March in Review and Projections for April and a Look at the First Quarter

March in Review

March has been my all time best months for reading. I read some really great books and continued to dent my TBR pile. Perhaps it will be better if I don't refer to it as a pile anymore. I read all the books I projected to read. 

2012 seems to be moving in a good direction, at least so far as the first three months are concerned. After reading 7 books each in January and February, a total of 10 books were read in March. These ten books gave a total of 2424 pages; an average of 78 pages read per day (compared to the 62 per day in February and 58 per day in January) and 242 per book. I didn't read any single story in March. The following are the books:

1. A Life in Full and Other Stories by the Caine Prize for African Writing (read for the 100 Shots of Shorts Challenge and reviewed for the Short Story Monday)
2. White Teeth by Zadie Smith (for the Chunkster Challenge and the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge)
3. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
4. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
5. Harvest of Thorns by Shimmer Chinodya (Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa Region Winners Reading Challenge)
6. Birds of Our Land by Virginia W. Dike
7. The Chicken Thief by Fiona Leonard
8. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
10. Madmen and Specialists by Wole Soyinka (for the Africa Reading Challenge)

The Quarter

March 31 marks the end of the first quarter of the year and stock must be taken on the progress of challenges and commitments.

• I set out to read 70 books this year; I have read 24 (6006 pages) so far which is 34 percent. With 46 more books left and at an average of 6 books per month, this target will be achieved latest by October;
• I am currently 36 percent through the 100 Shots of Shorts Challenge, which is a Challenge to read 100 short stories (both single stories and anthologies count towards this);
• I joined the Chunkster Challenge at the Chubby level, which was to read four books with pages of not less than 450; at 1 Chunkster per month, I am 75 percent through this challenge. The last book to complete the challenge will be read in April;
• The Africa Reading Challenge hosted Kinna asked Readers to read at least 5 African books. I am 60 percent (3 out of 5) through.

At these rate I will be able to complete all challenges before the year ends. The only challenge I am lagging behind is the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge, which is geared towards completing a selection of 100 books. I am only 35 percent through this five-year challenge, with two years more to go.

Projections for April

April will not be different from the other months. I will still stick to my 'not less than 50 pages a day' reading and hope all things go on well. The following are the books I've scheduled to read:

1. Famished Road by Ben Okri. This book will be read for both the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge and Chunkster Reading Challenge. It will officially be the last book to complete the challenge though there are other books that need to be read which also qualify for the Chunkster Challenge;
2. Burger's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer. This book will be read for the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge and the  Africa Reading Challenge;
3. Atonement by Ian McEwan. For the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge;
4. Writing Free, edited by Irene Staunton. For the Africa Reading Challenge;
5. Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolano.

Other titles will be added as and when it becomes necessary.