Legend:
☆ – Bad
☆☆ – Okay / Not too bad
☆☆☆ – Good / Average
☆☆☆☆ – Great
☆☆☆☆☆ – Amazing
Half stars can also be given.
February – 12.25 pages per day
Audition by Ryu Murakami – ☆☆☆ 1/2
To be honest, when Mrs. Hunnisett started reading the synopsis of the book, it didn’t peak my interest much. However, when she was nearing the end, I had become intrigued by the part saying it was a thriller and describe the girl “takes off her angelic mask”. I then eagerly signed the book out and started reading it the next class. It was quite a bit different than what I expected, but it wasn’t too drastic of a change. Most of the book was about Aoyama meeting Asami and the two of them falling in love. I got bored about 50 pages in, but I continued reading for the ending. Just over halfway through chapter 10, page 156, is when the story started actually started to make a sharp turn towards the climax. I finally started to get more interested by the mysteriousness of Asami’s note she left behind when she went into hiding, and I knew that the book was going to end on an intense note. The last couple chapters were extremely morbid, violent and messed the hell up, but it made up for the long delay. The ending, for me, actually increased the rating by a whole star. Without the ending, the book would have been about two and a half stars. Overall, the book wasn’t bad, but since romance isn’t really my thing, it wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever read.
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie – ☆☆☆☆
I haven’t finished the book yet, since I stopped reading it about two chapters in to read Audition, but I’m now at chapter 10, which is on page 153. I really like how this book takes a different approach to short stories rather than ordinary short story books. This book actually has a plot to it, where six people meet up every Tuesday and tell each other a crime that they personally experienced or heard about that the others have to solve. The crimes have all been very unique and the solutions don’t have a simple answer, much like Christie’s other books. I really like mystery books that make you wonder and think about the solution. which is what almost every of her books do.
Reading Goals
In March, I hope to read more than I did in February, and try reading different styles of books rather than sticking to what I’m used to. Since I didn’t read very much, I didn’t end up getting a very high number for my word count. I also would like to read faster to increase the word count.
March – 6.8 pages per day
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie – ☆☆☆☆
I continued to read this book in March, but because of spring break, I didn’t end up finishing it and I only read 210 pages of the book during the beginning of the month. The book has gone off course a bit and instead of people sharing the crimes they’ve experienced, it has become more of a crime novel with a new crime Miss Marple needs to solve each chapter. The other five characters haven’t shown up since he novel changed course.
Reading Goals
I hope to actually raise my pages per day and finish the Agatha Christie book I am reading so I can start something new.
April – 5.2 pages per day
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie – ☆☆☆☆
I finally finished reading this book, and I enjoyed it a lot. It got a little boring at some parts, but a lot of the book was very interesting and the stories are very well written. Before I finished reading it, I reread some chapters to remember the story since I hadn’t remembered what was going on. I read from chapter 14 to the end of the novel.
Reading Goals
I plan to start reading more after school and spending more of my free time reading. I also want to increase my words per day.
May (31 Days) – 12.9 pages per day
Paper Towns by John Green – ☆☆☆☆
I first read this book in grade 7 and I forgot a lot about it. I decided to re-read it after doing our writer’s seminar, and I enjoyed it a lot. The plot is very different than a lot of teen romance plots and I found it interesting that the couple didn’t end up together in the end. There were a couple slow parts, but I think that it was needed throughout the book to even it out with a lot of the action.
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green – ☆☆☆
After doing our writer’s seminar and reading Paper Towns again, I decided to read a John Green book that I hadn’t read before. I only got 95 pages in, but it wasn’t too bad. I understood most of the plot, but the one thing I didn’t understand was the theorem thing. There wasn’t too much of an explanation that I remember reading, but it was brought up quite a bit, so I was confused about it. Other than that, it wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst.
