Reading Wrap-Up: April 2012

Um…where did April go? It really feels like it has only been a couple of weeks since I typed up the reading wrap-up for March. But I did some exciting things in April! Eric and I built a new bookcase, and I changed the look of the blog; I am super happy with both. I was looking forward to getting a visit from my dad last month, but his trip got delayed a little, so I should be seeing him this weekend. Yay!

On the downside, I spent the ENTIRE MONTH reading Vanity Fair. A 750-page book has never taken me so long to read (when reading at my own pace, as opposed to reading for a book club or read-along)…what a time suck. I will be blogging about that experience very soon.

April was National Poetry Month, and while I planned to blog about some of my favorite poems, Vanity Fair took up so much of my time (and I just…wanted…to get it…done), that I only ended up writing about two of them. If you missed those posts, you can check them out here and here.

SO…

Here’s a look at the reading I accomplished in April:

Number of books read: 7
YTD: 42

• David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens (started in March)
• Beloved, by Toni Morrison
• The Testament of Jessie Lamb, by Jane Rogers
• Jazz, by Toni Morrison
• The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
• The Little Red Guard, by Wenguang Huang
• Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray

Number of books in progress: 4

• What It Is Like to Go to War, by Karl Marlantes
• The Cambridge Companion to Toni Morrison, edited by Justine Tally
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll
• Volcano, by Shusaku Endo

Number of pages read: 2,244
YTD: 15,185

Books reviewed:

• The Gods of Gotham, by Lyndsay Faye
• Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, by Jenny Lawson
• The Testament of Jessie Lamb, by Jane Rogers

Reviews in progress: Quite a few, still.

My rereading of Toni Morrison’s backlist came to a temporary halt, but I’m planning on starting Paradise sometime this week. I’m still reading The Cambridge Companion to Toni Morrison; when I finish a book, I read its corresponding section in the Companion.

**I’m using the Daytum website to keep track of my reading stats this year, so you can follow my progress at any time by visiting my Daytum profile.

Reading Challenges progress:

• Back to the Classics Challenge: 1/9  (YTD: 4/9)
• Mount TBR Reading Challenge: 1/40  (YTD: 11/40)
• Chunkster Reading Challenge: 2/14  (YTD: 7/14)
• End of the World Reading Challenge: 1,493 pages  (YTD: 11,868)

**You can follow my progress and learn more about each challenge under the Challenges tab in my menu bar.

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Ashley (my 11-year-old daughter) is participating in two of the challenges with me: the Back to the Classics Challenge and the Mount TBR Challenge. She doesn’t have a place to review the books she’s read, so she’s just doing the reading and keeping track of her progress in a notebook.

Here’s a look at what Ashley accomplished in April:

Number of books read: 7
YTD: 37

• Moon Over Manifest, by Clare Vanderpool
• You Have to Stop This, by Pseudonymous Bosch
• The Supernaturalist, by Eion Colfer
• Peter Pan, by James M. Barrie
• Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself, by Judy Blume
• The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, by Trenton Lee Stewart
• The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma, by Trenton Lee Stewart

Number of pages read: 2,282
YTD: 9,180

Reading Challenges progress:

• Back to the Classics Challenge: 0/9  (YTD: 4/9)
• Mount TBR Reading Challenge: 4/50  (YTD: 16/50)

Did you do anything exciting in April? How did you do concerning your reading goals or other goals you made for the month?