Third Quarterly Update of 2013

Let me just start with a sigh. I am so behind and I feel behind. We’re almost completely through October and I’m writing my quarterly update post. Last year, I wrote one every month – this year only one every quarter and still I can’t do it on time.
And I’m behind on every challenge. I had hoped to read A Year with Rilke this year but I abandoned it months ago. I wanted to read all the Doctor Who short stories published this year to celebrate the 50th Anniversary but have abandoned that too months ago. I’m behind on my reading goals, both the books I intended to read this year and the number of books I wanted to read. I actually feel a bit disillusioned with it all right now although I’m trying to find my mojo again with some very light reading as well as a couple of days holiday in October – and not very much time to a long Christmas holiday.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is a post designed to reflect and look back, to take stock of what I have read, what I have loved and where I am with my goals. And let’s just just agree that I’m behind and not talk more about the goal thing.

So here’s the books I’ve read this quarter:

1. Alexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo
2. Neil Gaiman: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
3. Tim Stutler: Hillari’s Head
4. Virginia Woolf: Orlando
5. Stephen King: The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower #3)
6. Stephen King: Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower #4)
7. Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey
8. Jane Austen: Mansfield Park
9. Richard Adams: Watership Down
10. Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited

I’ve read 10 books again – just as in the second quarter of the year (but I did read 16 in the first quarter so …). I really like how I mix classics with more contemporary things and I’m actually quite impressed with the amount of classics I’ve read this quarter. And 10 books is still somewhat impressive when The Count of Monte Cristo is one of them … (I’m trying here!)

My favorite this quarter has been Watership Down by Richard Adams. I absolutely loved The Count of Monte Cristo, I was so impressed with Orlando and Northanger Abbey was so good too. And of course I enjoyed reading King – especially The Waste Lands. But despite all these wonderful books, Watership Down was my favorite. I loved everything about this book. Adams really get bunnies. He writes them so wonderfully and then the book is filled with lessons about politics and how we live together with each other and welcome immigrants, encounter other species etc. – and it’s all just perfect. It’s definitely one of my all time favorite books.

I am not sure about my plans for the rest of the year. I intend to try and make my reading goals – that is, read 52 books in all as well as read the books I listed at the beginning of the year. But I just have to accept that my work is taking a lot out of me and that I stress if I don’t read. So the most important thing is, that I read. And if I have to read lighter fiction to be able to keep awake, so be it. Nothing wrong with that. Except that I had some other plans for the year but again, the most important thing is that I read. I also hope to finish at least the first volume of Coppleston’s History of Philosophy but we’ll see. It’s not going all that great right now…

I hope my last quarterly update of the year will be more upbeat and positive – and that I will feel that it has been a good reading year. Oh, and I hope that I have been able to afford to buy a huge comfy chair (two actually, since my boyfriend want one too) and dedicate a corner in our living room to reading!

Related post:

• Second Quarterly Update of 2013
• First Quarterly Update of 2013