December-January Reads

This entry is part 1 of 9 in the series 2024-Reads

A new year, a new reading list. This one’s for books I read in 2024. As always, the posts come at some delay after reading. I’m also going to go with shorter posts responding to multiple books from now on, which might give me a little more time to, uh, read.  Oh, one more thing: I’ve recently (as of last November) joined a book club. Normally I’m ambivalent about book clubs and wouldn’t join one, but a friend invited me and the book list is interesting enough to make me give it a shot. Some of my readings will be …

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February Reads

This entry is part 2 of 9 in the series 2024-Reads

This is the second in a series of posts about books I’ve read in 2024. Some of them are book club books, most of them not. Being in a book club has been helpful for me in widening my reading a little, but getting into the habit is something I’d attribute more to just pushing gently until the habit came back somewhat. The other issue is time, and I’m taking steps with work to moderate (i.e. eliminate) time spent grading work as much as possible, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep it up once the semester starts in March. 

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March Reads (2024)

This entry is part 3 of 9 in the series 2024-Reads

This is the third in a series of posts about books I’ve read in 2024, covering the month of March. As always, the beginning of semester is a busy time and I get less reading done, but even more, I started some books that I’m still working on finishing in April… but I prefer to only mention books when I finish them, so they won’t get blogged about till the end of this month (at the soonest). 

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May–June Reads (2024)

This entry is part 5 of 9 in the series 2024-Reads

This is the fourth in a series of posts about books I’ve read in 2024.  May was rough for reading, due to a crazy work schedule, a crazy translation schedule, and a heavy practice schedule, so I didn’t really get much reading done that month—or, rather, I finished relatively little in May, though I had several books on the go. Therefore, I’m posting about May and June together in a single entry here. 

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July-August Reads (2024)

This entry is part 6 of 9 in the series 2024-Reads

July was something of a slow month for reading, since I was teaching as summer intensive course and working with my wife on a book-length translation project. That said, I did finish a few books I’d had on the go for a while, and launched into some new ones in August.  August wasn’t exactly slow, but I read less than I’d thought I might. 

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November–December Reads

This entry is part 8 of 9 in the series 2024-Reads

  Well, here’s the last installment of my 2024 reads. November was a hectic month, so I read less than I’d like—sick kid, couple of translation deadlines—but I still read a fair number of books. I’ll be posting an overview of my favorites from the year in a post in January 2025, but for now, I’ll just cover what I read in the past couple of months.  I read Roald Dahl‘s Fantastic Mr. Fox to my son. It’s a fun read, even if it does have its nasty moments. The (alcoholic!) rat in the Bean’s Secret Cider Cellar is a …

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Reading in 2024

This entry is part 9 of 9 in the series 2024-Reads

You can see what I read last year—well, most of it—in the header image. I count a total of approximately 48 books. (I don’t think I missed any, but I’m not counting the Dragon Masters books that I read to my son. I am counting the Judy Blume and Roald Dahl books, though, since I actually had fun reading them. Dragon Masters, I mostly just enjoy vicariously through my son’s reactions.)    For me, the standouts were:  Nonfiction, Biographical: This one’s a toss-up between Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, which I found a rather moving and troubling look at …

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