Unquiet
Things

Though I never again will see the days where I would devour an entire stack of library books in one week, I have made diligent attempts over the past few years to ensure that I don’t neglect one of my favorite past times (I was terribly guilty of this neglect in my late teenage years and early twenties and I cannot tell you how much I regret the reading that I did not do at that time!)

Last year I challenged myself to read 50 books–which seems a rather paltry amount now that I have typed it out–nonetheless, I achieved that goal, and upped my number this year to 75! Now, to be perfectly honest, I include in this number comic books and graphic novels and slim volumes of poetry. But whatever.  Reading is reading, I reckon.

So far I am at 48/75 which isn’t bad at all, although I think I can do better. I’m certainly working hard to diminish these countless stacks of newly accumulated books, at any rate.

My standout reads more than halfway into the year are:

The Etched City – languid, decadent, dark fantasy; gorgeous but short on plot.
Salt Is For Curing – witchy recipe/poems of curses & murder & bones & bodies
Yurei – entertaining, engaging, and thoroughly enjoyable book about Japanese ghosts
Geek Love – everyone knows this wildly marvelous, heartbreaking book, I won’t embarrass myself by synopsisizing it
Wylding Hall – ghosts, a haunted manse in a remote locale, and a British acid-folk band
A Head Ful of Ghosts -teenage madness and/or possession funtimes
Bluets – a poet’s memoir and brilliant investigation of/reflection upon the color blue
Megg and Mogg in Amsterdam -further adventures of depressed, disgusting degenerates
Margaret the First – beautifully imagined story of Margaret Cavendish, the eccentric and wildly unconventional 17th-century Duchess.

Have you got a reading goal for yourself this year? Are you keeping up with it? And what have you enjoyed thus far? Do tell!