November was the month of lost causes. All the grand ideas I had for Novellas in November, Non Fiction November and Reading Australia month pretty much evaporated.
I did just about manage to read two novellas — Summerwater by Sarah Moss and ‘Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay. But the stack I’d originally earmarked for Novellas in November was returned to the bookcase unread. As for Non Fiction November — an event I’ve participated in with relish in previous years — it came and went without a single word from me.
My tale of woe continued. I’d suggested a read-along of Voss by Patrick White for Australia Reading Month hosted by Brona of bronasbooks. But I feel guilty that I never got beyond chapter 3. It demanded a power of concentration I just didn’t possess at the time because of some family health issues. The small size of text in my edition didn’t help.
Just to cap it all off, the book chosen for our November book club meeting turned out to be. a huge disappointment. I’ve loved previous novels by Colm Toibin but his most recent one, The Magician, left me underwhelmed. It’s a fictionalised biography about the Nobel laureate Thomas Mann but it was so dull so dull. I honestly don’t understand why Toibin didn’t just write a straight biography because that’s how this book felt. So another book I couldn’t finish.
Project Update
Very little to report here since I didn’t actually read anything that would count towards the Classics Club list or my World Of Literature project. The wanderlust bingo card looks just as it did at the end of October.
State of the TBR
After months when I was seeing slow but steady progress to reduce the TBR, I succumbed to temptation in November Colm Toibin so now the total is at 278. It would have been higher but for the Sunday Sample decisions to let a few go out of the house unread. Unless I completely go off the rails I’m still likely to finish the year with the TBR at a lower level than end of 2022 (when it was 292).
I’m not going to get fixated on this and make (rash) commitments to stop buying books since I know such a “promise” would be futile. Slow but steady progress is fine.
In case you haven’t caught the drift, November is what I would class as a rubbish month. Fortunately December looks marginally better.
How was your November reading? Were there any stand out novels that you would recommend? I would love to know what you’ve been reading, and what you’re reading currently.