I honestly thought doing monthly recaps might make the year go buy significantly slower, but boy was I wrong. Every time I go to write one of these my first thought is holy hell where did _______ go? And this month’s post is no different. I’m trying to figure out where summer and September went and what I’m going to do knowing October, November and December are going to be even busier!
On the reading front, I had a fun month. I didn’t read a single challenge book and don’t feel any guilt at all. I read what I wanted when I wanted and thoroughly enjoyed it, including FINALLY getting around to reading Rowling’s The Cuckoo’s Calling. (Which was great and I can’t wait until another is released!) I read a total of ten books and two short stories. Of those SEVEN were from the library and three were galleys. I think my favorite read of the month was Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake triology: Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam. I went and saw Ms. Atwood speak and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I’ll recap that in this month’s Culture Corner. The trilogy and hearing her speak once again reminded me how much I love her and I think I’m going to make an effort to finish reading her other novels I haven’t read yet.
In non-book news two of my good friends Caroline and Nick, here in Boston, got engaged this month and I’ve known for AGES that it was coming and it was PAINFUL to keep it a secret. So I of course told her best friend up here so that I wasn’t alone and we schemed to decorate their place when they were out-of-town getting engaged:
Those are just my two favorite photos, you can see a few more of what we did by visiting me on Instagram. We were going for something classy and yet trashy. We had a lot of fun and hid little surprises for them all over the house! It was great and they were thoroughly impressed (and slightly miffed) with our thoroughness 😀
Recent Acquisitions
I was REALLY good this month! I didn’t buy a single book and honestly couldn’t tell you the last time that happened. I picked up three books from the library and got an ARC via NetGalley, but I didn’t pay for a single book this month! We’ll see how long this record lasts, but I don’t see it lasting very long!
Challenge Progress
As I said this month, I did absolutely NO challenge reading! And I thoroughly enjoyed it. I do have plans to tackle No Name in the next few books I read and will probably join my friend Caroline, mentioned above, in reading Wuthering Heights, but I have three months for these three final books so I’m not in the least bit worried.
- Mount TBR Reading Challenge
- Monthly Progress: 1 book + 1 not listed
- Overall Progress – 10/12 (83%) + 13 not listed
- Back to the Classics Challenge
- Monthly Progress: 1 book
- Overall Progress – 9/11 (82%)
- Tea and Books Reading Challenge
- Monthly Progress: 1 book
- Overall Progress – 3/4 (75%) + 2 not listed (Les Misérables is so long it counts for two books!)
- The Classics Club
- Monthly Progress: 1 book
- Overall Progress – 27/100 (27%)
What’s Next?
Who knows really? I came across the photo to the right on my walk today (Sunday the 29th) and it made me smile so I stopped and took a picture of it. It really is the little things that your life whole.
Aside from that, I’m in the middle of reading Deborah Meyler’s The Bookstore and I’m enjoying it so far. It’s another one of those books that I thought it was something and it turns out it is something completely different. After that I’m going to read The Demigod Diaries, a collection of short stories in The Heroes of Olympus universe by Rick Riordan and THEN I’m going to finally take on another challenge book, Wilkie Collins’ No Name. Other than that I’m just hoping to get through the next month with phonathon and a gala at work and my ten-year high school reunion at the end of the month.
It is rather liberating reading whatever you want whenever you want isn’t it! I felt September was a bit ruled by challenges for me I am rather jealous of your month 😛
Ha! You should be, it was luxurious! I’m thinking next year I may limit myself even further in challenges, but who knows. I only committed to 14 this year – it felt longer because of the tomes for the Tea and Books Challenge.
I am only taking part long-term in The Classics Club but found in September a couple of smaller challenges all came together! I am looking forward to a quieter October.
Very nice! Most of mine overlap with and this force me to keep up to date for the Classics Club. The other I do is Mount TBR to keep my shelves somewhat balanced.
Its always good when challenges overlap. Happy reading in October 🙂
Glad you had a chance to read what you wanted. I bailed on challenge reading and review copies so I could catch up on Catching Fire and Mockingjay of the Hunger Games series. It was fun taking a break and reading what I wanted to for a change. Sounds like you are doing great with your challenges though.
And what a great surprise you did for your friends. I bet that was fun for them to come home to 🙂
It was a much needed break and you made a good choice to take time from challenges to read those two! They really did enjoy it, but they’re not impressed at still finding rose pedals and baby rattles 😀
Sounds like you had a great September and cheers to you for taking a break from the reading challenge grind. It can really start to weigh you down after awhile, no? Looks like you guys did a great job decorating your friend’s place! 🙂
It was a much needed reprieve!
Reading challenges are fun, but can be stressful and limiting. Tell your friends congrats. Just so you know, if you have a big secret like that, don’t ever tell me. I’m horrible at that. I tell people what I got them for Christmas as soon as I purchase the gift. It’s like my brain says no, but my mouth blurts it out.
(I’m sorry if this posted twice–my internet is giving me fits)
Haahaa. I know what you mean I’m either really good or really bad at keeping a secret. This time she got lucky. I almost told her twice the morning it was going to happen.
I look forward to hearing what you think of The Bookstore. It totally surprised me, too (right up to the end).
It was good – I finished it last night. I wanted a better ending, but it wasn’t bad.
I’m reading The Cuckoo’s Calling right now and loving it. Congrats on not buying any books this month — I totally failed at that and bought two new books and six used books. Oops.
Aww, the engagement decorations for your friends are so sweet!
Thanks! I’m still a little bit in shock that I hadn’t purchased any; t was a bit surreal when I went to look at my tally and it said zero.
What a thoughtful idea for your newly engaged friends — so cute! 🙂
Oh they loved it! And finally found all the baby rattles we hid around the house to terrify them.
Hahahahahaha! That’s great!