Reading in Reykjavík

Of the named books I planned to read in October, I finished We have always lived in the castle by Shirley Jackson, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke and Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett. Additionally, I read the planned-for 5 TBR books, plus one more, and one of the new books I mentioned last month: Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie. I made a bit of headway with Simon Winchester‘s Calcutta , but didn‘t open a single Harry Potter book, which may be blamed on my brother who moved out of my spare bedroom and into his own space at the beginning of the month, taking the books with him. I‘ll need to visit him soon and see if he has unpacked them yet so I can borrow the next book and continue with Project Potter. I decided to add a new reading challenge: to review one Icelandic book that has been translated into English and German, per month until the 2011 book fair in Frankfurt, starting in November. For this challenge, I may finally tackle Halldór Laxness‘ maste...

Of the books I named as possible August reads I finished Time and Again and two of the travelogues I brought home after my library visit: Gecko Tails and Botswana Time . Two of the others are going back to the library unread, but the third I would like to read this month. Additionally, I finished the Dickens biography and met the goal to read 5 TBR challenge books, but only 1 of them was a Top Mysteries Challenge book. I find myself losing interest in the Top Mysteries Challenge but I am too far in to stop now and will soldier on. The next time I follow a fixed list as a challenge, I will definitely make it a short(er) list. As for my plans for September, there is the travelogue I mentioned above, written by an Icelander who spent many years travelling around south and central America. In the Global Reading Challenge I am at the halfway point of the Asian book, Red Sorghum by Chinese author Mo Yan. This only leaves the Oceania book, which will be Oscar and Lucinda by Australian P...

I didn't manage to finish Time and Again as I had planned, mostly because I don‘t want it to end, but I will have to finish it this month because I can‘t keep it much longer and must return it to the library soon. I did finish Between the Woods and the Water and am now hoping against hope that Fermor will publish the third and final part of this travelogue before he succumbs to old age. I also finished rereading the second Harry Potter book as planned, and three non-fiction books, which was fewer than I wanted to but more than I expected. Finally, I made no headway at all with the Top Mysteries Challenge. Hopefully my little break from reading mysteries will give me a renewed interest and a boost for August. As to what I would like to accomplish this month: I visited a public library branch I don‘t often go to and came home with a stack of interesting travelogues. I would like to finish at least three of them in August. Let's call it a mini-challenge to read more non-ficti...