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September 2025 Reading Plans
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I am currently reading:Anathem Stephenson, Neal 2008 - in progress...
and hope to get to as many as possible of the following:
Case of Comrade Tulayev, The Serge, Victor 1947 - in progress...
Chronicle In Stone Kadare, Ismail 1971
This Sporting Life Storey, David 1965
There are too many books I want to read. I will list by priorities. My problem is starting several books but not finishing enough of them.First priority must be to complete The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike (2008) and Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis (1958) Both are past the 50% mark.
Next, I want to read A Cry of Angels by Jeff Fields and complete it by the end of the month. Also Regret by Kate Chopin
I wanted to read Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier (1941) and even checked it out from the library, but got busy and never started it. I still want to read it.
Finally, I would like to read The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin (1977) but I am not going to look for a copy until the first 4 things are finished.
September GoalsA couple of weeks of travel meant that I didn't finish all of my planned August reading, so many of these are carry overs from last month. (Now that I'm retired, I read less when I'm on "vacation" than otherwise, ha.)
Fantasy Bingo
Two books to go:
✔️Brooks: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006)
✔️North: The Last Song of Penelope (2024)
Non-challenge Books
✔️Euripides: "Rhesos" (-440) from The Complete Euripides, Volume I: Trojan Women and Other Plays
✔️Roethke: selections (1941) from The Collected Poems
✔️Eliot: Four Quartets (1953)
✔️Bishop: "North and South" (1969) from Poems
✔️Foucault: I, Pierre Rivière, having slaughtered my mother, my sister, and my brother...: A Case of Parricide in the 19th Century (1975)
✔️Plunket: Love Junkie (1992)
✔️Smith: Like: A novel (1997)
✔️Wodehouse: P. G. Wodehouse In His Own Words (2001)
✔️Mahfouz: I Found Myself: Last Dreams (2015)
✔️Waidner: We Are Made Of Diamond Stuff (2019)
✔️Chambers: Great Disasters (2025)
✔️Goodman: Helen of Nowhere (2025)
✔️Mushtaq: Heart Lamp: Selected Stories (2025)
✔️Saramandi: Portrait of an Island on Fire (2025)
Long Reads
✔️Proust: The Prisoner (1923)
Maybe
✔️Belben: Dreaming of Dead People (1979)
✔️Kitamura: Audition (2025)
September is usually a month were less reading is done by me - we'll see how it goes this yearCurrently reading:
To read:
Blodblomster
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men - started
Mine venner
The Third Gilmore Girl (audio, goodreads challenge) - started
Lejr - started
Farewell, My Lovely (group read) - started
Mod
Group Reads
To Let
The Stepford Wives
Regret
Major Barbara
Crampton Hodnet
Martin Chuzzlewit
For Challenges
The Once and Future King (continue)
Heaven's Command: An Imperial Progress (continue)
Angle of Repose
The Road to Lichfield
Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings
If only life would take a pause so I could just read!
Darren wrote: "Journey by Moonlight – Szerb, Antal"
I voted for this; I'll join you later this month.
I voted for this; I'll join you later this month.
Will Finish: Cousin Bette Honoré de Balzac
Shorts:
Continuing:
The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 Rick Atkinson
The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter Simone de Beauvoir
The Complete Stories Franz Kafka
Martin Chuzzlewit Charles Dickens
The Republic Plato
The Children of the Dead Elfriede Jelinek
Home Truths Mavis Gallant
I think this will complete my reads for September and I will push the rest of my reads into October with the exception of some shorts.
Sam wrote: "Vera – Elizabeth von Arnim"
I seem to remember that this has references to Wuthering Heights and could even be considered a 'reply'. I did like it. Her last novel, Mr. Skeffington (1940), also stayed with me.
I seem to remember that this has references to Wuthering Heights and could even be considered a 'reply'. I did like it. Her last novel, Mr. Skeffington (1940), also stayed with me.
Ascanio wrote: "Sam wrote: "Vera – Elizabeth von Arnim"I seem to remember that this has references to Wuthering Heights and could even be considered a 'reply'. I did like it. Her last novel, Mr. Skeffington (194..."
Yes. lots of references to other works, Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, Northanger Abbey, Bluebeard to name a few. I will keep your recommendation in mind for the future
My goals for September:Finished —
✔️To Let byJohn Galsworthy
✔️The Cider House Rules by John Irving
✔️I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett
✔️The Snows of Kilamanjaro and Other Stories by Ernest Hemingway
✔️Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
✔️Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
✔️ The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
✔️ The Silver Cage by Anonymous
✔️ Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us by Kate Bornstein
✔️ Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
✔️ In His Own Write by John Lennon
Started:
The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian
Updated 10/1/25 — a record month! 11 books!
R1. The Ghost Bride2. The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
3. Playground by Richard Powers
4. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
5. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
6. I Feel Bad about My Neck by Nora Ephron
7. The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan
8. Salem's Lot by Stephen King
9. Fahrenheit 451
and also trying to finish
10. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare...
11. Gone Girl
12. The Year of Magical Thinking
13. ...yeah, no, I'm going to leave it there. Too much pressure! :P
*I like to number them to see how crazy my ambitions are. haha
Hey there! Has anyone of you read moby dick by Herman Melville?
September TBR🛑To finish:
Le morte d'Arthur: Volume II
Mrs. Dalloway
Emperor of Thorns
⏲️Make progress:
The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night; Volume 2 of 4
📌To start:
Unraveller
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
The Power That Preserves
I already finished a few this month:Under Milkwood: A Play for Voices by Dylan Thomas I listened to this play twice to begin to "get" it.
Regret by Kate Chopin
The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country by Helen Russell
The Iliad by Homer Emily Henry trans.
To Read:
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart
A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime by Oscar Wilde
The Zenda Vendetta by Simon Hawke
Nonfiction:
Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy Wickenden
Rereads:
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Henry V by William Shakespeare
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
The Talisman Ring by Georgette Heyer Different Group read.
Keep reading:
The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry
I have read nothing for months due to horrible work pressures. But I've picked up a few books, and I'm hoping to start reading again. Here's my tentative plan:
Definitely:
in progress 58% Cane by Jean Toomer
in progress 93% If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
✔ Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann ★★★★★ (4.5)
in progress 49% A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Probably:
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (re-read)
Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw (re-read)
Dengue Boy by Michel Nieva
Possibly:
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
Greg wrote: "I have read nothing for months due to horrible work pressures. But I've picked up a few books, and I'm hoping to start reading again. Here's my tentative plan:
Definitely:
in progress 17% [book:..."
Hope your work situation improves.
Luffy Sempai wrote: "Hope your work situation improves."Thanks so much Luffy!
Mod
Lynn wrote: "There are too many books I want to read. I will list by priorities. My problem is starting several books but not finishing enough of them."This is my problem too! Actually, I could add those to my list too. ha!
Mod
Here's my tentative plan:
Definitely:
in progress 17% [book:..."
I'm sorry to hear about the pressures, but happy to see you here again, Greg. Take care as you ease back into reading!
Kathleen wrote: "I'm sorry to hear about the pressures, but happy to see you here again, Greg. Take care as you ease back into reading!"Thanks Kathleen!
Krishna wrote: "Hey there! Has anyone of you read moby dick by Herman Melville?"
Yes I read Moby Dick in about 1977. I don't remember much about it.
Mod
Has anyone of you read moby dick by Herman Melville?"
Yes, and we have read it as a group. Here is the thread to the spoiler thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
You can also look in the Old School Classics Folder for other threads on the book: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...
I have been updating my September reading post as I have finished books and feel I have kicked my reading up to another gear this month. I will definitely exceed my average number read which is very encouraging.
Darren wrote: "Journey by Moonlight - in progress..."
How do you like the book? I'll start reading it today or tomorrow.
How do you like the book? I'll start reading it today or tomorrow.
Ascanio wrote: "Darren wrote: "Journey by Moonlight - in progress..."How do you like the book? I'll start reading it today or tomorrow."
I finished it over the weekend, herewith my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Darren wrote: "Journey by Moonlight" (1937)
I read it today, in one sitting. Thank you for suggesting it. The narrator's voice betrays a little inexperience (especially in the first part) and a sometimes didactic tone, but the plot is truly engaging and the themes 'fundamental'. The combination of travel literature and reflections on marriage reminded me of Elizabeth von Arnim's The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen (1904), whereas the theme of midlife crisis can be found in von Arnim's Mr. Skeffington (1940). Also interesting the comparison with Irène Némirovsky's Deux (1939), a reflection on marriage set in Paris. Four and a half stars, rounded down to four. I will definitely read The Pendragon Legend (1934) as well.
I read it today, in one sitting. Thank you for suggesting it. The narrator's voice betrays a little inexperience (especially in the first part) and a sometimes didactic tone, but the plot is truly engaging and the themes 'fundamental'. The combination of travel literature and reflections on marriage reminded me of Elizabeth von Arnim's The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen (1904), whereas the theme of midlife crisis can be found in von Arnim's Mr. Skeffington (1940). Also interesting the comparison with Irène Némirovsky's Deux (1939), a reflection on marriage set in Paris. Four and a half stars, rounded down to four. I will definitely read The Pendragon Legend (1934) as well.
My first priority was to complete The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike (2008) September 10, 2025 2*
Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis (1958) September 28, 2025 5*
I also read the Group short story
Regret by Kate Chopin (1897) September 15, 2025 5*
Darren wrote: "I am currently reading:Anathem Stephenson, Neal 2008 - in progress...
I'm so surprised to see someone reading Anathem, it was a book I bought 20 years ago on a trip to London after browsing in the Waterstones bookstore for about three hours (only so much space in my luggage -- the choice had to be perfect). The biggest bookstore I had been in up to that point was maybe 1/5 its size.
I started reading it right after coming home, while I was still in university, and I remember liking it a lot, but in the end I never finished it, stopping at about 85%. To this day it's the biggest book on my shelf, and my eye often stops on its ridge. I still remember some ideas and characters now, many years later, which is not something that often happens. I wonder if I should revisit and finish it.
How are you liking it?
Snow Crash by the same author has been on my TBR for ages, and I haven't yet started it.
Xaph wrote: "Darren wrote: "I am currently reading:Anathem Stephenson, Neal 2008 - in progress...
I'm so surprised to see someone reading Anathem, it was a book I bought 20 years ago on a trip to London afte..."
it's a good trick to have bought it 20 years ago seeing as it was only published in 2008 ;o)
I love Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon is one of my fave books full stop and Snow Crash is pretty good too
Anathem is going quite well, I am 760 pages in and it's just starting to pick up pace ;o)
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
Books mentioned in this topic
Cryptonomicon (other topics)The Widows of Eastwick (other topics)
Reflections on the Psalms (other topics)
Regret (other topics)
Farewell, My Lovely (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Kate Chopin (other topics)John Updike (other topics)
C.S. Lewis (other topics)
John Lennon (other topics)
Julia Annas (other topics)
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In this thread please list the books you plan to read for this month. This thread can become a place to find new books and discuss what others are reading.