If like myself you are of an age to have spent decades browsing through bookshops to choose and cherish books which have brightened your life, then the ambush represented by E-books has perhaps impacted your life too.
How will I choose my books? I can’t in all honesty accept to browse in a bookshop and then purchase through Amazon. Finally I now accept that this has been an opportunity to change my relationship to my hobby and to become a better informed, more varied and better satisfied reader, both in French and in English.
Update after first year (2015): My kindle and my blog have lead me once again to read books in German (a long story)
Unheard of; I’ve been able to plan my reading a year ahead (with of course room for add ins)
Update after second year (2016): I’ve read and posted 62 books this year of which about one third came from my reading targets, English 5/8, French 7/9, German 4/8, Italian 4/9.
I’ve given much thought to how I choose books which can be found in choosing books changing habits 1 And in choosing books changing habits 2
Please post comments, suggestions or reviews
South of Paris books 
Thanks Pat I completely agree and am lucky enough to regularly find interesting reading material in charity shops: I think people are more ready these days to pass on to charity shops books they have been given or bought which in the end don’t appeal to them, so I’ve also found relatively new books there. It’s more difficult though to find foreign language books second hand in the UK- unless you have a source? Happy browsing and reading!
Hi Mandy, no luck on on a foreign languages lodestone in the UK, I live in the Paris area and my needs are mostly reversed, I use E-books quite a bit to access difficult to find books or my local lending library for about a third
Thank you so much for putting this blog together; I’m really enjoying it! I love how you have the sections broken down by country. Looking forward to exploring more and getting some good book recommendations!
Why is thank you Merritt that is most encouraging
Pat