January Reading

For me, January is usually reserved for reading larger books and the novels I was excited to get on Christmas morning. (And those I bought with the B&N gift cards I recieved.) There is something about the cold weather and early dark nights that makes staying home and reading so enjoyable.

In January I reviewed a short story collection, Love Begins in Winter by Simon van Booy. I actually finished up reading it at the end of December and despite the title that is pretty spot on for the season in which I read it, the collection overall fell short for me. Then I picked up a lovely book by bookstore owner and blogger Michael Popek entitled Forgotten Bookmarks. Similar to his blog where he details the array of treasures he finds in used books, this was a unique and fun read. Then I moved on to something a little a lot heavier, Native Son, which turned out to be AHmazing. I finished this weeks ago and I still find myself thinking about it. If you haven't read this one yet I suggest you add it to your TBR. For real. Following that fantastic classic I hit Q: A Novel, which was not awesome. My sister got it for me for Christmas and I felt aweful that I didn't like it. But I was the one who asked for it in the first place, so I was the only one to blame. But then I picked up the other book she got me, 11/22/63 and fell head over heels obsessed with it. This book is Impressive with a capital I. (review coming soon) I also read The Western Lit Survival Kit, which proved to be a nice refresher of all those classics I studied back in college. I'll be keeping that one around to reference for sure.

Books read this month: 5
Page numbers read this month: 2,165

So there you have it. In February I hope to read another novel for the classics challenge (Native Son was my first) and get started on something for the Smooth Criminals challenge. I bought The Post Man Always Rings Twice a few weeks ago, so I'll probably start with that. I'm also really excited about the book The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, which was released in the US today. I first heard about it when Dog Ear Disks reviewed it, and I just might use what's left of my last B&N gift card from Christmas to pick it up.

image via Pretty Books