reading meme!
Dec. 31st, 2013 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silverflight8I stole this from cloudsinvenice without asking so you should go read her entry first --> http://cloudsinvenice.livejournal.com/43998.html.
==
1. How many books did you read this year?
I finished 38 books :(
a) fic
b) time
I should run a regression on how many books I read:
books = α + β1(hours at work) + β2(hours of other work) + β3(words of fic read) + β4(number of visits to library) + ε
alpha is clearly > 0.
β1(hours at work) < 0 because I can't read at work
β2(hours of [things I have to do]) < 0 also.
β3(ln(words of fic read)) < 0, because more fic = less novels
β4(number of visits to library) > 0 because more visits to library = more books read
I suspect that β2(hours of other work) has the greatest impact, honestly. Significant! Very significant! Also, I'm debating "β5" which would stand for the time I'm spending reading Les Mis because it's consumed half my reading time and I am still 49% through it, according to Moon+ reader (Marius has only just joined les amis de l'ABC).
I am really actually tempted to do this. I can run a regression pretty easily, I can see how many pages of books (I don't think "# of books read" would be as informative) I read a week, compile a couple weeks' worth of data, and stuff it into Excel (no more STATA, boo). Then kapow! Actual numbers instead of alphas and betas everywhere.
Except, of course, omitted variable bias...but whatever. I can't be bothered to use 2SLS or IV.
ANYWAY.
2. Fiction to Non-Fiction Ratio?
I generally include only fiction, but I did include Freakonomics by Levitt this time.
3. Male/Female authors?
17 single works by female authors
18 single works by male authors (...ten of which were Garth Nix but anyway)
2 which were written by men and women together
1 which was written by multiple people--some anonymous but most likely men (collection of medieval fabliaux)
4. Books by People of Color?
I have no idea...?
5. Books in translation/a second language?
I'm still in the midst of Les Miserables but it's not on the list because I'm not done. So it doesn't count. Er, the fabliaux I guess. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.
6. How many were borrowed from the library?
All but Siddhartha (borrowed from a friend) and Freakonomics, borrowed from my mother.
7. Oldest book?
Fabliaux for sure.
8. Newest book?
I gather that Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons is the most recent? Although I'm halfway through Kate Elliott's Cold Steel (summer 2013) but I'm not done :(
9. Longest book title?
A Natural History of Dragons I think.
10. Shortest book title?
Aenir by Garth Nix.
11. Most by any one author?
Eight by Garth Nix /o\
12. Favorites?
*Among Others by Jo Walton (historical/modernish)
*Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis (mythology? historical?)
*The Thief by Megan Whalen-Turner (fantasy)
*Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman (fantasy)
13. Least Favorite?
I generally ditch books I hated (DNF with great prejudice!) so that Agatha H and the Airship novel (terribad) doesn't count. Guns of Avalon (confusing and uneven). Lots of really good books this year.
14. How many were rereads?
Quite a few, actually, especially like the six books that comprise The Seventh Tower.
15. Favorite character?
This is an impossible question.
16. Favorite scene?
The one where Lewis titledrops Till We Have Faces. That was amazing.
17. Favourite quote?
Ditto.
18. Most inspirational in terms of your own writing?
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. I really liked the Ludovician and other thought sharks, and I enjoy the way he layers description. Lewis' is my favourite but he is out of my league. And I think my own journaling is way too close to Mori Phelps' (Among Others) to be inspirational; it was a bit strange actually.
19. Which would you read again?
I reread a lot. Most of them I would quite willingly reread. Most are because I thought they were meh (e.g. Agents of Change, as much as I wanted to like it), or because I didn't like them much (Spindle's End's ending).
==
(If you want to do this meme, here's a little textbox.)
==
1. How many books did you read this year?
I finished 38 books :(
a) fic
b) time
I should run a regression on how many books I read:
books = α + β1(hours at work) + β2(hours of other work) + β3(words of fic read) + β4(number of visits to library) + ε
alpha is clearly > 0.
β1(hours at work) < 0 because I can't read at work
β2(hours of [things I have to do]) < 0 also.
β3(ln(words of fic read)) < 0, because more fic = less novels
β4(number of visits to library) > 0 because more visits to library = more books read
I suspect that β2(hours of other work) has the greatest impact, honestly. Significant! Very significant! Also, I'm debating "β5" which would stand for the time I'm spending reading Les Mis because it's consumed half my reading time and I am still 49% through it, according to Moon+ reader (Marius has only just joined les amis de l'ABC).
I am really actually tempted to do this. I can run a regression pretty easily, I can see how many pages of books (I don't think "# of books read" would be as informative) I read a week, compile a couple weeks' worth of data, and stuff it into Excel (no more STATA, boo). Then kapow! Actual numbers instead of alphas and betas everywhere.
Except, of course, omitted variable bias...but whatever. I can't be bothered to use 2SLS or IV.
ANYWAY.
2. Fiction to Non-Fiction Ratio?
I generally include only fiction, but I did include Freakonomics by Levitt this time.
3. Male/Female authors?
17 single works by female authors
18 single works by male authors (...ten of which were Garth Nix but anyway)
2 which were written by men and women together
1 which was written by multiple people--some anonymous but most likely men (collection of medieval fabliaux)
4. Books by People of Color?
I have no idea...?
5. Books in translation/a second language?
I'm still in the midst of Les Miserables but it's not on the list because I'm not done. So it doesn't count. Er, the fabliaux I guess. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.
6. How many were borrowed from the library?
All but Siddhartha (borrowed from a friend) and Freakonomics, borrowed from my mother.
7. Oldest book?
Fabliaux for sure.
8. Newest book?
I gather that Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons is the most recent? Although I'm halfway through Kate Elliott's Cold Steel (summer 2013) but I'm not done :(
9. Longest book title?
A Natural History of Dragons I think.
10. Shortest book title?
Aenir by Garth Nix.
11. Most by any one author?
Eight by Garth Nix /o\
12. Favorites?
*Among Others by Jo Walton (historical/modernish)
*Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis (mythology? historical?)
*The Thief by Megan Whalen-Turner (fantasy)
*Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman (fantasy)
13. Least Favorite?
I generally ditch books I hated (DNF with great prejudice!) so that Agatha H and the Airship novel (terribad) doesn't count. Guns of Avalon (confusing and uneven). Lots of really good books this year.
14. How many were rereads?
Quite a few, actually, especially like the six books that comprise The Seventh Tower.
15. Favorite character?
This is an impossible question.
16. Favorite scene?
The one where Lewis titledrops Till We Have Faces. That was amazing.
17. Favourite quote?
Ditto.
18. Most inspirational in terms of your own writing?
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. I really liked the Ludovician and other thought sharks, and I enjoy the way he layers description. Lewis' is my favourite but he is out of my league. And I think my own journaling is way too close to Mori Phelps' (Among Others) to be inspirational; it was a bit strange actually.
19. Which would you read again?
I reread a lot. Most of them I would quite willingly reread. Most are because I thought they were meh (e.g. Agents of Change, as much as I wanted to like it), or because I didn't like them much (Spindle's End's ending).
==
(If you want to do this meme, here's a little textbox.)
no subject
Date: Jan. 1st, 2014 03:26 am (UTC)fic reading has the absolute biggest impact on me. i'm like, hmm, this book is heavy and requires much more effort to turn pages than reading fic on my computer! although now that i have started using ibooks on my computer i am ... kind of evening that out. a bit. more when i know i am going to be waiting in multiple places i don't want to carry my computer because i can read also on my phone and it & computer magically talk and know where i am! it's brilliant. (gone are the days of "okay i will pretend to be female and i will carry this purse because my book fits in it and still leaves my hands free." now i just use my regular pockets like regular and still have several books with me! technology as gender confirmation: this is a weirder example than most.)
i don't keep track of my reading nearly as well as i should. (especially considering that one of my 101 in 1001 goals is reading a certain number of books and i totally have no idea; i'm trying to remember what i read and haha half of that is looking here for book recs to see what i picked up.) also that my nonfiction attention span ... i shouldn't divide it like that. most of the nonfiction i read is not "here is a story with characters", and that is significantly more difficult to stick with than story with characters. also, quite often i want familiar characters, so i reread or i start a series (because they become familiar and then there are more books!) or i read fic.
okay, i want to rec you a book! i read it because it was free in the scifi/fantasy section on ibooks but it is the first of a series and i have not acquired the rest of the series through a combination of not paying and not finding in any of my available libraries (and that's a lot, actually, seeing as i borrow from sister and mother and father libraries when i feel like it) but i really enjoyed the first one! and a very quick read, for me; i was quite sucked in and captured.
but i guess you want the title and author? open minds by susan kaye quinn. telepathy! social outcasts! hints of political intrigue without overwhelming my brain!* a pretty girl with blue eyes on the cover! what's not to love?
*political intrigue. i love it in theory but in actuality, i have a very low tolerance. i really enjoy, say, a story with a firm background in political maneuvering but that is not about the politics. that can't be the number one priority in the main character's mind. (or, if there are several main or POV characters, um, y'know, balance that shit out etc. i am thinking here of the shadow series by card, which i am audiobooking lately for no apparent reason. there's a lot of politics driving the story, but the main pov character is bean, and it's not about the politics for him. the politics totally inform his actions, but he's not focused on politics for politics' sake. aaaand now i feel like umbridge.)
also because i am rambling pointlessly about you, massive ensemble casts and huge timeframes for plots! multigenerational plots! um, that guy who writes about cathedrals being built, do you know. anyway i used to utterly adore this sort of book but now i find that i cannot brain them anymore. i can't even reread successfully. it makes me very sad, because i remember loving this kind of book and even this exact book but then i cannot keep track of it anymore. damn my brain. i can't find a substitute either for that, for the sweeping awesomeness that i can intellectually handle. see also: i cannot read lotr anymore because i cannot keep track of it. i know that story so, so, so well! and like, i can pare my attention and keep track of the fellowship members and nobody else. but then i'm like "who the hell are you and why do i care that you just died" and it really detracts from the story, yeah? i can't even watch the movies with attention because i can't brain them, and i know they pared down in adapting. "you are not one of the three elves i can remember therefore WHY THIS DRAMATIC SCENE." it is so frustrating to read or watch and remember how it felt but not understand to be able to feel anymore.
i feel like at this point the only reason i know so many hp characters is because fic. (but lawd so often i'm like "waaaaaait a second is that canon?" haha. i am currently rereading an old favorite and also the books and it is pretty amazing how much my personal fanon is informed by this one fic! anyway i could ramble about hp fic forever if you would let me; my sister and i are having some quite interesting thoughts together.)
no subject
Date: Jan. 1st, 2014 04:10 am (UTC)There's ebooks (which is how I'm reading Les Mis, i.e. like four pages at a time when waiting!) But fic also has the id fic factor--some of it hits all my buttons right away, straight up, no build-up required. Books are usually more satisfying in the long-run though.
I know what you mean with non-fiction. I used to only read fiction because fiction pulls you back and makes you want to keep reading, and non-fiction has no such hook.
That's why I keep an Excel spreadsheet! One day I picked up a book and thought it looked familiar and yes, it was the same book I'd read before...yeah. But sometimes I don't update it as much as I should; I think I'm missing a few here.
Don't feel like Umbridge that's horrible, although I guess it says something about
my hp fic readingme that I knew exactly what you meant >.<I guess...yeah, perhaps? Like political intrigue usually means, I think, that the author has thought a lot about what impacts small things at the top have at the bottom (usually...?) and how people will act to preserve their interests (plausible characterization?) But endless politicking wearies me too. It seems very, hm, inconsequential when you just sign things into law or change codes or appoint people or whatever. I'd rather see the big impact! That's more interesting. (Does this paragraph even make logical sense?)
I don't like big books with multigenerational casts; they invariably leave me feeling very old and sad and like life is passing away and pip I am actually quite young and it's ridiculous that I feel like this so I avoid them. Yeah. I also get attached to characters so I don't enjoy POV shifts. And they can't swordfight when they're eighty, which is sadly disappointing.
Awww :( Although there are piles of characters in LotR and Tolkien generally (thing that confuses me about Hobbit fandom: emphasis on the individual dwarves. Um, I love The Hobbit but all the dwarves are pretty much interchangeable? Except Bofur and Thorin obviously, and maybe the younger Fili and Kili, but that's about it! But people are all fannish about individual dwarves and I'm kind of ??? about it all. I guess three movies worth of characterization probably helps. ANYWAY!)
I have those moments of "canon or fanon?" too. Usually when I've read one too many fic. I really like re-reading HP; it's funnier than I remember usually--Harry is really sarcastic sometimes and it's so great--but yeah!
Sometimes I fight in real life with people about HP because it's just about the only book we have in common /o\
no subject
Date: Jan. 1st, 2014 04:21 am (UTC)READ FOREVER. FIC TO END OF WORLD!
you are i believe younger than me! i like multigenerational that are set in a very different time period. like building cathedrals! or colonizing vast numbers of galaxies! but i think i would have your feels in a more similar timeline to my actual life.
albus dumbledore could probably swordfight at eighty. idk, could he ever swordfight? seems like he should. lucius malfoy, then.
three movies, i just. i can't. i saw the first and now i'm like "nope, no more, this is getting ridiculous" and all the reviews of "they are making things up to make it longer!" and, no.
i wish for self-updating spreadsheets. or a memory that works. either one!
<3
no subject
Date: Jan. 2nd, 2014 04:39 pm (UTC)Oh that reminds me of a book that inverarity reviewed which spans the beginning of humanity to present day through a few famailies in England. It sounds epic and totally wild: http://inverarity.livejournal.com/226530.html I correct myself. "Paleolithic to 1980" (!!!!)
I am in awe.
But I don't want to read it.
Oh boy, he could! But Albus Dumbledore is exceptional. Lucius would like jab his cane at people :P
I knoooww and the thing is the Hobbit is supposed to be a lighter story than Lord of the Rings. The latter is well-suited to expansions--it's an epic. But expanding the Hobbit is missing what the Hobbit is like! It's "There and Back Again"!
I shouldn't criticize since it's obvious people are having fun with it and I'm sure the visuals are amazing (it is my favourite part about movies--the pretty pictures. This is probably why I also like My Little Pony.)
Or both at once! I want like a "download from BRAIN" function. That'd make writing so much easier :P
<3333