February in Review and Projections for March

February was also a good reading month. Despite the fact that it is two days short of January, the reading rate was not affected. I enjoyed almost every book I read in this month and I fulfilled all the books I projected to read.

Like January, I read a total number of 7 books and 4 single stories (uncollected short stories), 2 less than in January. However, the total number of pages read was 1795 compared with 1787 in January; this makes it a rate of 61.90 pages per day in February compared to 57.65 in January. I do these things for fun and my excel sheet does the estimation based on the formulas I have provided. It's just fun but I try not to make the stats take over the fun in reading. 

The following books are the books read:
  1. Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (for the African Reading Challenge, Top 100 Books Reading Challenge and Chunkster Challenge)
  2. Sula by Toni Morrison
  3. Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham (for the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge)
  4. Harare North by Brian Chikwava
  5. Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter
  6. Blindness by Jose Saramago
  7. Maru by Bessie Head
The single stories read as part of the 100 Shots of Shorts Challenge and reviewed for the Short Story Monday are:
  1. Lenny Hearts Eunice by Gary Shteyngart
  2. Dayward by ZZ Packer
  3. The Kid by Salvatore Scibona
  4. Twins C. E. Morgan
I promised to go shopping for African books but I have not and I don't think I can make it within this month or the next. Consequently, I will be running down on my African books, making do with the few I have still not read, which means that my reading this month will be skewed towards non-African books, somewhat. I am not abandoning ImageNations' vision though.

In March, I will be reading the 2010 Caine Prize anthology  A Life in Full and Other Stories for the Short Story Monday series. This anthology is made up of two parts: the first part is the Caine Prize 2010 Shortlisted stories, which I read last year as single stories and the second part is The CDC Caine Prize African Writers' Workshop Stories 2010. The first part would be excluded. I also intend to read Zadie Smith's White teeth for the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge and the Chunkster Reading Challenge. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is also on the shelf. I will read this to complete the trilogy of dystopias which began with 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale. For the African Books I have Shimmer Chinodya's Harvest of Thorns, which will also serve as the Commonwealth Writers Prize Winners Reading Challenge.

I hope March will be as successful as February.

Comments

  1. Buried In Print2 March 2012 at 17:33

    I just happened upon that short story collection in the library a couple of weeks ago (when I had first looked for it they didn't even have it in the collection); I'll be interested to read your thoughts on the stories! Maybe I'll have to make a trip back to that branch sooner than I planned!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ImageNations2 March 2012 at 17:36

      I will serialise it beginning from Monday. I will also love to read your views on the short stories.

      Delete
  2. Geosi3 March 2012 at 17:36

    All best in March, Nana.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amy6 March 2012 at 19:49

    You read some fantastic books in February, I can't wait to hear your thoughts on more of them. All the best in March too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ImageNations7 March 2012 at 13:07

      Yes. I'm glad people for people like you who make such books available to me. Blindness and Sula were gifts by different people.

      Delete

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