Happy New Year

[ironed_orchid]

As I've been scrolling through my reading page, I've seen a lot of year in review posts, and thought it might be nice to do something like that here for the reading each of us did in 2015.

If you're not sure where to begin, here are some starter questions/prompts (you can pick and choose, or just respond without referring to any of them)

How did you make time to read in 2015?

Did you read more or less than in previous years?

What were your reading highlights of 2015?

Did you reach any reading goals in 2015?

What made up the bulk of your reading in 2015? (e.g. novels, stories, fic, non-fiction, articles, social media, work related texts)

Where did you do most of your reading in 2015?

Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2016?

Wishing you a Happy New Year and hoping that 2016 brings many delightful things to read!

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

How did you make time to read in 2015?

I mostly read when I found the time, rather than carving out time for reading. I did continue my habit of not starting any new-to-me books until I had a day off, so that I could devour them in a single sitting if I felt like it.

Did you read more or less than in previous years? Less novels, probably more short stories and fic, and feels like a normal to me amount of social media and articles on the internet.

What were your reading highlights of 2015?

I really enjoyed The Girl with All the Gifts and the completion of the Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman, and the Parasitology trilogy by Mira Grant, in both cases I took the opportunity to re-read the earlier volumes.

I read more essays by Rebecca Solnit, who continued to say smart and true things.

What made up the bulk of your reading in 2015?

Mostly novels, and those were mostly from book series. A lot of re-reading of favourite authors.

Where did you do most of your reading in 2015?

At my computer desk and in bed. I tended to read social media on my commute.

Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2016?

I'd like to read more new-to-me books by new-to-me authors. Also more non-fiction.

[fred_mouse]

Good to hear that you enjoyed the Parasitology trilogy - I loved the first one, and am in the process of acquiring the other two (which will have to be for Feb reading)

[ironed_orchid]

I really enjoyed them. They didn't grip me in the same way Newsflesh did, but I loved Sal and the concept was fantastic.

[fred_mouse]

Which suggests to me that I should also try and acquire Newsflesh. The first of the parasitology books was the first book I had read in a single sitting in so long that I couldn't tell you want the previous one was. It is the science fiction I didn't know I had been hanging out for.

[ironed_orchid]

I highly recommend it, I would offer to lend my copies, but Feed is currently on loan to someone. I know some people are put off by the zombies, but it's not really about zombies, it's about politics and the news cycle and is set in a world where there are zombies.

[nanila]

Most of my reading time was in the bath.

Definitely read less than in 2014 due to losing the first six months to new baby who didn't like sleep.

Reading highlights were Ancillary Mercy and Sorcerer to the Crown.

My only reading goal was to start writing down what I read so I didn't feel like I wasn't reading. This comm helped me accomplish that.

Most of my reading was children's books and work related texts and social media. A few fics, a few novels. Lots of articles in Nature & The Economist.

Most of my reading was done on phone or computer.

I want to read more novels in 2016.

[ironed_orchid]

This community has helped me appreciate how much reading I do that is not novels or other full length books.

[nanila]

Huzzah!

BTW, I forgot to say thank you for putting this post up. I wasn't feeling the usual weekend posts, and this was both seasonally appropriate and inspiring.

[ironed_orchid]

With the holiday on a Friday, I felt like the whole weekend was a very extended Sunday. After a week that also consisted of lots of Sundays.

It might be nice to do a post reflecting on a year of bitesizedreading when the anniversary comes around in April.

[fred_mouse]

How did you make time to read in 2015?
- in the odd corners of my life. Sitting in the car while kids were at choir; sitting in the stands at the ice rink; hiding out at lunchtimes at work.

Did you read more or less than in previous years?
- According to Goodreads, I finished reading 39 books, 5 down on 2014. I think I read more generally on the internet than I had been, and was a little less reliant on fanfic to keep me from despair.

What were your reading highlights of 2015?
I discovered authors Ambellin Kwaymullina (1 novel finished, 2 more bought), Chimamandra Ngozi Adichie (1 novel finished) and Lois Lowry (1 novel finsihed, 3 more bought), and read a lot of short story collections. Also rediscovering the joy of slow reading something - I have a novel that I just read at lunch at work, and it happens to be paced just right for that.

Did you reach any reading goals in 2015?
my goal was to finish 52 books, so no. I did achieve a book related goal, which was to get all the piles of books out of my bedroom, so that I have a couple on the bedside table and some on the bookshelf. Much of this was a TBR pile that was growing faster than I can motivate myself to read books.

What made up the bulk of your reading in 2015? (e.g. novels, stories, fic, non-fiction, articles, social media, work related texts)
- stats textbooks, short story collections, fanfic, my collection of RSS feeds.

Where did you do most of your reading in 2015?
- In bed. this is a bad habit, and I have to rebreak it.

Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2016?
- 52 books by the end of the year; meet a reading related deadline by the end of January. Finish reading at least one of the stats textbooks I've bought for 'when I have time'. I'm never going to have spare time, I need to just make some.

[nanila]

"Hiding out at lunchtime at work" is a reading strategy I haven't employed. Thank you for mentioning it - I shall try it!

Ambellin Kwaymullina is the author you mentioned previously on this community, right? I've got "The Disappearance of Ember Crow" on my to-read list as a plan-ahead for Humuhumu when she's a bit older.

[ironed_orchid]

I used to get so much reading done when I worked 9-5 at Curtin University, between the long commute* and spending most of my lunch breaks sitting in a shady courtyard behind our building I got through lots of books.


*Long as in over an hour, not as in going from one city to another.

[fred_mouse]

I'm almost looking forward to the time when I get to do the bus/train/bus commute to work and back again. Unlikely in the next year or two (although, youngest's schedule might turn out to be conducive to both of us taking the train early), but certainly by the time youngest is in upper school, I should be getting it solidly a couple of days a week (or bike. either of these would be good)

[fred_mouse]

Hiding out at lunchtime has been a very useful strategy this year. I do try and have lunch with *someone* in the tea room at least once a week, but otherwhen, I'm trying to give myself permission to just recharge.

And yes, Kwaymullina is an author I've mentioned before. The one you mention is book 2, and being about halfway through it I would say that it will probably lack some of the important background that turns up in book 1. However, it is possible that the writing is strong enough that you won't notice that.

[normadesmond]

Hi! I just joined this comm because ironed_orchid told me to a while ago. :)

How did you make time to read in 2015?
I always include reading in my routine, so I always get at least a bit of reading done every day. Then, depending on the day, I'll read during my free time.

Did you read more or less than in previous years?
I read fewer books but overall I read more than I did in 2014. I read less than in other years, though.

What were your reading highlights of 2015?
I really liked a book about Art Deco and women, and Schiaparelli's autobiography.

Did you reach any reading goals in 2015?
I didn't set any.

What made up the bulk of your reading in 2015? (e.g. novels, stories, fic, non-fiction, articles, social media, work related texts)
Non-fiction books and non-fiction pieces posted online (like articles).

Where did you do most of your reading in 2015?
At home.

Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2016?
I want to read more books because I have a lengthy to-read list. That's it. I want to keep it low-pressure.

[ironed_orchid]

YAY!!!

We are all about low pressure in here.

[normadesmond]

This is why I joined! :D I'm trying to read more but I know I'd never stick to some kind of complicated challenge.

[ironed_orchid]

Which reminds me that I need to post today's prompt.

[jb_slasher]

How did you make time to read in 2015?
I actually made an effort to choose books over other media and I guess I did pretty good because it became a habit to read in bed before going to bed.

Did you read more or less than in previous years?
I read 51 books which is more than I've ever logged in a year.

What were your reading highlights of 2015?
There were a few books which really made my year. My favourites included the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Päivi Alasalmi's Metsäläiset. I'm sad the last one is not available in English because it would be my new rec-to-everyone book of choice.

Did you reach any reading goals in 2015?
I reached my initial reading goal of 29 books which was really my only goal.

What made up the bulk of your reading in 2015?
I mostly read novels, some work-related books, sadly not much fic or comics. Something to improve on this year.

Where did you do most of your reading in 2015?
I mostly read at home on the couch or in bed. As I said earlier, reading before going to sleep has become a nice little habit.

Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2016?
My resolution this year is to read at least 30 books, most of which I would hope to be from my own bookshelves which I have been neglecting for far too long.

[ironed_orchid]

Hurrah!

That sounds like a good result, and good goals for the year ahead.