sweet_sparrow: Miaka (Fushigi Yûgi) looking very happy. (Reading Round-ups)
Sparrow ([personal profile] sweet_sparrow) wrote in [community profile] books2010-09-29 12:09 pm

September Reading!

Hey all! I'm feeling a wee bit swamped in stuff. (And the final days of September/beginning days of October are looking set to be an emotional rollercoaster.)

So I thought I'd inquire into everyone's reading a little earlier. (Obviously, feel free to wait to answer or not answer at all.) What have you been reading in September?

I'd expected to get loads of reading done with classes started up again, but I feel sorely disappointed. That may be because September has been an abysmal month for reviewing, though.

Books I've Read:

Ancient Irish Tales by Cross & Slover (Sorry, lazy. Their names are long.)
Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
Complete Short Fiction by/of Oscar Wilde
Far from You by Lisa Schroeder
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (dnf)
Haiku by Patricia Donegan
Mella and the N'anga by Gail Nyoka
Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger (I've been trying to say something about this book since I finished it.)
The Sound of Water by various poets
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Writing with Power by Peter Elbow

It's actually not much different from other months. That's about 12 books. My favourite was definitely Mella and the N'anga. I may finish Cybele's Secret before the month is out, but we'll see... I've also been reading Casting the Runes and Other Stories. Soon I shall be all out of coursework mandatory reading... Well, except for LotR, but I know I like LotR and cannot call it 'mandatory'.

What's your reading been like?

[personal profile] to_love_a_rose 2010-10-03 12:52 pm (UTC)(link)
I enjoyed Cranford and North and South, but last night I set aside Mary Barton and I'm not sure if/when I'll pick it back up. I can't explain exactly what I disliked about it, but it's not holding my attention.

I'm really not sure where to suggest starting with Gaskell. I think her writing is strongest in Cranford, but North and South had more interesting things going on. And you may very well like Mary Barton. It's not badly written, it just failed to hold my interest. The dialects are hard to read at times, and it's depressing, finally one particular thing made me go "eh" and put it aside.