Weekend Blog Hops - 25 January 2019

It's the weekend once more. That means it's time for my book-blogger hopping.
 
How many books did you read last year? Will your goal be to match that number or surpass it?

My final book total for 2018 was 231. As usual, I have set my goal this year at 150, but I am already ahead, so maybe I will surpass it again. It all depends on how the year pans out and how much reading time I can find. And, of course, which books I end up reading, as page count of each book is also a factor.



Opening sentence:
Inhale the scent of a forest close by. I can smell the earthy fragrance of autumn as night falls, the leave gently rustling.

 





From page 56:
There's no comparison between listening to music in a large concert hall with other people and being so close you can feel the performer's breath.

My Current Read 
The Forest of Wool and Steel
Natsu Miyashita

What he experienced that day wasn’t life-changing . . . It was life-making.

Tomura is startled by the hypnotic sound of a piano being tuned in his school. It seeps into his soul and transports him to the forests, dark and gleaming, that surround his beloved mountain village. From that moment, he is determined to discover more.

Under the tutelage of three master piano-tuners – one humble, one cheery, one ill-tempered – Tomura embarks on his training, never straying too far from a single, unfathomable question: do I have what it takes?

Set in small-town Japan, this warm and mystical story is for the lucky few who have found their calling – and for the rest of us who are still searching. It shows that the road to finding one’s purpose is a winding path, often filled with treacherous doubts and, for those who persevere, astonishing moments of revelation.