May Retrospective

Posted on | May 31, 2009 | No Comments

May was such a wonderful month for reading that it bears blogging about. I read sixteen books (well, I finished two in June, but April’s reading filtered into the first days of May so it all evens out); sixteen is a huge record for me – last year I averaged six a month and earlier this year it was nine, but I do have more time on my hands just now. Here are the sixteen books read:

1. Loitering with Intent, Muriel Spark
2. The Blue Fox, Sjon
3. Equal Rites, Terry Pratchett
4. Mort, Terry Pratchett
5. The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett
6. Some Prefer Nettles, Jun’ichiro Tanizaki
7. If I Stay, Gayle Forman
8. The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
9. The Woman in Black, Susan Hill
10. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, Julia Strachey
11. Miss Chopsticks, Xinran
12, Sheconomics, Karen Pine & Simone Gressen
13. The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, Eva Rice
14. Little red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Other Classic Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, Angela Carter
15. The Snow Goose, Paul Gallico
16. The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters

Of the sixteen, a number were stand-outs. The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and The Uncommon Reader were all library books but they were so thoroughly enchanting that I have to add them to my collection now at some point so that I can re-read them ALL. Mort is now one of my favourite Discworld novels and that is quite the endorsement as I am passionately attached to the Watch novels. If I Stay was such an unexpected enjoyment and a book that I would not have discovered if it wasn’t for blogging (the same applies to The Lost Art and Elegance). A battered Penguin copy of The Snow Goose was picked up for 90p and was a heartbreaking read; it is also one of the 1000 Guardian books. There’s a sprinkling of disappointments amongst the sixteen but overall May was such a joyful month for reading that those can be overlooked.

Comments

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farmlanebooks
June 3rd, 2009 @ 9:22 pm

Congratulations on reading 16 books! I really want to read The Elegance of the Hedgehog and The Uncommon Reader so I'm pleased you enjoyed them. I look forward to hearing about all the books you read in June!
Paperback Reader
June 4th, 2009 @ 11:33 am

I don't think you were far behind me with 15 books? Granted some of mine were quite short!

I think June will feature less books unfortunately.