Update: 30 novellas read but have decided to postpone posting on the last three until I can give them their due. All exceptional reads - The Eternal Husband, The Dialogue of the Dogs and Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.
The stack on the left is the 30 novellas that I will complete and post on by Wednesday. My daughter just calculated that stack to represent 3,523 pages read in August. Of some pretty dense material as it turned out.
The stack in the middle is the seven volumes that will remain unread for a while.
The stack on the right is The Duel X5 to which I will turn my attention soon. Once I catch my breath.
Ultimately, I could have forced this to make it by the deadline but this is not the type of reading material to rush through. The Eternal Husband was the one that finally forced my admission of this. A marvelous read, and I was not going to deprive myself of its fineness by dashing through it. Ditto on today's Cervantes. And the Johnson that will be last for the month deserves more too.
While I do not typically read in the competitive quest for page or volume count, I do have to admit that my gray cells feel pretty good right now having forced themselves to focus upon challenging (for the most part) material at an accelerated pace. That required ignoring all manner of typical distractions most of which require plugging in. But I have a job. A family. A life. And as Nicole said, I do enjoy sleeping from time to time.
So I am happy with the 30. And grateful to all of you reading with me and cheering me along. Especially you Twitter friends. And of course to Melville House folks who supported my implausible scheme with humor and generosity. This is an amazing set of books give or take a volume here and there. Just too much excellence for a single month. For me. Still waiting to see if another reader makes it through.