February in Review, Projections for March

Another month has come to an end and over here at ImageNations, I'm taking stock of how the month fared in terms of reading. As always, the target is to read 50 pages a day and 70 for the year (and 6 books per month). The challenge becomes difficult when voluminous books are introduced. But no one is complaining so early in the year.

A total of 5 books were read in the month under review. The five books, though two less than the previous month's, gave a total of 1,948 pages, leading to an average of 67 pages per day. All the five books were authored by Africans, as defined here on ImageNations and consisted of two males and two females. The other is an anthology with both male and female contributors but edited by a man. There were two fiction and two non-fiction. The anthology is a mix of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The following are the books read:

1. Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. This is one hell of a book. Regardless of the size - and it commands 768 pages - it is a fast read due to the nature of the write. This is Ngugi at his best. The story is known but the delivery is unique: the mixture of satire and intensity makes this book a worthy read. It's jumped onto my all-time favourites list and has included Ngugi into the list of authors whose works I would want to completely read; the others are Nadine Gordimer, Toni Morrison, and Ayi Kwei Armah.
2. Definition of a Miracle by Farida N. Bedwei. This book follows the story of Zaara, a precocious girl who has developed cerebral palsy. It provides the thoughts of individuals who have become disabled and whom society believes cannot do anything apart from beg. Zaara proves otherwise.
3. Fathers and Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration by Ato Quayson (Editor). This anthology explores the relationship between fathers and their daughters from the point of view of either the father or the daughter. The subject matter is very interesting and one worth studying, for far too often the representation of men - especially African men - in books is so appalling that one is likely to think that the only type of men on the continent are the irascible and abusive types. And because I'm a man and a father, I know this is not true.
4. Dead Aid - Why Aid is not Working and How there is another Way for Africa by Dambisa Moyo. This book explores the problems fraught with aid and how aid correlates with development. It concludes that aid has never worked and will not work if its intention is to effect development. Several reasons were provided such as misappropriation of aid money, weak infrastructure, and others. Dambisa proposed several ways African countries could adopt to achieve the resources necessary for development. Whether the reader agrees with Dambisa or not on the issues raised, there is one thing that he/she will agree: Dambisa raises some issues worth investigating further and the book is radical.
5. Interventions - A Life in War and Peace by Kofi Annan (with Nader Mousavizadeh). This is a the former UN Secretary-General's memoir interspersed with commentaries. It's insightful and sometimes controversial in its own way. For outsiders like us, such books by such individuals show how the world operate and who are those who make decisions. I've already shared some of my thoughts on facebook. Though I had some issues to pick with Annan, the book is recommended.

Projections for March: February was a good month. I was both animated and excited by all my readings. March is going to be a difficult month. I don't intend to read that many books but I will read same or more pages as I read in February.

1. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. In fulfilling my 2013 reading objectives of more non-fiction and Russian Literature, I've chosen this this is 1,392-page book of small print. This book will be my first Russian literature since Isaac Asimov described himself fully as an American, after moving to that country at the age of 10. Even if I read exactly fifty pages a day, it will take me 28 days to read the entire book, leaving only three days for other books. This means that the maximum number of books I will read in March is 2.
2. Smouldering Charcoal by Tiyambe Zeleza. This book will definitely be read for the WPG Book and Discussion Club, even if it will mean suspending W&P for a time to complete this. 

These are my reading goals for March. I hope I'll be able to stick to them.

January in Review... Projections for February

The reading target for 2013 is not different from that of 2012: I intend to read 70 books this year. Consequently, I have set a target of at least 50 pages a day and 6 books a month. These strategies helped me achieve the 2012 targets and I hope it will help this time around.

A total of 7 books were read in January. These gave a total of 1642 pages or 53 pages per day. The following:

1. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. This was the first book I read this year, obviously. It is about the life of a young boy who survives a shipwreck, alone, and what he went through. However, the book is much more than just the story of a castaway. It gives hope and faith; it shows how much we can achieve if we put our minds to it and believe in it. Piscine Molitor Patel's story is one worth the read and if you're not the reading type, just read it. Or watch the movie adaptation which I cannot confirm if it stuck to the story.
2. The Periodic Table by Primo Levi. This is a non-fiction, largely autobiographical story about the author. It narrates his life using the elements of the periodic table both as symbols of what happened to him and and how they actually influenced his life. Primo, at an early age, had interest in Chemistry and so stayed with it through his college and university education. It was this intransigence to his profession, always seeking new ways to do things and his dedication that saved him at Auschwitz.
3. The Best of Simple by Langston Hughes. What a book. Written in a series of short stories, this book tells of how Simpel lives his life during the periodic of American segregation. Langston arranged his short stories to tell a complete story of the everyday struggles of Black Americans and their psychology during those days.
4. Speeches that Changed the World by Emma Beare (Editor). This is a collection of speeches and one-liners and responses. It is arranged from the ancient period to the present and has been edited (parts left out) for easy reading. I, however, think more famous speeches could have been added. As it is now, it's very western and even that one would have expected some major speeches to be present. Again, though a historical background was sometimes given, the result of that speech - which made it changed the world - would have enhanced its appreciation.
5. Gathering Seaweeds by Jack Mapanje (Editor). Gathering Seaweeds is an anthology of poems, letters, speeches and essays by Africans who have at one point in their time become political prisoners or have had political infractions with the law. Though most of the names are famous, like Nkrumah, Mandela, Kaunda, there are lesser known ones. However, what makes this anthology stands out is not the number of unique individuals or the detailed description of their imprisonment; what makes this collection important and worth studying is how similar the descriptions of treatments meted out to incarcerated prisoners were both before (or during the struggle for) independence and after independence. It shows that the evil never left; it assumed a new form. Mapanji did well to put this anthology together.
6. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. I read the Ola Rotimi's version of this play, titled The Gods are not to Blame and liked it. This play touches on fate and choice when it comes to destiny. Are our destinies pre-ordained? Are our actions only leading to its realisation? These philosophical principles are discussed in this Greek tragedy.
7. The Ghost of Sani Abacha by Chuma Nwokolo. Chuma's 26 short story anthology is a delight to read. Whether he is describing the marital home, pastoral duties, politics, or botched love affairs, Chuma writes from a point of knowledge that can only come from keen observation. He has a way with words and he strings them together beautifully. Chuma understands how problems begin: asymmetric information arising from the 'I am sure or certain, mine is true' attitude people put on. The stories are varied and definitely the reader may find more than enough favourites.

Currently, I am reading Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Wizard of the Crow, a book of 768 pages - a chunkster of a chunkster. This means that perhaps my reading target of 6 might not be achieved in February; but who knows? In addition to this, I intend to read Fathers and Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration by Ato Quayson.

The Year 2012 in Review

December in Review: December was the 'challenge round up' month; hence, I set forth to complete the reading of all uncompleted challenges. In all I read a total of six (6) books by the 27th December with a decision of pushing any book read in the four days left to 2013. The six books gave me a total of 1,490 pages or an average of 48.06 pages per day.The following are the books read:

• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. This is my first Woolf and was not disappointed.
• Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.
• Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman by Dorothy Sterling
• A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
• Traces of a Life: A Collection of Elegies and Praise Poems by Abena P.A. Busia
• Search Sweet Country by Kojo Laing.

YEAR IN REVIEW

Books Acquired

Almost all the books read in 2012 (excludes Pdfs)

The objective for 2012 was to make a dent into my unread books. I wanted, seriously, to not be a part of those whose unread books keep piling at a rate ten-times faster than their read. This is an idiosyncrasy of bibliophiles. Consequently, in 2012, it was my decision to purchase less number of books. In the year in review, therefore, I added 39 more books to my TBR shelf. Out of this, I purchased 23 and the remaining 16 were gifts from publishers and friends. This figure compares favourably with the 122 books I added to the shelf last year. With a total of 70 books read in the year, it implies that I reduced the unread books by 31 books. 

Challenges Completed

I completed all the challenges with December 31, 2012 as deadlines. Some were completed early, others late. For instance, the African Literature Reading Challenge was not much of a challenge since the objective function of this blog is to promote African Literature; however, I selected some books for that particular challenge. The 70 Books Reading Challenge required much effort.  The Challenges are:

• African Literature Reading Challenge (organised by Kinna of Kinna Reads): The ALRC is not a challenge I should have participated in since it is what I do and therefore will be self-serving; however, I participated in it because I support and share the objective.
• Chunkster Reading Challenge: In this challenge the participant had to read books 450 pages and above. The Chubby level which I chose required the reading of four of such books though I read more than twice as many books.
• 100 Shots of Shorts (organised by Kinna of Kinna Reads): This was to help me clear some of the single stories I have on my PC. 
• 70 Books Reading Challenge (note that the link also includes single stories)

Challenges whose deadlines are not in 2012 such as the Top 100 Books Challenge list will proceed into 2013.

Categories of Books Read

I read several books. This year I wanted to read at least one non-fiction a month and also add some translations. The following are the categories of books read: Translations: 7; Non-Fiction: 11; Novels: 32; Novellas: 4; Poetry Anthologies: 4; Short Story Anthologies: 6; Single Stories (uncollected short stories): 15; Young Adults: 2; Plays: 1. These are not mutually exclusive categorisation.

Origin of Authors

The main purpose of this blog is to promote African books. Since 2009 when I started blogging African books have represented at least 80% of the total number of books I read. However, this year things were different. This year 40% of the books I read were by African authors and the remaining 60% were by non-African authors. Buying less number of books meant that I have to rely on my TBR bookshelf which is disproportionately high on non-African books. Besides, I receive more non-African books than the other. Including single stories the percentages were 64% and 36%, in favour of non-African books.

Gender

At 38%, I read more female-authored books in 2012 than any other year since I started keeping track of my basic reading stats (compared to last year's 35%). Besides, since I began blogging in 2009, this year's haul of 72 books is the largest (compared with last year's 56, which was my highest), hence the absolute number of books has increased. Fifty-seven percent are male authors and 5% are both (as in mixed-sex anthologies). I actually don't look out to read or balance the genders and I'm not going to do that. I'm going to read the books as and when they come. If it be all women, good. However, my favourite authors still include Toni Morrison and Nadine Gordimer. The former is one I would want to read entirely.

Pages Read
For both books and single stories, I read a total 18,629 pages (Books: 18,480 and Single Stories: 149). The most voluminous book I read was 568 pages (Franzen's The Corrections). A total of 1,552 pages were read per month and the average pages of a book was 257. On the whole I read a total of 50.09 pages per day (or 1552.42 pages per month), which happened to be my target when I set the 70 books goal.

Year of Publication
The oldest book I read was Sun Tzu's The Art of War published around 500 BCE. Two books (Ama Ata Aidoo's Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories and Toni Morrison's Home) were published in 2012. The following is a classification of books read:

• Pre 1800's: 1.5%
• 1800 - 1899: 1.5%
• 1900 - 1999: 50.7%
• 2000 and Beyond: 46.3%

Trivia

• There were three most read authors, each with three books. It's no wonder that two of the three most-read authors are my two favourite female writers. These are:
• Toni Morrison: The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Home;
• Isaac Asimov: The Foundation Trilogy - Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation;
• Nadine Gordimer: The Conservationist, Burger's Daughter and July's People
• The country I read most from is America with 25. This is followed by Britain with 13; Nigeria and South Africa follows with 6 each and Ghana with 5. Note that an author counts for every book read so that Nadine Gordimer and Toni Morrison added 3 to South Africa's and America's figure, respectively.
• The average book rating was 5.13 (out of 6); however, this excludes non-African books which I did not rate. This is a confirmation that 2012 was a good year for reading. The books were interesting.

November in Review, Projections for December

In order to complete all those challenges with December 31, 2012 as a deadline, I needed to increase my reading rate. I did this in two ways. First, I read less chunky books and also increased the morning reading hours by waking up early. These two factors have cranked up my figures. I completed the 100 Shots of Shorts Challenge when I finished reading The Best American Short Story 2004, which I reported as read/being read in last month's activity review. Again, I'm just four (4) books, and a month, away from completing the 70 Books Reading Challenge. I set this challenge to push myself to read more books than I did last year, fifty-six (56). 

In all, the month was good. I read a total of eight (8) books which make up a total of 2,109 pages, an average of 70.3 pages per day. Four of the books were by females, three by males and one is a mix (an anthology). I read one non-fiction, one short story anthology, and two African books. Though I couldn't project all the books I wanted to read in November, the two that were were read. The following are the books I read in November and a brief notes on them:

1. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. This is a memoir about the author on her life in Iran during the revolution. It provides snapshots of what took place in the Iran after the Shahs were overthrown by the Ayatollahs. It is a memoir that relies heavily on books and hence 'a memoir in books'. Lolita is but one of the books.
2. The Best American Short Stories 2004, edited by Lorrie Moore. I started reading this in October and reported it for that month; however, the quantity of the short stories in this anthology that I read in November forced me to shift it to November. There are several interesting stories in this collection. Stories like What Furniture will Jesus Choose, Tooth and Claw, If you Pawn I will Redeem, will interest the reader.
3. Fury by Salman Rushdie. This was to be an introductory text to Salman Rushdie as I prepare to read his two famous books: Satanic Verses and Midnight's Children. It is about a middle-aged man in cultural anomie as he tries to identify (or define) himself in a rapidly changing world whose values keep shifting. He deserts love, finds love, loses it, finds it and loses it again. The vistas provided could aptly be described as a social commentary of contemporary America. It is similar, in some weird way - not the prose - to Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections.
4. Diaries of a Dead African by Chuma Nwokolo, Jnr. This is a story of two generations involving three men - a man and his two sons - spanning a period of just over a month. The diary, a single item, that passed from one man to the other records their intimate aspirations, failures and impotencies. Chuma found humour in their tragedies.
5. July's People by Nadine Gordimer. The story is set in South Africa's apartheid regime. In this story, the blacks were fighting the whites with heavy weaponry, with the help of the Cubans and Russians, and the white South Africans were scattering like disturbed ants, seeking refuge everywhere they could. The Smales sought protection from July's - their houseboy's - family. July is a family man and this book is about the dynamics of the relationship between master and boy in the boy's home. Like Gordimer's two other books, the dialogue is sparse though the prose is not as dense as the other two: The Conservationist and Burger's Daughter.
6. Home by Toni Morrison. On Goodreads.com someone commented on some form of similarity between July's People and Home. This is one of the reasons I read this book just after Gordimer's. Besides, Morrison is one of the authors I intend to read completely. This is her fifth book I've read following Song of Solomon, Beloved, The Bluest Eye and Sula. In Home, Frank Money has returned home from the Korean War with the horrors of the war hanging over his conscience, sometimes making him act like one who's crazy. He must overcome these troubles and his demons and must also search and rescue his only sibling Ycidra from medical abuse. An interesting, straight-to-the-point, book.
7. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. This book won the 1992 Booker Prize. Written in poetic language, Ondaatje follows the story of a burnt and enigmatic man who claims to be English. As the English patient and the others exchange their stories about their role in the second World War, the lives they've lived prior to their meeting unfolds. And there is a love story in this one. A beautifully written story.
8. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. This is a quick read even at 234 pages. Winifred's prose is enticing and makes for a fast read. Miss Pettigrew knows no other life apart from her genteel upbringing. When she was given the address of a young woman, Miss LaFosse, supposedly in need of a governess, Miss Pettigrew's whole perception of the life she knew and how it should be lived would collapse in a day's encounter. Funny, interesting, illuminating and sarcastic. I love this book.

These are the books I read in November and I enjoyed all of them thoroughly. Like I did last month, it will be difficult to project the entire reading list for December because I would have to be circumspect in my selection to complete the challenge. In addition to the one I'm currently reading Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, I might read:

1. Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman by Dorothy Sterling
2. Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather. Funny enough I've always thought Cather to be a man, perhaps the 'Willa' and 'Cather' deceived me. The main reason I might read this book is that the synopsis is similar to Andre Brink's Praying Mantis.

I hope that I will complete all the challenges which must end on December 31, 2012. What did you read? Did you enjoy them? Are you meeting the reading goals and completing your challenges set earlier this year? What are the problems you're facing in completing them, if you are lagging behind? Let's talk.

October in Review, Projections for November

This month was somewhat okay. What it implies is that I'm getting back to my usual levels. Out of the total 7 books I read in October - including the Best Short Stories of 2004 edited by Lorrie Moore (which I'm still reading), four were on the list of six books I projected to read.

In all I read a total of 1749 pages or 56.42 pages per day. The following were the books I read:

1. Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks. I didn't enjoy this as much as I have enjoyed all the James Bond movies. In this book, Sebastian Faulks, writing as Ian Fleming to celebrate the latter's birthday, took the reader on a seemingly cliffhanger adventure. Perhaps, I was expecting too much and therefore remained unsatisfied.
2. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. There is nothing much to say about McEwan than that he is the perfect person to trust when you want a short intense reading. His writing is on-point and he wastes not words. This story is about two men who attended an ex-lover's funeral and ended up with hatred and mutual murder.
3. Women Leading Africa: Conversations with Inspirational African Women by Nana Darkoa-Sekyiamah (Editor). This is the story of several women across who are working to push the feminist agenda. It includes Margaret Dongo, Tstitsi Dangarembga, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Verbah Gayflor, Leyman Gbowee, Ama Ata Aidoo and more. Interesting conversations they are.
4. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. This 2006 Winner of Man Booker Prize got me thinking. It's about the life of several Indians both at home and at abroad. It's about the struggle they had to go through to maintain their humanity. It's about love, life and love-life. The texture - if there is such a thing - of this novel is similar to that of Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things.
5. The Place we Call Home and Other Poems by Kofi Anyidoho. This collection of poems traverses just the Home. It's musical and intelligently woven. Kofi Anyidoho uses traditional folklores and songs to tell the stories of his poems; it's therefore a wonder the poet talked about bigger issues like the 9/11 in the same medium. Accompanied by two CDs, with the author's voice narrating the poems, this is a collection one mustn't miss.
6. The Best American Short Stories 2004 by Lorrie Moore (Editor). This is an anthology of 20 short stories. I'm reading them towards my 100 Shots of Shorts project. It contains some interesting short stories from completely new authors.
7. IPods in Accra by Sophia Acheampong. This continues the story Makeeda as she journeys from London to her homeland of Ghana to participate in the female Rites of Passage ceremony. It continues the story which began in Growing Yams in London. This YA story is funny. Makeeda's relationship with Nelson becomes complicated, as they always do. It's a true teen story.

Unfortunately, I have not lined up any books for November. I will have to make on-the-spot decisions. However, I have picked the following two:

1. Reading Lolita in London - A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi. Currently reading this.
2. Fury by Salman Rushdie. To pave the way for Midnight Children.

What did you read? Did you enjoy them?

Quarterly Review and my Reading Projections for October

September Reads

In September I was in my elements. Not that I did something that I've never done before. No! That isn't it. I just did my usual reading; however, it was better than it had been for the last five months, that is from April to August, where I hardly hit the required fifty pages per day (except in April where it was 52.30). Perhaps, finally, the vacation I took from work helped.

I was able to read four out of the five books I projected to read and two others that weren't in the list. This six books gave me a total of 1,691 pages, which works out to 56.4 pages per day, though it isn't up to my January to March stats where in the latter month alone I read a total of 2,424 pages (or 78.2 pages per day). I love the reading stats though I don't let it ruin the joy of reading.

The following are the books I read in September:

1. Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih. This has been on my Top 100 list for a long time. It tells of Mustafa Sa'eed, a bohemian and a bon-vivant whose life was wasted even in his death and his doppelganger, the narrator of the story, who had to exorcised the ghost and memory of Mustafa in order to live a worth living.
2. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. Finally I get to read this tome. I understand why people love it and hate it in equal measure. At the beginning I was hating it but couldn't also put it down due to Franzen's compelling and powerful prose. Again, such a disquisition of American society needs to be read and understood if one is not to fall victim to it. However, what can one do if life becomes a Procrustean bed? I will entreat all to read this. Don't trust any review. Read it for yourself.
3. Growing Yams in London by Sophia Acheampong. This is a Young Adult novel by a British-born Ghanaian. She explores life as a second generation British living with a first-generation immigrant parents who wish you will know more about your roots and culture. Again, it is that dilemma most second generation immigrants face; yet it is more than that. Acheampong explores technology and how it aids friendship and more.
4. Journey by G. A. Agambila. This is a story of migration, of life and of moving against the cold currents of penury and of traditions. It's somewhat complex but so are the lives we live where decisions have to be made at each point, where disappointments are common and plans don't go as they should.
5. The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Every month I try to read at least one non-fiction. I don't know if I've followed this religiously. In this superb book with numbered paragraphs which reads like aphorisms, Sun Tzu explains strategy and what it takes to win wars. In fact, this book has a wider application. He admonishes 'Know your enemy and yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.' He also admonishes Generals to treat those they capture in battles magnanimously.
6. Portrait of the Artist, as an Old Man by Joseph Heller. This is a fantastic book and it has a huge surprise at the end. What if an author tells you at the end of a book that the author in the book you're reading (the book is about an old author struggling to write a master piece before his death) is trying to write the book you've just read? Fantastic. Heller captures the torments and struggles that most authors go through especially after they've had an initial success with their first book. This book was completed just before the Catch-22 author passed. It could be very autobiographical or at least will have traces of himself in it.

These are the books I read. Currently, I am reading Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks (writing as Ian Fleming). Another thing: I have reviewed and scheduled five out of the six books I read.

Projections for October

Actually I've not thought about this and hence have not selected the books; but I might read the following

1. Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks. Currently reading this book;
2. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan;
3. Fathers and Daughters, an Anthology of Exploration by Ato Quayson;
4. IPods in Accra by Sophia Acheampong;
5. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi; and 
6. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

These are only projections and may change.

Quarterly Review

This is the end of the third quarter and I have to take stock of all my reading challenges and report if I'm on track or not. By sharing it with my readers, I put the power of supervision into them so that I won't keep off track or stop altogether. Once I know my readers are 'waiting' for my progress report, I will get to work and complete them.

Uncompleted Challenges:

1. The 70 book Reading Challenge. This challenge is a year-long challenge whose aim is to read 70 books (not single stories; could be fiction or non-fiction) in the year, from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012. I have excel sheets with formulas that determine whether I'm on track or not and also I have a GoodReads account to help me on this. Currently, I am 74 percent into this challenge and that translates into 52 books (I'm on my 53rd), which means that, including what I'm currently reading, I have 18 books to be read in three months or six books per month. The challenge therefore is to keep all the months at least as better as September; anything less and I will not reach my target. If I read all the 70 books, 2012 will be the year I read the most books, at least since 2009 where I started keeping records of my reading.
2. 100 Shots of Shorts. This challenge is also a year-long one and it is aimed at reading 100 short stories in a calendar year. This short stories include both collected stories (in anthologies) and uncollected stories (or what I often call single stories). I'm 82 percent into this challenge and I am sure to complete it since one anthology alone could have more than 18 stories required for completion. And I have more than one anthology. At least I have one - The Ghost of Sani Abacha by Chuma Nwokolo - that has 26 stories.
3. The Commonwealth Writers Prize Winners for African Region. This is an infinite challenge where I try to read winners of this prize and, unless the prize is cancelled, I'm not going to complete this. Again, most of the books are not available hence commitment level is low. Only 1 (Harvest of Thorns by Shimmer Chinodya) of the 52 books read so far qualifies for this challenge.
4. Top 100 Books Reading Challenge. This challenge began somewhere in 2009 with the aim of reading a listed (from different top 100s) books of 100 to be read in 5 years. So far I'm only 40 percent through this challenge and I'm in the third year; though I have one or two of the books on my shelf most of them have eluded me. Reading this year has contributed 11 books to the challenge which is better than all the years except last year.

Completed Challenges

1. Chunkster Challenge. This challenge asked readers to read four books whose pages are 450 or higher. This was the first challenge I completed and since my completion I've read three more books. Thus it is 173 percent complete.
2. Africa Literature Reading Challenge (ARLC). I participated this challenge knowing that I could complete in a month, after all my focus has been African Literature. Consequently, I didn't add any other books to the chosen list. It is therefore 100 percent completed.

Other Trivia

1. Forty-two percent of all books I've read this year were authored by an African and the remaining is non-African-authored. The question is why the disparity even though I say I am promoting African Literature? It's difficult accessing African books. Besides, other books draw people to the site who will then have the chance to read the African books. Lame reason but believe me, the African books are difficult to access, especially the quality ones.
2. Non-fiction - 12 percent (8); translation 10 percent (7); Poetry anthology 3 percent (2); short story anthology 7 percent (5); novels (> 150 pages) 38 percent (26); novella (<=150 pages) 4 percent (3); plays 1 percent (1). I end here.
3. Total pages read is 13,593. 

I will give more details in the end of year review.

August in Review, Projections for September

August happened to be another slow month (looks like the second half of the year is not going that well). To begin with, I read only one of the four books I decided to read and other three unscheduled books. That's I didn't stick to my reading plan. At 4 books and 898 pages, I recorded my lowest reading average this year with only 25 pages per day, half as much that of the target. Can I attribute this to excessive watching of TV? You know our president died in the last week of July and was buried in August, so I was glued to my set. A good excuse? Nah! The following were the books read:

1. A Month and a Day & Letters by Ken Saro-Wiwa. This book recounts the last days of this human rights activist who was arrested by Nigeria's president Ibrahim Babangida and sentenced to death by hanging by General Sani Abacha. It talks about his life in prison, how he cope and his work with the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and his struggle against Shell, that  barbaric multinational of ginormous proportions, that multinational monstrosity that scavenges on the poor and hides behind ruthless dictators to achieve their goal of exploitation through ruthless exploration.
2. The Godfather by Mario Puzo. My pulse increases through fury anytime I read the personal struggles of people; people who want the good of the nation and for the people they live with and who are ironically betrayed by the very people for whom they are struggling. After reading Mr Saro-Wiwa's book, I decided to normalise my pulse by reading this book. Mario Puzo is an author I loved before reading his (this) book. I watched The Last Don and loved it so I decided to give the books a try and I wasn't disappointed. He could make you have sympathy with the mafia and make you understand the phrase 'honour among thieves' properly.
3. Unjumping by Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva. This is a poetry anthology with several crosscutting themes of love, life, politics, sexual harassment, upbringing and more. Beverley has a unique way of painting her words.
4. The Repudiation by Rashid Boudjedra. This is a complex novel with a wide theme all involving or about a repudiation of some sorts. It begins from the traditional extended family in Algeria where the patriarchal system allows men to repudiate their wives whilst controlling them and watching over them for any sign of adultery to the repudiation of religion and of state. Its a deep book that needs to be read.

I will be reviewing these books here on my blog so visit often for detailed review on each of them. The classification of books read are: Non-Fiction (Memoir), 1; Novel, 2; Poetry Anthology, 1.

The following are the books I have lined up for September and to which I will religiously stick:

1. Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih. This book is on my Top 100 Books list. I am currently reading this book.
2. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. I scheduled to read this for book last month but I failed to.
3. Journey by G.A. Agambila. I've started this book before but dropped it for no reason. I scheduled it for last month and again did not pick it. I hope I am able to read it this month.
4. Fathers and Daughters - an Athology of Exploration by Ato Quayson (Editor). This goes to my Ayebia Reading Challenge.
5. Growing Yams in London by Sophia Acheampong. It's a long time since I read any Young Adult book. Besides, this British-born Ghanaian author is new to me.

July in Review, Projections for August

July was as good as June was and I read all the books I proposed to read. Four books were completed and I'm on the fifth. Including the current read, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, I read a total of 1,291 pages with an average of 42 pages per day. The following books were read:

1. The Book Thief by Zusak Markus. This book can scarcely be described as a Young Adult book though the protagonist is a young girl. The book was narrated by Death and was written in a very novel way that imitates no one. If you should read one fiction, perhaps it should be this one.
2. Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories by Ama Ata Aidoo. Forget my dilemma, but if you should read only one anthology this year, read this. In this collection of twelve (12) short stories, Ama Ata Aidoo entrenches herself as a foremost writer in Africa and beyond. Her sense of style, voice and subject was superior. This story has been reviewed for a magazine.
3. Cut off My Tongue by Sitawa Namwalie. I saw Sitawa perform her poems flawlessly in Uganda. The themes of this collection ranges from the stupidity of tribalism and ethnicism which politicians entrenches to love and identity. A bold presentation of worrying subjects.
4. If I'm So Successful why do I feel Like a Fake - The Imposter Phenomenon by Joan C. Harvey with Cynthia Katz. This book deals with the psychological problem which most successful people face. These individuals, though successful, feel that their success could be attributed to other things but their ability. They see themselves not deserving what they have or what they have achieved and begin to wonder if they will be exposed in their next job. The IP could be seen in both work and personal life.
5. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. This is the second Austen book I'm reading, though I am not enjoying it as much as I did Pride and Prejudice. 

The classification of books read are: novel (2); short story anthology (1); poetry anthology (1); non-fiction (1). 

Projections for August

I hope to read about six books to still keep on track with the 70 books target for 2012. I expect to read the following books:

1. Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks. A James-Bond novel that has been on my shelf since October 2010. It really has to move from the not-read section to the read section.
2. Journey by G.A. Agambila. I started this book some time ago and dropped it without any reason. I hope to pick it up again.
3. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. This book has also been on my shelf since September 2011.
4. A Month and a Day & Letters by Ken Saro Wiwa. This book will be read for the Ayebia Challenge.

June in Review, Projections for July

Admittedly, my reading has declined. It happens. And it has happened to me. Of the four books and five short stories scheduled for reading in June, only one book was read (though that wasn't the only book read); the five short stories were all read. Again, I was below the minimum 50 pages a day target; the total pages for June stood at 1347, giving a 44.9 pages per day. This statistics include cheating, since I have included the book I am currently reading (started in June). Another reason, apart from just to increase my June statistics, is to force me to read frequently and rapidly in July. I hope it does. The following books were read (one is being read):

1. The Black Swan - The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. This is the best non-fiction book I have read all time. It disproves and renders useless several of the things we are taught at graduate school especially Econometrics and Statistics and all those forecast tools we are used to. It distinguishes between two environs: mediocristan and extremistan. According to Taleb, none of the tools we have can deal with events in extremistan and these are the Black Swan events whose impacts have deeper and far-reaching consequences and it is extremistan that determines the direction or course the world takes. An extremistan event is the financial crisis which sent many large banks into bankruptcy and out of business.
2. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. This is a literary fiction in the strictest sense of the word. It is a book about the writing or translating of a book. Set in 1865 Boston, The Dante Club traces Longfellow and his friends as the former translates Dante's Divine Comedy into English. As the process was going on, somebody was also translating Dante into reality, bestowing upon people the punishments Dante described seeing as he descended into Hell led by Virgil. And Longfellow, Lowel, Holmes, Fields and Green are the only ones who can investigate and arrest the perpetrator and this must be done against the Harvard establishment which was against the book's translation. The volume of research that went into this book is great and it is worth the read. Imagine a filtered Dan Brown novel in a literary setting crossed with Arturo Perez-Reverte Gutierrez.
3. The Rational Optimist - How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley. The title of this book is deceptive. It has nothing to do with 'how to become rich', which is what those who have seen me and expressed interest about it always think. It is about how the world has moved on from the ancient to now. It explains how the world is getting better and people are becoming richer. It challenges the usual pessimistic attitude people have regarding the future. There are several debatable points in the book though and every reader will have his opinion. I am still reading this book but will want to count it as read.

To be ahead of the Caine Prize Organisation's announcement of the winner of their annual short story competition I set out to read and review all the shortlisted stories.

1. La Salle de Depart by Melissa Tandiwe Myambo
2. Hunter Emmanuel by Constance Myburgh
3. Urban Zoning by Billy Kahora
4. Bombay's Republic by Rotimi Babatunde
5. Love on Trial by S.O. Kenani

The winner of the ten thousand pound prize was announced on July 2, 2012 and, like I predicted, it went to Rotimi's Urban Zoning.

I am changing my reading objective, not radically or entirely but gradually, towards non-fiction. It could be the reason why I read two non-fiction in June. I hope to continue with this trend but not forgetting my first love. This direction my mean that my African focus might be slightly watered down; again, not entirely and not radically. It is possible that you might not even notice any change. I can only mention one or two books I definitely will read in July:

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
2. Cut off my Tongue by Sitawa Namwalie
3. If I'm so Successful, why do I feel like a fake - The Impostor Phenomenon by Joan C. Harvey with Cynthia Katz.

I've gone beyond the two; yes, I know. I hope to bounce back to active reading. What did you read and how has your reading been so far with half the year gone?

Mid Year Review

I joined and set several challenges this year in a bid to boost my reading rate and to challenge me to go beyond the limit. Kinna and I set a target of 100 or more Short Stories and 70 books. So far I'm 70 percent (base of 100) through the 100 short stories and 53 percent through the 70 books. 

I have also completed two challenges: the Chunkster Challenge, where I chose the Chubby Chunkster level which required the reading of 4 books above 450 pages, and the Africa Literature Reading Challenge. However, I am still far behind (39%) the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge even though this is a five-year challenge.

In all I have read 37 books and 15 single stories (that is short stories that are not part of any anthology and stand on their own) at 9862 pages which gives an average of 54.5 pages per day. Let me not bore you with these statistics.

Have a wonderful reading in the second half of the year.

May in Review, Projections for June

My entire May was taken up by travel. Consequently, I did very little reading. One would ask 'why can't you read more if you are away from home.' The answer is precisely that: 'away from home'. From May 3 to 19, I was in Kampala (Uganda) and Nairobi (Kenya). These are two new cities (countries) I've visited. As my regular readers would know, my earlier job took me round Ghana and I did well - as judged by myself, lol - to update you with the fun aspect of my travels. My current job takes me to some countries in Africa (and sometimes beyond). So I was in Kenya and Uganda and I couldn't come back home and have nothing to say about these countries; hence, reading was sacrificed for roaming and exploration. In Uganda, I was invited by Beatrice Lamwaka, author of the Caine-Prize nominated short story Butterfly Dreams to attend a poetry performance by the Kenyan poet, Sitawa Namwalie. This turn out to be one of the best poetry performance I've ever seen. The fluidity between the sections, the themes ... it was as if the whole hour or more show was one giant poem, instead of being several poems. The day before, I had missed a performance by Nii Ayikwei Parkes - author of Tail of the Blue Bird - at the National Theatre (of Uganda). Nairobi was different; more exploration, less reading. And nothing literary.

Between May 27 and June 1, I was in Helsinki, Finland. Again, this being my first travel to Europe, I wasn't going to ensconced myself into books. Instead, with the help of a sleepless day (my first time of seeing the sun rise at midnight), I roamed the city at the end of everyday's programme. Again, no reading.

These aren't a detail report of what I did - for instance I've not mentioned of going to the source of the Nile in Jinja (in Uganda) nor the travel by boat on the Nile and also in Helsinki nor the travel my motor (or boda boda) in Uganda. Regardless of all these I did some reading:

• Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov:
• Foundation (170 pages)
• Foundation and Empire (172 pages)
• Second Foundation (168 pages)
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (214 pages)
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (216)

In all I read a total of 940 pages, the lowest in the year - lower than the previous month. What this means is that my reading is declining, though my target remains unaffected - not yet. And I couldn't meet my reading target set out in May. I also fell short of the 'at least 50 pages per day' target, recording only 30.3 pages per day.

June will be a mixture of things: first I will be in Dare es Salaam from June 5 to 11 (or so). However, I expect to take some days off after I return, giving me ample time to catch up. I will continue with the unread books I projected for May. These are:

• Journey by G.A. Agambila - currently reading this
• The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
• If I'm so Successful, why do I feel like a fake - The Impostor Phenomenon by Joan C. Harvey with Cynthia Katz.
• Paradise by Toni Morrison

I'll also be reading all the five (5) Caine-Prize shortlisted stories, at all cost. I need to read these and review them before the prize is announced on July 2.

April in Review and Projections for May

April was my lowest point, so far. With only five books, I was one book below the minimum to achieve my overall reading target of 70; however, major advances in the first three months would make this setback disappear in terms of averages. That's the beauty of averages, the simple arithmetic type. The month saw me read, as stated already, all the five books I projected to read at the beginning of the month. These five books totalled 1569 pages, at a rate of 52.30 pages per day. This also gives an average of 314 pages per book.

Regardless of this somewhat low point, I completed two challenges: the Africa Literature Reading Challenge hosted by Kinna and the Chunkster Challenge. The following books were read in this period:

1. The Famished Road by Ben Okri. This book completed the Chunkster Challenge. It is the fourth above-450 pages book I've read this year, after I set out to read one per month to complete this challenge. The Famished Road is an interesting book and at 500 pages there wasn't a dull moment or line in the book. Review will be up in the coming weeks.
2. Atonement by Ian McEwan. I read this book for my Top 100 Books Reading Challenge. McEwan is a British writer you can trust for a unique kind of love stories, at least if the two I've read could serve as a good statistical sample upon which to generalise. On Chesil Beach  is the other book I'm referring to. Both of these books present an uncomfortable situations to the reader and they are mostly of a somewhat sexual sort that never seemed to be resolved or completely grasped. His is a world of misinformation, incomplete understanding, wrong expectations and more. Atonement is a good and moving story.
3. Burger's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer. This book completed the African Literature Reading Challenge. It was also read for the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge. It explores the internal struggles and outward adjustments and acceptance of being the daughter of a white anti-apartheid activists. A difficult book, both in terms of the prose and the storyline. Gordimer physically exacts on the reader whatever it was Rosa Burger was going through. Gordimer's talent as a writer shone through once again.
4. Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolano. This is my first taste of Bolano, and what a taste. In this collection Bolano narrates the failed aspirations, impotency, dejection, depression and fate of several Chileans in exile across Latin America and Europe. The stories mostly revolve around failed writers. It was read towards my 100 Shots of Short Challenge.
5. Writing Free, edited by Irene Staunton. This is a collection of fifteen stories by fifteen Zimbabweans both at home and abroad. The objective was for these fifteen writers to define what 'writing free' means to them as expressed in a story. This might go down as one of the best anthologies I have read so far. There were several excellent experimental writings, bold in their style and prose. Here, though the usual flagpoles (of government maltreatment of the citizens, hyper inflation, land reclamation, bankrupt economy and the usual finger-pointing) found in Zimbabwean literature that has seen Zimbabwe itself becoming a character in stories coming out of this region in the last decade, there were several beautiful and bold styles and prose to boast of. This was also read for the African Literature Reading Challenge

One thing that runs through all these books is the challenge they pose to the reader. They are never easy and they tend not to easily bend to the reader's will. On that count, I wouldn't say April was a low point. It was rather a challenging month.

May is a busy month at work. In fact, until October I'm going to be very busy and will hardly be at my desk. This means that packing books and moving in and out. Currently, the first point of call is Uganda where I'm part of a team working on the African Parliamentary Index (API). These are the books I have lined to read this month:

1. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. I have always wanted to read sci-fi books though sci-fi mixed with fantasy is not my 'thing'. Consequently, this book, which has been with me for sometime (fourteen months, to be precise), comes as the first choice in my journey into sci-fi. I also have Frank Herbert's Dune. The trilogy is made up of:
1. Foundation
2. Foundation and Empire
3. Second Foundation
2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book is listed on my Top 100 Books Challenge.
3. Definition of a Miracle by Farida N. Bedwei. This is a semi-autobiographical account of the author but she has taken several liberties to fictonalise a lot of things.
4. Journey by G.A. Agambila.
5. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. My quest to completely read Morrison is ongoing.
6. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl.
7. If I'm so Successful, Why do I feel like a Fake? The Impostor Phenomenon by Joan C Harvey with Cynthia Katz. This will be my non-fiction for the month. I read one non-fiction every month, except in April.

Of course, I can't promise to read all these ten (10) stories (or 7 books); however, that is the goal - to work towards reading them all. 

How was your reading in April?

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.

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.

January in Review and Projections for February

Most of my readings this year would be challenge-related as I pursue the target of 70 books. I have tried committing myself to 50 pages a day, regardless of the font size or volume of the book and somehow it is working. Weekends are used for rounding up reads especially those that are less than 150 pages to completion. 

Comparatively, I read more books (9) in January 2011 than I have read in January 2012 (7, excluding single stories). However, the total pages read (1533) for last year January is less than the total pages (1755, excluding single stories and the first review for 2012 which was read in December 2011) for this month. Books read and or reviewed in January are:

1. So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba (read in 2011, Top 100 Books Reading Challenge)
2. The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer (Top 100 Books Reading Challenge)
3. I Write What I Like by Steve Biko
4. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (Top 100 Books Reading Challenge, Chunkster Challenge)
5. As the Crow Flies by Veronique Tadjo (African Reading Challenge)
6. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (Top 100 Books Reading Challenge)
7. African Roar 2011 edited by Ivor Hartmann and Emmanuel Sigauke
8. Burning Grass by Cyprian Ekwensi

In addition I read a number of single stories which were reviewed for Short Story Monday and are part of the 100 shots of shorts challenge:

1. The Pilot by Joshua Ferris
2. Here We Aren't, So Quickly by Jonathan Safran Foer
3. What You Do Out There, When You're Alone by Philipp Meyer
4. The Entire Northern Side was Covered with Fire by Rivka Galchen
5. The Mistress's Dog by David Medalie
6. Hitting Budapest by NoViolet Bulawayo

In February I would continue with the intersecting-challenge books. My first read will be Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfuoz, a 498-page book that qualifies for the Chunkster Challenge, the Africa Reading Challenge and the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge. I want to read Harare North, a non-challenge book, because it has been on my shelf for sometime now. Again, there will be - not sure though - some Morrisons to be read. I have Paradise, Her Bluest Eyes and Sula  on my shelf. Again I really want to read Jose Saramago's Blindness. I am running out of African-authored books on my shelf and need to go book-buying soon, else my reading might get skewed this month or year. Whatever I read, I hope February would be as fruitful as January has been.

November in Review, Projections for December

November could be termed Ghana Reading Month here on ImageNations. Most of the books I read went into the Ghanaian Literature Week organised by Kinna at Kinna Reads. Of the five books I planned reading, three were read, I am reading the fourth, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the fifth, A Place of Beautiful Nonsense, has been postponed. I also reviewed Tail of the Blue Bird as part of the GLW celebrations.

• Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes. This a book about a young man Kayo trying to crack a case of seeming murder in a village of Sonokrom. The book highlights the science versus tradition (spirituality) tango. Depiction of Ghanaian living was palpable and true. This book was read in October but reviewed in November for reasons already stated.
• The Other Crucifix by Benjamin Kwakye. This book is about identity, culture shock, home and more. It follows Jojo Badu as he finds his way into the US and the trappings of living in such society which makes one forgetful of home or makes one question what home is and where it could be found.
• Tickling the Ghanaian by Kofi Akpabli. Kofi's works ask questions and explore topics in a way that people have never really done in a very long while. In fact his work is destined to be important for many years to come especially as we refuse to let our older generation teach us the importance of every traditional belief, traditional item and more. What is the importance of the cloth to the Ghanaian, or the Schnapps, or Akpeteshie (local gin)? Kofi's writing is funny and probing. In this book we encounter contemporary Ghanaian culture.
• The Imported Ghanaian by Alba Kunadu Sumprim. Alba's work is a somewhat antithesis of Kofi's work. Whereas Alba's seemingly also want to ask questions, it was more judgmental than exploratory. Picking on certain experiences and observations, the author provided scathing discussions of these issues, providing what in her mind was to be done. The tone was acerbic and vituperative at several points. However, there were some funny moments in the book. To know that the author had just arrived from the UK, where she was born, is important in appreciating this work. I am eager to read what she has to say 10 years later.

I managed to read one Caine Prize 2011 Shortlist:

• Butterfly Dreams by Beatrice Lamwaka. This is a story about child soldiers, rape, conflict, survival, trauma and more. And it is a short story.

In December, there are no specific titles but there is a specific objective: to read only books that are on my challenge list. My Top 100 Books Reading Challenge is only two years to the end and I am not even a quarter through the list. Fortunately, with the help of some friends, both home and abroad, known and unknown, I have managed to obtain some of the books on the list. Thus, I would be focusing mainly on these books. The implication is that few, if any, of African-authored books will be read this month, except if it is on the list and I have it. Also, if things go through well with my reading objective, I will be joining Iris on Books in her Advent with Austen which began on November 27, and ends on December 24.

My plans for next year will come out soon.