Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme that was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is now currently being hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and give the reasons why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Blurb from Goodreads

Through six turbulent months of 1934, 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain keeps a journal, filling three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries about her home, a ruined Suffolk castle, and her eccentric and penniless family. By the time the last diary shuts, there have been great changes in the Mortmain household, not the least of which is that Cassandra is deeply, hopelessly, in love.

Why I Want To Read It

Just like that, the weekend is over and we are about to start a new work week. It is Monday again. To echo my friend’s sentiment, I don’t want to work. But have we got any choice? Us who are corporate 9 to 5 slaves? How I wish the weekend was longer. I know, Mondays are our least favorite day of the week. As there is no other recourse for us, we have to brave all the elements to be present – physically and mentally – at the office. I hope that you all had a great start to the work week and that the rest of the week will go well for everyone. After a hectic opening to the year, the past few weeks have been relatively uneventful. I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. I hope everyone can.

We are more than halfway through March, which means we are just a couple of days away from greeting a new month. I hope that everyone is having a great year. I hope that this year will brim with happiness and prosperity. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit. To kick off another blogging week, I am sharing a fresh Goodreads Monday update; this has become a tradition. In the first two months of the year, I have featured new books, i.e. books to be released this year which I am looking forward to. For March, I have been sharing works written by female writers. This is to align with the month’s main theme: Women’s History Month. I am also in the midst of a reading journey featuring works of female writers.

This week, I am featuring Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle. I believe it was only this year that I came across Dodie Smith, an English novelist and playwright; her full name is Dorothy Gladys Smith. Oh. I just learned that she wrote the children’s book The Hundred and One Dalmatians which was eventually adapted into an animated film by Disney. I mean, who has not heard of  Cruella de Vil? She is one of the most iconic villains of our childhood. With this, my interest in Smith and her oeuvre has been piqued further.

Apart from The Hundred and One Dalmatians, one of her most recognized works is I Capture the Castle. I have come across this book several times this year. It has been cited as one of the best modern English novels by several publications. It is also the story of an eccentric family,  the Mortmains, who were struggling against poverty while living in a decaying castle. These are very interesting elements that made me want to know what the book is about. I hope I get to obtain a copy of the book.

How about you fellow reader? How was your Monday? What books have you added to your reading list? Do drop it in the comment box. For now, happy Monday and, as always, happy reading!