Books: 6
From TBR: 4
From My Classics: 1
Pages: 1598
Average rating: 4
Authors: 6
Genres: 4
Languages: 1
Before strarting and in reference to my 2023 TBR, I'm not planning on reading a lot of books this year. I'll be happy if I get to read two books a month, because I'm really busy with work and my master's degree, it's hard to find the time to read for pleasure. So I'm probably going to post wrap ups every couple of months, unless I get to read four or more books in a month —which I don't think I will. Also, as some of you may already know, I use these wrap-ups not only to summarize what I've read, but also my life. They're like a journal for me, which I don't have, so I use my blog for that. Anyway, here's my January and February wrap up!
To begin with, everything I have read has been in the original version, that is, in English, which is not surprising, since I don't seem to know how to read anything in translation anymore. I have also unconsciously arranged the readings so that the genres I have read don't follow each other too much. The first had romance, the second was entirely literary fiction, the third fantasy, the fourth fiction again, the fifth poetry, and the sixth fantasy.
January and February wrap up
Cleopatra and Frankenstein, Coco Mellors ★★★★☆
(370 pages, literary fiction and romance, English)
Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger ★★★★☆
(150 pages, literary fiction, English)
To Kill a Kingdom, Alexandra Christo ★★★☆☆
(344 pages, fantasy and romance, English)
The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides ★★★★★
(243 pages, literary fiction, English)
Don't Call Us Dead, Danez Smith ★★★★☆
(88 pages, poetry, English)
Three Dark Crowns, Kendare Blake ★★★★☆
(403 pages, fantasy, English)
January was quite a month. I started the year away in Liverpool, all alone —that was a great experience, though I prefer solo traveling when I'm traveling with my car. I started reading Cleopatra and Frankenstein on the flight over, and it was kind of funny that the story begins on a New Year's Eve, the same day I left my country. I took it as a kind of signal that this year was going to be great, and I still hope so. I finished the book in mid-January, and immediately started Franny and Zooey (looks like it was a month of "Names and Names" on the titles). This is the first Salinger book I've ever read, and it was such an experience, I gave it 4 stars because I wasn't sure if I really enjoyed it, as I said, it was more an experience than an actual reading. I really wanted to read The Catcher in the Rye as soon as I finished it, but I decided that my Salinger Year didn't have to end so fast, that it could last the whole actual year. So I chose Outline by Rachel Cusk, which you won't find on the list, because I didn't finish it (yet), I've decided to put it away until I feel like reading someone else's stories, not the main character's —it kind of bored me, sorry. And that's what I read in January.
For my first reading of February I let my flatmate pick a paper from my TBR jar, and she picked out To Kill a Kingdom. I didn't realize how much I missed fantasy until I read this book. I didn't enjoy it as much as I used to —maybe it was the story, not the genre itself— but I liked going back to fantasy, which I'd put away many months ago. So it was a great start to the month, which once again began abroad, this time in Edinburgh, and with my flatmate.
Now you might think I'm a hypocrite, because I just said that I'm super busy with my job and my studies, but yes, also with traveling. I've planned to travel once a month this year, I really want to enjoy being alive, young and able to travel, so I'm doing it because I really think I deserve it —sorry, I felt like explaining myself for living my own life, there, when I actually don't have to. By the way, if you want to receive updates on the places I travel to, you can subscribe to my newsletter and I will send you little postcards in email format from wherever I am at the time.
Anyway, right after finishing To Kill a Kingdom, I started Le Mystère Henri Pick, of which I have an edition translated from French into Catalan, and as I said before, I can't read translations anymore. So I quit it and went on a little trip to the bookstore to get The Virgin Suicides, which I started to read and only stopped to eat, work and sleep. This book hooked me like the Lisbon girls hooked the boys in their town. I read it in less than a week, which for me is really little time, since i spend most of my day working or sleeping.
And since I still had more than a week left to add another book to the list, I picked up a book my roommate lent me: Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith. I'm not a big fan of poetry because I tend not to value nor interpret it as it should. But I still gave it a chance, since I've liked everything my roommate has recommended to me, up to date. And if you haven't yet, you have to read it, that's all I can say.
But turned out I read Don't Call Us Dead in one single day, so I still had time to pick another book, and I went back to fantasy. Three Dark Crowns is not a short book, but it was a quick read, as the story and intrigue catched me from the start. The writing was a little weak but the plot and the characters were so amazing I had to give it four stars. And I usually don't like cliffhangers, but this one makes me want to read the second book so bad.
March and April TBR
For Esmé - with Love and Squalor: And Other Stories, J.D. Salinger
(192 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★★)
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, J.D. Salinger
(160 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★☆)
The Shadow of Theron, Kathryn Troy
(ARC, 546 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★☆☆½)
These next two months I want to focus on my master's final thesis, so I can't plan to read a lot of books, especially if they are very long. That's why I have chosen three books with an average of 300 pages each. My original plan was to read Carpenters and Seymour first, but a friend on bookstagram (@cottage.reading) told me that that book contained some spoilers for Nine Stories, and so I should read that one first, that's why I changed my reading plan and added For Esmé - with Love and Squalor: And Other Stories (AKA Nine Stories) right before Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. While The Shadow of Theron is an ARC that I will read as soon as I receive the printed copy, and I hope to include it in my next wrap up.
Also in March I want to make a mini getaway by car to the south of France, although I don't know exactly where yet. And in April, just the day after my birthday, we are going with some friends to London for four days. So, between one thing and the other, I don't think I'll have much time to read. We'll see how I've been doing by the end of April.
Books I got and want
This is a new section, where I tell you about the books I have bought or have received as gifts, and also the books I want to get. This way I will be aware of how many books I buy and maybe change my book buying habits to a little less than it is currently. My goal is to buy at most one book every month, but I've already broken that by buying four books in January, lol —I'm not sorry.
January: 4 (all new)
Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, J.D. Salinger
Outline, Rachel Cusk
February: 2
The Little Friend, Donna Tartt (second-hand in Edinburgh)
The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides (new)
Want to get: 3
For Esmé - with Love and Squalor: And Other Stories, J.D. Salinger
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
Before anyting else, if I plan to read For Esmé - with Love and Squalor: And Other Stories, I guess I will have to buy it, that's why it's at the top of the list. Then I plan to buy Middlesex because I enjoyed The Virgin Suicides so much, I guess the logical thing to do is to read the rest of Eugenides' books as long as I continue to like them. And I've been meaning to get Never Let Me Go for ages now, but I need to find the same edition I have of Klara and the Sun, because I did find the UK version, but it's smaller and I'm sorry, but my OCD won't let me buy it. And of course yes, I'll let you know when I find it, either here or on my bookstagram. And once again, if I get all three, I'll be exceeding my one-book-a-month goal, but Middlesex isn't a must, so maybe I'll get it in May if I find Never Let Me Go before that.
What have you read these past two months? And what are you planning to read next? Let me know!
Thanks for reading me.
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