January turned out to be a fabulous month for reading due to my own shameful writing inactivity and some truly depressing outdoor conditions that kept me from leaving ShelfStatusmy house.

Time for my monthly Shelf Status update!

  • Favorite Book of the Month : Alexander Hamilton
  • Least Favorite Book of the Month : Paddle Your Own Canoe
  • Favorite Highlight : “Hamilton always expressed himself frankly, no matter what the consequences.” From Alexander Hamilton, because that is essentially the thesis of the entire book and of the man’s entire life.
  • Everyone Should Read : Between the World and Me
  • Topic That I’m Now Obsessed With : 16th Century England. I’m about half-way through with Wolf Hall and it’s like everything I read about in college is just flooding back into my brain.
  • New (to me) Author I Want to Read More Of : Thomas Hardy. I most recently finished Tess of the D’Urbervilles, which was tragic as hell but really beautiful. I want to dig through some more of this work. I might be a masochist?
  • New (to me) Author I Think I’ll Skip From Now On : H.P. Lovecraft. I was just meh. I think I like the pop-culture appropriations of his mythology more than I like his actual writings.
  • Looking Forward To Reading : Sequels! Looking to start up the next Stormlight Archives book, Dune Messiah, and some more Discworld.
  • Reading Challenge Status : Looking really good! I’m far ahead on my year goal of 52, which might have been an underestimate. I read at least 2 Classics for the Pretty Books Challenge, I’ve got a handful of time periods under my belt and a bunch of locations too. And on top of that, I’m up to date on reviews! Success! We’ll see if this lasts all year! Let’s go motivation!


Full List of Books Completed

  1. The Color of Magic
  2. 1491
  3. Heart of Darkness
  4. Persepolis
  5. At the Mountains of Madness
  6. Alexander Hamilton
  7. The Way of Kings
  8. Between the World and Me
  9. Paddle Your Own Canoe
  10. A Contract With God
  11. Tess of the D’Urbervilles

How did your month of reading go? Have a book or quote you need to rave about? Let me know in the comments!