March Photo Challenge: Currently Reading

I am struggling to keep up with my Goodreads Challenge this year guys. Phew! Last year, I was zooming ahead of the curve, so I set my bar to 200, which is a little below what I read in 2014, and I’m barely keeping up with it.

But, this year, while I’m putting my number at the same level, I raised the bar on what I am reading. I’ve introduced a “Study Book” chapter every day, and I’m also reading a short story every day as well. And those are on top of my normal entertainment reads! So, I should cut myself some slack, right? Nope lol. I never do that. No slack here.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve got going right now. I also just started Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea on audiobook, for when I’m doing chores and things, but that’ll take awhile.

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The Metamorphosis

Every once in a while I will read something that leaves me blinking. “What the fuck did I just read?!”

Metamorphosis is one of those stories. I wasn’t prepared for it, either. Kafka’s “masterpiece” was smack dab in the middle of the short story collection I’m working through, and I got to it right before vacation.

If you haven’t read Kafka’s Metamorphosis yet–be prepared for wacky. I’m not sure if he was dreaming, or just stoned out of his ever loving mind. The main character is a guy that wakes up as a dung beetle.

Yes. You read that correctly.

A dung beetle.

His family basically closets him away, takes on boarders to cover the salary he made, and goes on feeding and caring for him. Um, hello? You have a giant cockroach living in your house, and you just go on assuming it is your brother. Okkkkkkkk……

 

As you can guess, I wasn’t a fan of this one. Yuck.

72HR Read-A-Thon | TBR List & Reading Goals

The Lovely Sara over at Trees of Reverie is hosting a readathon this weekend, just in time for the 24 hour Readathon Day tomorrow. I’ve got a lot to do this weekend to get ready for our vacation, along with 3 hours of yoga (!!!!), but there’s going to be plenty of reading in there too.

I haven’t set a page goal, because I have so much going on, but I’d like to get through at least 2 books, maybe three, along with the normal shorts that I read on Fridays. Here’s what’s on the list:

My normal reading from James Joyce Dubliners and Short Story Fiction that I have planned today.

Books on the upcoming list:

Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

 

I’ll also be doing the Daily Bookish Challenges that Sara posts, and I’ll probably be reading in some of the sprints that Becki posts too. You can always follow along on Twitter and Tumblr, you know I’m always active on those two sites during these events! Tomorrow is going to be a big reading day for the whole Booklr community, I can’t wait!

Short Story

I just read the most interesting short story, and one that took me completely by surprise.

John Cheever’s “The Swimmer” starts off with a suburban man who, instead of driving or walking home, decides to swim home. Ok, not that abnormal…until you realize he’s going to frog hop through his neighbors’ pools!

Now, in modern day society, this would be absolutely crazy, right? We hardly know our next-door neighbors’ names anymore, let alone feel comfortable enough with them to just show up uninvited to swim. But, in the country club society that Neddy Merrill lived in, no one seemed to think this odd. They offered him drink after drink at their afternoon garden parties, hugged him, toasted to him, even acted offended as he hopped off to the next pool!

At least at first.

The farther across the county Neddy got, and the closer he got to home, the stranger things became. As long as he was distanced from his home, things were just dandy, joyous, fun. But life really started to circle the drain, so to speak, as he closed in on his own back yard.

This is one of those rare short stories that really reached out and grabbed me. It doesn’t happen often, but I wanted more. I want to know where his family is, I want to know what happened at the party the night before. So many questions!

If you get a chance, go read this story. I found it in Short Fiction:  Classic and Contemporary Sixth Edition by Charles Bohner and Lyman Grant.

 

For a real treat, you can even listen to Cheever’s read the work himself here. Thanks Catherine, for sharing this with me!

Short but Sweet

I’ve been reading a short story every afternoon. Most…I could do without. I’m not a huge fan of short stories, they are just too, well, short, to have enough of a plot to intrigue me.

But, every once in awhile I will hit a gem that is really beautiful, or important, or meaningful.

 

The most recent of these is “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver. He writes from the perspective of a husband whose wife invites an old friend of hers to come and stay with them–a blind man that she used to read to. The husband is NOT pleased about this. How is he supposed to interact with this person? Ugh. But, that interaction, as you would expect, turns out to be completely lovely, if a little awkward at first.

I’m finding these stories in a big textbook collection–Short Fiction:  Classic and Contemporary Sixth Edition by Charles Bohner and Lyman Grant

Trees of Reverie Readathon Wrapup

Welp, it’s been a fun two weeks. The September Readathon was a success in my opinion!

Here’s what I came out with:

2997 pages total

6 total books read + a few partials

Atlantia by Ally Condie

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Bird Box  by Josh Malerman

Winter’s Tale by Mark Hellprin

The Protector by Gennita Low

Short Fiction Classic and Contemporary: Sixth Edition

Aaron’s Rod by DH Lawrence

 

I also finished quite a few of the challenges! You can check those out HERE.