A Look Back on April
The start of the month saw me working hard on the last part of Genre for Japan, including sending hundreds of emails and posting items that found their way to my house. Now, at the start of May, there are only a very few niggling items that I need to get on top of, and then we can call it done! I'm just a little worried about the few people who have started mentioning 'the next one....' *running scared*
I've popped that picture up at the head of the post to remind myself at a later date that the weather turned beautiful in April. We had a couple of weeks of truly glorious sunshine. I've already been to a couple of BBQs and have tan lines on my shoulders! I know that we are awful for forgetting about good weather when we have a spate of bad, so here it remains as proof. April felt like summer!
My weekends in April were just a whirlwind of social events... I took my mum to a show early in April, went on a hen party, spent time at the de Jagers watching films, and Eastercon! Awesome Eastercon! I put a post up about this already, but *cryptic* the consequences of my attending Eastercon will last for a while methinks *bounces*!
Reading
For some reason, my reading has taken a real hit lately. First it seemed I had no time at all because of Genre for Japan; then I took time out to do some intensive slush reading and help clear that; then I FAILED utterly to read the shortlisted Arthur Clarke novels (although I did read the winner, which is cool). Now I find myself in an utter reading slump and am unclear how to get out of it *sigh*
Here are links to my reviews during April:
28) The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
29) The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness
30) Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
31) Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
- so, 3 books by men (or one man, anyway) and 1 by a women
- 3 YA and 1 Urban Fantasy (or, y'know, 4 sci fi considering the Arthur C Clarke shortlist *winks*
- These four books were all purchased by me!
Best Book of April
Now here... I really can't choose. These were all five star reads for me. The Chaos Walking trilogy is vital and utterly unforgettable, while Zoo City is unique and very much of the moment. All four books were simply brilliant, so I am not even going to try and differentiate. All I will say is that this month was all about the quality, rather than the quantity!
Pages Covered
A brisk canter through a mere 2,040 pages for this month - certainly not my highest number in a month so far... It makes the ongoing page count for the year 15,465. The longest book by quite a margin was Monsters of Men while the shortest was Zoo City (although I wish that one were longer!)
Places Visited
Mostly Prentisstown, New Prentisstown (formerly Haven) and Johannesburg for me! None of them seem the most pleasant places to live, so I'll stick where I am this month, thank you very much!
Plans for May
Tis time to rediscover that love of reading. As I say, going through a reading slump right now - can't pick any books to read, then when I do manage to choose one, it doesn't sustain my interest past the first twenty pages or so. Which means it's time to read for pleasure - you'll be getting a number of chick lit/children's book reviews this month, I suspect (my go-to of choice when I'm feeling rotten in terms of reading - nothing challenging!)
Over To You
Tell me everything about your April!
A busy month isn't too bad a thing to have. And I'm still envious of your job reading through slush piles. :) Hope your reading slump ends soon, though; they're never any fun.
ReplyDeleteMy own April was pretty decent. Read 9 books (reviewed 8 in April and had to save the last one for today; my OCD's not happy about that!), enjoyed seeing what everyone else was saying on the 30 Days of Genre posts, and I found myself with a greater urge to read more high or traditional fantasy and less YA or urban fantasy stuff again, which is awesome for me. I've also started making more headway in getting some of my backlogged review copies read and reviewed, hurrah!
Here's to an awesome May for both of us!
I had a great April, reaching my 50th review and my 100th post. I reviewed 7 books and I finished another one, whose review will go up today. I managed to keep to a three posts a week schedule and I'm really pleased at that!
ReplyDeleteHope you'll find your way out of the slump soon!
I had a slow month, too. I read only two books (Matthew Stover's Iron Dawn and Jericho Moon) though they were in an omnibus edition, so really it was like reading only one book. Started on April 1st, finished on April 30th. In between, I managed to read the Sherlock Holmes short story, "The Blue Carbuncle". And of course my Memories of Ice chapters for the reread.
ReplyDeletePart of the reason was just not getting that into Stover' books (which is odd, as I love his other stuff) but also because I spent a lot of my April evenings/nights playing Zelda: Twilight Princess and watching DVDs of "How I Met Your Mother".