What did I read September? I can’t quite remember. The month has been hectic for me as four projects run live and I’m running about like a headless chicken. By the end of the day I was too tired to read on the train and by early morning I haven’t woke up entirely when I’m on my way to work.
I can’t even do a monthly wrap-up on time. Now, let me see….
- The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne Du Maurier
- The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas
- An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
- The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim by Jonathan Coe
- Half of the Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Frenchman’s Creek and The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim stand shoulder to shoulder as my favourites of the month.
There are a few surprises:
First, I thought I read 5 books and I was surprised I read 6.
Second, half of the 6 books I read are chunksters (any book more than 450 pages) 506 page for Mr. Y, 484 pages for An Equal Music and 543 pages for Half of a Yellow Sun.
Third, I thought I didn’t do much on my blog and I was surprised to see that I had:
- Appeared on Kim’s Triple Choice Tuesday
- Commemorated the 10th anniversary of 9-11 in A decade on, I’m still affected
- Successfully organised a double read-along for Frenchman’s Creek and The End of Mr. Y at Double Read-along Reviews
- and shared my observation about blogging and subscribing trends at : What I talk about when I talk about blogging
Not too bad for someone who claim she is too busy and has no time to read and blog. 😉
Purchase
and what books did I buy in September? Quite self-restrained in September I must say, I only purchase 3 books:
- A beautiful everyman’s library classic edition of R. Narayan – Mr. Sampath–The Printer of Malgudi, The Financial Expert, Waiting for the Mahatma,
- and Everyman’s library of Toni Morrison – Beloved
- Saritana Mandanna – Tiger Hillls
Plans for October
As for October, I’m reluctant to plan. One week has gone and I have finished 2 books, not bad and I’ll be on city tour and nature trekking holidays this month, perhaps I won’t be doing much reading.
Besides what’s on my sidebar, I have a few books from the library I want to finish. My library is hosting a Around the World in 80 reads which is kind of my thing, so you may see a few more translated books here:
- What the day owes the night by Yasmina Khadra (Algeria)
- An Unfinished Business by Boualem Sansal (Algerian in France)
- Manituana by Wu Ming (America founding history)
- Desert Drivers by Sven Lindvist (North Africa)
- Inside the Kingdom by Robert Lacey – Non-fiction, a history of the Saudi Arabia Kingdom
- Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (Norway) – winner of 2007 IMPAC award
- Purple Hisbiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – after reading Half of a Yellow Sun, and the wonderful “The Thing around your neck” I wanted to read everything she wrote! (Nigeria)
- The Woman who wanted by Andrew Makine (France / Russia)
Have you read any of these? If so, what do you think?
JoV's Book Pyramid 
I am so happy to see you got the collection of several Narayan novels-I love his work-The Man Eater of Malagudi is one of my favorites-I cannt wait to hear your reaction to his work
Posted by Mel u | October 10, 2011, 10:50 amMel,
Thanks to you I know of Narayan. I hope to read it one day. Heard so much about him. 🙂
Posted by JoV | October 10, 2011, 3:08 pmI love it when I accidentally find out that I did read and blog quite a bit the past month. I had one of those surprises when wrapping up for August. I love the books you have planned for October! I haven’t read any of those, but a few are in my wishlist.
Posted by Aths | October 10, 2011, 11:03 amAths,
Thanks for your comment! It is really a pleasant surprise to find out that I actually read more than I perceived! 🙂 I hope you get around the few that are on my list which are on your wishlist.
Posted by JoV | October 10, 2011, 3:14 pmYou read more than you thought (when you count the pages) and it seems that most books were good reads too. Hope life gets a bit more relaxed for a while. It’s not nice if you live only for your work for weeks on end.
Posted by Leeswammes | October 10, 2011, 11:11 amJudith,
I read more than I thought last month because there were a few chunksters in the list. It’s true that life is not all about working. The thing that kills me is my conscience. I ended up taking a lot more than I can chew but this has got to stop! Thanks for your kind words Judith.
Posted by JoV | October 10, 2011, 3:15 pmI have to tell you I love subscribing to your blog b email–very cool.
I envy your purchases of the Everyman’s Library Collection – those are beautiful editions. You are in for treat this month with Purple Hibiscus (loved it), but I still need to read Half a Yellow Sun.
Have a great month.
Posted by Diane@BibliophileBytheSea | October 10, 2011, 12:00 pmDiane,
Really? how cool is it? I need to subscribe to my own blog by email and see how it comes out! LOL 🙂
The Everyman’s Library collection is really elegant. I can’t believe my good fortune to see two new editions sitting there on a used book store for £1 each. I look forward to hear what you think about Half a Yellow Sun! Thanks Diane.
Posted by JoV | October 10, 2011, 3:59 pmI keep a list by month, or I would never remember anything! I’m surprised you don’t have pie charts and graphs all over the place! :–)
Posted by rhapsodyinbooks | October 10, 2011, 1:07 pmJill,
Well! If I have a bit more time on my hand I would have draw more charts and graphs! for quarterly analysis! LOL 🙂
Posted by JoV | October 10, 2011, 4:00 pmSnap! I also read 6 books in September 😀
All your books you plan to read this month are all new to me, look forward to see what you think of them, always looking for new books to add to my tbr.
Posted by jessicabookworm | October 10, 2011, 1:10 pmJessica,
Snap you back! 😀
I think you would love books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Purple Hibiscus is one to start!
Posted by JoV | October 10, 2011, 4:03 pmWell-done you! Especially with your workload and everything 🙂 And you managed to get through the Hemingway! 😀 Happy reading this month!
Posted by Bina | October 10, 2011, 8:57 pmBina,
It’s only a 99 pages long book! I’m sure you will be able to read Hemingway too. 🙂 Thanks so much Bina. Hope you have a good month too!
Posted by JoV | October 10, 2011, 9:33 pmOo, I’ve read Purple Hibiscus! I thought it was very good, and I also thought that Adichie had a lot of room to grow as a writer. So maybe don’t go into it expecting it to be as good as (what I’ve always assumed is probably) her more mature work?
Posted by Jenny | October 11, 2011, 12:00 amJenny,
I may surprised myself by liking Purple Hibiscus more! I didn’t love Half of a Yellow Sun, although I thought it was good but I simply just love “The thing around your neck”, very subtle and powerful work.
Posted by JoV | October 11, 2011, 7:59 amI ve missed my sept post as was busy in middle of book will double round up this month I think I like Narayan and Peterson have read books by both of them all of which I have enjoyed my plans for next month are reading a lot german book ready for german lit month and a few others in between ,all the best stu
Posted by winstonsdad | October 11, 2011, 12:23 pmStu,
I’m thinking if I should join the german lit month too, sounds like fun! I have Hans Fallada’s “Alone in Berlin” on the pile. Thanks for the comment, glad to know I’m not the only one who finds it hard to round up!
Posted by JoV | October 13, 2011, 7:31 am