The "Spring Reading" Tag

I recently saw that one of my favorite Booktubers, Mercedes (MercysBookishMusings), had published a video called the Spring Reading Tag.  You can watch her video here, as well as the one from the originator of the tag, Amy Jane Smith.  It started me thinking about my own springtime reading, and so I decided to take on the questions myself.

What books are you most excited to read over the next few months?

There are two books that I've pre-ordered, as they aren't released until early May here in the US, and I'm so excited for them!  The first is the latest installment in the Hogarth Shakespeare Series, Tracy Chevalier's retelling of Othello called New Boy.  In this story, a diplomat's son Osei (Othello) arrives in a new school and is an outcast, yet forms a relationship with a popular girl in the school named Dee (Desdemona).  Ian (Iago) is another student at the school, who can't stand the thought of Osei and Dee being together, and takes extreme measures to end the relationship

The second book I'm anxious and excited to read is David Sedaris' latest release, called Theft By Finding.  It is a collection of the author's diaries, journals, and other ephemera from 1977-2002.  I absolutely love reading these kind of books that live in the spaces between memoir and general non-fiction; I recently read Frantumaglia by Elena Ferrante and loved it, so I have high hopes for this book being a wonderful addition to the rest of my Sedaris collection.  He's so funny, and I can only hope that the funny isn't just in his finished products, but in the early writings too!

What book makes you most think of spring?

The sense of hope, peace, and renewal that are prevalent throughout One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes make it my choice for a book that evokes spring feelings.

 

 

 

 

The days are getting longer - what is the longest book you want to read this season?

There are a big bunch of doorstoppers that I have on my TBR as part of various reading challenges.  One of said challenges is to (re)read all of the 26 books in the Penguin Drop Caps series, which includes Middlemarch (912) and Moby-Dick (688).  I have also been meaning to get to Alan Moore's Jerusalem (1184), the omnibus His Dark Materials trilogy (1102) by Philip Pullman, and IQ84 (944) by Haruki Murakami. I would love to plow through all of these in 2017!

What books would you recommend to brighten someone's day?

 For someone who's down in the dumps or in need of cheering, I would immediately suggest three books: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson, Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichel, and Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.  Although they all have conflict and some dark moments, they are wholeheartedly uplifting and will make you smile at the characters' adventures and mishaps.

Spring brings new life in nature - what is a book that doesn't exist, but you wish did?

I didn't even have to think about this one.  I absolutely loved Marilynne Robinson's Gilead trilogy, and one character, whom we are introduced to in the book Home, is Jack Boughton.  The reader is given snippets and bits and pieces of his life, which goes against most of what his family and community expected of him.  He married a black women from the South, and are living a very bohemian and unconventional life thus far.  We don't really get much depth and detail of his story...I want that story!

Spring is a time of growth - how has your reading grown and changed over the years?

As my social and political awareness has grown, so has my reading.  In years' past, I would stick mostly to the classics of the Western Cannon, mostly reading authors who were male, white, and dead.  Now, I am much more interested in new releases, especially when those books are written by women of color and published by small, independent presses.  I look for diversity in the characters  and social justice throughout.  I've also broadened into stories told in unconventional ways or through non-traditional forms, like A Visit From the Goon Squad, and A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing.
Another way my reading has changed is that I am reading graphic novels/memoirs, and listening to audiobooks regularly.  I obtain most of these (especially the audiobooks, because they're so spendy) from my local library, but I will purchase some if I really, really love the story and would re-read it.  My absolute favorite graphic memoir is the March trilogy by Representative John Lewis, about his life growing up in the Jim Crow era in the American South, and becoming a leader in the Civil Rights movement.  One of my favorite audiobooks is Einstein's Dreams, written by Alan Lightman and narrated by Grover Gardner.  It's soothing and fascinating all at the same time - a fictional exploration of Albert Einstein's coming up with theories of relativity, time, and space.

We're a couple of months into the new year - how's your reading going?

I always set my Goodreads goal at 52 books, which would equate to 1 book read per week.  It's mid-late April, and I've read over 40 books so far.  I'll definitely exceed my reading goal, which is good, but I'm hoping to be successful in my reading challenges.  The first is the aforementioned "Penguin Drop Caps" challenge - I've only read three books so far, which isn't great.  I'm also participating in a "Book BINGO" challenge, where I have to read books in different categories on a BINGO-type card, and finish 5 in a row either across, down, or diagonally.  I'm happy to report that I've completed that challenge already!  My last reading challenge is to complete Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge.  I've completed about 65% of that so far, and I'm hoping to be 100% done by the end of July.  Here's hoping for much success and fulfillment in my reading throughout the rest of 2017!

Any plans you're looking forward to over the next few months?

I'm going to be in NYC next weekend, during which Independent Bookstore Day just so happens to fall, so I'm expecting to do a little bit of bookstore tourism and purchase some interesting books and bookish goodies.  Other than that, I plan to read and relax for the rest of springtime.



And that's it for the Spring Reading Tag.  If you're interested in answering these questions, consider yourself tagged!




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