I am really enjoying my current book, What French Women Know, way way more than I was expecting and I want to tear through it like a dog eating homework. However, something is holding me back. That something is the fear of my next book. Because next, dear readers, I have some Faulkner. I have The Sound and the Fury. Now, I like Faulkner. In college I read As I Lay Dying for my American Modern Literature course and I LOVED it. I LOVED it. I was the only person in the class who thought it was absolutely the greatest. I was so excited about how messed up it was. Actually, just writing about it makes me want to go back and read it and see if it still stacks up. Now would be a great time, while I am still allowing myself little bits of grief here and there. My mother is a fish? The sound of decomposition? Yes, please!
But I know that not all Faulkner is like that. I know that I struggle with him. I know this will be hard. I also know that Oprah had it right. That’s right, I said it. Years ago, for her book club, Oprah had a summer of Faulkner and there is no better time to read Faulkner than the summer. I actually looked at when I’ve read Faulkner and I have one in May and one in July. As I Lay Dying is in March of 2013, which is wrong because I totally read that in like 2005. Anyway, Faulkner has the ability to make me both excited and scared when I think about reading him. This, I think, makes it some great literature.
Now! STATS!!
So far this year, I’ve read 43 books. Not a bad number. I broke it down into some categories and this is what I have:
(Note, some books hit a couple of categories.)
Horror: 18%
SciFi: 6%
Fantasy: 2%
Contemporary Fiction: 9%
Literary: 2%
Young Adult: 30%
Nonfiction: 20%
Poetry: 2%
Middle Grade: 16%
Graphic: 9%
Diverse Books: 18%
Books by Women: 53%
Something to chew on, at least!