Thanks for taking the time to visit my bookshelf.

  “The truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books
without losing their composure or their desire for more.”
~ ~ Gabriel Zaid

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I read a wide variety of books; even so, not all the books here on my shelf reflect my taste in reading as I often obtain books purely for release. 

For other books in my personal collection that are not yet registered on BookCrossing see my library catalogue on LibraryThing

If you can’t contact me by PM for some reason, my email address is helen.s49 at gmail dot com


"To read is to live more and to live better."
~ ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon
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My BookCrossing Wish List 
This is not meant to be a 'gimme' list, but a collection of books I think look interesting and would be happy to read one day if they happened along. And it is a deliberately long list - to help you folks out there who play along on the tag games, exchanges, sweeps and all those other fun things . . . where a decent sized wishlist makes life so much easier.

My address buddy is jeniwren. So please contact me if you'd like her address for a surprise RABCK - and she would be happy to give you my address if you wish to surprise me . . . ;-)

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Accurate Release Statistics : as at 9th August 2022.
2029 wild releases  -  all wild releases are true wild releases
(more than the official # above as some caught before release)
1127 early controlled releases made by journal entry only (when that was the only option).
1073 later controlled releases through the system.
So my total release number is now 4229.

Catch Rate:  336 catches from 2029 wild releases  -------> 16.6%



LIBRARYTHING BINGO DOG FOR 2022




1. An award winning book - Home by Marilynne Robinson (Orange Prize for Fiction 2009)
2. First published in a year ending with a 2 - Paydirt by Garry Disher (1992)
3. A modern retelling of an older story - A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (King Lear)
4. A book you'd love to see as a movie - Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
5. A book that features a dog - The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith
6. The title contains the letter Z - Jocelyn Osgood in Xylophones Above Zarundi by Geoffrey McSkimming
7. Published the year you joined LT (2008) - Breath by Tim Winton
8. A book by a favourite author - The Way It Is Now by Garry Disher
9. A long book (long for you) - The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
10. A book you received as a gift
11. The title contains a month - Moominvalley in November by Tove Jansson
12. A weather word in the title - Hard Rain by Mark Edwards, Lloyd Timberlake & Bob Dylan
13. Read a CAT - The Yield by Tara June Winch (January AuthorCat - Indigenous Authors)
14. Contains travel or a journey - In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
15. A book about sisters or brothers - The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
16. A book club read (real or online) - A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam
17. A book with flowers on the cover - The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
18. A book in translation - Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
19. A work of non-fiction - Yellow Notebook by Helen Garner
20. Where a character shares a name of a friend - A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor (Helen)
21. A book set in a capital city - Damascus Nights by Rafik Schami
22. A children's or YA book - The Journey by John Marsden
23. A book set in a country other than the one you live - Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan
24. A book by an LGBTQ+ author - Out of Bounds by Val McDermid
25. A book with silver or gold on the cover - Living in the Maniototo by Janet Frame


LIBRARYTHING BINGO DOG FOR 2021 - COMPLETED





1. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
2. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
3. Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson
4. Autumn by Ali Smith
5. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
6. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
7. Trumpet by Jackie Kay
8. Endangered Species by Nevada Barr
9. Waterland by Graham Swift
10. The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis
11. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
12. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
13. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (January GenreCat)
14. Bitter Wash Road by Garry Disher
15. Truckers by Terry Pratchett
16. The Tricksters by Margaret Mahy
17. Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
18. Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene
19. Joan Makes History by Kate Grenville
20. Cross Off by Peter Corris
21. This Census-Taker by China Mieville
22. Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
23. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
24. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
25. Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch


LIBRARYTHING BINGO DOG FOR 2020 - COMPLETED




1. The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
2. The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
3. Silas Marner by George Eliot
4. The Bookman's Wake by John Dunning
5. The Harp in the South by Ruth Park (Australia)
6. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
7. The Silver Donkey by Sonya Hartnett
8. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
9. Raven Black by Ann Cleeves
10. Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam
11. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
12. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
13. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
14. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
15. V Is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton
16. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (1920)
17. The Martian by Andy Weir
18. Blues of Autumn by Richard Adamson
19. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
20. Mara and Dann by Doris Lessing
21. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
22. A Small Sacrifice by Ellen Hart
23. Wild Swans by Jung Chang
24. Night Work by Laurie R. King
25. On Doubt by Leigh Sales