How is everyone's reading going in this, the last month of December? Mine is going... it can go either way, I'm not gonna lie. I had one novella done (hooray), one DNF (boo) and having two reads on the go (one physical, one ebook - not my smartest move) and hoping to get a few audiobooks/podcasts under my belt before the end of the year. Plus, am doing Reindeer Readathon and, as it stands, I have completed one prompt (Prancer: Read a book that mentions a specific date or event in the synopsis) and, before you say it, I am not including DNFs in my prompts.
The library audiobook I quit at the 50ish% mark was the classic "Mrs Dalloway" by Virigina Woolf. It seems to always be on books that you should read before you die or a class that should be on your shelves (who decides whether a book is a classic? I've been wondering that a lot lately.) - but I've been curious on this title of Woolf's for years and I finally found the courage to dive in. My goodness, I should have known within the first listening session that this wasn't for me. You can tell Woolf has talent in her writings and her proses, but this style of writing of being a vapid stream of conscience thought and it feel like an echo chamber the amount of times sentences and phrases are repeated doesn't work. Plus, it was so slow (yes, I get it's a slow paced novel), but my goodness, nothing happened so AGES. I cut my loses (even though I know things were going to take a very dark turn at the end). I do want to try another of her works - am thinking "A Room of One's Own", but I'm going to be VERY wary now.
Maybe I need to accept the fact that classic fiction doesn't do it for me and I should to stick to much more modern titles...
Now, my beady little eyes are hoping that I will get time to read/audiobook a few titles to read as 2024 comes to a close and 2025 comes screaming at us. But let's touch on one of two.
The first is "Dark Matter" by Michelle Paver. This I am reading very slowly. It's not my main read but one I am casually reading (similar to what I did with Cassandra Clare's "Sword Catcher" and "When The World Tips Over" by Jandy Nelson). It's a ghost story that people have either recommended to me or have popped up on lists and I go "I must get my arse in gear and pick that up!". So, here I am, only two chapters in but enjoying myself hugely!
My other read (on my kindle) is "Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret" by Benjamin Steveson. This Christmas novella in the Ernest Cunningham series (the first being "Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone" and its sequel is "Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect") is me dipping my toe into the series as not sure what to expect here but this sounds like something that could be up my street. Only a few chapters in (at the time of writing this, just started chapter 6) so I shall report back on this one.
Oh, I heard that Audible has done an audio adaption of Agatha Christie's "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", starring Peter Dinklage as Poirot and Himesh Patel as Hasting. Plus, it’s less than 4 hours long as going to try and hammer that out this week. Let’s hope this is going to be a fun adaptation as I think I can get behind these two actors being Poirot and Hasting on audio!
Now, I said these are my main few to attack as 2024 comes to a close but, if I finish these quickly, I have other titles in mind (plus, I might try and do some polls on my Insta so keep your eye on them!) but we shall see. Anyway, will let you go: Happy reading!
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