Summer reading — update

So, in an effort to tick off some of the books on my mental list of “things I should read”, I gave myself a summer reading challenge — get all the pictured books read, and therefore out of the pile by the bed (except the dictionary, of course — that’s a permanent fixture).

Summer’s done, so here’s how I went, from left (strikeouts indicate books that are no longer in the pile by the bed, half-strikes are things I’ve started but not finished):

• The Lawn: A Social History 
• Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings
• Housewife Superstar: The Very Best of Marjorie Bligh  That one’s psuedo-reviewed here for the Australian Women Writers challenge
• The Elements of F**ing Style (ironically, I didn’t think this was well written. Some of the “which”s should have been “that”s, their examples weren’t always as illustrative as they could have been, and I disagreed with some of their punctuation, particular their comma usage. I also found the Americanisms irritating, given that this book is supposed to help people write — it must just be to help Americans write)
• The Old Kingdom Chronicles (I have struck this off the list, not because I finished it, but because, 80 pages in, I chose to return it to the library with no intention of ever finishing it. Everything annoyed me about this book — the writing, the characters, the structure, the storyline. It just wasn’t for me.)
• American Gods (Have started, but nowhere near finished) 
• The House of Silk
• The Year of the Flood
• Best New Zombie Tales: Vol 2 (I only have about two or three stories to go, but I had to have a break. You can have too much of a good thing and these weren’t all good things)
• The History Wars
• Silver Birch, Blood Moon 
• The Great Feminist Denial (nearly finished, but not there yet)
• Nice Girls Don’t Get It (I’m not sure I can actually bear to read this. Pop-psychology and gross generalisations aren’t really my thing. Ah well.)
• Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism

So, I failed my own challenge; but in my defense, I sneakily read The Riddle, A Question of Death and Dearly, Departed during the period as well, even though they weren’t on the list. Its the sort of thing I do when when I try to be strict with myself for no reason. Ah, well.