366 Books – March Update

This is my third month of my year long self-challenge to read a book a day – that is 366 books in 366 days, to celebrate the National year of Reading. I must confess that having started strongly in January, and keeping up to target in February, march saw a bit of a slide, and although I’m not yet up to the April report, things are looking a bit grim. When I set myself the challenge I didn’t take into account that I was busily looking for a day job. As it happens I ended up with not one, but two jobs, which I started at the beginning of March, at the same  time as the release of  my new book, Do Not Forget Australia. So in March I started two day jobs, launched and promoted a book (including a 14 day blog tour), attended  two literature festivals and, and did some school visits – all the while trying, but not succeeding, to keep up with my reading targets. But read I did, and finished the following books in March:

61	A Bear and a Tree	Stephen Michael King	Penguin	Picture Book
62	Liar Bird	Lisa Walker	Harper Collins	Adult
63	Hatched	Asphyxia	Allen & Unwin	Children’s
64	Dead, Actually	Kaz Delaney	Allen & Unwin	Young Adult
65	Stella Makes Good	Lisa Heidke	Allen & Unwin	Adult
66	The Quicksand Pony	Alison Lester	Allen & Unwin	Children’s
67	Every Minute in Australia	Yvette Poshoglian	Scholastic	Children’s Nonfiction
68	Comeback	Peter Corris	Allen & Unwin	Adult
69	Strictly Confidential	Roxy Jacenko	Allen & Unwin	Adult
70	Watermelon on my Plate	Paddy Dewan	Papyrus Publishing	Children’s Poetry
71	Professor Fred Hollows	Hazel Edwards	New Frontier	Children’s Nonfiction
72	The Red Poppy	David Hill	Scholastic	Picture Book
73	Sarah Thornhill	Kate Grenville	Audio	Adult
74	Currawalli Street	Christopher Morgan	Allen & Unwin	Adult
75	Raven Lucas is Missing	Christine Harris	Scholastic	Young Adult
76	Mort	Martin Chatterton	Random House	Children’s
77	The Secret of the Swords	Frances Watts	Allen & Unwin	Children’s
78	The Poison Plot	Frances Watts	Allen & Unwin	Children’s
79	Shy the Platypus	Leslie Rees	National Library	Children’s
80	Sea Hearts	Margo Lanagan	Allen & Unwin	Young Adult
81	Jake'ss Concert Horror	Ken Spillman	Fremantle Press	Children’s
82	Yippee! Summer Holidays	Tjalaminu Mia	Fremantle Press	Children’s
83	Emu and the Water Tree	Gladys Milroy	Fremantle Press	Children’s
84	All Monkeys Love Bananas	Sean E Avery	Fremantle Press	Picture Book
85	The Festival By The Sea	June Loves	Allen & Unwin	Adult
86	Unnamed			Children’s

If you are quick with your sums you’ll see at the end of March I was five books behind target (that is,  my total thus far should have been 91). Not an irredeemable figure, I’m hoping. As things settle into a better pattern with work, writing, family and the rest, I’m hoping I’ll get back into the swing of things and  make up for time (though I must confess April hasn’t started spectacularly either). You might  also note that there quite a few books on the list this month that I  haven’t reviewed. Some are books I’ve sent the way of my fellow reviewer, and some are on my desk awaiting review. And there are a few that I won’t review because they weren’t review copies. Also, just to clarify, the last one on the list ‘unnamed’ did have a title, but I’ve chosen not to reveal it, simply because it relates to some research I’m doing on a confidential project.

In spite of my busy busy month I am still enjoying the challenge and not regretting setting it for myself. I think without the challenge I would have read even fewer books in March.
I’ll be back with another update in a month or so. Wish me luck!

Last Stop

Wow. It's been a busy start to the month, with Do Not Forget Australia released on March 1 and , since then, the blog tour taking me all around the blogosphere.



Today is the last day in the tour, so if you haven't managed to grab yourself a copy of the book, pop over to Lorraine's blog where you could win yourself a copy.

And, if you want to go back and catch up on the rest of the tour, the posts are still up at the following blogs:

1st March 2012	Let's Have Words
2nd March 2012	Kids Book Capers
3rd March 2012	Running With Pens
4th march 2012	Read and Write with Dale
5th March 2012	Karen Tyrrell
6th March 2012	Writing for Children
7th March 2012	Spinning Pearls
8th March 2012	Katswhiskers
12th March 2012	Pass It On
12th March 2012	Kids Book Review
13th March 2012	Under the Apple Tree
14th March 2012	Lorraine Marwood. Words into Writing

It's been so much fun visiting all these different blogs, answering questions and chatting about writing and, of course, about Do Not Forget Australia. I'm a tad sad that the tour is over, actually.


But the book is, of course, still available, in good bookstores and online, and is featured in Scholastic's Lucky bookclub this month, which is kind of cool. And over the coming months I'll be out and about talking about the book at schools, festivals and libraries.