Read What I Own Month

Every once in awhile I put an embargo on myself when it comes to buying things to read. Most months its the same: one magazine (Mollie Makes - I wouldn't want to miss it) and no books. Other months, when the embargo is lifted, I can tend to go a little nuts with the book buying for the Kindle. Right now I have at least forty unread books on my machine. Ridiculous. Imagine if those were real books on a shelf. Good grief. Granted, a lot of them are free or less the three pounds. There are a lot of really good books out there for nothing or almost next to nothing. I never miss checking out the 99p Kindle Daily Deal; although I rarely buy them. They aren't really part of the embargo but I also really research any book meticulously, checking Amazon and Goodreads reviews before purchasing. I went from someone who was pretty leary about the whole Kindle thing to a slightly obsessive junkie.

Anyway, this is an embargo month. This month, though, I'm allowed one magazine and one book. The sequel to A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, comes out next week and I don't think I could wait until August to start reading it!

Here's what I have on my Read What I Own Shelf for this month.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

I bought this one awhile ago after seeing it at Waterstones. I started it but put it down after only a few chapters. Something about the way it's written annoys me a bit. I'm determined to finished it this month, though.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth.

I liked the first book, Divergent, so much that I preordered this one so that it would download at 12:01 am the day it was released. I read two pages and realized I'd read so many similar dystopian YA fiction that I couldn't entirely remember the first book...and I haven't picked it up since. This is another 'determined to finish'. I know it's going to be good. I think I just need to read the end of the first book again to get back into it.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.

This is - gasp - a paperback! Recommended by trusted sources: NPR and my friend Chris.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

Tiniest picture but probably the one I'm most looking forward to. I bought it with a gift card my parents gave me when they visited last month but haven't read it yet. I've been saving it for some reason. It's nice to have a good book to save* once in awhile even when you're not sure why or when you're saving it for.

I'm also reading Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter but I keep putting it down after a few pages. I like the story itself but the way it's written - regular text with interspersed bits of diary entries - is too distracting. I'm about halfway through and I still haven't gotten used to it. I like the idea of Lincoln as an ass-kicking vampire hunter, though.

So what are you reading? Have you ever imposed an embargo upon yourself (or am I totally a freak)?

*Useless bit of Emily History: when I was younger I wrote to John Updike. Twice. And he wrote back twice, too. Typewritten white postcards with his signature in blue. I don't remember why I started reading him but I loved his books and read almost all of them. I recently picked up a book of his short stories at my father-in-law's house, read the first story, and, sadly, kind of couldn't figure out why I liked him so much. Anyway, the second letter was about the book Brazil which I saved and read on vacation and he wrote back that he pleased I had chosen his book to save. Okay, kind of anticlimatic but it popped into my head when I said I was saving The Night Circus. And I always thought it was really nice that Mr. Updike took the time to write back to some teenager in Ohio.