It’s here folks, the last two months of the year. I won’t go on and on about how disturbing this is, because I don’t know were 2021 went. Really 2021 just feels like a continuation of 2020, and we all know what last year was like….
I was on a reading roll for the first half of October and then during the last two weeks of the month I was barely able to get much reading done. It wasn’t because work was crazy - work was predictable, but it was everything else; it was just busy and I had other things/projects going on that made it difficult to focus on reading for longer periods of time. So, the first week of this month has been spent wrapping up Wolf Hall, The Silence of Scheherazade and finalizing my thoughts on Crime & Punishment.
I’m looking forward to my November reads, a couple of which will roll into December. I anticipate making a lot of progress on these books because November is full go holidays for the US - I get Election Day off, then there’s Veteran’s Day and the Thanksgiving.
- Bleak House - Bleak House was on my list of books that I definitely wanted to read this year and it’s the last one left on the list. I saved it for the end of the year because I know it will take me all of November and December to read this over 1000 page novel. I also want to savor it. Dickens is one of those authors that people either seem to like to dislike. I do like Dickens, even though he can be frustrating. One way that I approach his novels is to read them more slowly - he is a master at sentence construction and he writes beautifully. He also seems overly detailed, and there are things he could exclude, but I do appreciate that he makes all his subplots relevant in the end. Dickens is a slow burn and he forces the reader to slow down and just enjoy the journey.
- Northanger Abbey - I planned to start this last month, but here we are. I haven’t spent any time with Austen this year and I must squeeze in one of her novels.
- Dracula - A friend and I finally finished Crime & Punishment and now we’re on to a good ole Victorian classic. It’s appropriate that I’m finishing out the year with my favorite types of classics: English Regency and Victorian literature.
- Mr. Salary - Ah, my first venture into Sally Rooney. I felt that adding this very short story in was a good start. I can read this in one sitting. This is your warning - When authors are this pumped up, I examine their works very critically. I have a feeling Rooney and I won’t get along, but I’m reading her for a project I’ve given myself, so I must endure LOL. Or, maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. Only one way to find out…
What are you reading this month?
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