| Wednesday, January 02, 2008 |
| A novel idea |
 It's time again for National Just Read More Novels Month, the creation of blogger yellojkt. It's not really necessary for me to vow to read more novels, since I read them all year 'round, but I like the idea, and anything that gets people reading more is A-OK with me, so I'm hoping his meme catches on.
Every year, I set a goal for myself to read 52 books. Usually, I manage to just make it; in 2006, I managed 53. In 2007, I read 59. The higher total can be attributed to two things: my vacation in Jamaica earlier this year, which left me ample time to read; and the writer's strike, which began in early November. My normal weeknight routine is to spend the hour between 11 PM and midnight watching "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." Without those shows, I found myself heading upstairs an hour early to crack open a book. Since I knew the shows wouldn't be airing, I sometimes went up at 10 or 10:30 instead. Even that extra 4-6 hours a week made a big difference. Therefore, anyone who claims that they "don't have time" to read should scrutinize their TV watching habits. The only people who can legitimately make the "no time" excuse are people like my friend Neal who don't own TVs!
I should add here that "TDS" and "TCR" are returning next week (albeit without their writers), and yes, I will be watching them. Also, one of the books I read last month was "I Am America (And So Can You)" by Stephen Colbert.
Twenty-one of the books I read were for my book group, which meets weekly approximately 8 months out of the year. If that sounds crazy, several members of my group form a second weekly group during the summer, and at least a couple of them belong to more than one group. Personally, I always look forward to taking the summer off to read selections of my own choosing.
Some of the best books I read in 2007. Any of them would make a great choice for NaJuReMoNoMo!
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home - The only graphic novel I read in '07, but it was a good one.
T.C. Boyle, The Inner Circle - I'm convinced that Boyle is one of the best American novelists working today. This book, a fictionalized version of the life of Alfred Kinsey, was another fine piece of work.
William Kent Krueger, Thunder Bay - Kent is one of my clients and I usually try to refrain from commenting on my clients' work so it doesn't look like I'm playing favorites, but I can't help it -- this is such a beautifully written, absorbing book, I devoured it in one day.
Beth Lisick, Helping Me Help Myself - I managed to score an advance copy of this 2008 release (available now!) by the hilarious, insightful Berkeley writer and her surprising adventures in the world of self-help.
Megan Abbott, Die a Little - Abbott is a rising star in crime fiction and justifiably so; she is perhaps the most original prose stylist in the field since Ken Bruen. I can't wait to read her other books; if you love film noir, you've gotta check her out.
Robert Goddard, In Pale Battalions - Family secrets come to light after World War I in this cunningly plotted saga. This type of discovery -- I must admit I'd never heard of Goddard, a prolific British author -- is part of the reason I stay in my book group, even when the "workload" is challenging.
Speaking of blog memes, here is one which I will assuredly not be participating in: Blog365. My blog will continue to be updated at my current pace, which is "whenever I feel like it." |
posted by 125records @ 3:55 PM  |
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| 3 Comments: |
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Well, we no longer have a "TV," if "TV" is defined as "device for receiving surface or cable television." We have a monitor for our DVD player. But the real reason I read very few books during 2007 (10 of 'em: granted that one was Pynchon's latest, while another was nearly as big: the last book in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle) is that I spent too much time typing and otherwise diddling around on computers (sometimes productively, sometimes less so). I saw 50 movies, almost all on DVD, which is less than one per week; we also watched probably 3 or 4 TV series during the course of the year on DVD, so that's not terribly excessive either. There's four weekly magazines I read, plus two-three monthly magazines. But I blame the internet. Dammit, Al Gore, Al Gore - so much to answer for.
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Beth Lisick's husband was the engineer for the new Blackbirds material, so we got a lot of insight into "the year of self help"!
My reading time is largely cut into by watching sports and band related activities. I'd get a lot more read if I didn't this dumb "job" thing! Of course then i'd be sleeping in a park and reading free Star Trek novels...
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Fun House was really good and A. Bechtel is a genius.
And my pop culture consumption mirrors 2fs. It doesn't seem like a lot until you tabulate it all.
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Well, we no longer have a "TV," if "TV" is defined as "device for receiving surface or cable television." We have a monitor for our DVD player. But the real reason I read very few books during 2007 (10 of 'em: granted that one was Pynchon's latest, while another was nearly as big: the last book in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle) is that I spent too much time typing and otherwise diddling around on computers (sometimes productively, sometimes less so). I saw 50 movies, almost all on DVD, which is less than one per week; we also watched probably 3 or 4 TV series during the course of the year on DVD, so that's not terribly excessive either. There's four weekly magazines I read, plus two-three monthly magazines. But I blame the internet. Dammit, Al Gore, Al Gore - so much to answer for.