Before I count up a year’s reading for 2014, here's a rundown of what I read in the latter half of 2014.
From September onwards:
The Listener/Tove Jansson
The Unbearable Lightness of Being/Milan Kundera
Radical/ Maajid Nawaz
Vivienne Westwood/Ian Kelly & Vivienne Westwood
Fear of Flying/Erica Jong
The Doors of Perception/Heaven & Hell/Aldous Huxley
Night/Elie Wiesel
Steve McQueen/Marc Eliot
My Husband, My Lover/Neile Adams
A Christmas Carol/Charles Dickens
Venus in Furs/ Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch
The Avenue of Regrettable Fairwells/Venus DeMileage
That's 24 books in all for all of 2014 (counting the first 6 months of the year in a previous blog).
That's a rate of 2 books per month. I find I'm a slow reader and can't really work my way up to 1 per week. A realistic goal then I think, keeping in mind all these mitigating factors, is that for the rest of 2015, I shall read 3 per month. Upping the ante to 30 in a year.
I think that's a realistic figure to aim for, and if I can match it or double it, then I'll be happy.
My reading has started well, but starting, typically for me, with a large book (which is another thing that slows down my reading) A Testament of Youth, Vera Brittain. I'm also still trying to read Barry Commoner’s The Closing Circle, Man, Nature & Technology.
I have authors I'd like to either read more of, or read for the first time.
First timers are Neil Gaiman and Francois Sagan. Revisits are Margaret Atwood and some Dickens. I've severely neglected Charles Dickens of late and would value a reawakening of my love of his writing, after a brief visit with A Chrismas Carol during the latter half of December (and after all, what other time of year would you read this?).
So that's my reading year planned for 2015.
Any recommendations?
Please feel free to plunder my book list,
Until next time, au revoir...
