Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
Happy (almost) Winter Solstice to everyone who will be celebrating it in a few days! I’m eagerly anticipating the changing of the seasons and the few extra minutes of daylight we’ll soon have each day here in Canada.
Here are my Winter Solstice bookish wishes.
1. More Audiobooks at the Library
A few years ago, some Top Ten Tuesday bloggers encouraged me to give audiobooks a try during an audiobook prompt. I listened to you and have since learned to love having this option while doing chores or getting cardiovascular exercise on a brisk walk!
My local library has a pretty decent selection of audiobooks, but I’d love to see them offer even more of them than they currently do. For example, I’d love to listen to audiobooks of Jean M. Auel’s Earth’s Children series this winter or even just listen to more fiction in general. Nonfiction is better represented at my library than fiction is from what I’ve seen.
2. Quiet Reading Time
My spouse prefers watching YouTube videos to reading books and we live in a small apartment, so sometimes I wish for more quiet time to read.
3. An Abundance of Novellas
I’ve really been on a novella kick lately and wish there were more books of this length being published, especially in the speculative fiction genres. It’s refreshing to have something longer than a short story to dive into that doesn’t require my attention for 200+ pages. Some storylines don’t need that much space to shine.
4. Dairy-Free Chocolate
I like to save it for emotional scenes, whether it’s a tense moment in a horror novel or a sentimental chapter in a piece of mainstream fiction. There’s something about chocolate that makes those passages even more memorable.
5. Living Happily Ever After
This is something I’ve mentioned here before, but since 2020 I have felt stronger and stronger urges to read stories that end happily. Occasionally, I will actually look up reviews of certain books or skip ahead to the last few pages to see if the good guys won and if everything is peaceful in the end. While I’m still willing to read some stories that don’t fit that pattern, I’m limiting them much more than I used to and am quicker to DNF them if they become too sad.
6. Endings in General
Maybe I should explain this one a little better. I’m a writer, and I’ve been having trouble coming up with endings for my stories. Beginnings are easy, middle sections aren’t too bad, but endings can be tricky. Here’s hoping I get a flash of inspiration in 2024.
Very interesting that your library has more NF audiobooks than fictional. My library’s reading subset of patrons is older and dependent on large-print and audiobooks, so ours is 100% nonfiction.
Very interesting! Maybe the same sorts of demographic ages are influencing both of our libraries.
I love audiobooks, but my library tends to have very specific genres too, so I use Everand and (occasionally) Audible instead. I’d love more variety “locally”.
Cool! Yeah, those are great options if your local library doesn’t have a big selection.
All of these sound like great wants this season. I hope you get them all.
Thank you. 🙂
Fantastic set of wishes! I love getting audiobooks from my library, and while they usually have a good selection, there are definitely some older books that don’t seem to be available. I’ve become more of a seeker of happy endings in books too. Real life (especially the news) has enough stress and sadness — I need my fiction to provide joy.
Thanks. I’m glad you get it.
I love your wishes and I can relate! I’m pretty happy with the audiobook selection at my library, but for some reason they don’t have Project Hail Mary. Why?! It seems to be one of the popular ones so I don’t know why they wouldn’t purchase the license. I hope all your bookish wishes come true this Solstice!
Thank you.
That’s puzzling for sure! I hope they order it soon.
Happy endings are the best! Sometimes a story is that good that we can forgive it a not-so-happy conclusion, but overall, I’ve always been a reader (or moviegoer) who prefers smiles over tears in the end. 🙂 Hope all of these wishes come true in your reading life for 2024. Thanks a bunch for visiting my website today, too!
You’re welcome, Rissi. Happy holidays!
These are some great bookish wishes! I do love that there are more speculative fiction novellas than there used to be, but I also hope for many more to come! Happy holidays!
Here’s my TTT this week.
FYI – I don’t know if you follow the There’s Always Room for One More blog, but Imyril has a list of SFF novellas up that might interest you: https://onemore.org/2023/12/15/bite-size-books-stellar-novellas/
I don’t think I do follow it. Thank you so much for the suggestion. I’m heading over there soon. 🙂
Oh man, #2 can be a nightmare in a small apartment. We’re alright now, but in our last place… aaaah. I hope that wish comes true for you (and all your others, of course!).
Yes, absolutely! Thank you for your kind wishes.
Hot cocoa, chocolate bars and books are the perfect mix in winter, so cozy
Agreed. 🙂
I finally got into audiobooks this year and I’ve been having so much fun listening to them! And ohhhh maybe headphones will be a future present for your spouse? Then he can listen to his videos and you can read your books ♥.
Good idea!
I really liked the Jean Auel books years ago. I always want a HEA or a happy for now ending to a book. Happy winter solstice, we are just about to hit summer solstice here in NZ.
I hope you have a wonderful summer solstice! Hello to a fellow Earth’s Children fan.
Here’s hoping all your winter solstice wishes come true! 😀
Thank you.
These are great wishes, I hope they will all come true for you! I can relate to #2 and #5 for sure 🙂
A great list!
I haven’t done audio yet but the Libby app for the library seems to have a good selection should I wish to try them.
I do like shorter books, but they have to be well balanced. I don’t like a rushed ending 😂
I don’t like sad books and will try to avoid them.
Have a great week!
The Libby app is cool, Emily!
Thank you.
I definitely relate to #2! I cannot wait for football season to be over so I can have some peace in my house again!
I would love to have some recommendations for your favorite novellas! Have you read any recently that have stuck out to you?
Most of the novellas I’ve read are in the horror and speculative fiction genres, but I do visit other genres, too. Here are a few I really liked:
“Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan
“Waswanipi” by Jean-Yves Soucy
“A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers
“Foster” by Claire Keegan
“A Prayer for the Crown-Shy” by Becky Chambers
“Don’t Let Them Bury My Story: The Oldest Living Survivor of the Tulsa Rase Massacre in Her Own Words” by Viola Ford Fletcher
“Bloom” by Delilah S. Dawson
This is a great list. I am with you on non-dairy chocolate and more quiet reading time. Merry Christmas!
I hope you get everything you wish for!
Thank you. 🙂
More quiet time to read is ALWAYS appreciated. More audio books is a nice wish as well. I’ve only just gotten into audio books and my local library has a fairly decent selection, but not many copies, so there’s almost always a wait, even for older titles.
Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!
Thank you. You, too!
I’d love to listen to or read Auel’s books too. I love the premise.
I like that image as well. 🙂
And good luck to the writing!
Thank you, Greg. I appreciate that.
Fantastic list. I’d also love more audiobook selections from my library, and books in general. Also having quiet reading time. Hopefully, those endings can come easier.
Thank you! Fingers crossed.
More quiet time is ALWAYS appreciated I feel like! My kids enjoy watching youtube videos and playing video games and I’ve gotten pretty good at tuning it out but the times when I get true peace and quiet are very valued.
I hope you get lots of peace and quiet over Christmas break!
Happy winter solstice! I hope you get more of that quiet reading time. I often feel like novellas are too short but I haven’t read too many of them. Have you read Claire Keegan? Foster is fantastic.
Thank you. Yes, I love Claire Keegan’s work. Thanks for the recommendation, though .
I’m so glad you are enjoying audios! The e-audios make it so easy, don’t they? I hope you enjoy your winter’s reading.
Thanks. Yes, they sure do.
Novellas are my jam. There’s nothing better than a good concise novella!!
Happy Holidays!
My TTT 🙂
Happy Holidays to you as well! Aren’t novellas fun?
Great list. We have a good audiobook selection, but I prefer Audible these days since I can listen in the car easily. I am with you on happy endings. Good luck finding your endings. It is tough to wrap things up strongly.
Thank you. 🙂
I have the same problem with getting audiobooks from the library. I’m bad about pre-requesting them and getting in “line,” so I have trouble finding ones I really want to listen to when I need them. More variety and more copies would be super helpful. I hope the library gods make that one happen for you!
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Happy TTT to you as well!
I hope you get more audiobooks and shorter wait times at your library, too.
Happy Solstice, Lydia! My library has a huge selection of audiobooks available through their online library, while there aren’t as many in the actual library itself. If your husband watches YouTube and you’d rather have quiet, maybe investing in a pair of headphones for him might be a good gift for both of you! And I completely understand changing tastes – I’ve moved away from YA lately, so you wanting happy endings doesn’t sound unusual to me at all. I hope you have a nice relaxing winter solstice, and have all your wishes come true.
Thanks, Leah.
Headphones are a great gift idea. Thanks for the recommendation.
Happy Solstice! More audiobooks at the library would be lovely. I can’t afford audiobooks, and my library tends to have massive waitlists.
Thank you!
Yes, audiobooks can be pricy for sure. If only libraries could afford to buy more of them.
This is a creative wishlist! Hope you get them fulfilled.
Thank you. 🙂
Living Happily Ever After is the only way to live!
Merry Christmas
Absolutely. Merry Christmas to you as well.
I have trouble with endings, too. My characters are quite disobedient and go off the rails. Not sure what to do about that…
Happy New Year!
I’m glad you get that. Happy New Year, and I hope we both think of better endings soon.