I managed to read 13 books in April. And only two of those were books I read during the Readathon. This is not typical reading behavior — I’m normally much slower — but I’ll take it.
Looking at the list, there’s a lot of fiction and YA fiction, which was a nice change of pace and probably why I was able to read so much. I didn’t really get to any of the review copies I had on my shelves, but given how out of sorts I was for most of this month that’s probably a good thing. Crabby Kim is not an especially good book reviewer.
News and Notes
I am supposed to have a review up today of The New Republic by Lionel Shriver for a post with TLC Book Tours. But I haven’t quite finished the book yet… It’s been an unexpectedly hectic week at work which has eaten up all of the reading time I thought I’d have this week. I hate when that happens.
March was really, really not my favorite month. The last month or so of winter always puts me in a huge funk, and this year it has felt like winter would never end. There was a week in the middle of the month that I really just hated almost everything.
Despite my generally bad attitude about the world throughout March, I managed to finish nine books — the most in a single month yet this year. And most of them were absolutely excellent. I can’t think of anything to complain about other than, like usual, I wish I could have read even more.
This month I’ll be co-hosting an informal readalong of Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon with the wonderful Florinda of The 3R’s Blog.
Why Telegraph Avenue? That is actually a funny story, I think (or, at least a story typical of people who love more books than they can actually read). Last year, Florinda and I both got copies of the book at an author breakfast at Book Expo America. I remember that Florinda was especially thrilled to get an ARC of the book. We both had plans to read it right away… but we didn’t.
If the big number at the top of this post (and, I suppose, the title) wasn’t clue enough, here’s the news: this is post number 1,000 here at Sophisticated Dorkiness.
It took me exactly 1,768 days to hit that many posts (or 4 years, 10 months, 3 days). That’s an average of about 17 posts per month since I started blogging in May 2008. Of those 1,000 posts, 358 are categorized as book reviews, which seems about right. I don’t actually know how many books I’ve read and reviewed since I started blogging, but I think it must be more than 400 if you consider that many review posts cover multiple books.
February is the shortest month of the year, but I still managed to finish as many books as I did in January. I call that a success! And for the most part, I really enjoyed the books that I read, getting in a good mix of review copies and my own books.
I’m hoping to read and blog more in March. For February, my goal was three posts per week. I’m upping that number to four, which I think will be doable since I’ve for a little backlog of reviews (mostly fiction) to keep things going here. I think March is also going to be fabulous reading month — I have some fun books to look forward to.
Happy Friday! Today is doubly exciting: It’s the end of the week, and it’s the day that Lu (Regular Rumination) and I chose to announce the super informal read-a-long we’ve organized for A.S. Byatt’s Booker Prize winning novel Possession.
Why Possession? Well, it’s on my pile for the 2013 TBR Challenge, which is one appeal. But more importantly, it’s a book both Lu and I have tried and failed to read at least once before but that we really want to get through. Many readers that I know love this book, and I want to love it too (or at least give it the old college try).
Although Tumblr seems to have fallen by the wayside when it comes to social networking popularity, it’s still home to one of my guilty pleasure on the Internet: pop culture mash-ups. I love stumbling (tumbling?) across a blog that combines bits from my favorite pieces of pop culture to create something new and funny. Instead of a regular post today, I thought I’d share three of my favorites (and one bonus mash-up from Twitter).
I had a relatively slow reading month in January, although I’m really not surprised. Between travel, vacation, and work-related travel, this week was the first time I spent five working days in my office since before Christmas. Being gone that many days — coupled with the getting caught up that happens after being away — really put a damper on both my reading and blogging.
Not to worry, I didn’t forget about my last book list of 2012: the books that got away. These are books that either came out in 2012 that I wish I had gotten to read or books that I bought in 2012 that have languished on my shelves unread. This list isn’t exclusive to books published in 2012, but includes several books that have come out in the last couple of years. There’s also a poll at the end of this post to help me pick which of the books I bought I should make a priority to read first.
