I'll admit it... I'm a slave to an obsession with lists. Tracking reading accomplishments and plans have swaddled me in their satisfying embrace. An example of this I'm currently practicing are my monthly reading lists. Reading is a hobby of mine, so results may vary from month to month. If the list is making me feel trapped or I discover a book I absolutely must read before moving on to the next planned thing, I do what I want to do. Things change, no big deal.
Since starting this, I’ve found most of my TBRs are a free-for-all. Whatever I want to read the most in the upcoming month goes on the list. Usually the list has no more than 8 books because I average 1–2 novels a week. Sometimes I don’t know right away what I want to read and have a few tools in my arsenal for this situation. The most commonly used one is to themeify my list for the month. Which brings us to the subject at hand.
November in the States is a mixture of autumnal goodness, the start of holiday shopping or decorating (and stress), and Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving means different things from individual to individual. My take is food, family, and friend forward. So I thought I could celebrate the family/friend portion of this holiday by asking those close to me to recommend a book for me to read before the end of the month. Now that I've meandered to the point, let's take a look at my final November TBR:
- Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
Genre – Fiction, Classic, Philosophy - Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart
Genre – Fiction, Thriller - My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Genre – Fiction, Adventure - Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Genre – Fiction, Classic, Play, Romance - A View From the Bridge by Arthur Miller
Genre – Fiction, Classic, Play, Drama - Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Genre – Fiction, Fantasy - The Last Town by Blake Crouch
Genre – Fiction, Sci-Fi
In this list of 7 books for the month of November, I was surprised that no one recommended a non-fiction book. The two plays were also unexpected. I am happy to see the range of genres overall — it's unlikely I'll get in a rut from reading things which are too similar. This is a TBR I expect to finish before the end of the month, especially with the holiday downtime coming up.
What I'm currently reading:
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
Storm of the Century: An Original Screenplay by Stephen King
Kydd by Julia Stockwin