands. I’m a retired international civil servant with a mixed arts/science/legal background. I grew up in the north of England but have been living in Holland most of my adult life. In last year’s intro thread I said that my major project for the year would be domesticating a long-distance relationship. Needless to say that is still in progress, so for the time being I also have a toehold in my partner’s home town of Cleveland Ohio. And book-stacks on both sides of the Atlantic…

Apparently I’ve been on LT for nearly 17 years — long enough to read at least 2300 books — and this will be my tenth year in Club Read. I’m also admin of our sister-group Reading Globally.

My reading tastes are fairly diverse, pretty much anything except incest and folk-dancing science fiction and fantasy. I like to read in various languages, and in the last few years I’ve been particularly exploring the literature of the former East Germany and trying to correct my shameful ignorance of Dutch literature.

My name is Cyrel and I am a retired visual art teacher living in Toronto, Canada. I do love to read historical fiction, history, some dystopian works and graphic novels and of course lots of fiction. I did see more films before the pandemic and am now just getting back to going to movies in person. I am active in many volunteer committees. I also spend a lot of time at a pottery co-op that I belong to where I create mainly sculptural clay work.

hi all. Dan with the plan here. I've been in CR since avaland first opened it up to anyone on LT. I'm based in Houston, trying to keep my geophysical job as technology and accountants try to eliminate me. This year's optimistic reading plan is Canterbury Tales, then Silence, a French medieval text. And then maybe some Middle English stuff. And, Faulker, finally. I'll begin reading his novels in chronological order, debating Sartoris or Flags in the Dust (same book, but Flags was heavily edited down). Other stuff planned too. 2023 was a good Booker longlist year, and I plan to finish the full list.

Hello!

Grew up in northern Vermont, went to school in St. Louis and Ann Arbor, now retired in Los Angeles after 31 years with the LA Public Library.

I read a lot of genre fiction, and have particular soft spots for time travel stories and locked room mysteries. My non-genre reading doesn't usually get too literary, but I might pick up one or two "serious" novels a year. In nonfiction, I mostly read about entertainment (film/TV, music, theater), LGBT issues and history, and political/Presidential/Supreme Court history.

But there are very few subjects or genres that I avoid entirely. I don't really do horror, I suppose, and I stay far away from right-wing political tracts.

This is my second year in Club Read, and it already feels like my LT "home." Much of my reading this year, though, will be driven by a different group, the Category Challenge, where I'm attempting to complete 5 different CATs/KITs (Alpha, SFF, Mystery, History, and Calendar) and the BingoDog. That's a total of 99 CAT/KIT/Dog spots to fill, and I read 50-60 books a year, so I have had great fun over the last month scouring through my TBR lists for books that fill multiple spots.

And I hope to squeeze in some reading from my major ongoing never-to-be-finished reading project -- award-nominated short SF. I hope to continue slowly making my way through the SF history, via the various "year's best" volumes and other anthologies. But I'm also going to start hopping around in that history with less strict focus on chronology, most likely by picking up best-of collections from some of the major authors in the field.

I'll have a thread of my own over in Category Challenge where I'll keep track of my progress on those challenges, but my reviews of what I read will live on my thread here in CR.

Happy reading to all!

Hi again, everyone! My name is Laurel. I'm not actually Welsh (unless having Welsh ancestors that came to America in 1638 counts). But I took a medieval Welsh class in graduate school and fell in love with the language and the country, and have whole-heartedly embraced that part of my heritage. I led a Welsh folkdance group here in Minnesota for 25 years, and I have been teaching Welsh since 1994. Books set in Wales are always on my radar.

I am an adult services librarian for the local public library, and I manage 4 book clubs through the library. I participate in two of them. One reads a monthly book selection, for the other group I assign monthly themes and we read whatever we want to that fits that theme. I have found that those themes are a wonderful way to target some of the books in my gigantic TBR ocean and actually read them. I LOVE to make lists, and choose an annual "theme" every year. Or several. And, of course, the old themes live on and on... Some of my past "themes" have been Moby Dick, Pride and Prejudice, The ____ Wife titles, Russia, Stars, Music, Birds... I desperately WANT to be retired, but the library job is part-time. And I bought a house (first-time home buyer!) just over a year ago. The mortgage will be paid off when I'm 97! So I'll be working until age 70 to max out the SS and pension. I'll be fine (thank God for the pension!), but I pretty much live paycheck to paycheck and have no savings at all.... On the other hand, I get to have 3 and sometimes 4 day weekends!

I do love having a house! This was a dream come true that I never thought I'd be able to afford on a part-time librarian's salary, but after years of renting the landlord was selling the farm where I'd been for 16 years, and buying actually turned out to be cheaper than finding a new place to rent. Especially since I had had 16 years of gardening and landscaping and I knew I would never be happy without my own place that couldn't be taken away from me. Besides gardening and birdwatching, I have 5 cats (brought a mother and 4 kittens from the farm) plus two of my own - I found a home for one of the kittens, but I kept the mother and the other 3. Then I suddenly lost my buddy Mr. Bojangles this fall. He had been a stray I took in 5 years ago, and he suddenly stopped eating in September and it turned out he probably had liver cancer which had spread. 5 cats is surprisingly a lot easier than 6 cats, nevertheless I miss him terribly!

I am also a musician - I sing with my church choir an hour away in Minneapolis. And I sing with a women's choir based up in Plymouth. So I do a lot of driving during the week, but I listen to audiobooks in the car. I have a sister in Bloomington that I see frequently. And my 93-year-old mother lives in Rapid City. I still teach Welsh and have a number of students on Zoom and a monthly "conversation" group. Other interests are cooking (vegetarian), genealogy, and various crafts especially knitting. I used to have a Welsh folk dance performing group in the Twin Cities, but everybody got old! Now I get asked to teach it around the country... most recently in Lincoln, Nebraska for the International Festival of Wales. I've been asked to teach it again in 2024 and the venue will be Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I'm hoping to combine that trip with some genealogy. The women's choir also travels every few years. We went to Prague and Vienna in 2022.

So reading - I especially like historical fiction. I'm a medievalist - studied early music, built a harpsichord, played with a collegium, took medieval Latin, Irish, Welsh, and Anglo Saxon. Oh, and Koine Greek one year. I've also taught myself some Old Norse/Icelandic. I'm drawn to anything "British" - Wales, Cornwall, Devon, Scotland, Ireland, Isle of Mann, Brittany... And anyplace my ancestors have lived (Cornwall, Devon, Yorkshire, Ireland, Wales, Canada, New England, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas.) And anyplace I know I have lived in past lives - mainly Wales, Scotland, Scandinavia, Australia, and southwestern US. I like a good mystery, and thrillers, literary fiction, classics, fantasy/Sci Fi. I'll read cozy mysteries, and some domestic fiction. And foreign fiction. And non-fiction - history, science, religion, nature/environment, philosophy, psychology. I joined Club Read in 2021, but I've been a member of LibraryThing since 2010. I've used it to start cataloging some of my Welsh books, and some boxes of books from my father, grandfather, and great grandfather. (I haven't kept up with that...) I keep track of my cookbooks on EatYourBooks. My want to read lists, currently reading books, and books I've read and reviewed are all on Goodreads. I have no desire to duplicate all that here. Feel free to send me a friend request there (llawryf@yahoo.com). I also enjoy the book groups on LibraryThing and Goodreads. And talking about books. And meeting other people who like to talk about books.

Here's to lots of good reading in 2024!

Hi, I'm Kay, currently living in Bloomington, Illinois, a small university city in central Illinois. I've lived in several places, including France, Germany, England and Canada, and in Arizona and South Carolina, here in the US. Hoping to stay in this place for a very long time.

I most enjoy reading literary fiction and I have a weakness for the awards shortlists and for shiny new books. I'm trying, for my second year in a row, to abandon plans and read according to whim and inclination. That said, I'm already working my way through the shortlist for the Tournament of Books and I'm in two local book clubs.

My other reading interests are crime novels (the grittier the better), in reading novels by authors outside the anglophone world, and novels published by small presses.

I've been a member of CR since 2009, and it never fails to stretch and inform my reading. I'm excited to be setting off on another year of reading with all of you.

Hi, I'm Will. I've lived in or near Otley (near Leeds) in Yorkshire for the past 50 years, although was born in London of such mixed British/Irish ancestry, that within my immediate family we've members eligible for all 4 'home' nations in sport! Whilst I've been on LT for 15 years, this is my first entry on Club Read, having been guided this way by labfs39 from The Global Challenge group and lurked on Club Read for the past few months. I'm a retired primary teacher, specialising in geography, having previously worked in outdoor education and sport coaching and development. I currently tutor in maths, english language and history.

I've been a pretty passionate reader all my life, currently reading around 60-70 books a year. That reading is split around 60:40 Fiction:Non-fiction. I think my reading is fairly eclectic, but I particularly enjoy classic lit, literary and historical fiction, history, historical biography, travel and natural history, whilst generally not a fan of crime (with some significant exceptions!), thrillers, or horror. I'm just over 30 books into a round the world reading project recorded with The Global Challenge, and a similar distance into a tour of the United States, in turn recorded with the Fifty States Fiction group. I took up both projects to broaden my horizons, realising that my reading was pretty heavily focused on English (and, to a lesser extent, some European) literature, and they've transformed my reading: I'm currently really enjoying exploring books in translation (whilst working on my German and French to be able to read more in those original languages and open up some countries better in my world tour!). I belong to a couple of brilliant book groups, which also influence my choice of books. I'm a sucker for buying books old and new, but have joined both the local public library and The Leeds Library (the oldest subscription library in the country - an amazing place and organisation!) to try and reduce that - it's not worked so far, but I'm trying!

Outside reading, my main interests are in orienteering and birding (and broader conservation), both of which I'm involved in quite heavily in a voluntary capacity (and as competitor in the former!). Cycling (especially touring) is another love, whilst I've started learning how to grow my own vegetables and develop a more wildlife friendly garden!

My name is Cindy,(cindydavid4) I joined in 2016. I read just about anything; lately I have enjoyed reading works in translation which really has opened up my world. Over these 8 years Ive discovered books and authors I would never have known about without LT. Ive also taken part in wonderful book discussions with the other readers here and 'met' folks who Ive come to know, and look forward this year of doing more of the same! I welcome you all to this thread and hope we can have some great book discussions

I read just about anything fiction except horror, romance and western but tbh, Ive had a few reads in each that I was glad to read. fav genre is historic fiction

Love nonfiction and often will choose a topic based on the fiction I read. Fav reads travel. biography,world history, science. I also enjoy reading short story anthologies, essays, and some poetry here and there

I have no reading plans except for following the themes in Rtt and RG. The restis wide opened

have lived in Phoenix for 65 out of my 67 years (born in Mass) I taught children with special needs for 35 years retired 4 years ago. In my spare time I read, garden, folk dance, travel with my dh and volunteer at a childrens museum. Oh and I play with my three cats

If youd like to know more about my reading, my thread is https://www.librarything.com/topic/356174#n8327228 but its a work in progress

I wish for everyone joy, good health, happiness, peace, and many many good reads for this new year!

>11 Willoyd: I'm delighted that you have decided to join us in Club Read, Will. I have enjoyed our interactions on the Global Challenge, and I think you will find some like-minded readers here in Club Read. I look forward to following your reading and getting lots of good recommendations. Welcome!

>11 Willoyd: Good to see new faces popping up, especially from Yorkshire! :-)

>11 Willoyd: Welcome, Will! It's lovely to have new faces!

I joined LT in 2015. I’ve been in Club Read for 2 or 3 years. I live at the southern-most tip of NJ. I’m a retired systems librarian/sys admin. I read what catches my fancy. I’m a poet and a dog-less dog owner.

I'm Rhian and I'm from Perth in Western Australia. This is my sixth year in Club Read though I'm not sure if the last two count - I went back to uni full-time and my participation here was mostly silent. Now that I've finished my studies I'm hopeful that I'll be much more active in both reading and posting. I'm also hopeful that I'll find a job.

My "primary" genres are speculative/science fiction, urban fantasy, crime, and historical fiction, though my reading has certainly expanded over the last few years, especially since joining CR. According to my Charts & Graphs for 2023 the top 5 genres I read (in descending order) are Mystery, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance, and Fantasy. I did a lot of comfort reading so I'm interested in seeing whether this mix changes in 2024.

My "plan" for the last few years has been simply to reduce my (modest by CR standards) TBR pile. This year I'm trying a different approach to the same goal by having a monthly planned reading list based mostly on the Category Challenges. We'll see how that goes.

Hi all, I'm Anki and I live in Nashua, New Hampshire. I joined LT in 2006 (18 years come February!), and I've been hanging around in Club Read since 2016, though I tend to lurk more often than not. Last year I basically disappeared around late February, in large part because my husband and I bought a house, and even an in-town move is a logistical challenge. Still adjusting to the joys of home ownership, and setting up my home library (still a work in progress).

I read fairly widely, with a decided preference for genre fiction. Per my Charts & Graphs, my top 5 genres read in 2023 were Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, Historical Fiction, and Science Fiction, and I'd say that tracks pretty well to my preferences in general.

I don't really have any specific reading plans for 2024. Continue reading books I own, keep up with the book groups/buddy reads that I'm in, and try not to disappear quite so much in the bookish spaces I frequent.

>18 shadrach_anki: Congratulations on the house! I've been in mine for 14 months now, and no I am not all moved in yet.... I have books on shelves (mostly) but some are still in bags and stacks on the floor, and none are organized yet. Maybe this year!

Hi, my name is Karen (karspeak), and this will be my 6th year in CR and 12th on LT. I am a public school speech pathologist in the Florida Panhandle. I'm married with two sons, ages 14 and 17, with the eldest heading into his senior year this fall. I read a lot of genre fiction, particularly fantasy and sci-fi, plus some general/literary fiction and some nonfiction, usually science-based. Dark/depressing realistic fiction is my least favorite. I follow a lot of threads on CR religiously but rarely comment. You all provide me with most of my reading list suggestions, for which I am very grateful!

Hi, I'm Jennifer. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, with one cat (my other cat died a bit over a year ago, and I haven't been able to find another who would mesh with my 18-year-old, and with me). I'm a Foreign Service brat and grew up traveling around the world (not _quite_ literally), but I've been here for a good many years (longer than LT has been around).

My catalog is pretty well up to date (made easier by mostly reading ebooks), but my tracking last year was abysmal. Well, no, I actually tracked OK (again, easier because mostly ebooks) but I didn't review on LT and I didn't post what I'd read after February or so. I'm still hoping to manage a round-up post in 2023's thread, and hopefully I'll do better with the new thread/year.

I read about 50% SF/F, the other 50% is mixed genre fiction (mystery, romance, etc) and non-fiction. The genres I avoid are horror (barring select authors) and "literary" fiction, in both cases because I don't enjoy being depressed by my reading.

I also knit, braid, sew (a little), garden, bake, make candy, make cheese, fix computers (I get paid for that one - self-employed), and try to avoid being sucked into any _more_ crafts.

Glad to be back here! I'm wandering around the group starring the appropriate threads...

Bom dia! My name is Darryl, and until late 2021 I worked as a pediatric hospitalist, a pediatrician who cares for hospitalized children, in a large free standing children's hospital just north of Atlanta. My father died unexpectedly the following month after a short illness, and for the past 2+ years I have become the primary caregiver of my mother, who is afflicted with dementia and can no longer care for herself, in their home in a nearby suburb of Philadelphia. I've been a member of LibraryThing since 2008, and I first joined Club Read in, I think, 2010.

My literary interests include fiction and nonfiction from the African diaspora; books on science, medicine, illness and public health; literature in translation; and historical fiction. I largely dropped off the Club Read map in 2023, but I hope to return strong in 2024!

Hello old friends and new friends. I'm Alison and have been a member of CR since 2015. I'm settled in Northern Ireland after many years of living between here and England and work for a health tech company.

I'm middle-aged, hormone-deficient, over-worked, time-poor, crabby and panicking in advance about my nest starting to empty of my youngsters in the not-too-distant future. But my glass isn't always so half-full... Ach, I'm kidding. Someone slap an HRT patch on me. Life is good. I'm healthy, relatively happy (save for job frustration) and still have many great books and adventures ahead of me (I hope). When I'm not selling my soul for a wage I do strength and conditioning training 3-4 times a week with a small gym of wonderful people who keep me sane, so my reading time has dwindled a lot in recent times, especially since I've had to revert to driving on my commute rather than using public transport.

My reading has changed quite a bit compared to when I first joined LT. I now read about 50/50 fiction / non-fiction each year. Fiction-wise I enjoy literary fiction mostly. LT tells me I read mostly memoirs / biographies and historical fiction which sounds surprising to me, but I guess it all depends how you classify titles. Non-fiction crosses a bit of everything, but I've a soft spot for popular science reads and personal development books that promise the earth.

I'll apologise in advance for failing to comment regularly on all your threads, but I'm a not bad lurker. I look forward to taking plenty of book bullets from you all again this year.

Hi, my name is Barbara (62). I am married to Thomas (62) and we have two lovely daughters Isabelle (31) and Marina (24) and their partners. What warms our hearts the most are our two wonderful grandsons Juri (will be 2 on 4.1.24) and Timo (born on 19.8.23). We are always happy when they are with us.
I will be working as a primary school teacher until the end of July 24 and will then retire early after 40 years in the teaching profession. Thomas has been on early retirement since the end of June 23. We are both looking forward to being independent in the summer.
We have a few long-term adventures up our sleeves. One is cycling from the source of the Rhine to the mouth of the Rhine, and the other is cycling from the source of the Rhone to the mouth of the Rhone. However, we will do this in different stages, as we will mainly be travelling in good weather and don't want to be stressed under any circumstances. These projects may therefore take us years to complete.
And of course we are also looking forward to spoiling our grandchildren even more.
In the second half of the year, we will be in Maastricht from time to time, as Marina will be doing her international master's degree in law there.

>25 cindydavid4: Mostly I read crime fiction, at the moment it's mostly from Scandinavia. But there are also times when I read historical fiction. And then, like many others here on LT, there are the famous BBs that make my 'want to read' list longer and longer 🫣🤣. Ergo, I always read (including audios) whatever I feel like.

I deleted coz I just noticed your thread....I love historic fiction; can you post books in translation? this last year Ive been reading a lot of those titles I get from folks hereabouts

>27 cindydavid4: Whenever there is an English title, I will write it. Like in the new thread in post 3.

Hi, I’m Kate and have only been active on LT since early last year .

I’m a dual-citizenship Aussie-American but spent most of my life in Australia. I’m a retired software engineer and my interests are AI, reading and politics. I used to be interested in traveling and have spent many months traveling in North Africa, Europe and Asia. Many of the countries I visited are now war zones or are under travel-warnings.

As for reading, I consider myself a fussy reader. I expect a lot from a book, often too much.

My favorite writers are like me, getting old, so I’m keen to broaden my reading to younger writers.

My favorite books in 2023 were Study for Obedience and Prophet Song.

I live in Manhattan, NYC. In Australia I lived in mostly in Melbourne.

Oh, and I curate CR’s ALL THINGS AUDIO. So if you read audiobooks for whatever reason, please drop by.

Hello! I had to go look but I joined LT in 2005, so I've been kicking around here in some form for 18 years. My LT account is now an adult. I didn't start posting in Talk until later, and Club Read even later so sometimes I still feel like a new kid on the block in this group.

Anyway, boring stuff aside let's get into more boring stuff: I'm Ursula, just like the username says, and I'm an American living in Germany with my equally American husband. He's a mathematician. We have cats, and not very many physical books (they fit in part of a small cupboard) and I'm looking to get rid of what remains as I can read them. I read digitally from US libraries through Libby, mostly.

I also post about music - my husband and I listen to a lot of music, both old and new. I have no idea if I'm just repeating my intro from my thread at this point so I'm going to stop here. If you're curious, feel free to come to my thread and take a look.

We are Lois and Michael (avaland and dukedom_enough). Married and and both now retired (he from science, she from the the bookstore). Yep, we are oldsters (I have three adult children and three adorable grandchildren).

We have been playing on LT since October 2016 and on Club Read from the beginning. We look forward to another year of hanging around with you fab readers.

Hello, I’m Rachel, born and raised in the north of England, though I’ve been living in Belgium for over 20 years now (I’ve also lived in Spain and Italy). I have a background (and a job) in languages, and my reading reflects that, although probably not as much as it could or should.

What I usually say next, year after year, is that I read only fiction and, despite my best efforts, almost zero non-fiction…but that suddenly changed last year and I’m hoping it will stick (I turned 50 in 2022 and perhaps it was that - a sudden realisation that if ever I’m to find out about any of those fascinating things out there, I’d better make a start).

I’m looking to another year of sharing my reading with this lovely community.

I'm Katherine, a computer programmer in Lancaster PA, working remotely for a medical imaging company. I've been in CR since 2017, minus 2020 and 2021. I'm a bit player here, not literarily inclined; my reading is typically non-fiction and undemanding fiction, and drops off in the spring as I am converting a 1/5 acre yard to native plants, manage a community garden, have Master Gardener volunteer obligations and administrative roles in a botanical society and a tree committee. You can perhaps sense a theme. Other irregular distractors are genealogy and crocheting.

Hi everyone. I'm Lisa, an editor and journalist who writes about libraries. That makes for a heavy overlap between my personal interests and my daily grind in a wonderful but also under-resourced job. Still, I wouldn't trade it for anything, and being able to shine a spotlight on libraries and what they're doing (and having to deal with in the past few years) lets me feel like I'm putting something at least somewhat valuable in the world.

I live at the tip-top of NYC in the northwest Bronx with one husband, one dog, and four cats. I have a grown son who's married and is a second-year general surgery resident upstate. I'm a visual artist (working on getting back to a regular sketchbook practice this year), baker, gardener, fountain pen collector, and letter writer. I read pretty widely, and—other than stuff for work or my wonderful virtual book club—randomly.

Hello everyone! I'm back for another year. I joined LT on 1-1-2009, so 2024 will be my 16th year on LT. Lots of good reading, and an astronomically expanded TBR pile. I am approaching my mid-70's, retired about 10 years from my career as an attorney, mostly enjoying our six grandkids. Our 5 kids have ended up with 3 in NYC, 1 in Houston, and 1 five minutes away from us here in Florida, where we moved 3 years ago from Seattle. I was born and raised on Aruba where we lived until I was 16. I graduated from high school in London, then moved to New Orleans, where I met my husband of almost 53 years. We lived in that unique city for 18 years before heading to Seattle, where we lived for 35 years. I am still not loving Florida, which is not my politics at all. My husband had a bone marrow transplant nearly 5 years ago now, and much of our life is taken up with medical stuff. He refers to himself as a "science experiment."
I like to read literary fiction, but not always the latest stuff. I often choose books from the 1001 list, but I am not a completist in that regard. I also like to read translated fiction, but somehow I seem to end up reading from the same countries over and over (France and Japan I'm looking at you). I should try to diversify, but I usually fail geographic challenges. I read a fair amount of crime fiction, and a smattering of science fiction as well. I also read a healthy proportion (20%-30%) of nonfiction.
I try to review everything I read, even if it means, as just occurred in December 2023, writing more than 50 reviews in the last two weeks of the year. I vow, as I do every year, to try to keep up with my threa better this year, and not to get behind on reviews. I welcome visitors, and try to respond to everyone.

Well, that was weird. Somehow my first post ended up replicated here. Sorry about that folks. Carry on!

Hello and happy new year all! I've participated in Club Read(s) since Lois made them but mostly as a fly-by; the pandemic made me a regular. By profession a biochemist, by hankering a beach bum (Mediterranean edition), I live in Toronto but am contemplating returning to Europe this or next year.

I read a lot, more nonfiction than fiction, and more older than contemporary fiction. This is more a reflection of my inability to get to everything that interests me before the next crop of interesting things shows up, so it's a wonder I'm not stuck in the ancient world.

Obsessive topics include the dismal 20th century, radicalism, feminism, emancipatory movements and liberation in all its forms.

>38 SassyLassy: SassyLassy here. I live on an ocean inlet on the beautiful South Shore of Nova Scotia.

2023 was an odd reading year due to interruptions in the normal cycle of life and the seasons (fires, floods, travel), so I'm hoping to get back to my more regular reading in 2024. This includes nineteenth century novels, theme reads for the Reading Globally group, and recently, more books about the world around us. Other things will pop up too, as the year moves along.

I usually start the year fairly strongly with reviews on my thread, but these tend to peter out over the year, usually when better outdoor weather arrives, and then I never catch up again. I do, however, keep up with others' threads, and enjoy reading their reviews, even though I may not always comment. I think part of the problem is that I just want to get on to reading that next book!

You'll see me pop up quarterly to ask about your reading. In the meantime, I can be found here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/356577#n8336845 Don't be alarmed if you're new to Club Read - I always start the year with Pantone, and then move on to books.

Hi, I'm Gary and I'm from England. I started in Club Read in 2014 but have missed the last couple of years and thought it was about time to get back to it again. My reading will be all over the place between various genres of fiction and different non-fiction subjects since I always enjoy variety. I try not to make any real plans for my reading, so I'm looking forward to picking up recommendations from everyone else's threads again.

Hi everyone, I'm Jim, officially Jim53 on LT, more commonly known in the world as Papa Jim, which is what my grandkids call me. I'm in southeast PA, US, about 45 minutes west of Philadelphia, between the mushrooms and the buggies. We moved here when I retired, after 40 years in North Carolina. I've been on LT for a while now and have spent most of my time in the Green Dragon.

As I enter my eighth decade, I find myself going back and forth on what to read. This past year was dominated by health issues, and I ended up reading a lot of genre fiction, which I find quite easy. This year I'm hoping to get to a bit more general fiction and who knows what else. I'll be looking at your threads for ideas, although I've already got quite an ambitious list.

I hope everyone here has a wonderful 2024!

I'm Meredith, I'm from West Virginia, USA, I'm 38.

I was active on LT for seven or so years running and then a variety factors (detailed very briefly in my own thread) has kept me away for the last few years. I'm disabled and can't work a regular job, so reading is one of the main things I do with my time. I particularly enjoy non-fiction and within non-fiction history is my first love, but I read a bit of everything.

Otherwise I do a good bit of cooking, and I'm hoping to get back into regular daily crafting this year (knitting and embroidery mostly).

>40 Jim53: between the mushrooms and the buggies
I'm just a little further west.

>40 Jim53: Welcome, Jim, it's nice to have you here in Club Read. I'm glad you found us.

>41 mabith: And welcome back, Meredith. It's been a couple of years. I'm glad you're back.

>1 labfs39: We are quite an international group!

I am Annie and these days I live in Phoenix, Arizona. I grew up in Bulgaria, moved here for work and now it seems like I am not going anywhere any time soon (although had you asked me in early 2010, I'd have said the same and yet I was half-way across the world before that year ended).

I read pretty much everything, I tend to just disappear occasionally from my thread when I get overwhelmed and then reappear at random times. Maybe this year that won't happen.

I head been in Club Read from its second year I think (although I skipped one year in the early days while deciding where/what I want to call my home). I am running the "What are you reading" threads so don't forget to grab your favorite beverage and come check on what people are reading and to tell us what you are reading.

My thread is finally up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/356697

>44 arubabookwoman: That's one of the things I like about Club read too, Deborah. In fact, in 2023 we had members from at least 15 countries (although not everyone shares where they are from). I think the diversity enriches our reading.

Hi there and a happy new year to all of you!
This is my eleventh year on CR and last year has been my most inactive so far. I just do not find the time to catch up on everything anymore, what with life getting in the way.

So, if you'll still have me here although I'm awfully bad at posting and catching up on others' threads, here's something quick about me and my reading. I'm a teacher of English and mathematics at a German high school, which is a job that I enjoy a lot, but which can also be very time-consuming seeing that you are almost never really off work in this digital day and age.
I tend to read more fiction than non-fiction, but I generally enjoy both. Coming to think about it, I probably also read a lot of non-fiction, but just not in the form of books. I read many news articles and have a subscription of Time Magazine. I guess I'm old-fashioned like that. My reading is generally all over the board and I'm interested in a wide range of topics. You'll find me reading classics as well as popular fiction. This year, I'll just use this post to do exactly what the title says, logging my reading. You're welcome to comment and start discussions anytime you like and I will try to answer everything. But since posting has somehow put a lot of pressure on me in recent years and taken away much of the joy that I usually have in this group, I might just be lurking this year and try to consume as much of your content as possible.

This year, there will also be no reading goals except reading just for the joy of it.

Happy New (reading) Year!

Hello and happy new year! I am Samantha, an RN from Minnesota and a current grad student. This is my very first day/year on LT. I have acquired too many books to track, and I desired a space to track my collections (I also want to get one of those scanner things because how fun is it to scan a barcode!?). I plan to utilize what free-time I have to dwindle down my TBR list while I continue to buy more and more books (I like variety). My favorite genre is literary fiction but I am one who enjoys a variety of genres. My cat, Sir Benjamin, doesn't appreciate when I read in front of him so I usually end up going to a cafe/restaurant/brewery to enjoy my book.

>48 wood0360: welcome. My 6 lb cat needs a lap to stay warm in our (much milder Houston) winters. So she likes me reading as long as she’s comfy and not disturbed.

I hope you enjoy LT. If it interests you, in this group we create our own reading journals. We just start our own threads here and post whatever we like there, generally bookish. Most of us read some variation of literary fiction. There are other types of threads here too, for chatting. Happy reading and wish you well with grad school.

My name is Barry and being born in 1950 it is easy to calculate my age.
I was born in Mortlake now part of London and lived and worked there happily until my early forties. I enjoyed most of what London had to offer, but a holiday in Derbyshire opened my eyes to another sort of life and I got a job with a local authority and moved into a small village with my partner. She left to go back to the bright lights, but I stayed. I have always worked in local government holding the firm belief that working in private enterprise is a betrayal of my socialist ideals. I got itchy feet again in my early fifties and moved with a new partner to France. I now live in a small village (130 people) in South West France and I have become naturalised french. I have been enjoying my retirement for some time now. I have no children and no ties to England.

I think that I have been extremely lucky, having been born into a generation that had all the excitement of the 1960's, had never to be involved in fighting wars and was able to afford to retire early from work. I dreamed of all the books I would be able to read when I retired and this has become a reality. I have always been interested in music and since I retired I have learnt to play the saxophone, I live near the town of Marciac which has a huge two week international jazz festival in the summer. I enjoy hiking, food and wine and being involved in village life and of course I enjoy being part of the LT community.

My reading each year is carefully planned, so that I know well in advance what I am going to read next. I have an interest in 16th century literature, in science fiction and books published in 1951. I am also ticking off books from the London Review of books 'recommendations of books to read in the next twenty years'; as I probably don't have twenty years left I am hurrying along with this list.

Hope to catch up with everybody's reading this coming year.

>48 wood0360: Welcome Samantha! Are you still in Minnesota? I live in Glencoe, and work in Norwood Young America, but I get to the Twin Cities at least once a week. Sir Benjamin is a great name for a cat. I wanted to name one of my kittens Benjamin, but he turned out to be Henry.

>47 OscarWilde87: that is the best kind of goal, really, welcome, and no pressure!

>48 wood0360: oh belive me i know about cats and books. they try to interrupt me in anyway the can. but as long there is a spot near me, theyll curl up and sleep. love your escape option

>48 wood0360: I will say that for the first 4 years I did not feel the need for a thread, and communcated with others on their threads. I have one now but its mainly to keep track of what I have read . so after youve browsed around the joint, you can get help setting up your thread so jump in when you are ready

>48 wood0360: Welcome to Club Read, Samantha. I hope you enjoy cataloging your books and chatting about your reading. Did you know that you can scan your book's barcodes with your phone and add them to your catalog using the LibraryThing app? I once added 7000 books to a new library using my phone. Pretty slick!

>51 WelshBookworm: Hi! I am still in Minnesota, Saint Paul area. Also Henry is an adorable cat name. Sir Benjamin is quite regal, he is a medium hair orange kitty and he likes to sit on his throne near the window and watch the animals.

>49 dchaikin: Thank you for the feedback on the reading journals. I will definitely partake once I become a bit more comfy with the site. Everyone here seems lovely :)

>53 cindydavid4: Yes!!! He loves to curl up on top of me and push my books away and it is nearly impossible for me to deny him the attention.

>56 labfs39: yes! I started scanning last night and decided it was a better idea to do it this weekend with a glass of wine and some music. It will force me to re-organize my current mess of books :)

>54 cindydavid4: thank you!

Hmm. I should try some wine before posting. 🙂

Hi all and happy new year. I wish you all great reads, and many other great things!
I took some time to read all the introductions above, and it was nice to get to know better some of you, and to see new names popping up!

This being my 7th year in CR (and 14th in LT I think), I don't really know what to say to introduce myself.
I'm French, living in Brittany after a couple of decades abroad. Currently an elementary school teacher. Living with my husband (referred to as M'sieur Raton) and two teen children (referred to as P'tit Raton for my elder son and M'ni Raton for my slightly younger daughter).

Reading wise, I think I am fairly eclectic. I read mainly literary fiction and love reading in translation. In the past couple of years, I have also expanded my graphic books reading, and found some great authors and read. I would like to read more classics and more gender-balanced, but in the end I feel I have so many aspirations that it’s not always possible to comply with all of them.

I managed to post a review for each and every book read since I joined CR, sometimes with delay, and hope to keep doing the same. I write my reviews in French (which is also my main reading language, I only manage to squeeze in one or two books in English in a reading year), but welcome comments and discussions either in English or French (you can try another language, but I might not be able to answer…).

I’m looking forward to another great reading year in CR!

Hello old friends, and new ones too. What an international group!

I'm Joyce and I live in Vancouver, Canada. I've been in ClubRead since Lois (Avaland) started it back in 2009. My involvement in reading and LT varies year to year, but I predict I will only be a sometimes participant in 2024, as I work full time and have 3 big projects outside of work. When I have spare time, I will try to get in some reading.

Otherwise, during my workdays I investigate fraud for an insurance company, and then tend to my garden in the Pacific Northwest, and enjoy travel. In 2023, my husband and I went to England, Tuscany, and Queensland, and I'm hoping to go to Switzerland next month (although I haven't booked flights yet. Maybe should get off LT and do that.)

A belated Happy New Year to all!

I love reading and list-making and book buying (I've crammed 1200+ books into a tiny studio apartment!), and chatting about books, but I hate writing reviews and am perpetually behind in my CR thread .

For many, many years I have been reading primarily from the 1001-Books-to-Read-Before-You-Die list (952 read so far!) Other reads are chosen through reading challenges, especially reading challenges on Litsy and my global challenge on LT. I spend a lot of time on Litsy and it has persuaded me to also read more contemporary novels, especially those featured in the Tournament of Books or listed for the International Booker.

Aside from reading, my weekdays are spent working for a large performing arts organization in NYC and my weekends are for eating brunch out, walking around my Brooklyn neighborhood/Prospect Park/Greenwood cemetery, occasionally visiting a museum, and cooking vegetarian meals for myself and/or baking treats for the office, and, of course, giving attention to my elderly cat, Bert.

Hi, all. I'm Julie. I've been in Club Read since partway through 2019. I live in the greater Boston aread of Massachusetts. I read both fiction and nonfiction - mostly genre for the fiction, but sometimes literary or contemporary - as well as sometimes graphic novels and some poetry. I've been adding short stories to my my usual reading of novels and longform nonfiction the last few years.

I try to keep up with threads - my own and other peoples' - but I have ADHD, and will sometimes disappear for chunks of time. I also like to write (and collect writing craft books), as well as hike, bird watch, crochet, and do logic and jigsaw puzzles. I haven't been in a regular D&D group in a while, but I enjoy that, too.

I have a wide range of interests, and I look forward to talking books (and other things) with you all again this year.

Hi all. My name is Rasdhar, and I work at a university in Singapore, after living and working in several places around the globe. I'm fortunate to have access to a wonderful public library in addition to university resources, and love to read contemporary literature and poetry, with a particular focus on works in translation (mostly to English). I've been lurking around Librarything for years and in December 2023, decided to participate more actively. This will be my first year in Club Read, although I've been reading all your threads last year.

When I'm not working, or reading, I enjoy gardening, walking outdoors, and I recently started knitting. I've managed to convince my friends and extended family that letter writing is fun and retro, so I spend time every week in old fashioned correspondence, which I enjoy a great deal. I'm looking forward to reading your threads and talking about books in Club Read.

>67 rv1988: Welcome to Club Read.

Welcome, Rasdhar! I'm glad you've taken the plunge and decided to join Club Read. I look forward to following your reading, as it appears you read books from many countries, and I try to do that too. How was Rouge of the North?

>67 rv1988: Singapore sounds like a lovely place to work. Welcome to CR.

Welcome, Rasdhar! I'm hoping to read more translations, too.

Hello and Happy New Year, Club Readers, I’m Diane. I’ve lived in Birmingham, Alabama, for the past 25 years, after spending my teaching career in St. Louis. I’m beginning my 4th year on LT and my 3rd on CR. Reading is now my favorite hobby since mobility issues have restricted my other favorite hobbies, which were hiking and travel. I read mostly fiction, tending to grab books by 19th century authors and authors mentioned on various lists of prizewinners. I also enjoy nonfiction, mostly biography. I’m looking forward to much happy reading this year and good conversation with bookish friends.

>68 dianeham: Thank you

>69 labfs39: Thank you! I'm still reading Rouge of the North. It was recommended to me by a colleague. I recently saw Ang Lee's film adaptation of her book, Lust, Caution, and have been working my way through her bibliography since. I will update here when I finish.

>70 dchaikin: Thank you

>71 WelshBookworm: Thank you

Whoops, just realize I didn't pop in to introduce (or re-introduce) myself this year. Hi, I'm Betty! I am in my 50s, a development that I don't understand and am certain must in fact be some sort of mistake. I live in New Mexico, where I operate radio telescopes for a living. Which is a much less exciting and glamorous job than it sounds. But it is one of those jobs where sometimes everything is going wrong at once and it's complete chaos, and other times everything is smooth and boring and all I have to do is sit there and keep an eye on things to make sure they stay smooth and boring... and during those latter times, I do get to do some reading, so that's nice. At least, it is if I'm awake enough. It's shiftwork, so that's never a given.

I like to describe my reading as "an eclectic mishmash." I have a particular bent towards pretty much anything that can be included under the umbrella of speculative fiction, as well as what I like to think of as "science-y non-fiction," but I can, will, and do happily read all kinds of things.

Anyway, nice to be back here for yet another year, and to already be embarked on a new year's worth of reading!

Hello, I'm Monica. I'm back for my fourth year at Club Read and my fourteenth year at Librarything.
I'm a 50-something historian from Belgium, working as an information manager (archivist). My reading preferences are international literature, classics and contemporary literature and when I'm stressed I turn to detectives and thrillers. This year I hope to add more non-fiction to the mix.
You can find my thread here
I look forward to a new year of exploring the world through books.

Seems the CR average age is 50-something. (Or, I’m just extra-aware, being also 50-something)

Several of us who aren’t 50-something were born in ‘50.

>77 dianeham: Several of us who aren’t 50-something were born in ‘50.


Ha ha ha ha ha

>77 dianeham: 🙂

I'm one of the "several of us who aren't 50-something {who} were born in '50". I've always liked the symmetry of having been born in the exact middle of the century.

And we’re all ‘50-something’ for a given meaning of ‘something’, anyway. There’s no law that it has to be a positive integer below ten, is there?

I wish I was young enough to be a 50-something...

>82 kidzdoc: If wishes were horses…

actually, my life improved so much when I hit 50; I was more settled, focused, ignoring any toxic around me, gained confidence in myself and in my professional and personal life; and made me very glad I was not younger, having well remembered how rough it was for me back then. and now in my 60s (or really close to 70) I still think young but I know I am so different now, happily so. (tho could use a few of those younnger bones and joints, as well as that increase in energy....)

>84 cindydavid4: Same here. Life just kind of fell into place at age 49 for me. Wish I'd figured it all out sooner, but it is what it is. Now I turn 69 on Sunday, and in some ways I still feel like life is just beginning....

happy birthday!

Newbie here (both LT and this first group i decided to join)!

I'm Inês from Portugal. I'm not sure how to describe my reading...i feel like i'm still discovering what kind of books i enjoy and trying things out. Coincidentally the last book and the one i'm currently reading gave me ideas, for the time being: i'm apparently a fish when it comes to reading (i like to follow and go along with the story, i rarely try to predict how things will go); sometimes the reason i pick a book can be very random (as long as it seems an interesting story to me, or i'm curious about it).

I'd also like to add that since last year i was finally able to get over my (since i was a young teenager) disappointment that the local library became modern. I know this is pointless and silly but it used to be an old building, every shelf was huge and made of heavy wood, and i felt like i was close with the librarian that worked there. I created an account and 2024 is going to be my second year of going there on a regular basis. Last year i was glad to see i almost read 30 books and enjoyed a lot of them. I hope that for this year i, at least, can maintain my reading close to that.

>87 dicentra8: welcome to LT and out little club here.

>87 dicentra8: Welcome, Inês!

>87 dicentra8: Hi! I like your image of a fish. I think I’m a fish too.

>88 dchaikin: >89 kidzdoc: Thank you! :)

>90 FlorenceArt: Nice! It was the one, among the other few animals, that made more sense to me.

>87 dicentra8: Welcome to LibraryThing and Club Read, Inês! I hope you enjoy our group, and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. As you may have seen, the first post in this thread, is a list of members and their names and where they are from. In the MESSAGES thread, I have some links to "how-to" pages.

As for attachments to old libraries, I understand that feeling. The little town where I grew up, and have now moved back to, used to have a little one room library run by Mrs. Anderson. It had no running water and a woodstove for heat. Books were checked out by writing them down in her notebook. It was only open from 4-6 on Wednesday afternoons and 10-noon on Saturdays. Despite its limitations, I loved that little library and went on to become a librarian myself (and an information specialist). Although I embrace technology wholeheartedly, I still think fondly of that little library and am grateful to Mrs. Anderson for installing a love of books even in such threadbare circumstances.

Oh dear not silly at all! Ive had my share of tears over the 'remodeling" or out right destruction of my fav sites, and im several decades older than you!

Enjoy your time here Let us know if you have questions. the site is huge and could be tricky for some

I remember Lisa saying how international our little group was. It's so nice to see new members joining, and expanding to new countries as well.
I am sure the blend of long-time members and new ones will enrich our conversations and might make a few TBR piles increase dangerously!

Hello Everyone, I’m Leslie and I’m from Indiana, USA. I’m currently living just outside Indianapolis. I’m recently retired from a life of several careers. Somewhat a jack of all trades I am. I enjoy reading American Civil War History and I consider myself an historian of that period. I also study the Second World War and Tudor England. I own a TON of books! I’ve definitely gone overboard there. Wow! So my Goals continue to be downsize and read this Library! Usually I’m reading three books at a time. One non-fiction, one fiction and an audiobook. Glad to be a member here.

Welcome to Club Read, Leslie! I see that we have over 200 books in common, mostly WWII. You are definitely not alone in amassing tons of paper books, or in branching out into audio and e-books. It's all good, right? I defend my many floor to ceiling bookshelves as added insulation for the house.

P.S. I went to graduate school in Bloomington, not far from your next of the woods.

Hello, I'm from Washington State, USA, and live about 20 miles east of Seattle. This is my first year on Club Reads, but I've been on LibraryThing since 2006. I started a new career in cyber threat intelligence a year ago even though I'm old enough to retire.

I am a passionate reader and read both fiction and non-fiction in a variety of genres and topics. I've tried to focus my non-fiction reading on World War One for a couple of years, but I'm also trying to learn as much as I can for my new career, so have been reading some work-related non-fiction too.

As far as genres go, I read anything but horror and gore. I particularly enjoy historical fiction and mysteries set in the British Isles.

I inherited the complete collection of Britannica Great Books a year ago, and then went ahead and purchased the complete collection of the Great Ideas Today that were published annually from the early 1960's to the late 1990's, so I'm trying to get at least one volume of those read a year. I also had to purchase a whole set of bookcases to hold all of them!

Reading is really my primary activity outside of work, but I also enjoy quilting, needle arts, hiking, camping, and long distance motorcycling.

>95 TheYankeeIrregular: >97 janoorani24: Welcome to Club Read

>97 janoorani24: Welcome, Janiece, to Club Read! I moved back to my home state of Maine three years ago, but I lived in Woodinville for 18 years. It's always nice to have another Seattle-area member. I look forward to following your reading this year and your Great Books project. Congrats on the new career too.

>97 janoorani24: 20 miles east of Seattle--is that Sammamish? We lived there for 35 years until our move to Florida 3 years ago. I miss it very much. I am also an avid quilter, and was a member of a couple of quilt guilds out there (Block Party and CQA).
Anyway--welcome to Club Read! It's a great place.

>100 arubabookwoman: I think you meant to type 97, not 27.

>100 arubabookwoman: Yes, just corrected it. Thanks, Lisa.

>100 arubabookwoman: Yes, I moved to Sammamish about 15 years ago. Prior to that I lived in many different places. I've traveled on vacation to Maine a couple of time and think it's a beautiful state. I'm a member of a very small quilt group now, but used to be a member of larger guilds when I lived in Maryland.

>87 dicentra8: my parents owned a deli when I was little, right across a very busy street from the library. on saturdays they would send me across the street and an angel named Prisilla McCloud met me, helped to find me some book to read to me, and to later read back to here; lost track of her after college, as one does. a few years ago the libraru was demolish for a brand new one. after lots of problems, including people falling in to the fountain that was close to the down escaltor. it opened to the public it bright and shiney and quiet, too quiet, even the childrens section. Not sure what she would have thougt of it, but I will never forget her how she taught me to read and learn. and I think of her every time I walk into the library

>95 TheYankeeIrregular: heh if you want to downsize you might have come to the wrong place(jk). your tbr list will grow rapidly. but we are all in the same boat, and its not hoarding if its books! welcome

>95 TheYankeeIrregular: welcome Leslie. I would like to read more on Lincoln, although not strictly on the Civil War (which is always interesting)

>97 janoorani24: welcome. I’m curious what’s included in that Great Books collection.

>106 dchaikin: Here is the list of volume titles. As you can see it's exclusively male and western European tradition. I also have better translations/editions of several, such as Herodotus and Shakespeare.

54 Volumes:
Volume 1: The Great Conversation
Volume 2: The Great Ideas I
Volume 3: The Great Ideas II
Volume 4: Homer
Volume 5: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes
Volume 6: Herodotus, Thucydides
Volume 7: Plato
Volume 8: Aristotle I
Volume 9: Aristotle II
Volume 10: Hippocrates, Galen
Volume 11: Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius, Nicomachus
Volume 12: Lucretius, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius
Volume 13: Virgil
Volume 14: Plutarch
Volume 15: Tacitus
Volume 16: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler
Volume 17: Plotinus
Volume 18: Augustine
Volume 19: Thomas Aquinas I
Volume 20: Thomas Aquinas II
Volume 21: Dante
Volume 22: Chaucer
Volume 23: Machiavelli, Hobbes
Volume 24: Rabelais
Volume 25: Montaigne
Volume 26: Shakespeare I
Volume 27: Shakespeare II
Volume 28: Gilbert, Galileo, Harvey
Volume 29: Cervantes
Volume 30: Francis Bacon
Volume 31: Descartes, Spinoza
Volume 32: Milton
Volume 33: Pascal
Volume 34: Newton, Huygens
Volume 35: Locke, Berkeley, Hume
Volume 36: Swift, Sterne
Volume 37: Fielding
Volume 38: Montesquieu, Rousseau
Volume 39: Adam Smith
Volume 40: Gibbon I
Volume 41: Gibbon II
Volume 42: Kant
Volume 43: American State Papers, The Federalist, J. S. Mill
Volume 44: Boswell
Volume 45: Lavoisier, Fourier, Faraday
Volume 46: Hegel
Volume 47: Goethe
Volume 48: Melville
Volume 49: Darwin
Volume 50: Marx
Volume 51: Tolstoy
Volume 52: Dostoevsky
Volume 53: William James
Volume 54: Freud

100% men! Whoa. And many probably aren’t very easy to read. Still, interesting.

>96 labfs39: glad to be here! Indiana, we’re all for you! I’m a HUGE Woman’s Basketball fan!

>98 dianeham: Thank you!

>87 dicentra8: Welcome to LibraryThing! It’s a great place for ALL things bookish.

I'm new to the groups and talk here though I've been on LT for a year now. I'm looking for community online away from mainstream social media, and really, joined this group because of the age and country profiles and just the general sense of kindness I'm seeing so far here.

I don't have that many books on LT - I consume a tremendous amount of them, and I'm not finding the interface all that easy for me to actually maintain it... if anyone has tips I'd love to hear them! I'll be looking at the "how to" threads mentioned above for sure.

My name is Andrea. Leamos means "let's read" in Spanish. I was born in Mexico and have maintained a strong connection even though I have lived most of my life in Canada. I'm turning 50 this year. I am an educator by calling and profession and always will be, even if I can never go back to an actual classroom because of health issues.

My reading... I'm still coming to terms with what chronic illness has done to my capacity for reading 13 years later. I used to read pretty much anything and everything, for fun and learning and exploration and self-betterment. Now I read mostly for entertainment and escapism. I don't plan my reading very much at all - I read according to mood and capacity. I only read series once they are complete, and I'm a bit annoyed at two of my faves having re-started again after actually landing the ending. I want to read more poetry - especially current authors.

That was more than I meant to write... hehe... thanks for having me.

>112 leamos: welcome to Club Read. There is a Poetry topic here. You’re right CR is a friendly place.

>112 leamos: Welcome, Andrea. I hope that you find Club Read a warm place to hang out and talk books, life, and more books. As for adding books to your collection, the fastest and easiest way I've found is to use the phone app. When I need to add a lot of books into LibraryThing in a hurry I do it that way. You just point your phone at the ISBN barcode on a book, and the app will add a record to your collection. You can later go in and do cleanup, add tags, etc. if you wish. Unfortunately if you read a lot of older books without ISBN barcodes, you still have to add them through the website. Hope that helps.

>112 leamos: welcome! I dont have much on my profile either because my physical library is rather large, and I just dont have the patience to catalogue it. so you dont have to. "joined this group because of the age and country profiles and just the general sense of kindness I'm seeing so far here." yup, it definitely is! as you browse let us know if you have questions, or need some guidance navigating

Thanks all for the warm welcome! I've started looking at the poetry page - am enchanted.

I appreciate the app suggestion, labfs39 - Sadly one of the thing I'm coming to terms with is that I need the font and lighting options on the Kobo. I really miss the entire somatic experience of holding an actual book.

(how does one tag people here? I see the reply option... is that the only way? - edit: never mind - apparently that worked!)

>116 leamos: Tagging does not send notifications of any type - so just mentioning the name without tagging achieves pretty much the same.

Welcome to Club Read. :)

Good to know! Thanks :)

>112 leamos: Bienvenida!
I did not understand your username at first, but love it (as well as your colourful image on your profile).
If I may pry, where are you from in Mexico? I had the opportunity to live in CDMX for approximately six years, and remember foundly this part of my life!
I'm sure you'll find a this group welcoming, and I hope you'll find the type of social media interaction you are looking for.

>112 leamos: Welcome Leamos! You are right--Club Read is indeed a lovely place. I feel a connection with you in that I was born and raised in Aruba but moved away many years ago (I left when I was 16 and am now in my 70's), yet it remains the home of my heart.

>112 leamos: welcome. I love your lt name.

>112 leamos: Welcome, Andrea, and all the other new folks. I don't have a lot of books on LibraryThing. I've used it only to catalog some very specific books, and only books I own. For books I've read and want to read I use Goodreads. Most of what I read is from the library one way or another - either print or Libby or ILL, or books I own, but not in physical format like ebooks and e audiobooks.

>119 raton-liseur: ¡Gracias! I am indeed from CDMX although it was still "el DF" when we moved away. It's a fascinating place.

>120 arubabookwoman: Thank you! "the home of my heart" is a perfect way to describe it.

Thanks also Dan and Laurel for the welcome :)

Welcome, Andrea! I love Club Read because of its members' thoughtful comments and in depth reviews, the high number of people from outside of North America, and the ability to be exposed to authors who are new to me. I hope that you enjoy it here as much as I do.

Welcome new folks! (Sorry, I'm catching up and am too lazy to scroll back and get post #s.) I'm glad to see names from all over as well.

Much as I have a soft spot for those old Carnegie buildings, I'm a big fan of modern libraries. But I can totally see how having the place you've loved changed over so radically could be disappointing.

My name is Corey and I'm from North Carolina. I like non-fiction, mostly. I like reading about various topics. These days I'm into religious history, particularly Christian and Buddhist. I'm currently reading a recently published book about the LDS Church.

Hi, and welcome to your new addiction! I looked at your profile and you are reading one of my favorite books about people with special needs, not even wrong I taught children with special needs and recommended that book for several of the families I worked with. BTW have you read how to build a boat ? think you might like it

>126 icepatton: Welcome, Corey! I think you have landed in a good spot here in Club Read considering your interests. We have folks reading their way through the classics (Dan/dchaikin might be one to check out), Cindy has already shared a couple of books above (btw Born on a Blue Day is fascinating), and we have a couple of members currently living in Japan (lillisin and wandering_star) as well as others who like to read Japanese books from afar. I look forward to following along on your reading journey.

>127 cindydavid4: Thank you for your kind message and book recommendation, cindydavid4. I'm glad you found Not Even Wrong useful. I am enjoying it so far. No, I haven't read How To Build A Boat, but I'll check it out.

>128 labfs39: Thank you for your welcome. I was using Goodreads for a while but it seems this website is better for getting in touch with other readers. I'm glad to hear about lillisin and wandering_star. I look forward to hearing from you as well.

>126 icepatton: Welcome! I do think you'll like LibraryThing more than Goodreads. I'm biased though -- I've been on here since 2006 -- before Goodreads existed. I used to live in Japan, and also enjoy reading Japanese history and literature. I read short stories on Fridays and today's short story happens to be Obasute by Yasushi Inoue.

>129 icepatton: I read another
collins book sixpence house about Hay on Wye, the welsh town that is filled with books; we loved it when we were visiting there, a paradise for readers He also makes mention of the concern he has for his son, before he is diagnosed, lots of flags that he doesnt understand yet. think you might like this one

>126 icepatton: Welcome, Corey! I earned half of an MA in English Lit at NCSU many years ago before moving for my wife's job. I remember several of the teachers fondly. I hope you'll enjoy it here!

>133 Jim53: Thank you for your welcome. I also have fond memories of NCSU. My focus was in Rhetoric and Composition. I lived just down the street from the main campus.

>132 cindydavid4: I appreciate it. In Not Even Wrong, Collins is doing a pretty good job of presenting the history of autism research. I get the sense he does well presenting ideas in his other books too. I just appreciate his respectful tone with regard to autistic people and his own son.

>131 janoorani24: Thank you for your welcome. I had no idea LibraryThing has been around for that long. As for me, I've been in Japan for about seven years. Back home, I read a lot of fiction from the likes of H. Murakami and Kawabata. Today it seems there is a bigger market for English translations of Japanese novels, but I'm out of the loop. The last book I remember reading was Oe's collection of stories, Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness, but I mean to read The Crazy Iris at some point. I haven't read anything by Yasushi Inoue but I recognize that name.

>136 icepatton: I read The Crazy Iris a couple of years ago. A very powerful collection of stories. If you are interested in the bombings, I would also recommend Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945 by Michihiko Hachiya and Fallout : the Hiroshima cover-up and the reporter who revealed it to the world by Lesley M. M. Blume. You'll get plenty of book bullets here on Club Read!

Hi there. My name is Keiichi. I'm new to Library Thing. My native language is Japanese, so I usually read in Japanese but also frequently use English to read scientific papers as an undergraduate student. I major in biology.

I've come here to encourage myself to read books through conversation with book lovers. It's based on the thought that surroundings would change a person's behavior subconsciously. There are some Japanese websites to record readings individually, but interactions are not so frequent there.

I'm interested in fiction, philosophy, and language. And I like to talk. Soseki Natsume and Chekhov are my favorites.

>138 Imouto: Welcome, Keiichi! I'm glad you've decided to join us here in Club Read. There are several of us that enjoy Japanese literature and love to get good recommendations. It's interesting that you mention Chekhov. I started reading his short stories at the end of last year, and read Henri Troyat's biography of him at the beginning of this. I hope you start a personal thread so that we can follow your reading journey. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. We are a friendly bunch!

>139 labfs39: Thank you for such a warm welcome, Lisa.
I’m not sure if I can give good recommendations on Japanese literature, as I found literature interesting only several years ago.

Speaking of Natsume Soseki, I would recommend his essays or lectures (like Inside my glass doors, or 現代日本の開化(Gendai Nihon no Kaika), respectively; idk if there is Eng translation of latter) rather than long novels. As he lived Meiji period, when European cultures and values were drastically imported to Japan with dramatic technology develop, he criticized some optimistic views to Japan in those days. In my opinion, his works can't be separated from the period. His born and died year is almost the same as the beginning and the end of the period.

I read Chekhov's The Student for the first time in a university lecture. It was not so interesting at that time, but somehow, after a year, I wanted to read it again. Then I found it an excellent art. I read some short stories or plays of his. They were so good. Uncle Vanya is my favorite.

I will start my personal thread later. Thank you!

>140 Imouto: I've read some nonfiction that was translated from Japanese, but mostly WWII history, such as Hiroshima diary, Taken Captive, Kamikaze, and Barefoot Gen.

I have yet to read Chekhov's plays. I don't usually like reading plays though and may try to watch performances online.

>141 labfs39: I haven’t read WWII nonfiction, but the history is told in elementary or junior high schools, to tell how terrible wars are. I watched black-and-white videos and saw photos in classes.
Barefoot Gen is one of the most famous manga series in Japan. You can find them in school libraries (or you can't now, as they have been removed recently because of "inappropriate expressions" for today's values.) I read them when I was 8 or 9, probably.
I haven’t watched performances of Chekhov’s plays either. I may try them if they are held nearby.

>142 Imouto: I discovered Barfoot Gen here in Club Read. I was floored by it. (My kids, then quite young, picked them up and pages through them too. Not sure what they thought. )

>143 dchaikin: The impression from them would be different between children and adults. What I felt at that time was the explicitness of the illustrations rather than the story.

>144 Imouto: i took in both, but the images , some of them, are with me every day. So, yeah, i guess I was the same.

Although I've been posting on other people's threads, I am now back with my own thread! I am Dilara, I live in Western France, and I like literary fiction, translated fiction, poetry, cookbooks...

Welcome back to Club Read, Dilara. I'm glad you are starting a thread here.

Edited for content:

I've lurked on Club Read for years, so I recognize a lot of names here. I don't have any specific reading plans for 2024, other than to whittle down my list of books I've purchased. My interests seem to be changing, so I'm paying less attention to genres now and am basically looking for well-written books that manage to hold my attention.

After thinking on it, I've decided to go back to following the group and individual topics but not trying to maintain my own thread. Although I realize in-depth reviews aren't required here, I do think they add something to the Club Read experience.

Welcome Lisa, and welcome back Dilara. I'm Laurel - a want-to-be-retired librarian in Minnesota. Feel free to join in on any thread that interests you!

Hi Lisa welcome to your new rabbit hole! this is a very intersting group, you dont need any plans or goals, just jump in where ever and whichever interests you