When someone asks me what I want for Christmas or my birthday, I always have a book on standby. Well, usually I have more than one. The same way I always have a lot of books on standby to be read. I try not to read all my new books right away and want to spread them out. This next read marks the second new, Christmas gift, book.

As I write this post, I am struggling to come up with the opening tidbit, which happens sometimes. I could make small talk and talk about the weather (it’s winter in Western PA, it sucks), or talk about my plans for the upcoming week (work, reading, celebrating Matt’s birthday). But, for some reason, I’m just not feeling it, so we’ll just jump right in.

Holiday reads should never be limited to the holiday season, which is why in January, I picked up In a Holidaze, which was on loan to me from my sister. Maybe it was in an effort to hit up the bookshelf again, or it was because I was feeling nostalgic after taking down our Christmas tree in mid-January. Either way, it seemed like a wise decision (it did end up being a good decision).

I love a good bookshelf. Whether it’s in someone’s home or a store or a library, bookshelves are cool. I was lucky that our house came with one. It’s been featured in a few pictures on AYOB already. Because I like to show off other items besides books on the shelf, I run out of room often. We ended up buying a small bookshelf for our guest bedroom. It added something to that part of the wall and gave me an extra spot to store books. Just what I need - more space!

The first AYOB post of 2021 is finally here! I spent some time at the very end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix before digging into the first official book of 2021. I decided, after conferring with Matt, that to be counted towards the 2021 read count, the book must be completely finished during 2021. Harry Potter spanned two years, so it won’t count towards either read count; however, this next read will.