Somewhat overdue, here’s May’s reading account. It was a frustrating month for me — I wanted to try reading in French more often, so I read Langelot et le sous-marin jaune (a young adult spy novel), but had forgotten that I read painfully slowly in my second language. It just went on and on. And then I accidentally read what turned out to be the last in a series (Against the Odds)… probably my fault that I didn’t enjoy that one. And then A Night to Remember was too big to cart around, which slowed it down — all in all I felt throughout May that I was just slogging through things and not really finishing anything.

And then at the end of the month I realised that I still read seventeen books — so really, what do I know?

Books Read: May 2013

01. Stranger Shores (J. M. Coetzee)
02. Bike Snob Abroad (Eben Weiss)
03. Langelot et le sous-marin jaune (Vladimir Volkoff alias Lieutenant X)
04. Inside Job (Connie Willis)
05. Bellweather (Connie Willis)
06. The Lions of Al-Rassan (Guy Gavriel Kay)
07. Letters to Karen (Charlie W. Shedd)
08. Room (Emma Donoghue)
09. A Night to Remember (Walter Lord)
10. Harry Potter and the Natural 20 (Sir Poley)
11. A Light in the Window (Jan Karon)
12. A Civil Campaign (Lois McMaster Bujold)
13. Arrow of God (Chinua Achebe)
14. Against the Odds (Elizabeth Moon)
15. Mirror Dance (Lois McMaster Bujold)
16. Clouds of Witness (Dorothy L. Sayers)
17. Black White and Jewish (Rebecca Walker)

Cumulative Stats for 2013

Total books read: 92

Average number of books read per month: 18.4

Fiction: 73
Non-fiction: 19

Books by male authors: 49
Books by female authors: 42
Books with joint male/female authorship: 1

Distinct male authors: 27
Distinct female authors: 22

Books by living authors: 82
Books by dead authors: 10

Books read for the first time: 41
Books read at least once before: 51

I’m looking forward to cracking 100 in June!