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bitesizedreading2017-01-04 07:15 pm
ironed_orchid) wrote in bitesizedreading2017-01-04 07:15 pm
Entry tags:
Holiday Reading
It's that time of year where every day feels like a Sunday (or for those of us back at work, a Monday). So instead of the usual Wednesday Intended Reading post I thought I'd ask about your end of year/beginning of year reading and recycle some questions from last January.
Feel free to treat the following questions as prompts and answer as many or as few as you like.
How did you make/find time to read in 2016?
Do you think you read more or less than in previous years?
What were your reading highlights of 2016?
Did you reach any reading goals in 2016?
What made up the bulk of your reading in 2016? (e.g. novels, stories, fic, non-fiction, articles, social media, work related texts)
Where did you do most of your reading in 2016?
If you exchange gifts at this time of year, did you give or receive any good books?
Have you managed to get any reading done over the holiday period?
Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2017?
Feel free to treat the following questions as prompts and answer as many or as few as you like.
How did you make/find time to read in 2016?
Do you think you read more or less than in previous years?
What were your reading highlights of 2016?
Did you reach any reading goals in 2016?
What made up the bulk of your reading in 2016? (e.g. novels, stories, fic, non-fiction, articles, social media, work related texts)
Where did you do most of your reading in 2016?
If you exchange gifts at this time of year, did you give or receive any good books?
Have you managed to get any reading done over the holiday period?
Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2017?
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Do you think you read more or less than in previous years? Definitely more this year than last.
What were your reading highlights of 2016? I probably had the most fun reading Dear Committee Members and The Nightmare Stacks.
Did you reach any reading goals in 2016? I think I wanted to read more novels in 2016 than I did in 2015? I definitely managed that.
What made up the bulk of your reading in 2016? (e.g. novels, stories, fic, non-fiction, articles, social media, work related texts) Probably work-related texts, social media and magazine articles, in that order.
Where did you do most of your reading in 2016? In bed or in the bath.
If you exchange gifts at this time of year, did you give or receive any good books? Yup. My partner gave me The Good Immigrant, a collection of essays by British immigrants, which is excellent.
Have you managed to get any reading done over the holiday period? Not much apart from the above. I also read a book I got my partner, A Charm of Goldfinches & Other Collective Nouns, which is rather beautifully illustrated, and Trump Cats, given to me by brother-out-law.
Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2017? I'd like to read more than I did in 2015 and 2016. The Serial Reader app (h/t to
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Do you think you read more or less than in previous years? I hit 123, so that's a good 23 more than my usual point I strive for.
What were your reading highlights of 2016? I don't have my reading list handy. Maybe Far From You by Tess Sharpe? Most of what I read was romance or so-so. Oh, that biography of Marcel Proust was nice because it was accessible and I've never found an author I related to more.
Did you reach any reading goals in 2016? Yeah. I have a usual goal of 100 books and I surpassed it quite a bit.
What made up the bulk of your reading in 2016? (e.g. novels, stories, fic, non-fiction, articles, social media, work related texts) Romance het novels I get for free from where I work, romance (LGBT) novels to send to a friend, parenting anecdotes and books to research for a fic.
Where did you do most of your reading in 2016? Bed or *ahem* other places where I had free time.
If you exchange gifts at this time of year, did you give or receive any good books? I gave tons of books, though I didn't receive much last Christmas. I did buy quite a few books after Christmas, though. Mostly how-to and research stuff, though a few novels I thought might help research.
Have you managed to get any reading done over the holiday period? I got a decent amount done, considering how crummy my December was. I think I clocked in at 7 in the end.
Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2017? 100 default. If it hit it early, like I did last year, I'll go for stretch goals. Reading, it's going to be about the same. Finish up LGBT books to send to my friend, read a decent amount of nonfiction and focus largely on my own stuff to try and clean out my bookcase a bit. I moved in December and hauling all those books left me with quite a headache.
Especially as I added so many nonfiction. A lot of them probably won't be given away when I'm done, so I'll have to make a lot of room for them.
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I have resigned myself to hauling books (although now I'm back in my own place it's less of an issue). Sometimes the best solution is just to buy a new bookshelf ;-)
When I do cull books I find it much easier to cull fiction than non-fiction because the non-fiction may be handy for research or reference one day. Fiction on the other hand if I've read it and don't feel like I will read it again (and I do re-read a lot of my books), then it goes.
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Trains, planes and automobiles, predominantly, particularly the former two and including London Underground in trains. I got better about having books on hand to move when travelling where typing or internet surfing was less feasible.
b>Do you think you read more or less than in previous years?
More conventional books; probably about the same about in total if you include fanfic.
What were your reading highlights of 2016?
Rod Heikell, Sailing Ancient Seas and The Accidental Sailor
Did you reach any reading goals in 2016?
Keeping the online book-log going throughout the year?
What made up the bulk of your reading in 2016? (e.g. novels, stories, fic, non-fiction, articles, social media, work related texts)
I don't tend to count social media, online articles and work-related as reading, so this one's a bit difficult. Novels and fic, probably side by side, with non-fiction a long way behind, short stories almost nowhere.
Where did you do most of your reading in 2016?
In transit or in bed.
f you exchange gifts at this time of year, did you give or receive any good books?
I did indeed. Agatha a graphic novel detailing the life of Agatha Christie, and a number of spy novels by Anthony Price.
Have you managed to get any reading done over the holiday period?
See above.
Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2017?
To keep doing it.
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How did you make/find time to read in 2016? Reading is a built in part of my job. I'm more often looking for excuses not to read than reasons to read. My biggest battle this year has been reading paper books and reading on an electronic device.
Do you think you read more or less than in previous years? I’m not entirely sure about this. I read fewer books I think (I stopped keeping a list in about July) but I definitely read more pages if that makes sense.
What were your reading highlights of 2016? I read some awesome poetry this year. [Claudia Rankine, Rachel Barenblat, Yehoshua November (thanks Rachel!), Joy Ladin, and a large anthology called Troubling the Line.] Finally, I learned some dynamite Hasidic texts [mostly the Ba’al Shem Tov]. My study partner and I finished a big translation project during the last week of 2016.
Did you reach any reading goals in 2016? I don’t think I set any goals for last year’s reading. I wanted to read authors I hadn’t ever read before, and I did a good bit of that. I also wanted to read more fiction, and unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
What made up the bulk of your reading in 2016? (e.g. novels, stories, fic, non-fiction, articles, social media, work related texts) Hasidic text, poetry, social media, and non-fiction. I read little or no fiction this past year. Most of the Hasidic texts were work related, but I love my work so …
Where did you do most of your reading in 2016? If it was just me and a book or device, I probably read it sitting on the couch in the living room. If it was text or work related, most likely at the kitchen table where there’s room to spread out and have easy access to whatever resources I need.
If you exchange gifts at this time of year, did you give or receive any good books? No books, but I did receive a gift subscription for the digital NY Times.
Have you managed to get any reading done over the holiday period? See above about finishing a large translation project. I also read a couple of books about life in Queer San Francisco and New York in the 80s. Nothing in them pinged me as wrong, which was a pleasant surprise. (Yes, I am old enough to have actually been there.)
Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2017? Aside from a decision to read more fiction this year (a regularly resolution with mixed results) I don’t think so. I’d love to get back to writing a weekly poem though, so perhaps reading something[s] with an eye toward that? I have also embarked on a slow stroll through Shakespeare’s sonnets, which I haven’t done it far too long. If the sonnets resonate I’ll see about reading a few other cycles of them later in the year.
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I should also try to read more poems in 2017.
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Do you think you read more or less than in previous years? More, but still not enough.
What were your reading highlights of 2016? I really loved A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Did you reach any reading goals in 2016? I didn't set any!
What made up the bulk of your reading in 2016? (e.g. novels, stories, fic, non-fiction, articles, social media, work related texts) I read a lot of (long) articles, since they can be read in relatively little time and they exist about almost anything. I also read a lot of non-fiction.
Where did you do most of your reading in 2016? Home or public transportation.
If you exchange gifts at this time of year, did you give or receive any good books? No, but I did get money for books :)
Have you managed to get any reading done over the holiday period?Almost none :(
Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2017? Sort of, I'd like to be more diverse in my reading and read more short stories. And generally read more fiction, but I always say that and tend to gravitate to non-fiction anyway.
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Do you think you read more or less than in previous years? Slightly less in total, but slightly more new-to-me books and I re-read more stand alone novels rather series books.
What were your reading highlights of 2016? In fiction my favourites were The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, I am Providence by Nick Mamatas, and the Ancillary series by Ann Leckie. In non-fiction I continued to enjoy various articles by Rebecca Solnit (I still don't have her new book) and was also pleased to see Laurie Penny find her stride again when reporting on the US election and the rise of the Alt-Right.
Did you reach any reading goals in 2016? I don't think I set any. As usual I wanted to read more long form non-fiction, but mostly chose novels.
What made up the bulk of your reading in 2016? (e.g. novels, stories, fic, non-fiction, articles, social media, work related texts) Definitely novels and book series. I did read some great short fiction, and a couple of good anthologies. I followed some stories and hashtags on twitter for days, mostly to do with Australian politics but also lots about Brexit and the US election. My facebook page is 90% articles I linked to, so clearly I read a bunch of those ;-) Mostly they were mid-length pieces between 1 and 5 pages long on a variety of topics.
Where did you do most of your reading in 2016? In bed, at the computer, and on my phone during my commute.
If you exchange gifts at this time of year, did you give or receive any good books? I did not get a single book this year! I did give one photography book.
Have you managed to get any reading done over the holiday period?. Very little, mostly Yuletide fic. I did accidentally read a novel in a single sitting this week, but that was on a work night.
Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2017? Less comfort re-reading, more new books and new authors.
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Less comfort re-reading, more new books and new authors.
Same. I turned a lot to comfort reading/watching too, and I definitely want to be a bit more adventurous this year.
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Do you think you read more or less than in previous years?More professionally published fiction than I have in a few years, but I suspect I read about the same number of words - just more of them were fanfiction or facebook.
What were your reading highlights of 2016? I discovered the collections of 'The Wicked and the Divine' comics, Natasha Pulley's 'The Watchmaker of Filigree Street' (go read it. It's fabulous), Garth Nix's 'Newt's Emerald', Nnedi Okorafor's 'Binti'. Also some fabulous fic -- I'm particularly fond of Owlet's 'This You Protect' and the sequel, as well as rereading ellen_fremedon's 'Twenty Year Man'..
Did you reach any reading goals in 2016?Kind of. At the beginning of the year, I asked people to recommend books that they thought that I should have read. I received over 40 recommendations, and I've read ten -- these were the easiest ones to get hold of. I'm still working through that list.
What made up the bulk of your reading in 2016? (e.g. novels, stories, fic, non-fiction, articles, social media, work related texts)Too much facebook. At the beginning of the years, it was spec fic short story collections/anthologies, because I was reading for a specific task. And 'read outside my comfort zone' was definitely there, and something I did a lot of.
Where did you do most of your reading in 2016?In bed, anywhere I was sitting down for more than two minutes and not crafting.
If you exchange gifts at this time of year, did you give or receive any good books?Certainly exchanged books. Haven't read the one I got, but the rest of the family seem to be pretty happy with their haul.
Have you managed to get any reading done over the holiday period?Yes! Lots! I had a ten day break from work, and spent a reasonably bit of time reading -- a couple of Pratchett, two more from my recommended reading challenge, at least two other books.
Do you have any reading related resolutions or goals for 2017?Finish all the books that I've started. Record this in Goodreads. Do the extra reading that I identified during the course I did last semester. Try and actually hit the 52 books target this year. Read more of the books I buy in the 2-4 weeks after actually getting them (or give them to someone else to read).
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