I’m looking at my reading list right now, wondering if it is going to leave me or demand that it be taken off my website. Sincerely, I wouldn’t blame it. I have strayed so far from my goal of reading a particular kind of literature, that now I find myself in the bushes and trees wondering how I can get back.

How do people stay faithful to the lists they make? Right now it seems like a super-human ability, especially as I sit here in a Chapters Starbucks cafe. Something in me is even willing to abandon this blog post and saunter off into the bookshelves to see the beautiful book titles and drench my soul with possibilities.

There’s a reason I chose to read the books on my reading list. As someone working towards composing compelling stories for a very particular audience, it is important that I understand narrative structure, and setting a scene, and character developments, and story arcs. So it is a way of studying my craft and making my stories better.

I also want to understand what makes popular books so popular. Do our minds actually just like the way certain stories are told? Is there a subconscious desire to read stories that follow similar patterns, with characters that have similar backstories? Are we always rooting for the underdog or looking for personalities to emulate? Or are we just following literary agents and what they’re saying amongst themselves about the books they like?

Here are the titles I completed in April

Check my YouTube channel for a complete review of these titles, coming to you next week.

Here are the titles I’m tackling in the merry month of May:

And for some reason, I’m really excited about these ones. I’m already most of the way through Akata Witch.

What are you reading right now? Got any recommendations?