4th Arabic Novel Finished!

Last night I finished my fourth Arabic novel, الشمس في يوم غائم (The Sun on a Cloudy Day) by Hana Meena, one of the most famous Syrian authors. I determined to finish the book last night, which has taken me about 4 months to get through (it's not the most thrilling book...) so I stayed up reading, as fast as I could and finished right at midnight. An "Al Maza" Lebanese beer kept me company as did my little heater. I've made a goal for myself to try and read as many novels/factual books as I can these next few months while I'm here. One of my professors at the institute where I study, told me that if I didn't read at least 20 books while I'm Syria, I would be wasting my time. I would be thrilled if I can read half that, on top of all the other studying I have. I see his point however--that reading tremendously improves language, grammar, word-acquisition, and all manner of things. And that by reading a whole book, you'll see words repeated over and over and can guess most from context, or at least get the main ideas of the story, which is what I aim for. So...there you have it...novel #4...and more to come!