Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

For the last four days or so I’ve been bellybutton-deep in trying to get my new laptop to work the way I want it to, so I haven’t really been thinking all that much about books. Now that I’ve got it mostly sorted out (I hope), I can finally switch my brain back to “book mode.” Yay!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about reading goals, and books to read during the winter holidays, and how there’s only two months left in the year and then it’s 2012. I always get a bit crazed during the run up to the new year, not only because I start feeling insecure about my reading numbers for the year but also because I’ve got a lot of new ideas for the blog that I want to put into action in January.

Also my blogoversary is in 11 days, and I still have no idea what I want to do.

Anyway! When I’m stresses I like to read comforting books, and that, plus something Alison said to me on Twitter earlier, has made me think of how I like to read certain books during the fall/winter. I mean, it’s not that I don’t read them during the other seasons, but there’s just something about autumn as it’s going into winter that makes reading these kinds of books way more fun than they’d be at other times. Don’t you think?

Here’s some of my favorite Fall/Winter Comfort Reads:

• Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. The first time I read this was during Thanksgiving Break in college, and it’s now forever stuck as a Fall Book in my mind.
• Any murder mystery, but especially Golden Age murder mysteries. Agatha Christie has some good Christmas-y murder stories, for example.
• Ghost stories, even if they scare the crap out of me. Psychological horror is good, too; I’m thinking mainly of my collection of HP Lovecraft stories here, which is basically both of those things plus some gothic added in.
• Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake. Okay, so technically I haven’t read this one yet (though I’ve seen the miniseries), but it just feels like a fall/winter book to me, don’t you think?
• Any Virginia Woolf book. My favorites are Orlando and To the Lighthouse, though they’re all really good, even the ones I don’t particularly adore.
• The Once and Future King series by TH Lawrence. I think this is…four books, right?
• Likewise, The Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper. Even the ones set in the summer are fall/winter-y books (in a good way). The truest winter-y book, though, is The Dark is Rising. It’s set during Christmastime!
• A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I still need to read the last two or three books. I may have packed them already, though.

Do you have any particular books you like to read in the fall/winter months?

Weekly Book Stats

Books read this week:
130. Murder at the Vicarage – Agatha Christie [rating: 4] e
131. Agatha Christie: An Autobiography – Agatha Christie [rating: 4.5]
132. Boxer, Beetle – Ned Beauman [rating: 4] R
133. Fiction Ruined My Family – Jeanne Darst [rating: 4.5]
134. The Dollhouse Murders – Betty Ren Wright [rating: 2]
135. Offshore – Penelope Fitzgerald [rating: TBD]

Books reviewed this week:
119. Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination – Helen Fielding [rating: 4]
120. The Fashion in Shrouds – Margery Allingham [rating: 2]
122. Bridget Jones’ Diary – Helen Fielding [rating: 3.5] *
123. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason – Helen Fielding [rating: 3]

Books acquired this week:
None.

Currently reading:
I started reading Murder in the Making last night, and I’m so glad I read Agatha Christie’s memoirs before I started. Not that I think you HAVE to have read them before reading this book, only that it makes me feel really clever to read about how certain notebooks were found at insert address here and I remember the story of how she bought the house at that address, etc.

I’m still recovering from the readathon (which was a lot of fun, btw!) but I thought I’d better talk about my RIP Vi challenge reading, as it’s nearly the end of October and thus the end of the challenge.

So far? It’s gone pretty bad. I haven’t read any of the books on my original list, and though I’ve read several books that fit into the RIP Vi idea I still feel kind of bad for not actually reading the books I originally said I would.

Since it’s silly for feeling bad about what I haven’t read, I’ve decided to do another list, one with RIP VI-y books I have read.

1. Mister Creecher – Chris Priestley
2. The Letter, the Witch and the Ring – John Bellairs
3. The Boneshaker – Kate Milford
4. The Devil’s Elixir – ETA Hoffmann (although technically I’m still reading it)

I’d still like to read the books on my original RIP VI list, but I honestly don’t feel like doing so right now. I’ll just have to put them off for a little bit longer, I guess!

How’s your RIP VI reading going? Have you stuck to your original list of books, or have you gone in an entirely different direction?

Weekly Book Stats

Books read this week:
124. Magic Knight Rayearth vol. 1 – CLAMP [rating: 4]
125. Magic Knight Rayearth vol. 2 – CLAMP [rating: 3.5]
126. Magic Knight Rayearth vol. 3 – CLAMP [rating: 3.5]
127. The Boneshaker – Kate Milford [rating: 4.5]
128. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making – Catherynne M. Valente [rating: 5]
129. Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel – AB Sina [rating: 2]

Books reviewed this week:
105. Act of Will – A. J. Hartley [rating: 3] e
111. The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1 – PJ Haarsma [rating: 3.5] e
114. Someone Like You – Sarah Dessen [rating: 4]
118. The Apothecary – Maile Meloy [rating: 4] B

Books acquired this week:

• Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making by John Curran (publisher). Plus a tote bag for me to give away! Exciting!

Currently reading:
Now that I’ve got the Christie biography I really do need to hunker down and finish her autobiography. I’m planning on giving the bio (it’s an ARC) away with the tote bag, so I need to read that quickish! I’m also reading one of her mysteries at the moment.