Ah! May…..the fire breathing months on Indian plains, where the sun burns and earth scorches and you wonder if hell is like this! Joy! Naturally, so joyous a month will begin with something depressing and nasty and it did – to celebrate the May coming, the weather here turned nasty and between pollens and pollutants, my lungs practically gave away! I have spent the last two weeks in bed, trying to work from home for projects that will not wait and read on books that required little if any brain work! Needless to say I am completely and disastrously behind all my reading schedules!
I have not read a single page from Murder at Rue Morgue by Edgar Allen Poe for my April reading for the 12 Months Reading Challenge and here is May where I had committed to reading Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis for the theme of An American Classic. I have not turned a page in my Women’s Classical Literature Event cum Classic Club Spin 12 reading of Willa Cathar’s Death Comes to the Archbishop and I am not even getting started on how much I have to catch up on my Reading England Project or my epic read alongs like The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser and Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens! I am behind, behind and way far behind in all my reading plans! The plan for May is therefore to re-group and catch up! I am not starting any new book until I finish all my spill overs from March and April. I am not even going to start on Arrowsmith, till I have finished everything else. But there are exceptions and I am only human with absolutely no self control when it comes to books and this I have committed to read along with Cleo and Hamlette for Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, but the good part is that it does not start until the end of May, so I should have made some significant inroads to my overloaded pile. And knowing its May and it is the anniversary of The First War of Independence in India, I will for sure go back and read one of my most favorite and one of the best work of fiction based on the event – The Shadow of the Moon by the inimitable MM Kaye! Like I said I have enough and I mean ENOUGH to read on my plate and this one time I really really need to stick to the schedule!
Therefore I bid adieu and head back to plunge in the tottering pile of books! Hopefully I should find my reading rhythm again, but until I plough through the significant amount of that pile, I keep my post short and well, I cannot really do sweet!
Mockingbirds, Looking Glasses & Prejudices... 
I hope you feel better soon. 🙂
Thanks Deepika! I am much better and hopefully should be my usual chattering self soon!
I’m a wretched friend for not checking up on you in your sickness. I hope that you’re feeling back to normal. Isn’t it terrible when you feel so sick that you can’t read?
I have a bunch of The Lord of the Rings to catch up on, after actually getting myself ahead, so don’t worry. The Faerie Queens is much longer and difficult than anticipated, so I’ll probably be behind on that too. Jane Eyre is not distressing me though, because it will be such a slow read. I do want to start Herodotus soon and also Crime and Punishment, but neither are set reads so we’ll see how it goes. I’d love to read The Shadow of the Moon along with you …. Argh! How do I get more time? I have almost finished reading my biography ILLs but I have two more after that. So I’m in an overload situation just like you. The good news is that after July I have no reading plans (other than Tagore and Don Quixote) so I will at least be able to catch up. I hope …..
Okay, I’m off to read. Take care of yourself!
Oh! Cleo…don’t worry about it at all. You had a lot going on and taxes are enough to make one forget everything!!! The only thing about being so sick is you really cannot read, because your head is heavy and eyes are constantly watery! I am really really behind LOTR and Faerie Queene is a jaw breaker so that will take time. Jane Eyre is easy but I too need to get started on Histories! I would love to have you join me for the Shadow of the Moon…it is a very very easy read but a enriching one! Let me know if you join! Hopefully by June, I too would have cleared the reading backlog to take on more reading adventures! 😉
You make my mouth water with all those delicious books! I am like you with so many books I want to read and a tendency to over-commit and set too many reading goals for myself. Wishing you speedy yet soul-nourishing reading!
Sarah LOL…I am total glutton when it comes to book and don’t even get me started on everything I keep committing to reading …but I think thats part of the fun of being book obsessed! Thank You for you very apt wishes 😉 here’s wishing you happy summer reading as well!
Ack! Tis the season, I am behind on everything too. There just aren’t enough hours in the day and I value sleep too much to give any of that up!
Yes…sleep, social events and illness…where is the time to read? I need to hibernate for a while just to play catch up on all my books!