Books and Stuff
So last year, I started tallying my reading a little more formally, mainly so I could keep track when it came time to nominate stuff for awards and whatnot. It's not exactly well-organized record keeping, and it's not scientific, and as a data mining setup it's roughly akin to one of those roadside pan-for-gems joints you find in western NC. But it's a little more information than I had before, and just maybe, knowing what I read last year will affect what I read this year.
Then again, maybe not.
And now, a few tidbits. Make of them what you will.
I read 111 books cover to cover in 2011. That includes graphic novel, but does not include books I started but did not finish, books I read part of for work, and anthologies where I read a couple of specific stories by specific authors and then passed on the rest. It's down 10 books from the previous year. I largely blame this on my acquisition of an iPad. This is not because I was watching movies or whatever on the iPad instead of reading. Instead, it was because valuable time that in years past would have been spent reading was instead spent engaging in lengthy sequences of frothing-at-the-mouth tweets about how I was stranded at LaGuardia Airport. Again.Of those 111 books, 48 of them were for review, either for Green Man Review, Bull Spec, Publishers Weekly, or Sleeping Hedgehog. That means that slightly over half of my reading material was of my own specific choosing. I'm not complaining - I can quit reviewing any time I want, or so I keep telling my therapist - just noting it, as something else that shapes my habits.I only read 13 books that would be classified as "horror" last year, and only five of those would be classified as novels. Considering the giant pile of books I brought home from WHC in Salt Lake City, that's kind of embarrassing.More than a third of the science fiction novels I read were by Kage Baker. So was one of the fantasy novels. I also read a ton of Joe R. Lansdale. My fruitbat reading percentage went way down, and my history reading went way up. This may be because I've read all the books about sasquatches that are out there already, or it may be because I got tired of the predictable flaws in "true ghost story" writing. Also, history books are generally beefy slow going, and thus serve well for long plane rides*.The best book I read in 2011 was Journal of a UFO Investigator , by David Halperin. The worst was a Sherlock Holmes pastiche. The most pleasant surprise was Flip Flop Fly Ball; the least pleasant was John Keegan's Fields of Battle . I read two biographies. One was about Forry Ackerman. The other was about Charles Fort.I read Maureen McHugh for the first time, and finally read A Man Called Intrepid . I finished a book I'd started to read five years go, and I had one night where I read four books. one after another.And this year? We'll see. More reviewing, no doubt. Perhaps an attempt to go back and finish the piles of half-finished reads around the house. And maybe something completely different. Who knows. In twelve months, I'll tally it up and find out.
*No, I generally don't make use of the e-reader functionality of my iPad. I prefer books, and I have my reasons. You can certainly disagree with me and make your own choices in the matter, and I certainly don't begrudge you the right. If, however, you've decided that since you've switched to an e-reader anyone who hasn't is a helpless, hapless, hopeless reprobate, you feel that everyone must enjoy literature in the exact same way you do, and you've equated choice of reading platform to some sort of moral standard, then you are a ninny**.
**Anyone who reads this and decides I was picking on them personally and specifically, and that this whole rant is about them in particular, is also a ninny.
Then again, maybe not.
And now, a few tidbits. Make of them what you will.
I read 111 books cover to cover in 2011. That includes graphic novel, but does not include books I started but did not finish, books I read part of for work, and anthologies where I read a couple of specific stories by specific authors and then passed on the rest. It's down 10 books from the previous year. I largely blame this on my acquisition of an iPad. This is not because I was watching movies or whatever on the iPad instead of reading. Instead, it was because valuable time that in years past would have been spent reading was instead spent engaging in lengthy sequences of frothing-at-the-mouth tweets about how I was stranded at LaGuardia Airport. Again.Of those 111 books, 48 of them were for review, either for Green Man Review, Bull Spec, Publishers Weekly, or Sleeping Hedgehog. That means that slightly over half of my reading material was of my own specific choosing. I'm not complaining - I can quit reviewing any time I want, or so I keep telling my therapist - just noting it, as something else that shapes my habits.I only read 13 books that would be classified as "horror" last year, and only five of those would be classified as novels. Considering the giant pile of books I brought home from WHC in Salt Lake City, that's kind of embarrassing.More than a third of the science fiction novels I read were by Kage Baker. So was one of the fantasy novels. I also read a ton of Joe R. Lansdale. My fruitbat reading percentage went way down, and my history reading went way up. This may be because I've read all the books about sasquatches that are out there already, or it may be because I got tired of the predictable flaws in "true ghost story" writing. Also, history books are generally beefy slow going, and thus serve well for long plane rides*.The best book I read in 2011 was Journal of a UFO Investigator , by David Halperin. The worst was a Sherlock Holmes pastiche. The most pleasant surprise was Flip Flop Fly Ball; the least pleasant was John Keegan's Fields of Battle . I read two biographies. One was about Forry Ackerman. The other was about Charles Fort.I read Maureen McHugh for the first time, and finally read A Man Called Intrepid . I finished a book I'd started to read five years go, and I had one night where I read four books. one after another.And this year? We'll see. More reviewing, no doubt. Perhaps an attempt to go back and finish the piles of half-finished reads around the house. And maybe something completely different. Who knows. In twelve months, I'll tally it up and find out.
*No, I generally don't make use of the e-reader functionality of my iPad. I prefer books, and I have my reasons. You can certainly disagree with me and make your own choices in the matter, and I certainly don't begrudge you the right. If, however, you've decided that since you've switched to an e-reader anyone who hasn't is a helpless, hapless, hopeless reprobate, you feel that everyone must enjoy literature in the exact same way you do, and you've equated choice of reading platform to some sort of moral standard, then you are a ninny**.
**Anyone who reads this and decides I was picking on them personally and specifically, and that this whole rant is about them in particular, is also a ninny.
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