Now Reading in the Old Year

[gogo]

I just finished up my "read in 2008" tallies. It turns out I read a lot of books - even though I know that for at least a solid month I didn't pick up any reading material. How many books do people usually read in a year?

 

 

I read 24 last year (I know this only because I kept track). I felt like I got sort of lazy about reading during some parts of last year, though, so I'm aiming for 50 this year. I also want to try to use our local library more, since we've got a good one and I never take the time to go.

 

Speaking of the 33 1/3 series, did anybody else submit a proposal this time around? I have no idea if I have a chance, but I figured I'd go ahead and write a proposal anyway.

 

 

I read a lot less for fun when I'm in school. According to my GoodReads account I read 10 for fun and 10 for school. Then there's the hundreds of pages of articles I read. Still, pretty pathetic. I took one class this Fall semester. That's no excuse for how little I read the first eight months of the year.

 

Just ordered my books for class last night (taking two this semester.) There's 17 of them. That means I'd better hurry and finish what I'm now reading, because it won't get touched until May once the semester starts:

[gogo]

OK, I come up with about 60 for the year, not counting children's books, graphic novels, and a few that I re-read (I love a good breezy re-read for vacation!).

 

I need a better way to count them, though. I've never really kept a list. I think I'll add whatever I finish in 2009 to a list on the facebook Visual Bookshelf thing, keep track that way.

[Preferred B]

I read 77, counting children's books and rereads. So we probably had a very similar total. I just keep a list that I update when I finish a book. I do use Facebook's visual bookshelf, but sometimes I read a book that isn't found ... or a book I don't want to publicly admit I just read. (Until the end of the year, apparently.)

[myboyblue]

George Pelecanos - King Suckerman

[cryptique]

I got this as a gift and will start it soon:

 

[Preferred B]

Oh yeah.

 

Finally getting around to this one I bought in Auckland last year.

 

Also just started:

My first Faulkner.

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

That's about as good as Faulkner gets, so that's a good place to start. I've been meaning to read As I Lay Dying for quite awhile.

 

I'm a little over 300 pages into the Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara, which I started in the middle of last month. I found it at a used bookstore a few years ago but never felt brave enough to tackle it before now. It's been hit or miss, which is the way it usually goes when it's everything a poet has ever written, but there have been quite a few poems that have really wowed me, so it's been worth the effort.

[gogo]

I've only read Go Down, Moses, but I loved it, and I keep meaning to read more Faulkner. My schedule's kind of busy with reading trash, though.

 

Also want to read Frank O'Hara, that's been on my list for a while.

[Scalzunfield]

I'm re-working my way through all of TC Boyle's novels at the moment. Such a wonderful writer who has a mastery of the English language and a masterful plot in virtually every book.

 

I'm not sure how many I read in 2008 but I'd put it somewhere in the 25-35 books range. I go through spurts where I'll read 400 pages in a day (see: last weekend) and then where I don't touch a book for days (see: this weekend).

[Lammycat]

Finally on the last 50 pages or so of that second Leif Enger book, So Brave, Young, and Handsome.

 

Next up:

The Legal Limit, Martin Clark

and

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche

[Sir Stewart]

I average probably 3-4 books a year.

[Lammycat]

I average probably 3-4 books a year.

I'm about the same, these days. Maybe just a bit higher. How people find the time to read 20, 25+ books/year stuns me.

 

My ability (read: time) to knock books out has diminished greatly the past year. When I read in bed before sleep - my favorite time/place to do so- I am often asleep within 2-5 pages.

[gogo]

A good chunk of my reading gets done on my commute (1 to 1-1/2 hours a day, total). Also, I never mind in the least when a flight I'm on gets delayed, as I do a ton of reading in airports (and on the plane, of course), too.

 

I find that I can concentrate on one thing at a time, whether it's books, or music, or whatever. So I'll go months without picking up a book because I have a bunch of new music on my ipod, or I'll listen to no music at all for a few weeks when I'm trying to catch up on episodes of a podcast I like, that kind of thing. So this year, when I was away from my computer for several months in a row, I had nothing new on my ipod. Also, all of my books were boxed up, and there's nothing like a due date from the library to put a fire under your reading habits.

[Scalzunfield]

As a hourly employee I have a forced hour lunch and two 15-minute breaks per day. Therefore I end up with roughly 70 minutes a day at work to read. Depending on life outside work I have some time to read at home as well. When you figure I have somewhere between 5 and 6 hours a week at work to read a book, it's not hard to go through them fast, even for a medium-to-slow reader like myself.

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

I go through phases when I read a lot or when I read quickly, and sometimes it will take me months to finish one book. I spent probably three months at the beginning of the year slogging through The Satanic Verses. Parts of it really dragged for me, but once I start a book, I rarely just give up on it. Also, if I'm at a point in the semester where I'm reading a lot of drafts or grading a lot of papers, the last thing I want to do when I come home is pick up a book. I read a lot of poetry during the school year, which takes much less time to read than a novel or something like that and which is easier for me to break up into manageable chunks.

 

I'm starting to get back in the habit of reading for a half hour or so before bed. In fact, some nights I try to go to bed early just to get in a little extra reading. During semester breaks, I usually plow through books, as I have been in the last few weeks. I expect I'll read the last 200 pages of Frank O'Hara, then get through at least two or three more books before I go back to teaching on the 21st.

[Analogman]

I expect I'll read the last 200 pages of Frank O'Hara, then get through at least two or three more books before I go back to teaching on the 21st.

 

New York School of poetry -

 

He died the year I was born - ran over by a dune buggy on Fire Island.

[Good Old Neon]

Currently reading the following:

 

 

 

 

Just finished this:

 

[MattZ]

I am 100 pages into Infinite Jest right now and I could really use a pep talk. It's peppered with bits of genius on every page, clearly, but holy hell if this book isn't a complete mindfuck. I am guessing that I am right at the point where many folks throw in the towel.

[bleedorange]

I have three books I definitely want to read at the beginning of this year:

 

A Partisan's Daughter - Louis de Bernieres

 

Alphabet Juice - Roy Blount Jr.

 

John Lennon: The Life - Philip Norman

 

My biggest problem is finding the right time to start a book, because I want to be able to finish it quickly, rather than lose track of it (which happens too often).

[Good Old Neon]

I am 100 pages into Infinite Jest right now and I could really use a pep talk. It's peppered with bits of genius on every page, clearly, but holy hell if this book isn't a complete mindfuck. I am guessing that I am right at the point where many folks throw in the towel.

 

 

Hang in there

[MattZ]

Which character(s), plotline and/or time shift is troubling you at the moment?

 

Not sure. Nothing specifically, I guess. I read War and Peace last summer so I am not a guy who fears epics. I dont think it's any of the characters or plotlines, specifically.

 

I guess it's just that the book is so incredibly dense and detailed and all over the place. I feel like it can only be properly absorbed if I dedicate my entire being to it over a month (which I can't really do). Oh and James Incandenza's filmography? In a 6 page endnote? And when I finally finished that, and a few pages later, there was another 5 page footnote in a footnote to a footnote?!

 

If it all comes together (more or less), I will stick with it. It's clearly a very special book. Wish me luck.

[austrya]

Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

 

I read about 50 books, including some re-reads (Angela's Ashes, The Grapes of Wrath, The Little House on the Prairie series, the Crucible, The Good Earth).

 

I hope to read more in 2009!

 

On deck, I have Pride and Prejudice (re-read), The Corrections, The Pillar's of the Earth, and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, and another Jane Austen book that has 3 of her lesser known novels in it, but I can't remember which they are and I'm too lazy to look it up right now. After that I will be done with Jane Austen unless they unearth some book that was never published. A girl can only wish, right?

[jimmyjimmy]

Currently:

 

And Sarah Vowell's Wordy Shipmates

 

 

Probably got though a solid 30 or forty titles last year.

[LouieB]

Mason and Dixon....

 

( really need finish a few other books actually...)

 

LouieB

[Lammycat]

I am 100 pages into Infinite Jest right now and I could really use a pep talk. It's peppered with bits of genius on every page, clearly, but holy hell if this book isn't a complete mindfuck. I am guessing that I am right at the point where many folks throw in the towel.

Approx. at this point (100 pp. in) is where I've jumped ship on this book 3-4 times. Good luck. I hear it picks up. The book could really use a User's Guide to the footnotes....