Reading Diary | November 2017

Nov, 2nd - 23:30

Finally finished Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell after almost a month since I started reading it. I will confess that it took me a whole lot more time that I was expecting to get through this one but I just kept picking other books up and not reading it. Anyways, I did it. 1006 pages. I wasn't as impressed with it as most people; I certainly believe its length doesn't help sometimes and I was bored quite a bit throughout. As a whole it is a book worth reading but it's very slow and academic. The ending, though, stole a few tears from me - something I wasn't expecting to be completely honest.

Nov, 7th - 16:54

Second book of the month finished and the first for my non-fiction November TBR: The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell; a fascinating read that completely took me by surprise. I still haven't finished Mariana by Monica Dickens but I'm finding it too boring and the length of its chapters is too long. The book is 375 pages long and it only has 10 chapters so every time that I pick it up I have to read the whole chapter and sometimes I'm not in the mood to read so many pages so I'm doing very little progress because of it. I'm still unsure about which title I'm gonna pick up next: it will be either Why I'm no longer Talking to White People about Race or The Morning that Came for Us.

Nov, 9th - 16:07

Finished my second book from my non-fiction November TBR: Why I'm no longer Talking to White People about Race. It's a very quick read and one that will stay with me for a very long time - or forever. My knowledge of black history outside American history is, sadly, lacking and this book focuses on racism in the UK. It proves once more that systemic racism is still very much alive there (as is everywhere else) even if we don't want to see it, or even acknowledge it. I will highly recommend the book.

Nov, 10th - 10:54

And I could finally put Mariana back on my shelves. It was a very disappointed read for me. I didn't like the main character, Mary, and I couldn't stand her airs of self-importance. I wasn't happy with the ending either. There were parts that were nice to read about but overall, a very unforgettable novel in my opinion. Might be a personal thing though because it does have quite high ratings on goodreads. 

I started Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman but I haven't made much progress. I think I might be getting into a bit of a slump because I'm still obsessing over Stranger Things 2 and I keep watching interviews and fan-made videos. I have a problem I know.

Nov, 16th - 22:30

A day before the Tome Topple readathon starts, I managed to finish Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud. In general I'll say it is worth the read and she tackles some interesting ideas analysing different personalities/celebrities and the reasons behind their unruliness, but a lot of them I was already familiar with.

From Nov, 17th to Nov, 30th (TOME TOPPLE READATHON UPDATES)

This last part of the reading diary is written mostly in present time. I thought about doing a different progress post as I've been doing with other readathons but since this one ends at the end of the month, I could simply update here, so here we go:

- Today is Nov, 19th and I still haven't made any important progress for Tome Topple. I started both The Amber Spyglass and Wildwood but I only read a couple of pages of each. Might have to accept the fact that I'm in a reading slump but at the same time I want to read so instead of just forcing myself to read every time I have free-time during the day, I'm going to do so for only 50 minutes or an hour each day and be happy with whatever progress I made.

- Five days into the readathon and I still haven't finished any of the books (I'm clearly doing so good guys) but The Punisher came out and what can I say? when it comes to Netflix/Marvel shows I have no self-control, I need to watch them immediately. Also, I finally have a tutor for my dissertation and I'm already stressed.

- Nov, 23th marks the day I finished my first read for the Tome Topple: Wildwood. Reading children's books is always interesting because you're going in with an adult mind and sometimes things don't work. One of the most beautiful things about this book is the illustrations by Carson Ellis. The story, for me, is not very original and it reminded me constantly of Narnia so comparisons were inevitable. So, my adult mind thinks this is an okay read. But I can see as well how this is something children will love. It's a fantasy world full of talking animals, bandits, a corrupted government and an evil queen who wants to take over the world among other stuff.

- Nov, 27th. Finished The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night, a book which had nothing to do with Tome Topple but as you can probably guess right now I'm not following the readathon very well. I enjoyed this short story collection quite a bit. And I'll have a review of it very soon.

So, that's the end. As I said on my November bookhaul, I haven't been feeling the greatest this month - especially the first three weeks when I was trying to figure out how to do my essay for my Canadian literature assignment (I'm pretty sure you're already sick of me talking about it). When I'm stressed I tend to find comfort in reading but sadly every time I sat down to read it made me feel guilty and that's something that hasn't happened to me ever and it has saddened me a lot. So I stopped reading. I couldn't allow any negative feelings invade one of my favourite ways of escapism. 

Right now, I'm feeling slightly better. Still not completely right on track but getting there and I'm reading more constantly each day. I'm currently reading two books: The Amber Spyglass which I didn't manage to finish before the end of the month, and Sing, Unburied, Sing which is the newest novel by Jesmyn Ward and my first by her (and spoiler alert, I'm really enjoying it. The writing is superb!)

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