Despite being very busy with coursework for university, July was a great reading month for me. Twelve books might not be a lot to most bloggers, but for me it is one of the highest number of books I’ve read in a month this year. Of course, 4 of the books I read were Young Adult, which always means I read them a little faster than an average fiction book for adults, but I also did a fair number of “heavier” works like Dante and Swift. I still need to write review for a few of these books and I hope to catch up somewhere in the upcoming weeks.
- Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
- Shiver – Maggie Stiefvater
- The Inferno – Dante
- Marked – P.C. and Kristin Cast
- Betrayed – P.C. and Kristin Cast
- Ballet Shoes – Noel Streatfeild
- Prep – Curtis Sittenfeld
- Wicked Lovely – Melissa Marr
- Eating Animals – Jonathan Safran Foer
- A Personal Matter – Kenzaburo Oe
- The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – Alan Bradley
- Brooklyn – Colm Tóibín
As for August, I cannot say I have much reading planned. I’m trying to enjoy my spare time, having finally finished my last essays for this school year. I do need to visit the archives for a few days, but at least I do not have the pressure of essay writing anymore. I won’t be able to go on holiday anywhere since I’m bound to my house because of driving lessons all summer. However, I do feel a need to take a break which is why I’m not joining in on any planned reading this month. I might join Allie’s read along of The Tempest, but what I’d really like to do this month is focus on my TBR pile, picking up any book that catches my eye. This probably means a lot of contemporary fiction, since I don’t feel like committing to a classic right now. But who knows, maybe I’ll feel differently by the end of the month?
Wow, to say you’ve had a busy month you have ceraintly managed to get a lot of good books in!
Can’t wait to see what you think about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – that is coming up on my list soon and I have heard good things (Nymeth and Chasing Bawa to name two).
Here’s to great August reading!
Looks good – when I was doing my degrees I never really had much time to read (another reason I’ll never do a PHD!)
Well done, Iris! You definitely had a productive reading month.
Nice not to have planned reading and to be able to choose whatever you want! Some great books read in July, including some fun YA titles I see
12 books is amazing! Well done. And have fun in August choosing what to read at a whim. Sounds luxurious.
12 books is more than I’ve ever read in a month. Looks like a great month.
You read all that even with school? Good job!
You had a great month. I have had Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie for such a long time. I ran to get it when it was getting raves everywhere and still haven’t read it.
You had a great reading month and I enjoyed your reviews so much! For August I have a stack of books I want to read, but I also just want to enjoy my last few weeks of freedom before school starts again.
Oh, wow, Dante. He was assigned to us for school, and even then I, uh, got devious with the requirement. :] That’s an awesome July, and hurray to being random for August. I don’t know yet what I plan for this month, but I do know I’m going to need to chill, on account of new job leeching reading time. Anyhoo, here’s to August!
Wow! 12 books!! I haven’t been able to read as much as I thought in recent weeks, so I think I only hit 8 or 9 in July. I figure anything over 7 is a good month these days.
My brain just can’t process all these classics as fast!
I do hope you join in! I was read the first act last night and I have to say, this play seems to move a little more than some of his others. I was surprised. It also seems quite a bit shorter.
See me trying to convince you? 
you manage to read more than me last month ,i did enjoy oe a different books
12 books are a lot! That approximates to 2 a week AND it includes Dante’s Inferno so great going! Good luck with the driving lessons and have a great summer. I hate to say though, your trips to the archive sounds like a bit of fun.
12 books in a month! That’s so beyond my ken I might has to stop coming here as it will just feed my inferiority complex.
However, I enjoy visiting you too much to let a little thing like my ego stop me. Well done.
Hey, what did you think of Wicked Lovely?
I enjoyed it a lot and I’m hoping to read the other books in the series soon. I still have to write a review of it. What did you think of Wicked Lovely?