Books Read in April

 

As busy as the month of April has been, I am grateful that I still found the time to read. And I was especially grateful to be able to even read at all since I had eye surgery on the first. Because this was the first time I have ever had cataract surgery, I didn’t know what to expect. I was worried I would have a difficult time adjusting to reading with both of my eyes again.

 

But, no, that’s not what happened at all.

 

Fortunately, my eye surgery was a success, and vision was restored to my right eye. Hooray!

 

As for the adjustment to reading with BOTH of my eyes again instead of just with one eye, as I had been doing for nearly a year? It was a piece of cake. In fact, there was no trouble at all! It’s just like riding a bicycle; it came back to me. The body remembered.

 

Even so, I could really tell the difference between reading with both eyes instead of reading with just one eye. It is SO MUCH BETTER! Seriously, I think I might even be reading faster now that I am reading with BOTH of my eyes again. (Sadly, the eye surgery did not give me super vision in my right eye, something I had joked about at my follow-up appointment with the ophthalmologist. Darn!) It has made me all the more grateful that I was able to have this eye surgery to get that problem fixed.

 

Aside from my eye surgery happening this month, however, I was also busy getting started with the books we plan to publish come June through Dreamweaver Press. I also continued reading submissions for Twisted Dreams Press, as well as answering messages and emails I received from both our authors and other writers. I was also busy working on my books as well as a variety of writing projects.

 

Since some of my books have gone out of print, I also spent some time this month exploring my options in self-publishing some of them to get them back into print, as well as preparing other ones that I plan to submit to either Twisted Dreams Press, Alien Buddha Press, or some other press if they publish previously published books.

 

Because April is National Poetry Month, I try to read as many poetry books as I can. However, I did not only read poetry books this month. Two books I read – The Ring by Thasia Anne and Tribe by Gary Shapero – are both works of fiction. That said, I am also reading other non-poetry books which I have not yet finished reading. They will go on next month’s list after I finish reading them.

 

For my First Chapter Plus article that I wrote and submitted last month, I started reading some of these poetry books until I found what I was looking for to include in my article. Then, at the beginning of April, I went back to the beginning of those books and started over in reading them because, this time, I was reading them either as a reviewer or for pleasure reading.

 

After I read the last book on the list, which I finished reading/reviewing today, I counted the number of books I read and I was surprised that it was so many! A couple of them were books I read for my book reviewing gig, others were books I agreed to review for my blog, and some were books I selected to read from my digital subscription with Alien Buddha Press.

 

This month, I managed to read 16 books. I did not finish reading any of the books I started reading in March but I am nearly done reading them.

 

Here is the list of books I read this month. The number picks up from where I left off last month and the total is accurate for the number of books I have read so far this year.

 

41. Serial Experiments by Elizabeth Kate Switay

42. More Regrets Than Glories: A Collection of Dark Poetry by Rick Powell

43. The Ring by Thasia Anne

44. A Collection of Ghost Poetry by Tom Guldin

45. Delusions to Live By by Tim Frank

46. In the Days of the Aliens: Poems by Joseph Quiroz

47. The Configuration Discordant: An exploration of poetry through the lens of murder, madness and monsters by John Baltisberger

48. It's Dark In Here: A collection of horror poetry and art by Amanda Ruzsa

49. Neolithic Imaginings: Mythic Explorations of the Unknown by Loralee Clark

50. My Soul Stained, My Seed Sour: a collection of poems by Rick Powell

51. Moonglade by David Grinnell

52. Dance of Necromance: Poetry Book of the Dead by Sumiko Saulson

53. World By Design by Norb Aiken

54. Rictus: Poems by Olin Wish

55. Tribe by Gary Shapero

56. The Rat King by Sumiko Saulson