Blogocentric Formulations

Wodehouse/WTMR Entry #2 - Books I've Read This Year

ACTIVITY: "a very Wodehouse challenge" 
GROUP AFFILIATION: "Welcome To My Reality Forum" 
PROMPT: Tell us about the books you've read this year. Do you change genres very often? How long does it take you to read a book? Is reading a chore or a last resort against boredom, or is it a much loved and anticipated part of your day?

                   

I'm actually having a pretty good reading year so far. Grouped by genre, the books I've finished since January 1st are:

NONFICTION
         Game Frame: Using Games as a Strategy for Success by Aaron Dignan
         Madboy: Tales from the Mad, Mad World of Advertising by Richard Kirschenbaum
         The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life) by Chris Hardwick
         The Pixar Touch by David A. Price

GENERAL FICTION
         A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy O'Toole
         Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor

MYSTERY FICTION
         Blue Monday by Nicci French
         Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
         The Informationist by Taylor Stevens

SCIENCE FICTION
         Deadlocked by A.R. Wise
         The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
         METAtropolis by Jay Lake

FANTASY FICTION
         The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
         Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
         A Quick Bite by Lynsay Sands
         The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
         Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman
         The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
         The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
         Low Town by Daniel Polansky

EROTIC FICTION
         The Juliette Society by Sasha Grey
         "Seven Days of Service"   [XGC] by Hatsuda

CHILDREN'S/YA
         Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
         Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
         Divergent by Veronica Roth
         Looking for Alaska by John Green

Looking at the breakdown of books I've read so far (and considering that the two books I'm currently reading are also in that genre), fantasy seems to be far and away my genre of choice this year. It's not uncommon for me to focus on one particular genre for a period of time and then move on to the next; my 2013 reading list was dominated by children/young adult titles and comics, while 2012 was mostly a year of nonfiction, etc. I have no doubt that my sudden interest in fantasy will give way to a different genre obsession at some point in the future.

I usually end up changing my genres of focus every six months to a year or so. I read plenty of other books in the meantime, but there usually ends up being a shift after half a year where I lose interest in reading the same type of thing and instead find my interests piqued by something else. As far as length of time it takes to read a book, it really varies. Most of my "reading" I do by listening to audiobooks during the three to four hours I typically spend commuting each day. I also listen to the books and 1.5x or 2x speed because I find regular speed to be tediously slow. Factoring in those audiobooks plus actual reading done on an e-reader or actual book and I'd say I probably read about a book a week. Sometimes I'll squeeze in two books a week if they're only a couple hundred pages, and others will take a long time to finish, as was the case with The Way Of Kings and The Wise Man's Fear which both weighed in at well over at thousand pages in the hardcover, and more than forty hours of reading time. Even listening to them at faster speeds, it still took weeks (plural) to finish each of those tomes.

For me, reading is relaxing and fun. I love both telling and listening to stories, so reading is only a chore when the subject matter is uninteresting to me. In most cases, watching or listening to a story unfold in a book is as entertaining for me as watching a movie or seeing a play. I don't necessarily read books every single day... sometimes I'll just read articles or comics or screenplays... but reading is an important part of my leisure time that I couldn't imagine doing without.