Monthly Book Favourites: April

It’s time to review my favourite reads of the month! March was a failure on the reading front, but in April I managed to tick some books off my bookshelf:

I read two Game of Thrones books this month. First, I read Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones: Series 3 and 4. I’ve also been reading another ‘extra material’ Game of Thrones; The World of Ice of Fire. Written by the authors of the fansite Westeros, alongside George RR Martin, it gives a historical insight into the world of Westeros. If you are a Game of Thrones fan, these are both must buys – they give some extra information to keep you going until the next book finally comes out and include some beautiful accompanying illustrations.

I also finally got round to reading The Hundred-Year-Old Man who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (phew, that’s a mouthful!) Set in Sweden, but covering almost every country imaginable, it uses the incredible life of Allan to draw together 100 years of history in an unimaginable way. The humour is what really struck me about this book – particularly impressive when you consider that it is a novel in translation. I would definitely recommend this read – I sped through it in just one day and couldn’t put it down!

Finally, I completed two fun reads this month. One was A Bear Called Paddington, which I was given at Christmas when my parents were shocked to discover that I couldn’t remember reading him as a child. It was obviously a short read, but I was chuckling away at the adventures of the famous bear who loves marmalade. As someone who rereads Harry Potter on a frequent basis, I love revisiting childhood favourites and this was a very enjoyable read.

Last of all, I dipped into Twitterature, published by Penguin. As both a literary and social media nut, this is obviously a great book for me. Literary classics are summed up in some hilarious tweets – the username @HighwayToHell for Dr Faustus and @Ratatouille for 1984 were particular favourites. It’s a fun read to dip in and out of if you like that sort of book.

I’m quite pleased with the reading I managed to get done this month, particularly as I have just handed in my final assessments for my Masters’ degree this week. What did you read this month?