Reading Antics: What've you been reading?

[sweet_sparrow]

But first, a quick question for everyone: should I find a way to remember asking this every month, would people rather I stop asking alltogether, or should I just continue on and make it a bi-monthly thing as it's been the past few months?

I can make it a poll if people prefer, but it'd detract from the main reason I'm posting.
Basic gist, as always: what've you been reading the past two months and would you recommend it to others? Have you made any reading plans for this September? (Course work reading, perhaps.)

I've had an extremely productive July. I read 21 (!) books. So you'll have to forgive me if I link what I actually read. (It's a long post. Be prepared to do a little scrolling.) Most of the books were books for my courses and most of them were also sorely disappointing, but the non-course literature I read was pretty amazing. My favourite reads from this month include Potiki by Patricia Grace and Voodoo Dreams by Jewell Parker Rhodes, both of which are gorgeously written.

My August reading dropped back to the average amount of books I read in a month, mostly because I'm almost through my course books and decided to take a break that turned out longer than it was supposed to. (I'm still on break. Bad Shanra. Uni starts next week.)

- Clementine by Cherie Priest
- Chocolat by Joanne Harris
- Dracula by Bram Stoker (reread)
- In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente (dnf)
- The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones
- Idylls of the King by Lord Alfred Tennyson
- Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
- The Rose and the Beast by Francesca Lia Block
- Seven Men and Two Others by Max Beerbohm
- Perfume by Patrick Süskind (reread, dnf)

Of those, my favourite would have to be Clementine, I think. It was action-packed, it was fun, it was fast... I had a blast with it. It's not been a great reading month. I've enjoyed a fair few of the books I read, but fell head over heels for none of them.

Reading plans for September include finishing up Ancient Irish Tales by Tom Peete Cross and Clark Harris Slover, reading The Swan Maiden by Jules Watson, Graceling by Kristin Cashore and Oscar Wilde's short stories. Beyond that all's game. ^-^ I'm hoping to balance my genres a little better again too, though it probably doesn't seem it...

Comments

[lea_hazel]

I don't think I read much in July. I tore through The Girl who Played with Fire at the end of July/beginning of August, but since then I haven't finished a book. Then I had an exam, and now I'm contemplating giving up on Acacia and moving on to something else on my list. I must have a dozen unread books sitting around, and if I've been trying to get into a book since April and haven't succeeded, that's not the best of signs.

[sweet_sparrow]

Ouch. That sounds like a really long reading funk. :( I suppose revisiting old favourites hasn't helped either? I wish I knew of something that would for definite! I hope the exam went well at least.

[lea_hazel]

When I reread favorites, I often only read a few pages or passages from my favorite parts. I have Perusasion near my bed for that reason. Actually, I'm a much less prolific reader than most people here. I don't know, maybe I read more slowly in English than I realized.

The exam went fine, thanks for asking. :)

[sweet_sparrow]

Oh? Does the whole story came back to you when you do that? I always reread books in their entirety, although I may skim here and there, and couldn't pick favourite passages of books if my life depended on it (okay, maybe I could in that case), so the concept of only rereading parts fascinates me. ^-^ My mum is terrible at remembering authors and titles, but give her the opening line(s) of a story and she'll recall the whole plot if she's read it. It baffles me, but fascinates me too. ^-^

I'm glad to hear it went fine. ^-^

[lea_hazel]

It's mostly for books I read fairly recently, or else comfort books that I read so many times I know the plot roughly by heart. There are also some books I haven't read in ages that I'd like to reread properly, but my TBR pile is threatening to kidnap a blonde girl and climb the Empire State Building, so this is maybe not the best timing.

[sweet_sparrow]

I can see why it wouldn't be the most ideal of ideas, yes... I've only reread a handful of books in the past few years, mostly because I haven't read them in at least half my lifetime, so I understand completely.

And that has got to be the most amusing description of one's TBR pile I've ever read. XD