I do like to start a New Year all spick and span and so December is for finishing reading projects started earlier in the year and abandoning for various reasons like
a) Diverting from my chosen reading paths. So I need to finish my November Novella Challenge. I read 10 novellas in all, only 6 of which were on the original list. And I’ve reviewed 7 of those 10. I think that’s a pretty good effort. Reviews of the African novellas (Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart) will appear shortly. And I’ll be reading the South American novellas (Bonsai and Chronicle of A Death Foretold) this coming weekend.
b) Not being in Edinburgh any more. Alexander McCall Smith’s The Unbearable Lightness of Scones fell prey to this once the Edinburgh Book Festival finished.
c) The film of the book never appeared on my DVD subscription. I read the first two sections of the new translation of The Tin Drum and waited in vain for the movie as it only covers this much of the book.
d) The weather! I put down Amy Sackville’s The Still Point in August because the weather was glorious and reading about Arctic exploration didn’t fit with basking in the sunshine. Well, there’s no excuse now because the temperature’s now perfect …..
… and yet now that it’s cold, I find myself in need of some warmth. Funnily enough the library’s just told me that I can pick up my latest reservation – Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza’s December Heat. With The Wolves reading another Marquez later in the month, it looks like there’s a reading project developing on the South American front here chez Lizzy ……
Lizzy's Literary Life (Volume One) 
I really liked Chronicle of a Death Foretold when I read it last year. It’s the only Marquez I’ve read to date. I’ll look for your review! I’ve seen the movie The Tin Drum – very interesting. Have yet to read the book but I’ve definitely been eying the new translation. 🙂
This is awesome work, Lizzy. I’ve started a book blog of my own (lettersrepublic.org) based on reading the 1000 “greatest” books and it’s great to glean valuable tips from the blogerati. Keep reading!
I must disagree with you on one small point. I consider “Things Fall Apart” a novel, not a novella. I don’t believe in this inching up of the size of novellas so that novels become more bloated than ever. To me, 190 pages is a fine size for a novel.
I completely agree, Tony.
My definition of novella was a story between 60 to 160 pages. I should have checked the page count of Things Fall Apart . 181 in the Everyman’s Library edition.
Part of the challenge for me was to try and finally nail the real dividing line between a novel and a novella and it’s getting a little clearer though I still can’t find the words.
Visitation 15? pages is definitely a novel as is Gasoline at 141 pages.
Perhaps I’ll be able to string it together more lucidly in a wrap-up post.
Oh, dear. Half of The Still Point takes place in a sweltering summer.
Stay strong.