my lovely reading of february

February Reading Wrap-up

I beat my 2023 February reading with 2,740 pages this past month.

I finished my reread of the Harry Potter series as well as completed my first reading of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child script.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany

I learned of the atrocities happening in the Congo for me to be able to type my thoughts out and others to read them in the next few days in Congo Red by Siddharth Kara.

I also learned that there were families that lived on Alcatraz island and some of what their lives were like in Alcatraz Bride by Ann Burrows Eib.

And I traveled to the past in various ways in the forms of a timeless classic, poetry, and a censorship pamphlet from 1978.

Book 1 of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Basho

February seems to be my month to tackle the biggest tomes that I can find on my shelf, it seems. Last year this month I began The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon and the year before that, it was A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.

This month I began my quest to defeat War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, a feat that I will conquer with every last breath in my body if that’s what it takes (half joking here). I bought this book a couple of years ago and consequently avoided it for so long. I was terrified to read it because I can struggle with old stuff – that with the length? I was like, there’s no way I’ll be able to understand what’s going on and keep track. But part of the reader in me wants to try and read as many old books as possible, because that’s one of the few ways we can understand the world before we came into being. But to get myself to actually read it, I had to make myself talk about it. I had to keep telling people that I was going to read it. Because, I think I’ve heard it from Andy Frisella and some other entrepreneur or a traveler (maybe Jedidiah Jenkins – who biked from Oregon to Patagonia – or his father, Peter Jenkins, who walked across America, both of whose books I’ve read and loved (but do not suggest Jedidiah Jenkins’ because he does not practice what he preaches)) said that you need to tell people about the big things that you want to do so you don’t back out of them. Because then when they see you however long after you were supposed to do that big thing, they’ll ask you how it went, and you can either be embarrassed that you did not accomplish what you set out to do or have a story (and maybe a business, book, invention, etc.) to share.

I am currently reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. But seeing as my homelife has gotten somewhat more chaotic than it had been a few days ago, I am also reading Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan when the house is a little louder and I have a little less focus.

Make sure to go outside 💚

Happy March

Alessandra is reading…