Ten years ago, a British pensioner possibly set a record by borrowing 25,000 books from her local library in weekly installments of first six then twelve. An average person is expected to read twelve books a year, and a voracious reader reach 5000 in a lifetime.  Like most people I don’t keep records, but Amazon tells me that I placed 28 orders for myself in 2018 which added to those reread and purchased elsewhere suggests between 40 and 45.

It’s a good time to look back on what books influenced me in 2018 and which ones I’m looking forward to in 2019. Last year my favorite first time reads were The Man from the Train, The Havant Boy Murderer, Jack the Ripper Suspect: Dr Francis Tumblety, and  Lethbridge-Stewart The New Unusual. My favorite repeated read was Fahrenheit 451.

Unsurprisingly, given ongoing research, true crime features high in the 2019 list. There’s Jack and the Thames Torso Murders A New Ripper?,  a new and updated edition of the Jack the Ripper A-Z, The Five, the Untold Lives of the Women killed by Jack the Ripper, and on the fiction front  Doctor Who Meets Scratchman. For a repeat, the best of the Bond Novels.

Whatever you read in 2019, I hope that you enjoy it and learn from the experience.