2018 was a whirlwind of a year for me with incredible highs and some of my worst lows. Looking back, there’s a lot to be grateful for but also a lot I wish I had dealt with differently. It’s because of these that this blog took quite a hit.

Recently, I spent nearly four weeks in the UK. During that time, I had the pleasure of visiting several bookstores. Of course, that included Waterstones Piccadilly, allegedly the largest bookshop in Europe. It’s definitely huge! I also popped into outlets in Richmond, Cambridge, Stoke-on-Trent and Bath. After all that browsing, I amassed a large folder of photos on my phone with books I’d added to my wishlist.

A few years ago, I came across one of Sana’s Goodreads shelves that she had named anti-library. While the term still unsettles me as much today as it did back then, the idea behind it is a poignant one. You see, the anti-library contains books the owner hasn’t read, a point of greater importance to Umberto Eco. For many a reader, this is also known as the TBR (to be read) pile. Interestingly, several bloggers find that the TBR pile has become a source of stress, and some feel liberated without one.

Last year, my goal was to continue my yearly streak since 2014 of at least a hundred books. In the end, I exceeded it a fair bit with 129 books — 127, if I exclude the re-reads of two books that I read twice within the year.