Wednesday Reading Meme - July 31 2024
Jul. 31st, 2024 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitewithfishWhat I’ve Read
Fanfic – Bloodlines by LadyBundle – Dune II (film canon only) - https://archiveofourown.org/works/54258223 - I had been reading this Feyd/Paul omegaverse arranged marriage AU and it’s very id-fic for me. Delightful, mind the tags.
Some Desperate Glory – Xing Book Club (EDIT: I finished reading this today and I'm moving it up to the Read section.) I’m glad Sineala did such a good write up of this book’s structure, because while I’m enjoying it, I definitely would not have much patience with some of the internal issues. It’s got a firm divide between the first part (a bit adventure, a bit character study, lots of interesting space culture comparison) and the second part, which is alternate universes based on the main character’s attempt to a decision that she’s had to live with her whole life.
I like the main character a lot – Tesh shows her with an inherent emotional honesty. Kyr is a true believer in a deeply awful system and seems really really uncompromising, which makes her decision to really change things come from a place of internal conviction in a way that I find really compelling. I’ve got a bit more of the book to go, but I can confirm that I think this book got YA’d – it’s not marketed in that genre and does not have a stupid romance, but everyone here is young and flailing and dealing with the aftermath of decisions an older generation made. I don’t dislike that but it does feel just…young. Tesh does dig into some of the grosser sides of Kyr's cultural beliefs in the run-up to the book's finale, and the ending has a weirdly charming hopeful twist.
What I’m Reading:
The Saint of Bright Doors – Vajra Chandrasekera – Xing - static
Mo Dao Zu Shi - Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – Mo Xiang Tong Xiu – Part 5 – 23% - static
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York– Robert Caro – 31% (aka 9%of audiobook #2) - static
Conspiracy of Truths - This is my 'falling asleep' audiobook - I have read and re-read this book enough that I can set it up to fall asleep to. I'm sort of re-reading it? but not really? Not sure how to count this.
What I’ll Read Next
Two Towers! I have a road trip coming up so there will be some Tolkien in my life. It’s a accompaniment to a long drive.
Bury your gays – chuck tingle – purchased!
Space Between Worlds – Neocromancer’s Book Club
Hugo Nominees: I have lowered my expectations on this one - Translation State is the last book I am going to try to read before the actual Hugo ceremony.
Reading Goals Check-In - 7 months in
Fanfic – Bloodlines by LadyBundle – Dune II (film canon only) - https://archiveofourown.org/works/54258223 - I had been reading this Feyd/Paul omegaverse arranged marriage AU and it’s very id-fic for me. Delightful, mind the tags.
Some Desperate Glory – Xing Book Club (EDIT: I finished reading this today and I'm moving it up to the Read section.) I’m glad Sineala did such a good write up of this book’s structure, because while I’m enjoying it, I definitely would not have much patience with some of the internal issues. It’s got a firm divide between the first part (a bit adventure, a bit character study, lots of interesting space culture comparison) and the second part, which is alternate universes based on the main character’s attempt to a decision that she’s had to live with her whole life.
I like the main character a lot – Tesh shows her with an inherent emotional honesty. Kyr is a true believer in a deeply awful system and seems really really uncompromising, which makes her decision to really change things come from a place of internal conviction in a way that I find really compelling. I’ve got a bit more of the book to go, but I can confirm that I think this book got YA’d – it’s not marketed in that genre and does not have a stupid romance, but everyone here is young and flailing and dealing with the aftermath of decisions an older generation made. I don’t dislike that but it does feel just…young. Tesh does dig into some of the grosser sides of Kyr's cultural beliefs in the run-up to the book's finale, and the ending has a weirdly charming hopeful twist.
What I’m Reading:
The Saint of Bright Doors – Vajra Chandrasekera – Xing - static
Mo Dao Zu Shi - Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – Mo Xiang Tong Xiu – Part 5 – 23% - static
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York– Robert Caro – 31% (aka 9%of audiobook #2) - static
Conspiracy of Truths - This is my 'falling asleep' audiobook - I have read and re-read this book enough that I can set it up to fall asleep to. I'm sort of re-reading it? but not really? Not sure how to count this.
What I’ll Read Next
Two Towers! I have a road trip coming up so there will be some Tolkien in my life. It’s a accompaniment to a long drive.
Bury your gays – chuck tingle – purchased!
Space Between Worlds – Neocromancer’s Book Club
Hugo Nominees: I have lowered my expectations on this one - Translation State is the last book I am going to try to read before the actual Hugo ceremony.
Reading Goals Check-In - 7 months in
I had set myself a few goals for my reading in 2024: I wanted to read more long books, more nonfiction, and also to read 100 books total. I had intended to do a check in at 6 months, but, well, like a number of things this year, it got away from me. We are all human, after all. (If not, welcome to earth, please jump into the comments and say hello!) (EDIT: I finished a book so I went back and adjusted the stats here - I don't think anyone cares but me, but just in case you were confused!)
Why these goals?
-Long books are badass. Lol, not just that, but I feel like I will lose patience with longer books if I don't push a little bit, and there's a lot of good books out there in the world.
-I have a vague push to get more nonfiction into my reading because I truly think that there is some great investigative writing happening out in the world, and I won't read it unless I push myself a bit.
-I have tracked my reading for two years prior to this, and 100 felt like a comfy goal after last year, when I read 133 books, and the year before, when I started tracking and read 86 without much push.
Status, as of today:
- I have read 5 nonfiction books, compared to 8 for 2023 and 2 for 2022. It's 8% of my finished reading, which is a higher percentage than I have had before!
- I have finished 6 books over 500 pages, compared to 11 for 2023 and 7 for 2022 - 10% of my total reading. If I keep this level of nonfiction reading up, I will do very well on this goal, and would not push to have more nonfiction in my diet.
- I have read 59 books as of evening on July 31. That puts me very slightly over my target monthly reading to hit 100 total books for the year. (Technically, I need to read 8.33 books per month to get to 100, but we're rounding to whole numbers. I'm usually about halfway thru a book at any given time.) I did secretly wish to get ahead of last year's total number, but I will be content if I hit goal - the longer books go slower and the nonfiction the slowest of all, and I had some set backs this year that impacted my reading time due to recovery from my knee injury. A win's a win!
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