Books Read :: January-February 2013

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I am doing another "year goal" this year, but I am not sure if I will meet it, as it is more books than I aimed for last year AND I haven't been reading as many books as usual. This is not for good reason: I am studying for the English Lit GREs and have been since the beginning of January. I take the test on April 20th, and after that I will be free to read as I please again. So, meanwhile, my accomplishments have been sparse in the reading department. I will share them with you below, though. Perhaps after the test, I will reinstate my previous method of entry with numbers and enthusiasm.

WHAT GHOSTS ARE HAUNTED BY by Brian Warfield
To help raise money for the great Turtleneck Press, Brian Warfield printed up this great little book of poems. He included, with my packages that came after my donation of "anything", an extra poem that hadn't been included in the book that I really liked. The poems in this short chapbook were oftentimes straight forward but odd. I liked the absurdity of them. They felt like they were written by a human. That might sound vague, so do let me clarify. Sometimes poems feel like they're written by writers or poets or seamstresses or scholars or presidents or professors. These poems felt like they were written by a human, and I appreciated that.

EVERYBODY SEES THE ANTS by A.S. King
We read this for book club. It was okay. The story was okay, the characters were okay. It was easy to read and intrigued me, but it was written, ah, how do I say, below my level. A teenager who is a good reader and appreciates narrative over style would probably appreciate this way more than I did. It was fine, it just didn't affect me much.

Yeah, really, that was it. Two books. See what I mean about studying for that test? I am doing a little better in March so far, reading up on some classics!

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