You can almost always find a positive side to anything. What about storms and power outage? You cannot work from home, you don’t have internet, you cannot go to your work place, they don’t have power either, and it’s so crazy hot outside you can’t even garden. So what to do for 60 hours? READ!!
That’s what happened, and that’s why my reading average is really good for July.
I read 12 books, 5 being non-fiction works. Total of 2606 pages, that is 84 pages/day.
And I listened to 2 audiobooks, representing 15:29 hours, so an average of 29 mn/day! I have actually listened to much more than that, but my current audiobook is very long and I’m only half through.
A total of 14 books is my best this year, though I read more pages in January.
The books I read were:
Fiction:
The Lovers of Algeria, by Anouar Benmalek
The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker
The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa – upcoming review
Historical fiction:
Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow, by Juliet Grey
The Second Empress, by Michelle Moran – upcoming review: very soon!
Non-fiction:
Cliffs Notes on The Taming of The Shrew, by Linda Hillegass – upcoming review
Cliffs Notes on Shakespeare’s As You Like It, by Tom Smith – upcoming review
Little Princes, by Conor Grennan – upcoming review
Le Road Trip, by Vivian Swift – upcoming review: very soon!
Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle, by Slavoj Zizek
Plays:
The Taming of The Shrew, by Shakespeare – upcoming review
As You Like It, by Shakespeare – upcoming review
And the books I listened to, both non-fiction:
In The Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson
Running In The Family, by Michale Ondaatje – upcoming review
My favorites this month:
I also enjoyed a lot Le Road Trip, by Vivian Swift
and In The Garden of Beasts.
Reading Challenges recap
Around the World in 52 books: 24/52
Around the world in 12 books: 7/12
European reading challenge: 8/5 – COMPLETED
I love Italy: 3/3 – COMPLETED
Dewey Decimal: 21/20 – COMPLETED
We want you to read French authors: 6/5 or 10 (ends in August)
Books in translation: 8/10-12
South Asia: 3/7
Middle East: 4/18
My own reading challenge: 1/5
What’s in a Name: 5/6
Ebook challenge: 7/10
Audiobook: 8/12
Support your library: 30/37
Finishing the series: 1/1 – COMPLETED
2nds challenge: 4/3 – COMPLETED
Foodies: 1/3
Japanese literature: 1/8??
Historical novels: 7/7-10
New authors challenge: 24/15 -COMPLETED
A Shakespeare play a month: 7 /12
SHAKESPEARE READING MONTH: 1/1 – COMPLETED
AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE MONTH: 1/1 – COMPLETED
DICKENS READING MONTH: 1/1 – COMPLETED
Graham Green Challenge: 0/1
Special events in July:
– I joined a great read-along of Rebecca and even won a DVD!
– I also participated in Paris in July 2012, with 9 posts.
– I finally introduced a rating system for my reviews, with a fun design I came up with. In case you forget what the logo is for, each time you click on it, it will send you to the rating explanation page.
– While downloading an egalley, the BlueFire Reader app crashed on my ipod touch. It had never happened before, usually it was smooth sailing. I uninstalled and reinstalled the app several times, with no luck. So I gave up, and finally bought a real ereader! I chose the Nook Color, because I receive egalleys in epub and pdf format that the Kindle does not support!! Really!
I enjoy very very much my Nook color: it is finally so easy to read pdfs with nice size, and the browser is actually fast! Of course, I also use it to play Words With Friends, follow your owns posts on my Google Reader, and keep updates on Goodreads, among other things! For less than $200!
Plans for August
– I still need to write a post on 3 amazing Christian Orthodox books recently published, as announced last month!
– I will join another read-along, on The End of The Affair, by Graham Greene
Currently reading
– The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov, finally!
– Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver, on my Nook Color!
Words And Peace 
wow, your power was out for 60 hours – was that from the huge storm that hit the east coast early in the month? Dang!! Looks like you got some good reading in though
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that might have been the same indeed, but it hit us first around Chicago. Next time, I count all my pages/hour for a personal readathon!!
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lol 😉 I was lucky here – my power only flashed, but people the next town over, were without for several days – i probably would have slept through the storm if my iphone hadn’t beeped when it lost the power since it was plugged in…
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good for you
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Yay for a Nook Color! I’ve had mine for about six months and I love it. I can’t wait to read your thoughts on The Housekeeper and the Professor. I thought it was such a nice quiet read. Congrats on reading so much! I hope August is a great month for you.
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I enjoyed also a lot The Housekeeper and The Professor. I really like more and more Japanese literature.
Unless there’s another big storm with power outage, which I’m actually not looking forward too, i doubt my Aug will have as much reading
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Great review post…I like how you not only include the books read and challenge updates, but also highlights of the month and what’s coming up.
I have Nook Color, too and I love it. I didn’t know you could get google reader on it – will definitely be looking into that!
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Thanks.
In the browser, go to google.com. reader, and at one point it will automatically switch you to the mobile view, which is very nice and comfy. Nook Color has a browser, so even if there’s no app, that’s the case for instance for Pinterest, you can always access it thru the browser.
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You had an amazing July! There is a new audio version of The End of the Affair read by Colin Firth and I can’t wait to listen. It probably won’t be until later this fall that I get to it though. Happy August 🙂
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oh wow, this audiobook version sounds very tempting, will have to check if my library has it, thanks!
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You have been so productive! I didn’t realise that a power outage can affect more than your your own home. Must’ve been challenging to do without electricity. We’re all so used to its ready availability o__O So you succumbed and jumped on the e-reader bandwagon too? Do you think you will read more e-books (and e-galleys) now you have a Nook Color? I only bought a Kobo Touch myself last month, it’s such a convenient thing to carry around, especially on commutes.
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all our city [44,000, suburbs of Chicago] was like a ghost city!
Tough for the refrigerator, as we had real feel around between 104-114!!
Yes, I think I will request more ebooks [at netgalley and edelweiss], now that it’s so easy to read even pdf – they were a pain on my ipod touch, as I could not change the font size of the pdfs, that was really small. it was fine for epubs, but some publishers send their galleys as pdfs.
and the browser is actually really good. really neat for under $200.
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I thought the Little Princes was an excellent book! Have fun with your I Love France meme!
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Yes, I have been recommending it since I read it, need to review it soon!
If ever you read something connected to France, feel free to link it with my meme
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