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Progress report for December and tentative reading plan for January

Of the books I planned to read in December, I finished the 5 TBR challenge books plus one more. I only finished 1 Top Mysteries challenge book and neither did I finish the third top mystery, The Woman in White, which was also to have been my Chunkster Challenge book for the month. The Buchmesse challenge read was 101 Reykjavík, a comic novel by Hallgrímur Helgason.

In the latter part of the month I found myself unable to concentrate on any but short reads that didn‘t require the concentration needed for a long and detailed novel like The Woman in White or a dense read like Lark Rise. As I have already mentioned, I lost two close relatives in quick succession in December. After the first death I focused on short reads that didn‘t require much concentration and were unlikely to set me off crying, which is why I avoided Dickens.

In January the plan is to continue the TBR challenge, the Top Mysteries challenge and the Buchmesse challenge. I will be posting about other challenges soon.

I don‘t have any books lined up for January and will let chance decide what I read, both in and outside the challenges.

I am currently reading The Windows of Brimnes by Bill Holm (lovely writing about Iceland and Icelanders) and McCarthy‘s Bar by Pete McCarthy (uneven but occasionally funny), and on my next long car ride I plan to finish the audio book of Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris, which is an excellent book when you need cheering up.
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