Happy end-of-March! This month has been a bit of a slog, at times, but the weather has been pretty stellar so I can’t really complain much about any of the rest of it. And I did get a good bit of reading done, so yay for that. Here’s what I got through this month:
- Displacement by Lucy Knisley (comic, memoir)
- Red Rising by Pierce Brown (fiction, audio book)
- Charlotte Bronte: A Fiery Heart by Claire Harman (nonfiction)
- Ongoingness by Sarah Manguso (memoir)
- The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell (fiction)
- Lucky Us by Amy Bloom (fiction)
- The Secret Life of the American Musical by Jack Viertel (nonfiction)
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (memoir)
Compared to February, March reading felt a little less satisfying. I had a hard time figuring out what I was in the mood to read, so ended up flitting between books quite a bit rather than settling in as well as I wanted.
My favorite book of the month was one of the last two, The Secret Life of the American Musical by Jack Viertel or When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi — hard to pick between them because they’re so different. It does make me think that in April I should focus my reading energy more towards nonfiction because I find that so satisfying.
With the first quarter of the year down, now’s also a good time to look at how well I’ve been doing with #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks. By my count, half of the 24 books I’ve read this year have been books I owned, although half of those books were either new this year or audio books. That means I’ve only knocked six books off my long-term TBR… more work to do there.
A Look to April
As you can see from the list, I didn’t finish Alexander Hamilton like I pledged I would in my last monthly wrap up, but I’m hopeful I can get through it in April and get that off my plate for the year.
After keeping my book buying mostly under control in March, I have quite a few books pre-ordered for April: The Red Parts by Maggie Nelson, The Regional Office is Under Attack by Manuel Gonzales, and Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
And of course, April brings one of my favorite reading events of the entire year: Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon! The spring Readathon will be April 23 and, so far, I don’t have anything I need to do that day except read.
I can’t wait to start putting together a Readathon book stack. It’d be good to focus on my own books, but I also sort of hope Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye comes from the library in time. I’m at the top of the hold list, but since it’s coming from a different library I may end up getting bumped for a local patron. We’ll see!
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I’m sorry your reading wasn’t as good as last month 🙁 I had no interest in Jane Steele until recently when I’ve read so many rave reviews about it – I’m now interested and hope to get to it this year!
I’ve seen entirely good comments about that book. We’ll see what the library does, our system can be sort of weird for new books.
It can be so hard to figure out what to pick up next. I hope April is a great month in books (and in life) for you!
I haven’t been doing so well with reading from my own books as I’d like to, either. The shiny new books at the library are just so tempting! 🙂
Yeah, my library checkout has been totally insane lately. At least that doesn’t cost me anything though 🙂
I have been buying way too many books lately. Bad me!
Thanks for reminding me about Readathon! Always something to look forward to and plenty of good stuff to set aside for that…
Are you going to Chicago Book Con? I think Pierce Brown is attending; although I could be wrong since my review of the website was quick and I’m pretty sure they still have info from last year up.
I’ll be at BEA, but probably not staying through to Saturday for BookCon… are you talking about something different though?
I can’t waaaaait for Hamiltome! I got it for my mother for her birthday, and I’m hoping I can sneakily sneak a bit of reading of it in when she’s not looking. :p
I really don’t know if I’ll ever finish Alexander Hamilton. I read some this past week, but to be honest, I don’t know when I’ll finish it. Maybe this summer sometimes? I really don’t know. I’m like you in that big biographies are just such a slog. I want to like them, and used to like them, but I just don’t anymore.
I think that’s where I’m at too — I want to love long biographies, but I just don’t have the temperament for them at the moment. I do really want to finish Alexander Hamilton though. It’s like a quest now or something.
That’s great that you’ll be able to participate in the readathon! Hope you have some great reads ahead in April!
I can’t wait for the readathon either! Should be fun!
I hope you’re able to get a copy of Jane Steele and that you’re able to settle into reading something in this month 🙂