Book review: If There Is Something to Desire; also a reading challenge update

I was sick during the beginning of February and felt very mentally lethargic, even more so than usual. So I got behind on my ideal schedule to accomplish my reading challenge for this year, which is to read at least one book per every letter of the alphabet. 

In order to complete the challenge within a year, I should read at least one book every two weeks, which works out to two books per month. Per the terms of the challenge, I decided that any book counts towards it as long as it's primarily text and written for an adult audience (so no picture books, like Goodnight Moon).

If There Is Something to Desire, by Vera Pavlova

I found out about this collection of poetry when I was looking for some contemporary Russian literature available in English translation. It was mentioned in the same list as The Hall of Singing Caryatids. I found this poetry overall very mediocre and didn't really want to finish the book, but I managed to push through because almost all of the 100 poems are very short (like 15 lines or fewer). 

I don't know if the mediocrity of the poetry is due to poor translation, or if they are similarly mediocre in the original Russian (if you can read and understand Russian). Apparently, this poet is pretty popular in Russia. The poetry was rather terse and bland. Sex was a recurring topic, and it wasn't done in an artful way. 

There was maybe about 20% (at most) of the poems or lines that I liked, but on the whole, I did not like this poetry. It mostly made me feel bored and a little exasperated because I didn't like it. Good poetry makes you feel intrigued and/or maybe emotionally moved in some (positive) way. And/or impressed by how good it is. 

In general, I prefer poetry that's more descriptive and involves more metaphor or other creative, unique use of language. Poetry that sets an interesting scene and layers it with some kind emotion. 

Progress of the reading challenge

So far, I've read 6 books this year, including the one I reviewed in this post. So actually, I'm back on schedule now due to recently finishing Mickey7 and If There Is Something to Desire. Both were pretty quick reads, so it still feels a little bit like I was slacking by not reading something more involved and dense. 

I've reviewed some of the books here, though there are others I did not end up posting a full review of. I might do brief reviews of those that do not warrant their own posts and compile it into a single post. Books I have read but not yet reviewed: Grapefruit, by Yoko Ono. I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman. They Were Soldiers by Ann Jones.