I've always been a habitual reader and my tastes are so wide that I can't really summarise what kind of books I read. My permanent collection at home, which I got round to counting in 2020 (nothing better to do during the lockdown) contains 488 books, on history, social science, the natural world and the environment, political activism, biographies (only two showbiz ones, by Michael J Fox and Harry Belefonte, and I was only interested in the latter because of his political activism), poetry, a Complete Works of Shakespeare (who hasn't got one of those?), the Third World, Buddhism, one Bible, one Qu'ran in English translation, and a few on vegetarian cooking. I've got two shelves of fiction which have everything from Pat Barker, to Barry Hines to William McIlvanney to John Wyndham. There's a fair bit of science fiction but absolutely no chic-lit.

My TBR pile was manageable for a while, especially when I dispensed with a TV after they turned off the analogue signal on 2nd December 2009. The time I'd previously spent viewing became reading time. Since then I discovered TV on the internet and the TBR has become unmanageable again, two drawers of unread books. There are a lot of second hand bookstalls and charity shops where I live and I can't resist browsing, and for some years I had enough spare cash to be able to buy almost any book that caught my interest. But now I'm chronically under- and un-employed, I have had to resist buying more books. I'm running out of bookshelf space so more of the books I've read will be bookcrossed for other people to enjoy from now on (October 2021). Otherwise I will have to start attaching bookshelves to the walls in the hall, which is the only spare space I have, but the landlord will not appreciate that. Then again, the landord is very much an absentee one, he only inspects the property once every 5 years on average. Then again, while some books' best role is to sit on library shelves for years on end and be consulted occasionally (like most of my books on history and political activism) others warrant being widely read and are wasted sitting on shelves. So I am currently trying to pass more of them on. Most of my releases will be in my local area in bookswops in Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire - Bury shopping centre, Todmorden and Hebden Bridge railway stations, Rhode Island coffee shop in Oldham and Altrincham. Or I might try doing more bookrays.
I am open to requests for books, check out the books I've recently registered and haven't given away or released yet.

Cheers, Spartaca