Two orders of business today! First, the randomly chosen winners of Madre: Perilous Journeys with a Spanish Noun by Liza Bakewell:
Congratulations to Zeteticat and Zoe! I do hope everyone who entered the contest will hunt down a copy of Madre to read, as it really is a fascinating book.
The second item for today is my March review (just a few days late!). Here’s what my month looked like:
Books
Total books read: 8
Total pages read: 1,942
Favorite book: March was a tough month to choose a favorite for; I read so many books I loved! I’d have to go with I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, but The Bee-Loud Glade by Steve Himmer, Madre: Perilous Journeys with a Spanish Noun by Liza Bakewell, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, and The Sea and the Silence by Peter Cunningham (review coming soon) were all excellent as well.
Least favorite book: I really didn’t dislike any of the books I read last month, though The Appointment by Herta Müller didn’t blow me away like some of the others I read in March did.
Audiobooks
Total audiobooks listened to: 2
Total hours listened: 51 hours, 59 minutes
Favorite audiobook: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (review coming soon)
Least favorite audiobook: Since I only listened to two, I guess my answer would have to be Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. But I was quite fascinated by that one, so it was still very good!
Erin Reads
Here are some of the highlights of the past month on Erin Reads:
- I reflected on my Classics Reclamation Project.
- I read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser with Christina from the Ardent Reader.
- Reading Buddies read and discussed The Appointment by Herta Müller and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
- I interviewed Liza Bakewell, author of Madre: Perilous Journeys with a Spanish Noun.
Miscellaneous
April 1st was technically the end of the TBR Dare. When I took the dare, I committed to read only books on my TBR list as of January 1, 2011, with exceptions for ARCs and reading group books. I read 19 books over the past three months; of those, 11 came from my shelves. Two came from the library (one for book group, one I’d checked out in late December), and one came from Project Gutenberg (and was on my Classics Reclamation Project list). The other seven books came from publishers and authors, either in print or as ebooks. All 15 audiobooks I listened to were borrowed from my library, but all were books already on my TBR list at the beginning of the dare.
I’m so glad I participated in the TBR Dare. It jumpstarted me on reading the books I own and forced me to really look at my own shelves. I realized I really do like reading the books I already have–after all, I bought them for a reason! While I won’t be strictly limiting myself henceforth, I do think my experience with the TBR Dare will influence my reading in the future in positive ways.
Your Turn!
That was my March. How was yours?
Congratulations to the winners, and to you Erin for doing so well on the dare! I didn’t read much from my shelves, but also didn’t buy any books until April, so I kind of participated!
Hey, that’s one way of keeping the TBR stacks manageable! I bought plenty of books, but I read some too, so I think it balances out 🙂
Wonderful! I very much look forward to reading Madre after your interesting review! And kudos to a great month in reading – I’m hoping to keep up my momentum as well.
Good job with the Dare! I think it’s great that you read/listened to books one your TBR list even if they weren’t in your TBR pile.
I’d have felt too restricted if I’d only been reading from my physical shelves. Plus, I rely on the library for audiobooks, and I certainly wasn’t giving those up! It worked out well for me.