My Goodreads reading challenge for 2021 is 60 books, which
makes it about 5 books a month. This is just about right to how much I can
read, and most importantly, to how much I want to read. But what's more
interesting is not the mere numbers, but my allotment of each month for a very
specific genre/area of books. For example, in January my reading genre was
'Contemporary Fiction', and for February it is 'Non-Fiction Science'. So, let's
have a look at what I read in January.
January Wrap Up:
Whenever I run out of doing things, I find myself bored in
my own company during my endless leisure time. As you might have guessed it, I
suffer from severe anxiety as well as depression from time to time. Yet
whenever things start happening in my life, which happen all at once (this
life!), I quickly become overwhelmed and start missing my solitude. January
started with a happening time and I struggled to find time to read, and once
the momentum was broken, I continued to struggle in reading peacefully, that
is, that I couldn't sit myself with a book in my hand for more than 10 minutes.
However, thanks to some great books, I did manage to read 6 books, 5 of which I
finished. Not that I'm into numbers, but an accounting of how many books I've
read is my quickest and easiest assessment of how my reading record was in that
particular month. Without much further ado, here are the books that I read in
January of 2021.
1. Dept. of Speculation by Jennie Offill
I absolutely adored this book. Offill's memoir was so
cleverly fragmented in its storytelling that what was seemingly told in bits,
eventually, presented a whole picture. The handpicked moments that Offill talks
about in this book are both ordinary, that it relates to its readers, and
extraordinary in how Offill writes about them. Her repeatingly quoting great
writers also resonated with me deeply, since I too am capable of remembering
quotes and their rightful authors, and love to quote them whenever and wherever
I can.
2: Now We Shall Entirely Be Free by Andrew Miller
This book has one of the most beautiful titles, and an
equally beautiful cover to go along with it. The lady on the cover has an
exhausted look on her downward tilting face with smoothly closed eyes; yet it
is a look, also, of calm and contentment, of having been through the worst and
looking forward to a pleasant time ahead. The book itself however wasn't as
pleasing. It's a historical novel about a captain who, after being injured and
his army defeated, resigns to islands to find peace. But being convicted of
murder and destroying a village, two other military men are sent to chase and
execute him. There some great passages in this often thrilling novel, but on
the whole it felt flat to me.
3: The Sea by John Banville
Oh, how literary! How beautiful! How magnificent! Banville's
prose in this novel is so near to perfect that the very reading of it was a
source of deep joy; add upon that a gently told story of loss and grief and
memory, and it becomes one of the great literary novels - one of my all time
favorites. It's the story of Morden Max, who revisits a village with his
daughter, where he used to come in his childhood. Having just lost his wife,
upon returning to this village, strong memories surface up to Max, and he
relives his whole past; an exercise of building perspectives about his
remorseful past and painful present.
4: Luster by Raven Leilani
This novel came to my attention after it appeared on some of
the 'best books of 2020' lists, but what propelled me to read it now was Eric
Anderson's, over at YouTube, review of it with 5 stars. But, it did not like
this book despite the hype and context of this novel. It's about a young
African American girl who starts and affair with a married man who is in an
open marriage contract. Soon enough, she finds herself in his house, talking to
his wife and their adopted daughter, another black girl. This novel is about
how young people of color live in modern day America, as well as, how marriage
and sexual relationships have become so indefinite. To me, however, this novel,
except its intimate scenes, felt insignificant and too contemporary.
5: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
I'm still in the middle of reading it, and most probably,
will finish this novel by the end of today. The narrator of this book is Enzo,
a dog; in the first-person, he describes his life with the professional racer
Denny, his wife Eve and their daughter Zoe. While the premise of this book
sounds damn fun, I'm having mixed thoughts about how it is actually been
executed. More in the full review.
6: The Meaning of Life by The School of Life
It's one of the short books that The School of Life organization publishes, which mostly focuses on how to live an emotionally aware and rich life through the help of philosophy, psychology, and emotional well-being. In this book, they shed light upon some of the sources of meaning and why they can help us live a more purposeful life; and they also discuss some of the reasons why we fail to find meaning in life. Being a student of The School of Life for about 4 years now, I highly recommend this book. Actually, it'll be on my 'essential reads' list if I ever make one.