Weekend Blog Hops: 11 Aug 2017

Do you participate in readathons and/or reading challenges?
Well, I set a Goodreads reading goal every year; however, I don't really join in other challenges or readathons. The reason is not lack of interest. The problems for me are 1) time commitment to get books read in a certain period when I might also be getting ARCs from publishers/NetGalley and 2) cost and time to get the books. Living in Australia is a pain book-wise. They often cost 2-3 times as much here as they did in England, so to get them for a reasonable price, I have to buy overseas and that means waiting for shipping etc. Many of the monthly group-reads I see would be pointless for me as by the time the books arrived the month would be over. I also don't have a huge amount of spare cash to spend on books so I'm very selective about my purchases.




Opening sentence:
He has not shaved this morning.





From page 56:
Although the definitive swing towards urban recruiting occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century, the robust, malleable and deferential countryman was never as plentiful as recruiting sergeants might have wished

My Current Read 
Redcoat
Richard Holmes


Redcoat is the brilliant story of the common British soldier from 1700 to 1900, based on the letters and diaries of the men who served and the women who followed them.

Delving into the history of the period – charting events including Wolfe's victory and death at Quebec, Wellington's Peninsular War, Waterloo, the retreat from Kabul and the Sikh wars – celebrated military historian Richard Holmes provides a comprehensive portrait of a fallible but extraordinarily successful fighting force.