Medieval Bookworm

Well, I didn’t do very well with posting on my blog during this particular Read-a-thon, did I? I saw quite a few people posting on Tumblr and then linking their updates back to a main post, and I think I might just do that next time. I checked in on Twitter every so often and I’m looking forward to going around and seeing how everyone did a bit later on this afternoon.

My time zone in the UK makes the Read-a-thon’s hours a little bit awkward; it officially runs from 1 pm on Saturday to 1 pm on Sunday. There is simply no way that I can stay up all night and then until 1 pm, much less go to work on Monday, so I’ve never actually tried, but I like that I still get to spend Sunday morning reading away and generally getting one last book in before the event is over. It’s even easier now that my schedule seems to ensure I’m up around 7 or 7:30 on the weekend, so I had hours to read Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire and try to make some progress in The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark.

That makes now perfect to answer the questions around the End of Event meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?

I suppose the hour in which I fell asleep, which was around my 11 pm. I have no stamina these days, especially not after waking up early and taking a driving theory test, so it’s something of a surprise that I didn’t fall asleep at 9!

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?

My choices were all good until the last book – I always go for short books that I know I can read quickly. This time fantasy was all I managed to read.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

Nope!

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?

I’m not sure I spent enough time on the website or doing any of the challenges to notice – I liked how visible the hosts were on Twitter, though, when I did pop in to check.

5. How many books did you read?

Two full books and parts of two more.

6. What were the names of the books you read?

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones, Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire, and The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark.

• 7. Which book did you enjoy most?

Probably Midnight Blue-Light Special although I also really liked the first two. No stand-out loves.

• 8. Which did you enjoy least?

I’m really struggling with The Sleepwalkers. It’s all about the origins of World War I and I’m finding it incredibly difficult to keep up with the parts about eastern Europe. I simply don’t know the region or any of the history which makes it slow going for me.

9. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

I hope to still be reading!

Now I’m off to write some reviews, hopefully, so that this blog doesn’t stay silent this week, and check out some posts.

Did you read or cheer this time around? How did you do?

I wish I could share some adventures with you this week, Saloners, but sadly the weather here is still firmly stuck in winter and we haven’t much felt like going anywhere. Well, that’s not true; I’d happily travel somewhere, but having started a new job, opportunities for longer holidays are few and far between for a couple of months. The spring cleaning fever has hit us without the spring, though; we spent Monday night on a trip to Ikea and now our house is full of boxes and things pulled out of their places to be reorganized. No bookshelves this time, although like most book lovers I am perpetually running out of space for the many books that seem to find their way into my home. Nope, this time we are reorganizing the bedroom, but in the middle of building a bunch of furniture, my husband overdid it and now we’ve got boxes lying around for a week or so while he recovers.

I did have something unusual happen to me this week, though; on the train on Thursday morning, I spotted an unoccupied seat and without thinking, sat down. Next to me was a Japanese man who proceeded to chat to me about the weather in York, the daffodils which sadly haven’t come up yet (remember last year?) and then asked if I liked roses. He proceeded to whip out a piece of colored paper and created this:

I was so impressed! The rose now lives on my desk at work, a nice little reminder that complete strangers can surprise you with their generosity and friendliness.

In bookish news, I finished two completely different books:  The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, which I loved up until the ending, and The Devil’s Heart by Cathy Maxwell, the last of the Chattan curse trilogy, which was okay. I’m now in the middle of Four Sisters, All Queens by Sherry Jones, which is dragging considerably in the second half of the middle after an engaging beginning. I hope it picks up by the end.

And now I’m off to go practice driving and recycle some of the boxes that are littering my house. I hope you all have lovely weeks and that spring arrives very soon!

Good morning, Saloners! I appear to have decided this week that structure is the answer to all of my woes, and that if only I can organize things in my life a little bit better, I’ll be more able to achieve some of the goals that have been lingering in my life.

I started with blogging and reading, and you’ve actually already seen evidence of this. I am rigidly scheduling how I’m working on this blog to prevent myself getting overwhelmed by feeling like I’m not posting enough. Reviews on Tuesdays and Thursdays and a Sunday Salon post on Sunday (heh, surprise) are what I’ve decided is enough to keep my blog active but not so much that I’m overwhelmed or don’t have time to write the posts. That also gives me plenty of time to post anything else I would like, should I have a desire to do so, like pictures or quotes or anything at all. It also seems to have translated into some extra time spent commenting, which I’ve been trying to get myself to do for aaaages.

In reading terms, I set out my goals earlier this month, and I’m sticking to them so far, at least in that I’ve read two older books already and I’m on the first non-fiction one now. I made a Google Calendar with the days that I have promised reviews so that I don’t forget, and I’m even reading the first review book I’ve scheduled in that way now.

With some of the other goals I’d like to achieve in my life, I’m still trying to be organized. I’m setting aside an hour each weekend to work on my Russian, I’m writing 500 words of fiction a day (and I’m actually doing well with this, incredibly, but it isn’t many words), and I’ve signed up for a bunch of free online classes staggered out over the year via Coursera because I miss learning, I miss history in particular, and I can’t yet afford or know if I’m going to devote the right amount of time to a paid class. I’m also in the process of learning to drive, as I think I mentioned before, with 2 hours a week of that. I’m hoping to pass by the end of March.

It’s all a little eerie and I’m wondering how long it’s going to last until I burn out, but I don’t feel too restricted, yet. The part I’m most encouraged about is the writing. I often feel I’m producing absolutely terrible stuff, but I’m trying to remind myself that even if I am, at least I’m writing something and practice is what I need more than anything else. I think I’ll manage as long as I still feel I have enough free time to do whatever else I feel like on a regular basis – gaming or reading a different book or spending some of the weekend going walking.

In reading news, I’m about halfway through Guns, Germs, and Steel, which I mentioned starting last week. I’m finding some of it more of a slog than I expected; there were about 100 pages on farming and how that impacts the rise of civilization with various tables and charts and it was a little bit more than my post-work brain could handle. Fortunately, I’ve made it to germs now, so I’m hoping I can give it a little more brainpower this week and finish it by the end of the month on Thursday. I’m also reading Shadow on the Crown by Patricia Bracewell, which is proving to be good historical fiction so far, and after that I’ll start one of my last two books for Long-Awaited Reads month, probably Carter Beats the Devil.

How is January turning out for all of you?

2012 was not my greatest reading year in purely numerical terms; in fact, it was my slowest reading year since I started blogging. I completed a total of 138 books, the lowest number since 2006. There are a few reasons for this. The primary one is really that a friend gave me a computer, which I’ve since upgraded almost entirely, and I’ve been spending a lot more time since April playing various games on my own and with others, rather than reading and reviewing as I thought I would. I also started to spend some regular time with friends and my husband and I had stretches of time where we watched a lot of episodes of TV shows at once (namely How I Met Your Mother and Babylon 5). I’m not disappointed by this, but it’s strange not to approach 200 books for the first time in so long!

This is also the first year that speculative fiction – science fiction and fantasy – have outweighed historical fiction and romance since I started keeping track of genres, with 56 of the former and 50 of the latter. I’ve known and said for a long while now that I’ve been moving away from historical fiction, and the numbers are finally showing those feelings to be correct. I read a lot of urban fantasy this year and I’m getting more and more interested in science fiction at last.

Like last year, I haven’t borrowed any books from the library; the two books that I did read which were borrowed were from my mother and someone at work (I refused to purchase Fifty Shades of Grey). I’ve been working full-time all year and am now very comfortable buying whatever I feel like reading at any given time, within reason obviously, and I’d rather buy a book than pay a library fine. I also read nearly 62% of my own books, which is a higher number than since I started getting review copies. I stuck with my high percentage of female authors, around 68% this year.

If I’m disappointed by anything, it’s the low number of non-fiction books I read, just 18. That was one of last year’s goals and one that I spectacularly failed. Despite loving most history that I read, I seem to regularly decide that I don’t have the brain power for it and leave it to the side.

So! What would I like to accomplish with this year of reading?

1. Read more non-fiction. Surprise, surprise – rather than letting these collect dust on bookshelves, as they have this year, I’d like to actually start making progress with history. I’m going to start with an aim of reading 20 books, to at least go over this year’s 18, but more would be brilliant.
2. Read older books. This is another goal from last year that completely languished. I read 35 books that I got before 2012 in that year. Only 7 of those, however, were acquired before 2011, and in reality, I acquired well over half of my unread book collection before 2011, so I’m basically not touching those books at all. I don’t want that to continue. I’d like to set a goal of reading at least 1 book acquired before 2011 every month. Small, but progress.
3. Be prompter at reviewing. I read less now, so I don’t have much excuse when my to-be-reviewed pile starts to stack up. I’m going to aim to review at least two books I read a week, which is close-ish to how many I read in total, and I won’t stress about which books I do and don’t review (unless they are review copies, of course). If it’s an urban fantasy series, I’ll probably continue not to review books after the first in the series, for example. I’m okay with reading even fewer books if I can get better with my blogging again.

Otherwise, I’m going to stick to what I’ve been doing, reading mostly my own books but keeping relatively up-to-date with my review copies. I’m happy with the quality and the variety of what I’ve been reading.

My non-reading goal is actually to get into the habit of writing fiction every day. I’ve set a goal of 500 words a day, and we’ll see how I do with sticking to that. I’m not trying to get anywhere with it, not yet, just trying to condition myself to actually do it.

What are your reading goals for 2013?