March was filled with more books than I expected, but not more reading. I listened to one audio book while traveling (I liked the listening, but audio books are long!) and read one slowly aloud to my daughter (I can’t wait until she can someday read it to me!). I’m still kind of feeling burned out from all of that reading last year, which I hope wears off soon.
I’ve thought about going on a reading fast to help cure it. A few years ago when I worked my way through The Artist’s Way, I fasted reading and television for one week. It was so long ago that I can’t really remember how it affected me. But this year I haven’t felt that excitement that usually accompanies a new book. I’ve been slogging through, reading just because it’s something that I do, not because it’s something I really want to do. I’d like to figure out a way to push through that, but I’m wondering if I should just stop pushing for awhile. I’ll let you know.
In the meantime, here are the books of March:
Where’d You Go Burnadette by Maria Semple | I listened to this when I drove to visit a friend early in the month. It took a while to get the hang of listening to it because the characters wrote emails back and forth, so I had to pay attention to who the “I” was in each section because it changed. However, the woman who read the audio book did an amazingly good job with characters’ voices and “acting” out each scene. I kept thinking to myself how talented she is. But, as far as plot, this book wasn’t that interesting. A series of misunderstandings and strange occurrences causes the mother, Burnadette, to disappear. Her daughter tries to figure out where she is and what happened. It was light and sometimes funny, but I didn’t really like it all that much.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón | This was March’s book club pick. As a boy, Daniel finds a book and is determined to learn more about the author, whose entire body of work has been incinerated. The mystery takes an awfully long time to unravel and the story within it is much more interesting than the one Ruiz Zafón chose to tell. And the ending was cheesy.
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White | This was the second time I read this aloud to Lily. She loved hearing about the farm and was so sad when Charlotte died (sorry if I spoiled it for you). I can’t wait to read it again in another couple of years when she gets to read it to me (!!!).
French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon | This was by far the best book I read last month. The author moves her family to her French husband’s hometown for a year to experience the culture and decide if they’d like to stay for the long term. She is (for lack of a better word) assaulted by the French approach to eating and tries to figure out how to get her Canadian kids (and herself) to assimilate. I had a few takeaways from this about snacking and eating together as a family, but I don’t think trying to adopt the French way of eating is realistic in North America. However, it sure was interesting to read about it.
*As part of my list of 33 things to do before I turn 34, I plan to read 33 books. This month makes 19/33.
I’ve had Where’d You Go, Bernadette on my TBR list for a while and The Shadow of the Wind is actually on my bookcase waiting to be read, so I both disappointed to hear you didn’t enjoy them and relieved that I now have more time to move on to better reads. My fun book club just finished The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, which you might enjoy. My serious book club just finished The Painter by Peter Heller and I didn’t enjoy that AT ALL. I compared it to Deliverance, if that tells you anything. But no pig squealing scene.