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Reading report for April 2011

First I want to report an error in the report for March – I forgot to enter two books into my reading journal. One was Gigi by Colette, which I reread after having first read it many, many years ago. The other was a webcomic, The Phoenix Requiem (click on the link to start reading it) by Sarah Ellerton, which I discovered last year but which had then been running since 2007. Ellerton finally finished it in March, and is now working on a print project. I had already read another of her webcomics Inverloch and enjoyed it very much, and I was saving a third comic of hers, Dreamless, for later. I guess I'll read that now. And now we resume our regular programming:

I finished 18 books in April, which is pretty good considering I began the month while suffering from a very specific kind of reader‘s block: the inability to finish what I had started. I would grab a book, read the first few dozen pages and then I would need to go cook a meal, or go to work, and when I would return, I would have lost interest in the book. I solved it by devouring four volumes of short stories, which can easily be finished in one reading session, then moved on to a novella and finally a short novel.

At this point I realised I needed a change of genre and chomped my way through several romances, beginning with a chick lit book, moving on to supernatural romance and finally historical romances.

13 of the books were TBR challenge reads, which, along with some culling, brought the number of TBR books below my target for the year: 840. I am now going to raise the bar and aim for 820. I finished no other challenge reads in April.

The Books:
  • Mary Balogh: First Comes Marriage. Historical romance.
  • E.C. Bentely: Trent Intervenes. Short stories, mystery.
  • Agatha Christie: 13 for Luck, Parker Pyne Investigates and Problem at Pollensa Bay. Short stories, mystery.
  • Colette: The Cat. Psychological thriller.
  • Jennifer Crusie: Tell Me Lies. Romance, contemporary.
  • Eric Hansen: Orchid Fever. Non-fiction, flowers.
  • Emily Hendrickson: Drusilla's Downfall. Historical romance.
  • Georgette Heyer: The Reluctant Widow. Historical romance.
  • Tove Jansson: Moomin - The Complete Comic Strip. 5 complete comics in one volume.
  • Brian Lane, ed.: The Murder Club Guide to South-West England and Wales. History, true crime.
  • Erica Orloff: Spanish Disco. Chick lit.
  • Amanda Quick: Deception. Historical romance.
  • Julia Quinn: An Offer From a Gentleman. Historical romance.
  • Nora Roberts: The Sign of Seven Trilogy ( Blood Brothers , The Hollow, The Pagan Stone). Supernatural romance.
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