March was not a good month for finishing books. Well, it was’t bad, just not as productive as I had hoped it would be. Of all the books I mentioned reading and planning on reading soon in my March book chat post I finished four of them. But then I did manage to slip in several gardening books that weren’t even on my radar at the time of the post. Still, I feel a bit mired. I am reading a bunch of great books and enjoying them all but it seems they are all long and/or slow reading (in a good way).

So what do I have on the go?

In my NYRB Classics subscription reading I am very close to being at the end of An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman. It is only 114 pages when the notes and photos are excluded but it is not a fast read. Grossman writes so beautifully I don’t want to read it quickly. I even find myself rereading passages just because they are so marvelous. I have 20 pages left and it will take me at least a day or two to read them. After that, it is March’s NYRB book, Pitch Dark by Renata Adler. I am very much looking forward to this unusual sounding novel.

I am also still reading The Collected Poems of Marcel Proust. I have an April 23rd deadline for these because I signed up to be a stop on Serena’s poetry month blog tour. There are 104 poems and the pages of notes providing context for each poem are often longer than the poem itself. It’s not bad, but it does get tiring.

I am making my way slowly through One Green Field by Edward Thomas. The book is just over 100 pages with each “chapter” usually about 2-5 pages long. I only read one chapter and then put the book down. His descriptions and writing are so lush and rich I can’t read more than a small bite at a time. I borrowed The Collected Poems of Edward Thomas from the library hoping I would have time to enjoy some of his poetry too but sadly the time has not materialized. Maybe soon.

I am still making my way through Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector by Benjamin Moser. The book is incredibly detailed and Lispector a fascinating woman. But all the detail, wonderful as it is, does not make for quick reading. After about 30 minutes to an hour my brain begins to sizzle with information overload.

I have information overload issues with How We Became Posthuman by N. Katherine Hales too. This is a dense book that forces one to pay close attention. I think I am going to count it among my science books by women because while its topics include literature it is about information theory and computer science at its heart.

I am reading something light too: A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. It is the third book in the series. I am reading it on my Kindle which is difficult because it means I am reading it in short bursts while commuting to and from work and during my lunch break. I have lost track of how many times I have almost missed my stop because I was absorbed in the book. And thank goodness my coworkers don’t pester me about being a little late now and then returning from my lunch break. Just one more paragraph! I am at about the halfway mark and enjoying the book immensely.

In the gate and waiting for their turn is To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism by Evgeny Morozov. The book “Argues that technology is changing the way we understand human society and discusses how the disciplines of politics, culture, public debate, morality, and humanism will be affected when responsibility for them is delegated to technology.” Sounds interesting, yes? Also in the wings is Virtual Love by Andrew Blackman. It is a novel “about the identity that people project about themselves in the social media world and the real life identity that we all cannot escape from.” Given the Hales book I am in the middle of and the other book in waiting I just mentioned, Virtual Love seems like the perfect novel companion to the nonfiction.

Of course I have several other books in progress that I am dipping into now and then but not enough for me to add them to the actively reading chat. And of course I have a bunch of books I want to start reading right now. But I think I will try and stick with what I just told you about as best I can. No promises though that something might not sneak in. I am in line for a bunch of books at the library and we all know how books on long holds list all seem to become available at the same time.