Wow, I don’t know if it’s the excitement of a new beginning with the first month of the year, or the excitement of working on 20ish Reading Challenges, or pure madness, that could well be all the above:
this month has been terrific, best EVER!
Ok, I did NOT finish any audiobook, mostly for technical reasons, I’ll explain when I post the review of the audiobook I finished 24 hours too late to make it for the January count.
BUT I read 11 books, with a total of 2803 pages, that is, an insane 90.4 pages/day! I had to redo the maths several times, to be sure it was correct.
Another neat thing, is that I’m working on my end of year recap as I go along,that will save tons of times at the end, and prevent mistakes.
So for instance, I add titles and numbers after each book I read on this public google recap sheet, and I update all my Reading Challenges on that one.
The cool thing is that to list the following titles, I just add to select them form my column, et voilà!
SO, here are the titles I read:
5 fiction:
Le Grand Meaulnes, by Alain-Fournier – in original French
Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – historical novel
A Midsummer Night’s Dream , by Shakespeare – play
The Man In The Brown Suit , by Agatha Christie – mystery
Remembering Babylon , by David Malouf
I enjoyed them all, but my old love for le Grand Meaulnes was too strong against Agatha Christie, so that’s my favorite fiction this month:
6 non-fiction
Gandhi: A Manga Biography, by Kazuki Ebine – graphic format
The Adventures of Hergé, by José-Louis Bocquet – graphic format
Saint Gregory Palamas As A Hagiorite, by Hierotheos of Nafpaktos
Charles Dickens: A Life , by Claire Tomalin
Cliffs Notes on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream , by Matthew Black
Paris My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) , by Amy Thomas – ebook
Difficult to resist the Parisian sweetness of Amy Thomas’ book, but I’m still giving my preference to this masterpiece, which I highly recommend for Dickens’ 200th anniversary coming up in a few days now:
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Reading Challenges recap
Around the World in 52 books: 9/52
Around the world in 12 books: 1/12
European reading challenge: 4/5
I love Italy: 0/1-3
Dewey Decimal: 8/20
We want you to read French authors: 4/5 or 10 (ends in August)
Books in translation: 2/10-12
South Asia: 1/7
Middle East: 0/18
My own reading challenge: 0/5
What’s in a Name: 3/5
Ebook challenge: 3/10
Audiobook: 0/12
Support your library: 7/37
Finishing the series: 0/1
2nds challenge: 0/3
Foodies: 1/3
Japanese literature: 0/? (starts in June)
Historical novels: 1/7-10
New authors challenge: 8/15
A Shakespeare play a month: 1/12
SHAKESPEARE READING MONTHE: 1/1 – COMPLETED
AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE MONTH: 1/1 – COMPLETED
DICKENS READING MONTH: 1/1 – COMPLETED
Graham Green Challenge: 0/1
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Blog recap
December 2011: 29 posts = total views = 1,718 = 55/day
January 2012: 21 posts = total views = 2,165 = 70/day
Another very exciting event in January was my starting a book club for our block, with a very special format that everybody seems to enjoy. If you have not yet read about it, it’s here.
How was YOUR month of January?
Ahhh, reading a book in French and all your other books put me a little to shame. Wowie Zowie! What a fantastic month for you. Congratulations. I hope you can keep this up all year. I’m going to have to check out that Google recap sheet.
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well, I happen to be French, so the French book is really no big deal, lol! yes I’m kind of proud of these google sheets, and they make my life easier to keep track.
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I have read and posted on some short stories by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie -I would like to read her longer fiction-I have read two or three long Dickens Biographies-not sure I am up for another one in the near future-you for sure had a great reading month
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I admire your faithfulness at reading short stories, not sure exactly why, but I no longer feel really comfortable with that genre
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