I don’t usually mind February, in spite of being a singleton in a month devoted to love and couples. I also don’t mind its being in the midst of winter. But this February was lousy thanks to back to back colds. I had a cold in the last week of January/first week of February, and the cough lingered until I caught another cold last week. *sighs*

But I managed to get a few things done. I bought a couch and reorganized the furniture in my living room and bedroom, and I finished off a photo album I’d been working on since January. That’s about all I did for photography, though. Except for the pictures I put together for my Bookstagram feed, I hardly photographed a thing. I wanted to. We had several snowstorms and a minor ice storm at the end of the month. But while everything was sparkly and beautiful, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I hope March proves to be a healthier month for me.

I managed to read ten books in February, though fewer of them count toward my Read the World challenge than I would have liked.

1. My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues by Pamela Paul
2. The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking
3. The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
4. The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad
5. Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold, narrated by Grover Gardner
6. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
7. Seeing Red by Lina Meruane
8. The Blue Sky by Galsan Tschinag
9. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold, narrated by Grover Gardner
10. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

 

I read five books for my Read the World challenge. Because I need to read an average of six and a half books each month to finish 75 this year, it puts me behind schedule. I’m not going to worry about it too much, though. I have three books on the docket to start out March, and I have plenty over on my shelf that are still waiting for me.

Read the World challenge:

1. The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad, Pakistan
2. Seeing Red by Lina Meruane, Chile
3. The Blue Sky by Galsan Tschinag, Mongolia
4. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, China
5. The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking, Denmark

Of the ten books I read, five of them were written by women, which is more than I thought. So my goal to read more books by women is still going strong!

I’m in the midst of three books at the moment. A physical book, an audiobook, and an ebook:

1. Now I Rise by Kiersten White, narrated by Fiona Hardingham
2. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
3. Poetry Will Save Your Life by Jill Bialosky

I bought a total of one book in February- Poetry Will Save Your Life– crazy! I usually buy at least a few books every month. I guess being ill dampens my desire to buy books as much as it does reading them.

I plan to start out March by finishing my three current reads, and then get started on Rajaa Alsanea’s Girls of Riyadh, Tan Twan Eng’s The Garden of the Evening Mists, and Samrat Upadhyay’s Arresting God in Kathmandu. The first two are library books, so I have a deadline with them. I’ve been intending to read Arresting God in Kathmandu since the beginning of the year, so I’m going to make a concerted effort to read it in March. As for other books, I’m not sure what I’ll read. I want to listen to more of the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold, and I’m going to see what else Fiona Hardingham has narrated because her voice is fantastic. She does male voices without trying to drop her voice to a lower octave. Instead, she puts an edge into it, which gives her alto voice a masculine feeling. All she needs to do is narrate a book with Benedict Cumberbatch, and I’d be in audio heaven!