Reading in Review

Gosh. Welcome to May, everyone! A third of the year has been and gone, and it seems like as good a time as ever for me to take a quick look back at what I've read so far this year. If you've not already seen, I keep a list of (new) books I've read here. My goal for the year is 50 new books (not counting re-reads or things I don't finish).

Despite an awful April, when I only read two books, my year's total so far is 19. A pretty good start, but not as good as last year (or so my trusty notebook tells me). Between January and April last year I read 25 books, but that was also when I was taking a class on Shakespeare, so that includes seven of his plays.

Some general thoughts, then. This year has seen my love for Margaret Atwood's writing grow; I've read a couple of her novels this year and they've been some of my favourites. I also absolutely LOVED the HUNGER GAMES trilogy that I read at the beginning of March. And I was thrilled to read the conclusion of the EARTH'S CHILDREN series (The Land of Painted Caves) at the end of March. I read a handful of the Orange Prize longlisted books - favourites include THE SEAS and REPEAT IT TODAY WITH TEARS, which was so heart-wrenchingly beautiful (and disturbing) that it made me cry.

I was just trying to think of what has been my least favourite book I've read this year. I was underwhelmed by ANIMAL FARM, but I'm glad I read it because now I don't have to just pretend. Other than that, THE FIVE PEOPLE THAT YOU MEET IN HEAVEN didn't please me as much as the other books I've read. It was very different, and a great idea, but I didn't fall in love with it the way I've fallen in love with most of the other books on that list.

All in all, I'd say I've had a pretty good book-year so far. And all this talk about books is making me want to go and read something. I'm not sure what, though, because I'm running out of books. (Ha. That's a lie. But I'm running out of books I want to read.)

So I'm off to sit in front of my bookshelves for a while until I figure something out.

Ciao!