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| "Welcome to the Jan. 2010 Review" -Charles u-coeditor |
Blog Notes for January 2010
January was a good blogging month for me. It seems the longer I am a book blogger the more it means to me but I understand why some burn out on it and take breaks. (The notes below are in large part so I will have a reference on what happened in my blog when I look back.)
In January the most visited old post on my blog was:
Living With the Enemy: A Diary of the Japanese Occupation of Manila by Pacita Jacinto. I discovered the book is required reading in Freshman English at a number of colleges here in the Philippines.
My most viewed new post for the month of January was:
"Thank You M'am" by Langston Hughes. This post is only five days old and I expect it to enter the "top ten" list soon (out of 430 posts to date). I am assuming most of the traffic is driven from school reading assignments.
My most read post of all time continues to be on "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield.
The blog had a new high in readership for the month. About 48 percent of readers were from the USA and the rest were from all over the world. I am happy to have any and all visitors. I know many visitors are students looking for homework help on a novel or short story. I am most thankful to those who take the time and trouble to comment on my posts.
Reading Notes for January 2010
Novels
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov -great book-some canon lists already include it-
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez-a very good book-might be over hyped
- The Belly of Paris by Emile Zola-very much worth reading
- Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima -brilliant work-I will be reading more of his work in 2011
- In Pursuit by Joanne FitzPatrick -a very good novel based on the life of Katherine Mansfield
- The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf-VW's first novel-read on line via Dailylit.com
Short Stories
I read and posted on 26 short stories in January. Almost all of them can be read online.
The top five short stories (selected only from new to the blog writers) were
- "Babylon Revisited" by F Scott Fitzgerald 1930-beautiful story
- "The Farthest Edge of the Island" by Shimao Toshio 1956-WWII story
- "Why I Live at the P. O." by Eudora Welty-my first of her works-loved it
- "Runaway" by Alice Munro-I hope to read seven more of her stories by mid-year
- "Thank You, M'am" by Langston Hughes-an iconic cultural figure
In February I will pass the two hundred short stories posted on mark. I might do an over view post on short stories and The Reading Life then.
As always please leave any comments or suggestions you may have.
Mel u
As always please leave any comments or suggestions you may have.
Mel u
7 comments:
January was a GREAT blogging month for you! I'm glad you added another photo to your header.
Suko-thanks as always
I am overwhelmed by the number of short stories you've read-you're almost at 200! That's so impressive. Hope February is just as good a month as January (or better!)
Looks like you had a great January! I'm so glad you posted on The Philanthropist and the Happy Cat. I really enjoyed it, and I probably would never have read it if you didn't post about it. I'm really looking forward to your February posts. :)
I like to read 1, 2 and 4 at some point. Looks like a good January for you, same numbers of books read as I did, 6! :)
Congrats on a great month of reading! I'm glad you liked Alice Munro as she's such a unique Canadian writer. I suggest, if you haven't already read it, is try The Bear Came Over the Mountain, a great short story of hers.
Mel u -
I loved Lolita... read it at the end of last year and think it was amazing. It is at the top of my list of all time favorites. I listened to it in audio and have yet to attempt the review.
I keep trying to guess who is who in your collage. I only recognize a few of the authors. Do you have a listing of who they are?
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