Hosted by Shannon at River City Reading.
If all goes according to plan, my library use after this month will be dwindling. Starting in the new year I’m hoping to concentrate more on the books I own. There are so many good ones that I never get to because I keep putting books on hold at the library. But, you know, I will still use the library when I absolutely have to.
Library books read:
- The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan (for Literary Wives)
- The Stranger by Albert Camus (Novellas in November)
- Fallsy Downsies by Stephanie Domet
- The Bourgeois Empire by Evie Christie (Novellas in November)
- Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie (Novellas in November)
- Ordinary Love and Good Will by Jane Smiley (Novellas in November)
- Twenty-One Cardinals by Jocelyne Saucier
- In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
- The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson (Novellas in November)
- The Birthday Lunch by Joan Clark
All the books I read this month, except for one, were from the library.
Reading novellas really makes it look like I’ve read a lot of books!
Checked out, to be read:
- Homing by Stephanie Domet
- Three Blind Mice by Agatha Christie (Novellas in November)
- Watch How We Walk by Jennifer LoveGrove
- These Good Hands by Carol Bruneau
- Eileen by Ottessa MoshFegh
- Novels and Stories by Shirley Jackson (I have never read anything by Shirley Jackson, and would love to, but the reason I took this out of the library was to read The Lottery. The theme of my daughter’s dance recital this year is books (awesome, right?), and her contemporary dance is going to be based on the story The Lottery. So, of course, we have to read it. I don’t know about the other dances yet – we might have some more reading to do.)
Returned unread:
None!
On hold:
- Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin (for Book Club)
- The Collapse of Western Civilization by Naomi Oreskes (Novellas in November)
- Resurrection Science by M.R. O’Connor (because I really want to read it even though I don’t have time)
- The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante (Novellas in November)
- White Hunger by Aki Ollikainen (Novellas in November)
- Being Mortal by Atul Gawande (for Doing Dewey’s NFBookClub, but I am currently #4 on the hold list, so I’m not holding my breath.)
November can’t be over yet – I have more novellas coming!
What are you reading from the library?
Consumed by Ink 
I’m getting ready to start a #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks project in 2016 (maybe before), and my library will be my only solace if I get totally bored with what’s in my house. We shall see how this shakes out! Good luck with your own 2016 goals!
A lot of people seem to have this ‘problem’. I love your tagline! Good luck to us all!
Phew that’s a lot of reading even if they were relatively short. I reigned back from the library this month because like you, I found I wasn’t then making any progress with all the books I already own. But I’d did succumb yesterday and got a copy of Treachery by S J Parris. I love books set in Elizabethan England and this has been praised for its historical accuracy.
I wouldn’t want to stop using the library completely – my librarians might get worried about me. 🙂
That’s a large pile, novellas or not! I hope you get around to White Hunger. One of those books that stays with you for some time.
The good thing about the novellas is that they’re easy to slip in, so I’m still hoping to get to all the ones that are still on their way!
Homing has some memorable scenes, many of them set at the old Spring Garden Road Library. I liked the part about the statue of Winston Churchill: “when he could stand to have his arms folded behind him instead of straight at his sides, Nathan liked occasionally to walk like the great man, though he didn’t find it changed the quality of his thoughts at all.” There’s a scene set on Seymour Street (late night, forgotten keys) that’s priceless. It’s one of the three books I’m rereading for Project Bookmark right now. (The others are T.H. Raddall’s Hangman’s Beach and Carol Bruneau’s Glass Voices.) Let me know if you find passages that would work well for potential Bookmarks and we can compare notes! I’m curious to hear what you think of These Good Hands. Also–awesome theme for your daughter’s dance recital.
It is, isn’t it?
Can’t wait to get to Homing (even more) now that I know it’s one of the books you’ve been reading for the Bookmark Project. I’ll try to get to the others soon, as well! I’m feeling torn between re-reading The Nymph and the Lamp and reading Hangman’s Beach… I might have to do both. 🙂
Oh The Lottery is SUCH a great story, I bet your daughter’s dance will be incredible! I just read my first Shirley Jackson novel earlier this year (We Have Always Lived in the Castle) and loved it.
Looking forward to read it! I wish I could read them all at once (since they’re all in there), but that’s probably not going to happen. I’ll just have to take it out again!
I’m intrigued to read Eileen. I like how your cat got into the shots — mine likes to rub his cheek against my book stacks too 🙂 Chipping away at the unread books in my flat is one of my ongoing goals, but I need to be better about it next year. For me it’s the free e-books from NetGalley and Edelweiss that tend to steal away my attention.
Right now I’m feeling determined, but we’ll see what happens…
Yes, my cat likes to rub his cheek on my books as I’m trying to read them. 🙂
Ha! Only when you absolutely have to, huh? 🙂 I love it! Like you, I’m really going to try to read more from my own personal library first this next year. But we shall see. At least November was much more productive reading-wise than October was! YAY! (http://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2015/11/november-library-checkout.html) The Kitchen God’s Wife, also for Literary Wives posting December 7th, and completing The Joy Luck Club Read-Along are on my reading agenda for this next week. Then I plan to do some “catch-up” blog posting before year’s end on some of my absolute favorite reads. For some reason, it is always easier for me to compose reviews for books with which I am not particularly enthralled. Don’t know why… Preparing for the Little House Read-Along to start in January! I am so excited about that! 🙂
It should be interesting to read both of the Amy Tan books in a row. I read Joy Luck Club so long ago that I don’t really remember it anymore.
Yes, only when I *absolutely have to*! No problem, right? 🙂
I am so curious to hear how you like Eileen. And I agree with others, that is a big stack of books, no matter that they are novellas.
I was surprised to see how many books I read this month – I don’t usually read that many. But, I’m pretty sure it was all the novellas. 🙂 Looks good, though, doesn’t it?
I’m also curious about Eileen – I hope I like it!
I remember reading The Lottery at some point in highschool and being horrified. For a short story, it packs quite the punch. I’d be interested in reading it again to see what I think of it this time!
Your reading stack is so impressive, novellas or not! You had a great reading month! I was so excited to get to have the car last week (my husband was away all week) because in theory it meant I could sleep longer (not in reality, it was an insane week) but it meant that I had no bus time which severely curtailed my reading time!
I think you will be really satisfied with your reading challenge – I know you’re always saying you have copies of certain books but haven’t had a chance to read them yet.
It really is a little silly that I read all those books and none of them were mine. I think I might join Andi’s #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks 2016 challenge. I get to make my own rules for that one. 🙂