Bookends: September 2013

The first day of each month, I’m posting a summary of what I read the previous month and what I plan to read in the coming month. I would love if this could become a conversation in the comments about what’s on your reading list, too!

You know what? I didn’t finish many books this month.

I was thinking about writing up all of the reasons for this, like that we started back into a regular homechool schedule and the Girl Scout troop started meeting again and I’ve got to practice for voice lessons, and blah, blah, blah.

But to heck with the excuses.

I’d like to read more than I did this month, and I’ll try to get in more reading in October. The end.

You know what else? I completely dropped the August/September Sisters Book Club selection (The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander). I realized that there was no reason I should make myself read nonfiction when I really wanted to read fiction. I’m a grown-up, and it’s my book club. So there.

I’m clearly feeling rebellious (or perhaps just defensive) tonight.

Anyway, here’s what I did read:

Grown-ups’ Books:

I finished zero (0) grown-up books this month. Not for lack of trying, though.

Kids’ Books:

Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers (audiobook) (A nanny blows into town on the wind, treats her charges coldly, and they love her for it.)

Oath Breaker (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness #5) by Michelle Paver (Torak breaks his oath.)

Ghost Hunter (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness #6) by Michelle Paver (Torak hunts ghosts. Yes, you’re right: I read these less than a month ago and now I can hardly remember them.)

The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes (delightful little book in which Estes puts us inside the head of Jane, the Mysterious Middle Moffat, and pokes gentle fun at people intent upon decluttering their homes because of Henry David Thoreau.)

Henry and Beezus by Beverly Cleary (#2 of the Henry Huggins series, audiobook). (Henry tries to save money to buy a bicycle and his parents are surprisingly unperturbed when he finds a boatload of chewing gum abandoned in an empty lot.)

Henry and Ribsy by Beverly Cleary (#3 of the Henry Huggins series, audiobook). (Henry’s dad challenges him to keep Ribsy out of trouble for the rest of the summer, and I learn that in the 1950’s, garbage collectors actually came up to your house and got your trash cans from where you stored them. A golden age, indeed.)

Currently Reading/To-Read for October

It’s possible I spread myself too thin with my currently-reading books. Right now I’m working on Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, Lori Duron’s Raising My Rainbow, Richard Adams’s Watership Down (reading aloud to my kids), and David Hume’s History of England, Volume V. And I’ve got a loaned copy of Game of Thrones staring at me. I didn’t like the television series (and I watched the first two seasons, so I totally gave it a chance), and I’m not convinced reading the book will be worth my time. I’m not even reading it yet, and it’s sapping my energy.

My plan for October is to clear out all of these currently-readings and to start—and finish!—the October Sisters Book Club selection, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. My sister picked this one out, and I think it looks pretty cool.

And that’s it for my goals for October. I’m through with ambitious reading plans. One complete book. That’s all I’m going for this month. And with making Halloween costumes for two kids, I’m going to be hard pressed to do even that, I fear.

Well, I can always sleep less.

What have you enjoyed reading in the past month? What’s on your to-read list for October? If you blog your answer, please post a link in the comments (and/or link back to this post, if you’re so inclined).

Related articles

• Bookends: August 2013 (imperfecthappiness.wordpress.com)
• Bookends: July 2013 (imperfecthappiness.wordpress.com)
• Bookends: June 2013 (imperfecthappiness.wordpress.com)
• Bookends: May 2013 (imperfecthappiness.wordpress.com)
• Bookends: April 2013 (imperfecthappiness.wordpress.com)
• Bookends: March 2013 (imperfecthappiness.wordpress.com)
• Bookends: February 2013 (imperfecthappiness.wordpress.com)
• Bookends: January 2013 (imperfecthappiness.wordpress.com)
• Bookends: November 2012 (imperfecthappiness.wordpress.com)
• 2012: My Year in Books (imperfecthappiness.wordpress.com)
• 2011: My Year in Books (imperfecthappiness.wordpress.com)