Monthly Roundup: March 2015

It's been a light reading month for me this March. I have a kind of loose goal each year to read 75 (new) books, which averages out to about 7 per month. But March, poor March... only ended up with 5. Between working full-time at the hospital and school it's been getting harder to squeeze in all the delicious reading time that I want. I did drop a class this week so my workload should be a little lighter here on out.

I expect one of the reasons for my slowdown, however, is the fact that I'm trying to chew through a Dickens novel. Like a hunk of jerky without any water. I find a lot of authors say that if a book doesn't grab them right away they stop reading, because they can't waste time on bad books when there's so many to read, but I just have a hard time setting a book down even if it's the most vile pile of garbage I can think of (and I have finished some incredibly vile books). Even if I don't like it, I feel like I should give a book a whole try. If I had given up, I would never have known how much I liked the end of Ender's Game, for example.

Anyway, what's to look forward to next month?

• Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference and Bookfair

The AWP Conference & Bookfair is an essential annual destination for writers, teachers, students, editors, and publishers. Each year more than 12,000 attendees join our community for four days of insightful dialogue, networking, and unrivaled access to the organizations and opinion-makers that matter most in contemporary literature. The 2015 conference will feature over 2,000 presenters and 550 readings, panels, and craft lectures. The bookfair hosts over 700 presses, journals, and literary organizations from around the world. AWP’s is now the largest literary conference in North America. Join us in Minneapolis to celebrate the best of what contemporary literature has to offer.

AWP is in Minneapolis April 8-11, and I'm pretty excited. There's SO many readings and lectures that sound really interesting, and there'll be the opportunity to pick up a ton of journals that may be relevant to my interests. Too bad I have to work two of the first days, but at least I can go for a couple hours during the day before having to come home again to sleep. Patients first, people.

On a more personal note, April includes surgery for the spouse (boo!) and a baby shower for a friend (yay!), as well as season premieres for Outlander, Game of Thrones and Orphan Black. The garden beds will get installed in April and the whole state will start greening up. April incoming!