Medieval Bookworm

I don’t know about you, but this last part of winter is the absolute hardest. I’m completely ready for it to be spring, for the weather to warm up, and for cheery events to happen. Daffodil plants are poking through the soil all around York, but there aren’t any flowers yet. The past couple of weeks have felt like a real slog to me, made worse by the fact that mid-last week my husband came down with the flu. I thought I was ready for a quiet weekend at home, but it turns out I really wasn’t, and certainly not one where he isn’t up to much but resting.

In addition, I’m starting a new job a week from tomorrow, and this is my last week at my old work. I’ve been on my notice period since the beginning of January and I’m sure that the perceived change ahead is part of what’s driving my restlessness. I know something different is around the corner and I’ve never been a particularly patient person, which isn’t serving me well right now. I’m both looking forward to it and anxious about it.

I’m also starting to spend time planning our trips for this year. Ever since I went to Barcelona last October, I’ve decided that I want to see much more of Spain. I went with work, so I’ve decided to take my husband there since I liked it so much, and then to go much further south to Granada, one of the strongholds of Islam in Spain in the Middle Ages. I haven’t decided if we will be travelling anywhere else yet – the trip would be some months away – but I’m already looking forward to it, and planning travels keeps my mind off the fact that I’m stuck at home at present. I have no idea when we’ll go or if we’ll actually choose somewhere else this year, but I’m determined to go, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s that so I might as well start the planning.

Even reading hasn’t quite been pulling me out of my funk. I finished Blood’s Pride by Evie Manieri, which was great, but first I spent over a week reading The Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fay. It was a book that was okay, but never really called to me, and since then I’ve been looking for something more absorbing.

All of these are quite small gripes and I know that I have a lot to be grateful for – a new job in a poor economy, the possibility of travel, even just the shelves of unread books waiting to carry me away – but I know I’ll be happier when the sun comes out. In the meantime, I’m off to go choose something to read next.

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?

It feels as though, recently, the balance between acquiring ebooks and acquiring physical books has started to take shape in my house. I seem to acquire both, but distinctions are appearing regarding which books belong where.

I’ve actually physically run out of space for real books. I have four bookcases, two normal-size and two small-size. One of the normal size bookshelves is for books I’ve already read and intend to keep, while the other is for unread books. Both are full. One of the smaller ones is for hardcovers that I’ve read, or ones that I would like to read soon, and the other is for books I’d like to reread in the very near future, or series that I’ve liked a lot and want to see together all the time. All full. And I do keep buying books, when I get the opportunity. Having to move all of them, though, is a prospect that worries me, because it was difficult enough moving just the books I had a year and a half ago, and I know that when we do move again, which won’t be in the terribly distant future, all those books will present a problem.

This predicament has led to me buying more ebooks. If I want a book, and I’m not sure it’s a keeper, I tend to add the ebook to my wishlist, rather than the physical book. This is in part convenience, because I have made a rule for myself, which is that I do not buy physical books online, I only buy them in the store. I do buy ebooks online, obviously, as I have a Kindle, and I do buy US imports online, since I have no easy other way to get them, but I buy real, physical books in a real, physical store, because I want that store to stay there and buying cheap books from Amazon is not the way to accomplish that.

Anyway, back to my original point; in certain genres especially, I’m leaning towards ebooks quite heavily. Urban fantasy, for instance; the series take up space and my bookstore doesn’t tend to stock all of them at once. Romance, as well, because most of the ones I want are imports that aren’t on the shelves here anyway, and because I very rarely read them twice. Big books that are only available in hardcover? Ebook, to spare both my hands and unfortunately my wallet. This does lead to the interesting situation where I buy books twice, one ebook and one real book, because I like it so much I want to own it.

Leaning towards ebooks in any sense makes me feel vaguely uncomfortable, like I’m cheating on my masses of unread paper books. And reading an ebook doesn’t really confer the same satisfaction as taking a book off the shelves to read, so I actually find myself leaning towards reading physical books more often, where I can see a pile (temporarily) diminishing, even as I become more comfortable actually acquiring more ebooks. It’s a very strange situation that I can only imagine is going to evolve further.

Have you noticed a shift in your own preferences towards ebooks? Or away from them? Or do you still feel the same way you did when they first emerged onto the market? Let me know your thoughts!

Good morning Saloners! I come to you this morning a bit disappointed that I haven’t been able to join in the Read-a-thon this time around. I love sitting down with a stack of books and spending an entire day doing very little but reading them. And with my glacial reading pace at the moment, I really could have done with that boost for my totals. We have a houseguest, though, and I don’t plan to ignore her in favor of books, so no participation for me this time around.

This does mean, however, that we have an excuse to go to some of my favorite historic places since she’s never been to them. My husband has finally finished an exam he’s been studying for over the last two and a half weeks, and on weekends for about a month, so our weekends are ours again. Yesterday, we went to Fountains Abbey, which isn’t all that far away from where I live. It was a fairly chilly day, as we’re heading deeper into autumn, and so we didn’t have to contend with the crowds that my husband and I did on our last, warmer visit.

Might be where the monks stored their food but it’s certainly beautiful now.

The abbey itself

Down the aisle of the church.

Fountains Abbey is secluded in a valley and, after the Dissolution of Monasteries by everyone’s favorite Henry VIII, became part of an aristocratic estate which is now all owned by the National Trust. As a result, it still feels calm and peaceful, with a river trickling nearby and impressive later water gardens just past the abbey. Lovely spot on a sunny day, even a chilly one like yesterday.

In reading news, I only managed to finish one book this week, Fate’s Edge by Ilona Andrews. I have made a significant dent in Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow by Juliet Grey though, and you should expect a review of both this week.

Have a great week, everyone, and I hope you’re all reading wonderful books and enjoying the change in seasons!