This Week in (e)Books

This Week in Books is a feature created by Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost and Found which gives bloggers an opportunity to share what they've read recently and what they're hoping to read next. I didn't take part in Top Ten Tuesday this week because Tuesday was a very busy work day for me - I went to the Hay Festival! - so I wanted to do something else this week, and I love any opportunity to talk about what I'm reading.

Perhaps you guessed this by the title, but I bought myself a kindle this month! I never thought I'd get an eReader; I'll admit when eReaders first came about I'm afraid I was one of those awful people who hated them and thought they 'weren't real books', but I've since learned the error of my ways and come to appreciate how useful eReaders can be. I'm always going to love physical books - I love the feel of them and the smell of them and the pretty covers - but since buying my kindle I've loved it, and I've found it so much easier to carry around in my bag when I'm on the bus or the train. So all the books mentioned this week are kindle editions!

At the moment I'm about a quarter of the way through Jane Eyre's Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine's Story by Jody Gentian Bower and I'm really, really enjoying it. I don't read as much nonfiction as I should - in fact this is my first nonfiction read of the year - and I guess a lot of the reason behind that is I find it very difficult to read nonfiction that doesn't have a really casual, readable quality. Dry, dense nonfiction books tend to remind me of the books I had to turn to at university whenever I had to write an essay, which in turn makes me incredibly sleepy.

But this book is brilliant so far. Jody Gentian Bower has a great narrative voice, and I've highlighted so many passages and quotes already. For any of you interested in the idea of the heroine or just writing women in general, I definitely recommend checking this fairly new release out!

The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly was my very first completed book on my kindle, and it was okay. It was fun enough for me to read to the end, but I had too many issues with it to rate it highly - my review will be going up on Friday if you want to know my thoughts on it!

I've never been a big fan of the question: 'what do you plan on reading next?' because that totally depends on my mood. After finishing Jane Eyre's Sisters I could decide to read more nonfiction or I could turn to some fluffy contemporary or I could read a collection of short stories. It all depends on my mood. I do have Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor on my kindle, though, and I've heard nothing but amazing things about it; it has an average rating of 4.10 on Goodreads, which is pretty damn good, and not too long ago I was talking about how I've been eager to get back into high fantasy, so I think I might give this one a try!

But I also have a few other books I'm in the middle of that I'd like to finish soon, too!

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

What are you reading?