I haven’t done a personal blog for a while. You know, one that isn’t pimping some book, or some new version, or whatever. So today I think I’ll blather on for a while about what I’ve been reading in 2013.

First you must know I always have at least two books going. There’s whatever I’m reading at night before going to sleep, and an audio book I’m listening to while doing other things. Then I have whatever we’re reading for school, which is typically a re-read for me. So far, 2013 has been kind of a disappointment in terms of reading. I’ve only read one new book that was worth a five-star rating on my Goodreads page, and that was George R.R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords. Damn, was that a good one! Otherwise the top rating went to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers and The Return of the King and Shakespeare’s Othello.

Some of the more disappointing reads were Faulkner’s Light in August and The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin. I honestly didn’t expect to like Faulkner; I never have liked his longer work and this was the first one I made myself finish. The Coplin book, though, I had high hopes for and it was just kind of blah. I was also disappointed in Krakauer’s Into the Wild, the subject of my last review post.

I’m currently reading Jack London’s The Road, something I’d never heard of and didn’t even realize was autobiographical until after I started it (I’m reading a free e-book edition). It went from fairly amusing to “What the hell?” last night when I got to the scene with the gypsies and the whip.

And I’ll admit, I’ve been having a Song of Ice and Fire hangover since finishing A Feast for Crows. That was the last book I had in the series, and I was too stubborn to break my paperback cycle and buy the expensive hardcover of A Dance with Dragons. Until Half Price Books had their 50 percent off sale yesterday. Score! Got the hardcover for $15 and will start it when I finish London’s short book. It isn’t all happiness, though … I’ll finish Dragons long before Martin releases the next book, and there just won’t be any Westeros fix until then. Unless I start over …

Audio books have also taken an upswing since finishing The Orchardist. I put on Mario Puzo’s The Godfather and am really enjoying it. I was always kind of lukewarm on the film, but I’m liking the book and I think it’ll make the movie better, too.