July Goals - A Clear-Eyed Assessment

Well, this month was moderately more successful, reading-wise, than travel-mad June, but I still see room for improvement. Which is why, of course, I have EVEN MORE books on my August "To Read" list, including a few lightweights like Ulysses.

The list below was my July "To Read" list. Capitalized works are ones I completed, links are to reviews.

  • New York Times Notable Books Challenge
    • Black Swan Green by David Mitchell - I am about two thirds of the way through this at the moment.
    • Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury
  • Year of Down Under
    • ALICE SPRINGS BY NIKKI GEMMELL
    • The Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
  • 52 Plays/52 Weeks Challenge
    • Let's be serious, now: at least 10 plays this month. [I accomplished FOUR. Sigh. But at least that was the one a week the challenge originally exhorted me to!]
  • Non-fiction Five Challenge
    • WATCHING THE ENGLISH BY KATE FOX
    • In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
  • Chunkster Challenge (FINISHED! Only one month late. Ah, well!)
    • Watching the English (see above)
    • DAVID COPPERFIELD BY CHARLES DICKENS
  • Book Groups
  • Preparing for teaching next year
    • The Iliad by Homer
    • As much Euripides as I can fit into my 52 plays project. [One play - ALCESTIS]
  • Unaffiliated Reading
    • THE FARTHEST SHORE BY URSULA K. LE GUIN
    • TEHANU BY URSULA K. LE GUIN
    • THE BOOKMAN'S WAKE BY JOHN DUNNING
    • Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy (which has been sitting on my "currently reading" list for far, far too long)
  • One unplanned book, which should have appeared on my August Reading Goals list, but would not stop opening my eyes, jumping into my hands, and creeping into my brain:
    • HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS BY J.K. ROWLING
So, all in all, this is what we come up with:
  • 13 books total, of which 4 were plays, 1 was a mystery/thriller, 3 were fantasy, and 1 was nonfiction
  • 3 authors who were completely new to me.
  • A sad failure to address my book groups (sniff!) and my increasingly neglected challenges. Things have got to change.
  • Nonetheless, a significant improvement on last month's 5 books read. FIVE!?!? And, need I mention the fact that quite a few of this months reads were chunksters?

One Response so far.

  1. Anonymous says:

    Oh you put me to shame! I was trying to think of a single book that I had finished in July, and besides HP 7 I couldn't actually think of anything! I'm using you as inspiration....

Leave a Reply