December Book Haul 2023

[@MJ-in-Canada]

I’d love to hear more about your work as a cemetery tour guide. Cemeteries are wonderful places to read, especially those that have big, leafy tree canopies.🌳📚 Would also love to see your gran’s hedgehog collection.🦔

[@SavidgeReads]

Ha. You might never see Gran’s hedgehog collection for insurance purposes (some very rare ones in there). You may see me talking about cemeteries in a video coming in the summer of 2024. Possibly. I don’t want to promise it… but I’m trying to get something planned.

[@MJ-in-Canada]

I'll just be content to imagine the hedgehogs.😊@@SavidgeReads

[@CharlotteBrown-sx5sp]

So glad you picked up I Who Have Never Known Men... it was me! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did x

[@SavidgeReads]

Charlotte!!!! I’m so sorry I thought you were a Victoria. It’s because you look really like a Victoria I knew at school. I promise I will get your name right when I talk about it in a wrap up! What a Wally!

[@juliehughes1258]

Catching up on some of your older videos because I love all things Simon. I got quite a chuckle when you said, "My gran collected hedgehogs" and that they were now in your basement. I was picturing LIVE animals, now dead, moldering in your home. Not-so-cosy. Edited to add, "Mary Beard! "

[@SavidgeReads]

🦔🦔🦔🦔🦔

[@millysbookshelf2101]

Just read the arc of Burial Plot and loved it. Also love that you get mentioned in the acknowledgements. Do we have to bow to you now haha? 😂

[@SavidgeReads]

What do you mean now? Everyone’s been meant to be bowing for years. Hahahahaha. On. Serious note I was very chuffed and did a squeal at the acknowledgement. It’s very surreal, can’t believe it happens. Same with quotes on books. Madness. But lovely madness.

[@amandainoak]

Siiiimonnnnn! I can't wait for you to read The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I still think about these characters, and it's been over 15 years 🦔

[@SavidgeReads]

I’m looking forward to getting to it when the whim takes me 🦔

[@DebMcDonald]

An excellent book! Don’t give up on it at the start. It goes from meh to I can’t put it down. I used to know the page number where it took off but can’t remember now. I have pushed it onto many people.

[@barbaracummings1389]

Bumper Christmas - don’t think family understood when I sent them potential books for my Chrissie presents they only needed to choose one - ended up with 13 😂 with baby sister wrapping all 8 I suggest she choose from. So lucky - best Christmas gifts since childhood - which is a long long time ago!

[@SavidgeReads]

That sounds like a lovely generous family you have. A bookish bumper Christmas. What a treat.

[@alexandralewis7798]

I got Tove Jansson's Art in Nature for Christmas. The first story is utterly magical. I love her writing. Recommend on that alone.

[@SavidgeReads]

Ooh I’ve never read anything by her. One day.

[@cecilialau_]

“Mary Beard, Mary Beard, Mary Beard - she’s here!” 😂😂😂 I’m currently reading The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto as my last read of the year! And was lucky enough to get a lovely amount of books for Christmas most of them recommended by you actually, haha, bc I fully trust I’ll be a fan, e.g. Moshin Hamid’s Exit West and The Last White Man plus Sarah Winman’s Still Life. - Hope your holiday continues to be full of joy and good times. Looking forward to your top books of the year reveal! 🫶👏

[@SavidgeReads]

I was sent The Premonition and couldn’t work out if it was me or not, what do you think? Oh Still Life, you’re so lucky to have that book ahead of you, I am quite jealous.

[@cecilialau_]

From what you’ve said about it, I have very high hopes! 😄 (And Tin Man is my best book of the year). Hmmm, that is honestly a good question. I gave it a four star rating in the end but it deals with a past trauma quite indirectly in terms of present behaviours. Still intriguing and a very quick read. Started strong imo.

[@LoptrL]

'I who have never known men' was one of the best books I read in 2023. Fingers-crossed you find it equally awesome :)

[@SavidgeReads]

Oooh you might be interested in my first vlog of the year, coming soon!

[@thelefthandedreader6632]

Happy New Year, Simon! Nathan from Nathan’s Nook has also convinced me to consider Day by Michael Cunningham. 🥰. I too am interested in Greta & Valdin. And that cover!

[@SavidgeReads]

I might head to Day in the coming days, we shall see.

[@thelefthandedreader6632]

@@SavidgeReads , 🤗

[@spexi513]

Chose The Storm We Made as my December BOTMC pick & now I’m confident I made a great choice… Alsoooo true to typical, I prefer your 🇬🇧 cover to my 🇺🇸 one

[@SavidgeReads]

I have to say, and this doesn’t often happen, I do prefer the UK one. Hope you’re as hooked by it when you read it as I have been.

[@janepeacock3704]

PS - we keep saying ‘must visit Highgate Cemetery’ !! As someone else has said it’d be lovely to hear about your experience as a tour guide 😌

[@SavidgeReads]

I may well (fingers crossed it works out) do a video with Elizabeth Macneal in a cemetery or two this year, one possibly being Highgate.

[@janepeacock3704]

🙌🏻🙏🏻🤞 I must read another book by Elizabeth Macneal, having really enjoyed The Doll Factory 😌 yet to watch the 🎭 adaptation X

[@normanorourke3244]

The golden spoon is on my January TBR

[@SavidgeReads]

Hope you enjoy it when you get to it!

[@karenmoore4430]

Hello Simon my lovely daughter bought me 1984 by George Orwell and Julia by Sandra Newman. Intrigued by both. Happy New Yearxx

[@SavidgeReads]

Ooh that’ll be a really interesting bookish experiment if you read them back to back.

[@libraryofkayla]

Looking forward to some more Crime Time this year- I’ve just started dipping my toes in so I’m excited to get some good recommendations. Also I’ve had The Elegance of the Hedgehog on my shelf for ages even though I know it’s going to be good so maybe this will be its time!

[@SavidgeReads]

Crime Time with a new twist, seems the best way to go.

[@nathansnook]

ooooh really hope you enjoy Day! love how Cunningham takes care fo hic characters. also have my eyes out for Greta & Valdin!!! hoping for an ARC which i'll get back to you about for a buddy read! hehe love these haul videos as always! every time one drops it's like christmas morning!!!

[@SavidgeReads]

Awwww that’s such a lovely thing to say. Cheers Nathan. Yes to a buddy read in the new year. I’ll be better with the next one I swear. Hahaha.

[@mrsbookworm72]

I have a couple of those to read but oh my goodness Stacey halls 👏👏👏 and a few to add to my tbr 🤦‍♀️😂 happy new year 🥳

[@SavidgeReads]

I’m veeeeeery excited for the Stacey Halls. We’ve meant to do a video on my channel for aaaages so maybe 2024 is the year.

[@mrsbookworm72]

Yep 👍👏👏👏👏

[@susprime7018]

Had a flight for the first time since 2019, still not really ready to read much about the Pandemic, but I did read Lucy By the Sea, but had to take a break from it while reading. I loved The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I read a lightweight Christmas romance and Joshua Cohen's Netanyahus, which won the Pulitzer, a fiction book based on an anecdote of Harold Bloom of Yale. I received John Grisham's The Exchange.

[@SavidgeReads]

I can totally understand what you are saying with pandemic books. I have to be in just the right mood for them, well the right mindset. How was Netanyahus? I have it on the never ending TBR mountain!

[@susprime7018]

@@SavidgeReads It's about being a Jewish academic in the nineteen-fifties in the United States and putting up with the ignorance and prejudice.

[@jewelsreads]

Great video! I added several to be tbr. I got a very pretty version of I Shall Wear Midnight from my husband. As well as The Paris Bookseller. I bought with a gift card I also received; Wool In Memoriam All the Broken Places

[@SavidgeReads]

Oooh you’ve got a lovely eclectic mix of books over the festive season!

[@benreadsgood]

Another bumper crop! Verrrrry keen on reading Day, and also excited to see what Blessings is like. Both have gorgeous covers.

[@SavidgeReads]

After a strong year for me with queer books, I’m normally not big on them weirdly being from the community, I am looking forward to purposefully heading to more in 2024.

[@DebMcDonald]

I can’t wait for Mrs Gulliver! I’m so glad you are a fan of Property by Valerie Martin. I thought it was brilliant and an underrated Women’s Prize winner.

[@SavidgeReads]

Do you mean in terms of not having much said about it since it’s win? I seem to remember seeing it on all the bookshop tables at one point not long after its win.

[@AJ_Chillings]

Added 'Blessings'-- sounds fantastic. 'When Watched' is so, so good. Tough yet warm stories. I wish Core wrote another collection...

[@SavidgeReads]

Tough yet warm, love that description. That’s made me want to read it all the more.

[@wendycayless]

I got Super-Infinite and Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell. Edenglassie is on my wish list.

[@SavidgeReads]

I’m so looking forward to both of those Katherine Rundell’s. Sooooo much.

[@GregHarness]

I am so excited for "The Storm We Made." I have it pre-ordered and hopefully will start reading it next week. I have not watched the Jack Reacher films or tv shows, but Lee Child is an author I've enjoyed very much; I hope you enjoy them as well. Best wishes for 2024!

[@SavidgeReads]

Fingers crossed The Storm We Made carries on as it is, as it’s an absolute corker at the moment. I’m just over a third through now. I’m hoping I enjoy the Lee Child, though part of me is think ‘do I really want to start such a huge series?’ Ha.

[@Penny-ws4mz]

I was making chocolate biscuits when watching this and kept making mental notes of almost every book. Intrigued by Henry Henry. My festive break reading included a collection of bookish essays from Pushkin Press, Browse. Alaa Al Aswany's essay made me want to pick up The Yacoubian Building, one of those books I keep meaning to read. And obviously I need to check out the dishy detective...

[@SavidgeReads]

Who doesn’t need a dishy detective in their lives. Very excited for that sequel.

[@karenmiddlebrook5069]

Ooh big excitement, I've just started Greta and Valdin and it's set in my adopted hometown! Who knew?

[@SavidgeReads]

Well I for sure didn’t. Hahaha.

[@zoobee]

so impressed by your reading capacity. some great looking novels here.

[@SavidgeReads]

Hahahaha. These are incoming. Not ones I’ve read… I wish I could read that many books a month, actually no I don’t think I do. I would get confused.

[@cindyhaiken5644]

What a tremendous haul!!!Day is very good. It covers 2019, 2020 and 2021 and is actually quite different from Elizabeth Strout’s take on the pandemic. Love Elizabeth MacNeal and Ingrid Persaud!! The envy is real. Henry Henry sounds great! I’m really interested in The Other Valley as well. I’ve never read Valerie Martin but it sounds as though I should. The Ruth Galloway series is easily one of my favorite contemporary mystery series and I hope you love it. And proud of you on your mild restraint on Rose Tremain, who I also love. I received many book gift cards and am waiting for 2024 releases to use them!

[@SavidgeReads]

Oooh interesting. I should say it is me that’s made that link with Day and Lucy without having read a word and just some tidbits about families and pandemics. Nathan wasn’t saying it was that book. Hahaha. I’m very proud of myself for my restraint. You’ve reminded me maybe a Tremain should be in the book club mix next year.

[@cindyhaiken5644]

@@SavidgeReads That’s a great idea!

[@kathleenwalsh3556]

Hi Simon i read Killing Floor years gone by; thought it eas great. V easy reading too. You'll whip thru it. Always recommend to guy customers who want2 get bak in2 reading or foreign guys who want a straight4wardly written English book.

[@SavidgeReads]

Good to know. I’m looking forward to heading to it and then the show.

[@latebloomerdiaries4219]

I binged the entire first season of Reacher last night and also added Killing Floor to my TBR for 2024... must be an instance of great minds something-something

[@SavidgeReads]

Hahaha. Well I’ve not watched it yet. Decided to hold off until I’ve read the book… hopefully soon.

[@mradcaqbdb]

Grave Expectations is one of my favorite books of 2023. Humor doesn’t always translate to other readers, but I hope this one works as well for you as it did for me. It is fantastic. I adore the Ruth Galloway books and have finished the whole series. Again, it’s great. I put the new Stacey Halls book on my list right away. I have to read Charlotte Vassell’s first book if she has a sequel coming out. I didn’t get to it this year, but you’ve definitely made me interested in her writing. And you and Jen (I think) have both mentioned Butter now, so that one will go on my list as well. I have to look up those two books from Mrs H! They both sound very intriguing! My list of books from London would be too long, but I’m going to see if I can do an Insta post of them. I may have scattered some of them about the house now though, so I might not be able to anymore. Great haul!

[@SavidgeReads]

Oooh that’s exciting that Grave Expectations is one of your fav books this year. Hopefully I’ll enjoy it as much. Hope you enjoy Vassell’s The Other Half as much as I did if you get to it!

[@maryeddy802]

Happy New Year to you and yours, Simon. Since you like books about residents of apartment buildings, have you tried "The Rabbit Hutch"? It's on my TBR stack and I look forward to reading it myself.

[@SavidgeReads]

I haven’t read it yet no, I do have it on the TBR though. That could make an interesting themed reading vlog, though I am not sure if themed reading vlogs are the directions my vlogs will go next year. We shall see 😉

[@karenmiddlebrook5069]

The first time I read The elegance of the hedgehog I was meh. Read it again a year or so later and fell in love with it! Greta and Valdin is next on my TBR. Keen on the In Crowd when it's out.

[@SavidgeReads]

Thank goodness for that second half of your thoughts on The Elegance of the Hedgehog Karen. Otherwise you might have been sent to the naughty corner. Hahaha.

[@janepeacock3704]

SO many interesting titles you’ve just presented Simon 👏🏻🤓📚 I was Xmas gifted - Lucy Worsley’s “Agatha Christie” (both are interesting/talented women imho); “One Hundred Years of Solitude” (gorgeous cover 😌), “Tove Jansson Work And Love” by Tula Karjalainen (it looks as described ‘beautiful’). I treated myself to “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann & since then 6 titles from visits to charity shops (I must stop buying 📚 🫣 right going forward a 2024 resolution is to buy only if absolutely necessary 😜🙏🏻) TTFN xx

[@SavidgeReads]

Spookily my first book of 2024 has arrived in the post, a preorder, and it is a David Grann book - The Wager which lovely Alan Carr recommended to me and he knows his non fiction, so very excited for that. I really want to read Worsley's Agatha Christie, I have heard there are some plot spoilers in it which has held me back... for now.

[@janepeacock3704]

Now that is a ‘same wavelength coincidence’ !! I recently saw displays for The Wager (I like Alan Carr very much 🤗 😌👏🏻) hmm that sounds interesting re the plot spoilers 🤔

[@shannonkatereadsstuff]

*mm mmmm* so cute!

[@SavidgeReads]

?!?!?

[@krisprepolec5616]

My brother gave me a book called Cat-hair Hats for Cats by Rojiman and Umatan. It has instructions on how to make hats for cats out of their own hair 😆

[@SavidgeReads]

Oh blimey. Though in a vlog coming soon there is a cat or hat moment. One to look out for I. February!

[@gilliansawers4593]

My friend kindly gifted me books by her favourite authors from this year one I hadn’t heard of (Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa) and an author I was hoping to read (Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward) so very excited for these two in the new year. I also purchased The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto, l’m Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti, Pet by Catherine Chidgey (on your mum’s recommendation) and Outsiders by various authors (recommended by Jen Campbell and I think one of her short stories is in there). That was a few of my December books, did acquire a few more 😂

[@SavidgeReads]

Sing Unburied Sing is soooooo good. As is I’m Not Scared. I will be trying Pet when the mood takes me also on my mothers recommendation 🤣

[@gilliansawers4593]

@@SavidgeReads thanks Simon looking forward to reading them don’t know when 😂

[@TheEmzies]

So excited to see Greta and Valdin get international publication. Its funny but also makes some astute comments on New Zealand society and culture. Greta and Valdin's world is chaotic but they and their family are so loveable. I hope you enjoy it.

[@SavidgeReads]

I’m really looking forward to it. Sounds like it’s going to live up to the buzz which is good.

[@miaarndt9501]

Sorry if you’ve answered this and I missed it, but will your reading prompts be coming soon? I loved reading along this year and I’m looking forward to doing it again in 2024 😊

[@SavidgeReads]

I have had a few comments about this, how lovely people are so keen. We haven’t done them yet, well we haven’t picked them, as we’ve not seen each other over Christmas. But we are seeing each other over new year 😉

[@alphabuild6904]

I in fact have treated myself to four books today with the help of a christmas voucher 💪 An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears, Hannah Kent's Burial Rites (caused I recently read The Good People and loved it), The Secrets of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden and Fyneshade by Kate Griffin. Don't know if I will get to these in the next year but especially Hartwood Hall and Fyneshade just look AMAZING on the shelf 😍 Exactly 11 months ago I read I who have never known men, it was a huge surprise for me and I'm still thinking about it. I'm excited to hear your thoughts when u get to it. You and your loved ones have a great time 🎆🎉

[@rosieringlet1]

Hartwood Hall was good, read it earlier this year, just a shame I don’t see more people talk about it!

[@MJ-in-Canada]

Agree that Hartwood Hall is a good read.

[@SavidgeReads]

Burial Rites is soooooo good. Sounds like Hartwood Hall is too from the comments on this post. I shall look into that one.

[@jacquelinemcmenamin8204]

I hope you like The Elegance of the Hedgehog as much as I did. I really want to read Greta & Valdin . Have you heard of a book called How We Name The Stars It’s a book that sounds interesting. It may not be coming out until July.

[@SavidgeReads]

I found a book called How We Named The Stars, is it the same one? Out in February. The blurb was a bit convoluted but the author sounds super interesting, so it could be a definite maybe.

[@jacquelinemcmenamin8204]

@@SavidgeReads Yes, that’s it.

[@WestAussieDiamondArtReads]

Another great video Simon as always. By the way, are you doing the yearly prompts again this year? If so when will you announce them?

[@SavidgeReads]

Mum and I are indeed doing the prompts together. We just haven’t been together to film it… well we’ve not been somewhere I could get a bit jar to. But hopefully soon. Quite soon 😉

[@WestAussieDiamondArtReads]

@@SavidgeReads how exciting. I can't wait.