Reading post: Books from the pile by my nightstand, part 1

Well, Karen of the Classics Challenge has announced that she won't be running it this year -- I expected that, but I'm still sad. It's OK, though -- she may bring it back in 2024. This means I will spend 2023 reading books off my shelves, as I planned. Although it's definitely not as interesting as the Classics Challenge, I plan to write an update at the end of each month. Feel free to ignore these posts.

That said, with January over, I am ready for my first update. I had chosen five books from the pile to read in January, all of which I finished.

1. Windy City Dying by Eleanor Bland. A few years ago, when I was reading Black literature, I bought most of Bland's mysteries, and I hadn't read any in a while, so decided to read the next in the series. It was very good, one of the better entries, I thought. I'm keeping it for now, along with the rest of her books, so I've put it on a shelf in the mystery section.
   
2. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. I picked this up at Goodwill at some point. I think Trevor Noah is funny, so thought I would enjoy his memoir. I did like it, and I learned some things about South Africa. I don't feel the need to hang on to it, though, so it's in a box headed back to Goodwill (or maybe a little free library).
   
3. The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin. The third book in the Broken Earth trilogy -- I bought these new at the Boulder Bookstore a couple years ago and read the first two last year. The Stone Sky was very good, but of the three Broken Earth books I think the first one, The Fifth Season, was my favorite. I'm keeping all three -- they're now on the science fiction shelf in the kids' room (which we will revisit later this year, since there are several books on that shelf that I haven't read).
   
4. Waterland by Graham Swift. I had wanted to read this book because it's partly about eels, and it was referenced in The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson that I read in 2021 and really liked. So I found a copy of Waterland at I think the Bookworm, and kept it by my bed, waiting for the right time to read it. I was expecting to love it, but actually didn't. Not enough eels, really. And as I dragged myself through it, I kept thinking -- this reminds me of something I've read before, but I can't think what it is. He's not a very original author, is he, copying things that have been done before. Then I got to the scene with the teenagers at the river, daring each other to strip. I thought -- this is so familiar, he obviously copied it from some other novel that I've read but forgotten. And then I thought -- have I READ this before? So I went to the Google Sheet where a few years ago I started entering the 2300-plus books I've read since 1980, and I typed in "Graham." Here's a book by Graham Greene, and oh yes, here's Waterland by Graham Swift, read in October 1997. Huh. Sigh. Alzheimer's, here we come. I considered not finishing it, but decided that since my memories of it were so hazy, I might as well, so I did. I didn't love it, but I feel as though it's earned a place on my shelves -- in case I forget once again that I've read it already.
   
5. Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson. I've had this sitting around a LONG time -- not sure where it came from, maybe Goodwill or a library book sale. I've started to read it a few times and set it down, even though I enjoyed all of Atkinson's previous Jackson Brodie books. I didn't like the beginning, where the retired cop buys a child. It made me queasy. But this time I powered on through and I ended up liking the book a lot. Still, I'm not going to keep it. It's already in a box headed to Goodwill.
   

For February, I have picked out five more books from the pile by the nightstand (see photo). I thought I'd choose books by Black authors, since it's Black history month and all that, so four of them fall into that category, and then there's one by a Native American author. I'm also going to read the two early Barbara Pyms at the top left in the picture, because I read two Barbara Pyms every February, and I'm on the waiting list at the library for the book for the book group (The Forgery by Ave Barrera), and I've requested something else from the library just for fun, so that'll probably be it. I've decided to postpone my next presidential bio to March, since February is a short month and some of these are long books.

I realized, reading along this month, that books often sit in to-be-read piles for a long time FOR A REASON. They're long and daunting, or I read a few pages and don't like the beginning, or I think I ought to want to read them, but don't really. I'm sure many of them will turn out to be great (some already have), but most of these are not books I've been desperately wanting to read, they're books I've been wanting to put off reading. So this isn't going to be an easy reading year. However, I must keep reminding myself that I don't HAVE to read these books. If I work on one for a while and I'm not enjoying it, I can STOP and put it in the Goodwill box. I really can. We'll see how it goes.