On March 1, I was asked about my reading of the Drina Ballet books. I replied, "I have read the first three and have enjoyed them. I am stuck at the beginning of the fourth book only because I got distracted."
I was distracted by passive media. My attention span has been poor for the last two years, and I find it very hard to follow through with reading multiple books in a set. I am currently horrible at it, and I cannot get myself under control. My low reading output has been caused by the stress of the pandemic, the debacle of the last two school years, and other events.
On March 6, I gave an update on my reading via my Facebook page.
I made progress today. I finally read through Drina #5 Drina Dances in Italy and am now reading #6 Drina Dances Again. I managed to finish my reviews of the first four Drina books. The images are in place, and the posts are completely written. They just need to be proofread.
I set a rule for myself where I am requiring myself to write reviews of any books that I read. I didn't do well with that last year.
Furthermore, when my reading paused again, I set another rule where I must read all of the Drina books before I allow myself to read anything else. Roadblock!
Since I could not allow myself to break the two rules, I had to push past the roadblock. So here I am. The Drina posts will not be published until I am close to finishing reading through the set.
I am not listing books on eBay or Etsy. I am not watching passive media. I have dropped everything. It's Drina or bust. I'm reading the Drina books as quickly as I can one after another. I am now reading #8 Drina Dances in Madeira.
Setting a rule for myself that I cannot allow myself to break works quite well. This is getting done.
I have noticed an uptick of Drina books selling on eBay ever since I first mentioned this series. Apparently at least one or two people decided to work on a set. I thought I'd give some more information for anyone else who is wondering whether they might like these books. They aren't easy to acquire and can be pricey. Buying these books requires a bit of an investment, at least to get any titles beyond the first few.
In my introductory post, I shared scans of the first 15 pages of text from the first book so that you can get an idea of whether you would like the book.
The Drina Ballet Series
A few people have asked me how well I'm enjoying the books, so here are my ratings.
#5 Drina Dances Again is more interesting than the previous book, but it is not quite as good as the other books I have read.
#1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 are just excellent books. I love all of them.
This is a series that must be read in order. Oh, I suppose you could read them out of order, but that would take away most of the impact. Each book begins immediately after the close of the previous book and continues with the overarching story.
I have known where the story is going the entire time that I've been reading the books. (Even though I do know some important plot details for the final books, please don't mention anything to me since you could end up telling me more than what I already know.)
Even if I hadn't known all along what the overarching story is, I would have guessed. It's not hard to figure out. Knowing where this is going doesn't take away from my pleasure. I am enjoying seeing how this develops.
Drina starts the series as a young child. She is around nine or ten years old during the first book. In #5 Drina Dances in New York, Drina is 14 1/2 and falls in love. With #5, the books transition more towards young adult books even though the tone is the same.
A month ago, I purchased #11 Drina Ballerina so that I could read the conclusion to the series. I originally wasn't going to purchase it since it has some negative reviews. I changed my mind later. The book still hasn't arrived. It's coming from England, so it hopefully will arrive soon. I am getting concerned. The main problem is that if the book arrives after I finish #10 and start something else, then I might never read it. I know how I am. Once I move past a set, I won't ever get back to it. If the book is going to arrive, I hope it does so at the start of next week.
With my current determination and reading speed, I should finish the set by around Monday. That's why #11 needs to show up double-quick.
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