The Sunday Post is hosted by the wonderful Kimberly, the Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week, take a look ahead, and showcase our new treasures—I mean books!
This week I’m also participating in The Sunday Salon hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz, and Stacking the Shelves hosted by Marlene at Reading Reality.
The Past Week
In real life: Robin left on Tuesday, having spent several days helping me prune and downsize. I made really good progress on my books and craft supplies. On Friday, we had a good friend of mine and her husband over for dinner. About half of my week was spent either preparing for the dinner or preparing for the storm: planning, shopping, and cleaning; making sure we have sufficient non-perishable food, drinking water, and batteries; recharging our devices and making sure all needed supplies are where we can easily get to them.
As I write this at 12:15 am on Sunday morning, the snow has been falling for about an hour and a half—very fine powder, and not very much of it yet. It’s supposed to get heavier overnight, then change over to sleet and freezing rain. A power outage is a very real possibility. We’re as ready as we can be, I think, but I’m praying the power stays on. I don’t mind being snowed- or iced-in for days, as long we’re warm enough and can make coffee, tea, and hot food. Even if the power goes out for a while, I think we’ll be all right… as long as the pipes don’t freeze.
5 Good Things:
- The majority of the decision-making about which books to keep is done. It’s one of the tasks I was most dreading, and it’s a big load off my mind. Thank goodness for Robin who, in addition to schlepping boxes and stacks of books up and down the stairs, kept me focused, on task, and relatively calm—and never once judged what I chose to keep.
- We’re making good progress on downsizing the stuff in the basement.
- I enjoyed the fiber guild’s monthly Craft & Chat on Tuesday; there were five of us on the Zoom this month.
- Dinner with my friend and her husband was lovely; we talked books, movies, games, and more.
- I feel better prepared for this storm than we have been for some storms in the past.
Recent Posts
- Sunday Post – 1/18/2026
- Sunday Post – 1/25/2026 – this post
Looking Ahead
- Bookish Discoveries I Made in 2025 – Top 10 Tuesday (tentative)
- reviews TBD
- Sunday Post – 2/01/2026
What I’ve Been Reading/Watching
Reading: I’m currently reading Best Hex Ever by Nadia El-Fassi, which Robin gave me for my birthday last year. I’m also rereading Mind Games by Nora Roberts (reviewed in 2025.)
Listening to: The Queens of Crime, by Marie Benedict
Watching: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 7 (a rewatch), and Late Night with Stephen Colbert.
A Discovery of Witches, season 3,
Playing: Wingspan (phone app), Winter Burrow (Steam), and Pokémon Go. And my dailies: Wordle, Connections, Strands, Spelling Bee, and Sudoku (all from the NYT.)
Added to the Hoard
(Click title for Goodreads page or my review.)
Library Haul
Library: Automatic Noodle
Purchased
Kindle: Sale or low price: A Cotswold Killing; Further Chronicles of Avonlea; Emily’s Quest; When Worlds Collide; A Moment’s Shadow
Ten Years Ago I Was Reading…
I saw this idea on Lisa Loves Literature, who got it from Musings of a Bookish Kitty (who I also follow.) I thought I would give it a try! I published these reviews 10 years ago between Jan. 19 and January 25, 2016.
Lola
Deciding which books to keep and which not is so hard. We had to go through that before we moved last year. Downsizing takes a lot of effort, but it does feel good to have done. Good luck with the storm and I hope you keep your power. Seeing Automatic Noodle in your haul reminds me how I want to listen to that one, I got an audiobook copy of it. I hope we both enjoy the book. Winter Burrow sounds like a cute and cozy game, will have to look that one up as I love cozy games. I hope you have a great week!
Lola recently posted…Sunday Post #684
Lark_Bookwyrm
See my reply to Nicky for more on the book-downsizing saga. 😀 Thank you for the well-wishes regarding the storm. It’s 6:15 pm on Sunday and (fingers crossed) so far, we still have power. It hasn’t been as bad here as predicted, I think. As for Automatic Noodle, Robin recommended it pretty highly, so I’m looking forward to starting it. And I’m loving Winter Burrow!
Nicky @ The Bibliophibian
I did a tiny cull of my books while moving, but I only really did the really easy decisions… I chickened out on doing a full weeding, ahaha. Good job on getting through most of the job!
Hope you enjoy Automatic Noodle; I thought it was fun.
Lark_Bookwyrm
This was somewhere between a preliminary and a full weeding, depending on genre and format. The mass market paperbacks got a deep pruning, because frankly, the print in a lot of them is too small to read anymore. Over the past 10 or 11 years, I have tried to duplicate my favorite books on Kindle, using Bookbub to watch for sales. S Robin and I checked all my mass-market (MM) paperbacks to see if I had them on Kindle already. If so, the book went on the sell/donate pile, with a few exceptions. (I did keep a few of my favorites, in case Amazon ever disappears or I get too fed up with the company… although I’m kind of locked in, given the nearly 4K Kindlebooks I have.) I was pretty ruthless with the trade and hardcover books I had bought at library booksales but never read, and with the nonfiction books as well. The middle-grade and YA books were harder; I kept more of the trade paperbacks or hardcovers, especially those I have owned since my childhood, and picture books by my favorite illustrators. We didn’t tackle the hardcover fantasy, sci-fi, or mysteries at all, but those had already been pruned twice over the last 5 years. I’m sure I’ll find more to discard when I start packing them up, but I made a big dent in the overall total.
Alicia Marquez
I love Discovery of Witches.
I read the first three books in the series and loved how close the TV series followed the books.
I need to sort through my books.
Alicia Marquez recently posted…Sunday Post No. 111
Lark_Bookwyrm
It would have taken me so much longer to go through the books without Robin’s help. And yes, I’ve been appreciating how closely the Discovery of Witches series sticks to the books, though they do leave some things out, and they made a few significant changes. But overall, I think they did a great job.
Sarah
Yes… sorting out the books in the loft will be one of our chores this year as we’re having a major overhaul of the house. I’m not looking forward to it, either. Best of luck with the storm and have a great week.
Lark_Bookwyrm
It really helped having someone there to keep me focused, someone who is also a bibliophile and understood why it was so hard. If you can call on a friend or relative who can stay objective and supportive at the same time, I highly recommend it.
Becki
Oh wow! I wonder what I was reading 10 years ago 🙂 I bet the Discovery of Witches show is great. I may have watched the beginning of it a long time ago? We’re having more weather here too. Ugh.
Becki recently posted…Sunday Post/Sunday Salon – January 25, 2026: Another Cold One
Lark_Bookwyrm
A Discovery of Witches is really good. I hope you get through the winter weather safe and warm.
Melissa
Oh man, culling the books is hard. I don’t envy you that! I generally try to sell books that I have on Pangobooks unless it has moved me in a way or is by an author I adore. I have, for instance, all of Margaret Atwood’s books because I love her.
It’s been snowing here so much since noon today (Sunday). We’re expecting about 18-24 inches. EEEEEEE
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Bree
Sounds like your book unhauling is going well! Glad you had Robin to assist!
Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out
Automatic Noodle is delightful, I hope you enjoy it as I did.
Wishing you a great reading week, and uninterrupted power.
Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out recently posted…It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #SundayPost #SundaySalon
Katherine
I enjoyed the audio for The Queens of Crime. It really made me want to read all the books by the 4 authors. Yay for Robin! Book unhauling and downsizing is hard so always helpful to have a partner. Have a wonderful week!