My Head Is Full of Books: Monday: May Wrap-up

"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Monday: May Wrap-up

I declared May as the month I would read only what I wanted month. So how did my month of free-choice reading go? Here's my wrap-up:

-I read ten books. A goodly number yet below what I hoped to accomplish. (See list below.)

-I read three books from my TBR pile at home, which helped me toward my goal of reading at least 12 books that are piled up around the house, but I really hoped to read more. In fact, at the beginning of the month I pulled the books I hoped to read from my various book shelves and I still have five in that pile. Ugh. The books I read from this pile were: Fearless Fourteen; This Book is Overdue!; Anna and the French Kiss.

-Five YA books topped my favorites of the month. I try to consume at least half YA books every month. I really liked all five of these books.

-I "had" to read only one book on my list, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. I listened to it on books on CD and it took forever to finish (over 19 hours of listening). I confess that I wouldn't have read this book or finished it if it weren't a book club selection, even though I ended up liking it.

- Three audiobooks are on the list. I love listening to books read aloud. I guess it hearkens back to my childhood when my happiest memories are related to times that my mother or father read to us. I always have an audiobook going in the car. I LOVED A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs. He did a wonderful, magical job reading it. It was my favorite book this month.

-I started two other books this month that I haven't finished yet: 1. Brain Rules and 2. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Both are nonfiction and fascinating.

1. Remarkable Trees of the World by Thomas Pakenham (Nonfiction)
2. Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway (YA)
3. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell (Book Club selection, Audio)
4. Split by Swati Avasthi (YA, Audiobook)
5. A Time of Miracles by Anne-Laure Bondoux, translated from French by Y. Maudet (YA)
6. Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich
7. This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson (Nonfiction)
8. Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett (YA, Audio)
9. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (YA)
10. Kofi and His Magic by Maya Angelou (Picture book; nonfiction)

-In addition to reading, I set some blogging goals which I accomplished. One was to increase my readership and be a more active blogging "follower". I felt good about both of those!