Answers for today’s The Friday Five questions. Pic from Pixabay.

1) Have you read more books, or fewer books, this past year than usual?

I only started to keep a yearly list of novels I read half way through 2019, but I’d say I’ve been reading books about the same as I usually do! Last year I read 51 complete novels, plus all the fanfic and non-fiction books on top of that.

2) What book are you reading now (or what book did you read most recently)?

The Finnish translation of Dead Water by Ann Cleeves. Having some problems getting through it because I watch the tv series version of these too, and remember just enough of the tv version of Dead Water to make it feel like I know this to well to keep reading, but not enough to remember who the murderer is or their motivation! It’s a quandary.

3) What is the best book you read in the past few years?

The whole The Expanse novel series by by James S. A. Corey, by far margin! Also enjoyed ideas in The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin very much, even if the writing was rather dry.

4) Do you read more than one book at a time, or just one?

Currently only one, and that’s because I currently only have books by Ann Cleeves from the library; they’re a series so I have to read them in order. But I often have at least two books under work, in different genres or different writing styles just so I can switch up if I don’t feel like reading a genre or an author that day.

5) How big is your to-be-read pile (or list)?

It’s got about 10 new-to-me authors to try out at the moment, all sci-fi. I’ve been on sort of a sci-fi kick lately when looking for new authors to read. I also got a vague mental list of new releases by the authors I usually read (such as above mentioned Ann Cleeves and James S. A. Corey) but they usually have a lot of people (like 600) queuing up for them when I put them on hold in the library, so I get them when I get them – it could take like eight months.