February Books and Reading Summary and Roundup

I read sixteen books in February. These were (in the order I read them):

Between the Acts, by Virginia Woolf

The First Time We Saw Him, by Matt Mikalatos

Indian Killer, by Sherman Alexie

The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

Rebecca, by Daphne duMaurier

Parable of the Sower and Kindred, both by Octavia Butler

The Cancer Diaries, by Audre Lorde

These Old Shades, Devil's Cub, Regency Buck, An Infamous Army, Venetia, Frederica, The Grand Sophy, and Cotillion, all by Georgette Heyer.

Of these books:

4 were by authors of color; 12 were by white authors.

3 were by men; 13 were by women.

2 were nonfiction; 14 were fiction.

7 were hard copies; 9 were ebooks.

4 were re-reads; 12 were first-time reads.

1 was originally published in the 19th century, 14 in the 20th, and 1 in the 21st, with a date range of 1890 - 2014. 

I acquired fifteen books in February. From the bottom of the photo up, these were:

Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel

My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne duMaurier

Charity Girl and The Corinthian, both by Georgette Heyer

King, Queen, Knave, by Vladimir Nabokov

The Book Thief, by Zusak

The Labyrinth of Solitude, by Octavio Paz

Ravelstein, by Saul Bellow

Close Range, by Annie Proulx

Truth and Beauty, by Ann Patchett

Seven Last Words, by Terry Minchow-Proffitt

Devil in a Blue Dress and A Red Death, both by Walter Mosley

Thrones, Dominations, by Dorothy Sayers

(not pictured) Finding God in the Verbs, by Jennie Isbell and J. Brent Bill

Of these:
1 was a gift (Thanks, Terry!)
2 I bought new
5 were free (either in free piles or from BookMooch)
7 I bought used
2 are copies of work I have read but wanted to own; 13 are TBR books.




I culled thirteen books. 

Almost all of these (with two and a half exceptions) are read books (or books that one doesn't read cover to cover but that have a limited purpose — I have been to Shanghai and back and no longer need a city guide!) that I decided I no longer needed to hang onto. The two and a half exceptions are Great Books (I decided I was never going to read this), Voices of Vermont Nurses (a gift that I never had any desire to read but was hanging onto guiltily) and Winesburg, Ohio which I've read parts of but have never read straight through. Anyway I don't want it any more.

I'm not going to list these titles but if you see anything you want, let me know and I am happy to mail it to you!

General hopes and plans for March include:

A better balance of read vs acquired vs culled books! I only ended up with a net of two more physical books on my shelves . . . but the number of "to be read" books on my shelves increased by five (thirteen in; seven read; one culled). I suppose that's not too terrible, but since my goal is to read down my TBR pile by "shopping my shelves" . . . I'm not doing so hot. 

I plan to finally finish Ulysses (by Joyce, obviously) as well as Among the Believers (by V. S. Naipaul).

As much fun as it was to binge-read one author in February, I don't want to repeat that in March. Diversity!

Speaking of diversity, I still haven't hit my goal of reading 30% authors of color. 25% is pretty close . . . but no cigar. I could blame this on my Heyer binge-read, I suppose. Or I could just get back at it in March!

Do I have readers out there? Want to tell me about your February accomplishments and March goals? Please do!