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

[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.