October brought cooler weather and a much-needed readathon, which helped me make a good dent in my Cavalcade of Classics list. My goal was to read at least one title from my list each month, and this month I read four. Starting strong and hopefully not burning myself out too quickly.
Regular TBR reads (including those that weren’t on my TBR until I picked them up):
New Boy by Tracey Chevalier (audio)
The Traveling Bag by Susan Hill
The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín (audio)
Maggie’s Door by Patricia Reilly Giff (read-aloud)
Ghostland by Colin Dickey
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
From my Cavalcade of Classics:
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (audio)
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (audio)
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (on audio)
Currently Reading:
Gilgamesh Among Us by Theodore Ziolkowski
The Ramayana by Vālmīki ( I’m working on the shortened modern prose version by R. K. Narayan. I can’t tell if it seems weird because it’s just weird or because it’s from a mythology that’s unfamiliar to me or if it’s just the version I’m reading. I might try another version to find out.)
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff (audio)
To-Read in November:
November is going to be a challenge. I decided at about 2:00 pm on October 31, to participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo. I reached the 50,000-word goal in 2010, attempted but didn’t reach it in 2011, and haven’t tried since. A friend is participating this year, and I figured this would be a chance to show her some support and to try to get something down from a novel idea I’ve been poking around at for a few years.
I figure it could go one of three ways:
- I write a lot and meet my daily word count goals and don’t have time to read, or
- I read a lot to distract myself from the fact that I’m not meeting my daily word count goals because I’m reading, or
- I really nail time management, make the most of the extra hour the end of Daylight Saving gives me, and meet both my reading and my writing goals.
Anything’s possible, but there’s precedent for only two of those possibilities.
Reading goals for November, in addition to completing the books I’m currently reading:
The Odyssey by Homer (Emily Wilson translation)
Circe by Madeline Miller
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
What books have your read recently that speak to you? What books are you excited to read in November?
Imperfect Happiness 