Saturday 25 June 2011

Reflections at the Halfway Point

On completing Nigel Farndale's 'The Blasphemer' I have now reached 50 books and am officially halfway through the challenge. I have made it to 50 before the end of the first 6 months and am slightly ahead of myself now. As far as the challenge has been going for me, May was particularly difficult, I realised that I was slightly behind and towards the end of May became stressed out about needing to read to keep the pace going. Reading because of necessity rather than desire can somewhat spoil your enjoyment of the book, so the challenge has had to a degree that effect, though June has been much calmer.

I have noted however that of the 50 books I have read just TWELVE have been written by female authors, as a woman with writing aspirations I feel I must remedy this forthwith and have set myself a challenge within a challenge to make sure that the next 10 books I read are by women. This resolve however may be jeopardised by the forthcoming release of the fifth A Song Of Ice And Fire book, George R.R Martin's 'A Dance With Dragons' on 12th July. Which gives me 17 days to read 10 books. Pressure.

In terms of the Don't Read That Read This aspect the Top 10 Read This books would be as follows:

1) A Game Of Thrones (and then its sequels)
2) The Vintner's Luck
3) Lady Chatterley's Lover
4) The Things They Carried
5) My Antonia
6) Rivers Of London
7) A Monster Calls
8) The Art Of Racing In The Rain
9) Physics Of The Impossible
10) The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

In the Don't Read That Corner - Top 10

1) The Obelisk
2) Crow Country
3) The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ
4) The Year Of Magical Thinking
5) The Patience Stone
6) Joe Gould's Secret
7) The Girl With Glass Feet
8) The Blasphemer
9) The New York Trilogy
10) One Day

with everything else falling somewhere in between the two and being classified as average.

Anyhow enough typing, back to reading. Let us see what the female authors I've chosen have to say for themselves. Here come the girls.

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