Welcome back to the world's most inconsistent monthly series—my wrap-ups! They should get more consistent now that I'm in school and reading is definitionally part of my job. Operative word is
should... Hopefully, they'll also be more interesting because I'll be exploring a wider range of books and texts as I keep expanding my knowledge, doing class readings, and picking up books for fun. I'm currently reading like twelve different things at the moment, and my brain is thriving being stretched in so many ways! I'm using it again! So needless to say, we're forcibly putting an end to the summer reading slump. This month started slow because I had my last week at work where I really prioritized hanging out with everyone and then I moved to an entirely new country and had to settle in, but the ending is promising. I'm also so excited about all the writing I've managed to do in the last week now that I'm no longer scrambling to buy enough household supplies to function and enough clothes to not re-wear the same pants every day. I also had to complete the first 3 school assignments in the same week because my name was at the start of the alphabet, so now I have more time with a big chunk of the coursework behind me!
I'm settling in well to life in Dublin. I think a little bit of the stress I'm shoving down is bubbling up in strange, physical ways, but I'm hoping reading and writing will help me work through that. It's so interesting to have these things I love now be the main academic, professional, and personal focuses of my life instead of just a hobby I squeeze in between other things. This is only the beginning, but I'm so excited. So let's dive in.
The Stats:
So it doesn't sound great on paper, but it feels great. I read four books in September. Which, considering I moved countries, and it's more books than I read some months this summer is a win. Also, while it's only 4 books, I've read innumerable essays and short stories and student work in the last three weeks. I've been reading constantly! I'm going to actually start talking more about all the short stories and essays I'm reading as well in these wrap-ups because I want credit! I'm also in the middle of two books at the moment, and 3 of the books from the grand total were read in the last week. Things are looking up, and October should be a promising month of reads.
As far as a breakdown, I finally finished
Disappoint Me, which I started on the plane and finished on the 22nd. It was a journey, but its memory is now forever entwined with late nights flipping through my Kindle in my dark dorm room first settling into Dublin. I'd been meaning to read that book for so long! I have one other lit fic novel on the list,
The Wardrobe Department, which I read in a handful of days. It was a random grab from the library. I've become quite acquainted with the place in the last week. They saved me by having a copy of
Tilt that I needed to thumb through for a school assignment when none of the bookshops had it in stock! I read the random library book in 3 or so days. Then there's
The Carpool Detectives, which my audiobook hold came in on, and I devoured it. In my teenage years, I was obsessed with true crime and then developed a deep aversion. This was the perfect distance to enjoy it from as it's about a group of women who tackle a true crime case on their own. Great audiobook. All I wanted to do was listen to it, which helped me get through all the admin tasks of moving. Then I got
Foster finished in a day because we did a Claire Keegan day in my Irish Short Story class. I'm currently in the middle of
Antarctica as well. That's a short one to pad out my struggle of a reading year. October, I hope, will be one of my better reading months yet, and I'm excited about spending most of December curled up with various books.
I read 17 short stories and essays this month that are an average of 20 or so pages each. Some of these were required for school, a few I chose to read myself as I'm trying to get increasingly familiar with the literary magazine scene. I'll give you a list of my favorites that I read for fun and my favorites I read for course work:
From School:
"Reasons to End Us (an aerial view)" by Tracey Slaughter
"A Manual for Cleaning Women" by Lucia Berlin (title story)
"How I Fell In Love with the Well-Documented Life of Alexander Wheelan" by Yan Ge
From Personal:
"In The Clinic" by Sally Rooney
"Victory Lap" by George Saunders (recommended by a classmate after I said I did not like the Saunders we read for class. This one was leagues better)
"The Virgin Suicides" by Harriet Armstrong (a new Granta piece!)
"Earl Hemingway" by Clement Gelly
Maybe I'll make a post one day where I get into reviewing short stories more or compiling different lists to help you get into the form if you're not super familiar. They'r such an under appreciated art in general reader circles, and I'd love to recommend some great ones! You can go wrong with dipping your toe in with any of these, and many of them are available to read on the web for free.
Writing:
I've written a new structure outline for my novel, the first three chapters of a new draft, and written three short stories. That feels like a huge win considering in the last two weeks I've gotten over my creative block that's been plaguing me for months. Since I finished that winter novel draft. I feel like I'm starting to settle in, and that's giving me space to be creative again. It's a wonder to get to spend the next year just being a writer, my whole profession. A gift. It's an immense amount of pressure, in a way, to make something of that. Not squander the privilege. That's been weighing on me. Which I should just be enjoying the time and doing the best I can to make progress, but my brain will do what it will do. I've been submitting to literary magazines again, trying to expand my reach.
I did get a few new pieces published over the summer, and if you're curious, you can find them all
here.
Checking In on Those January Goals:
Goal 1: Read 75 Books
There's still time! But I'm only 10 books off so this is looking pretty likely.
Goal 2: Try Out New Bookish Tracking Systems
I've kept up with Storygraph all year, so I'd say I'm getting this done.
Goal 3: Read 3 Classics
Almost there! I've got two down (Gatsby and Picture of Dorian Gray), and I'm working on Dubliners, so I should be there by the end of the year. I do need to get back to reading Dubliners more regularly. I was going to read one short story a night, but life got hectic.
Goal 4: Finish my physical TBR before I leave home and make a dent on my digital TBR
I failed this... Too late to fix it now, but I only left a couple books unread.
Goal 5: Enjoy UK Bookstores
Well, I moved to Ireland not London like I thought I would the first week of January, but I have achieved the spirit of this. So far I've been through Books Upstairs, Dubray (where I now have a loyalty card), Hodges Figgis, and the Secret Bookshop. And I've gone to one book launch so far. I'm heading to my second tonight after classes, actually.
All The September Blog Posts:
End of Summer Reading Check-In
Bitter Sweet review
Disappoint Me review
Post-Grad Back to School Supplies
The Wardrobe Department review
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