When someone gifts me a book, it fills me with excitement and dread; excitement because I love books, and can’t wait to read it; dread because it’s going to be at least a year before that happens, during which time I guarantee you said gifter will ask whether I’ve read it yet…

My pile of books to read has always been huge. I just can’t help myself, and as soon as that pile starts to dwindle, I start to splurge. Back in 2014, I noticed that all those classic ‘must-reads’ that I’d bought in order to educated myself had been sat on the shelf for years. (Truth be told, most of them had been bought with the insurance money from when my boarding house had burned down, literally.)

So I made a deal with myself. I would start alternating; one classic = one crime thriller as a reward.

And the reading list was born.

This list has been ongoing ever since – I’ve never actually reached the end of it. No matter how close I get, there are always more books to read; the book subscription my dad bought me for Christmas, the two monthly book clubs I attend, the national book token gift card I got for my birthday (and still haven’t spent). It literally never ends.

And that is in no way a complaint.

7 years on and the reading list is still going strong.

There are a few exceptions to the rule; generally book club choices get to skip the queue as I need to read them before the next meeting. And sometimes I’ll fast track a read for a specific reason, such as working with a client or my BLM reads which were way too important to read in a year’s time.

And the list is always evolving – at the moment, it’s really crime/thriller heavy, so should I get any more general fiction, they’ll get slotted in a little higher up.

What’s on my list at the moment?

*this only covers physical reads and doesn’t include audiobooks

• One Moment by Linda Green – Thriller
• Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding – RomCom
• Mind for Murder by Malcolm Richards – Crime thriller
• 10^th Anniversary by James Patterson – Crime thriller
• The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly – Crime thriller
• Harvest by Tess Gerritsen – Crime thriller
• The Little Mermaid and Other Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Anderson (Minalima edition) – Children’s classics
• Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult – Mystery
• Watch Me Die by Erika Spindler – Crime thriller
• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess – Classic
• Save Me by Lisa Scottoline – Thriller
• Dead Man’s Time by Peter James – Crime thriller
• Trail of Poison by Malcolm Richards – Crime thriller
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini – Historical
• Blood Born by Kathryn Fox – Thriller
• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers – Classic
• Watch You Sleep by Malcom Richards – Crime thriller
• The Treatment by Mo Hayder – Crime thriller
• Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett – Fantasy
• The Killing Place by Tess Gerritsen – Crime thriller
• Kill for Love by Malcolm Richards – Crime thriller
• The Sky is Falling by Sidney Sheldon – Crime
• Angels and Demons by Dan Brown – Crime thriller

Have you read any of the books on my list? What did you think?