April: I Get My Back Into My Reading

What a great reading month!  13 books!  Almost 14, but those last few chapters of East of Eden spilled over into the wee hours of May 1.

I'd like to thank the Readathon and Korean transportation and the couch in my living room.  After a couple of months, it finally sunk in that *yes*, I had a couch again for the first time since 2004.  Since then, we've been almost inseparable and I've been able to move mountains...of books. I would be remiss in not thanking both work for its late-morning and early-afternoon starts and the beautiful weather that has allowed me time to dawdle and read at the campus coffee-and-waffle stand.

I also came up with a new name for this blog:  Blue-Hearted Bookworm.  It's a reference to my tattoo and a nod to Hemingway's story "Big Two-Hearted River" and kind of a twitchy half-nod at "The Gold-Hatted Lover" which is part of the poem at the beginning of The Great Gatsby.  It also sounds like an alt-country song title, which is not a bad thing at all.

Yeah, April was productive.  Maybe I will make it to 113 books this year.  The list is below.  I have things to say about these books.  I can't get those things out right now, but I will soon.

1. American Splendor:  Our Movie Year - Harvey Pekar.
2. 11/22/63 - Stephen King.
3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky.
4. Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark - Brian Kellow.
5. In This House of Brede - Rumer Godden.
6. The Higher Power of Lucky - Susan Patron.
7. Shadow of a Bull - Maia Wojciechowska.
8. It's Like This, Cat - Emily Cheney Neville.
9. Shane - Jack Schaeffer.
10. The Winter of Our Discontent - John Steinbeck.
11. The Fran Lebowitz Reader - Fran Lebowitz.
12. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything - Christopher Hitchens.
13. Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters - John Steinbeck.