“October should be a fun month,” I said. Hah! It certainly went a different way than I expected, but I didn’t let a little ol’ thing like medical incarceration keep me down. Despite or perhaps because of my near-two week stint locked up from my computer, I was able to make solid progress on the Classics Club, Mount Doom, and even did a couple of bonus science reads. I’d say I have excellent chances of meeting my hoped-for goal of reading 25 of 50 classics in year one of the Classics Club Strikes Back, making it much easier to do the full course in three years as intended.

Classics Club Strikes Back:
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Leo Tolstoy
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (mostly — to be finished)


Climbing Mount Doom:
Good Reasons for Bad Feelings, Randolph Nesse
Erasing Death, Sam Parnia
For all the Tea in China, Sarah Rose
The American Way of Eating, Tracie McMillian

Southern History and Literature
Natchez Burning, Greg Iles
The Five Capitals of Alabama, Tom Bailey

October theme: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Germans
Star Trek: The Enterprise War, John Jackson Miller
Star Trek Picard: The Dark Veil, James Swallow
Natchez Burning, Greg Iles

Didn’t Quite Make It:
I’d hoped to read Hitler’s Monsters and The Vampire Economy in time for the end of October — a perfect mix of German history and supernatural references — but I’m still working on one and haven’t even begun the first one properly. I’d also planned to read The Metamorphosis for Halloween, but wound up trying to watch The Little Shop of Horrors instead. I’ve yet to finish it because I fall asleep before “Audrey Jr” has been dispatched….or eaten everyone in the shop. Taking a day-long road trip to northern Alabama (nearly to the TN border) in search of autumn colors also consumed some reading time. The big loss was how little of my theme I was able to visit. I’d planned to hit my SF classics, plus add some videogame-themed novels, and add perhaps a book about the Sopranoes. The hospital sojourn, though, meant I mostly worked from my TBR stack and added some library books.

Noped Out
Mortal Fear, Greg Iles. A serial killer who sexually mutilates his victims. One chapter was enough of that.

November:
Marian and I will be doing a buddy read of The Great Gatesby in the first two weeks; it’s a re-read for both of us, but I haven’t read it since 2004 or so I don’t remember a thing. In the fourth week of November I intend to do a “Week with Jack” theme with three C.S. Lewis-related titles slotted, I’d meant to do that last year, but the only thing I read then was A Grief Observed.