#blog12daysxmas Day 6 Reading targets

There has been a bit of discussion during the week on Twitter about setting reading targets.  I have done that on Goodreads the last couple of years.  But I have been modest in my goals and both years I set it at 52 books, i.e. my aim was to read at least one book a week. I am gobsmacked at people who can set a target of 366 books, or a book a day.   Really my aim was to document my reading and prove to myself that I actually do still read stuff even if sometimes I have felt that I had lost the art of recreational reading amidst lots of other necessary reading.

The first year I documented my reading on Goodreads in 2010 I read 62 books (or 10 above my target) and last year 2011 I read 89 (or 37 above my target).  What will happen in 2012?  Well, despite the extra day provided by the leap year I won't be anywhere near the 89 of last year. My "read 2012" folder on Goodreads stands at 69 today BUT of these seven are books that I still have in my "currently reading" folder.  Am I really going to finish these seven books before midnight tomorrow?  I doubt it.  So stay tuned!  My total for 2012 will be at least 62, so similar to 2010. But who knows? Forbidden fruit is one of those on the list.  It's a reread but I count rereads!!

Book 10: Forbidden fruit

If you like cooking, cats and crime (three special things for me!), Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman series is for you! Forbidden fruit (Allen & Unwin, 2009) is the fifth book in the series about Corinna, the baker and reluctant investigator, and the amazing group of people who live in her Insula in the Melbourne CBD. The book is redolent of smells of baking and other types of food and cooking and drinking and eating and I just love the cat characters, Horatio, The Mouse Police, Belladonna and the other minor cat players. The author obviously knows cats and I enjoyed finishing the last couple of chapters in bed this morning with Hecuba and Xena who had retired for post-breakfast naps. Serena the flower-selling donkey also plays quite a part in this story set in the lead-up to Christmas, as do other traditional (and nontraditional) crib animals.

The storyline may be a bit slight and I did work out part of the plot in advance, but it is a good cosy crime read set in a city I know and in places I enjoy recognizing such as the Abbotsford convent, the Collingwood Children's Farm and the old CUB site. As always with Greenwood novels, the sense of place this book conveys is an important part of my enjoyment. The scene is a sizzling Melbourne in the lead-up to Christmas: Corinna hates Christmas and the hype but carols, Christmas cooking, freegans, vegans, a crazy religious cult, gypsies and two young runaways all have a role to play as the plot unfolds and all ends happily on Christmas Day. Dion Monk is only a minor character in this book but I always savour his character and particularly the wordplay which creates his name. Vale ADP! The wordplay is such a fitting trigger to memories of one whose way with words was legendary.

And, of course, there are recipes included so you can try your skills. I always like the good press Kerry gives to public libraries and Forbidden fruit is no different. In the recipe section (p. 299) she advises: "Borrow an armload of vegie cookbooks from the library and see which one makes you hungry as you read." What great advice!

I've been slack about this series. I really enjoyed the first, Earthly delights, and loved Dion Monk there but I hadn't read any others until now when Forbidden fruit leapt out asking me to buy it while I was browsing on the Benn's Books stand at Sisters in Crime on Friday. I had better get on to the other ones and find out what some of the allusions in this one refer to. Don't be put off by that! This book forms part of a series but is perfectly able to be read as a stand alone story. Meanwhile, I have another three books to put on my "to-read" list: Heavenly pleasures, Devil's food, and Trick or treat!