What am I reading now?

...and suddenly it's been two and a half months and although I've spent most of it in my house, I'm not spending in on my blog.

Which I'm trying to fix now - so thanks to those of you who reached out to ask what I've been up to lately.

Right now, like most people, I'm spending a lot of time indoors, watching, reading, and playing things I've been holding onto for a while or I can access for free online.  I'm still currently working and although it's 80% from home, I'm trying not to make a lot of purchases these days as I'm saving in case my situation changes.

As a habitual used bookstore patron however, I've got a lot to get through before I run out, and even then I've still got e-books and the like ready and waiting.

Although I'm still sticking with my classic; Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Book Club, Book Club, reading cycle, I've taken a break from my monthly book by Farley Mowat (I was mostly getting these from the library) as well as my Ancient Rome reading list (again, libraries), but that just means I have two slots a month to fill with books I've been collecting, but not reading for years.

I'm currently reading Yuval Noah Harari's Homo Deus, his follow up to Sapiens (2011), and am really digging it.  The book takes a deep look at what we understand and believe about ourselves, and how this may effect us in our future.  It's very readable, interesting, and quite timely.  Well worth a look if you've got access and would like to dip into some non-fiction.

FaceBook Experiment: The Book Exchange

So last month I came across an interesting looking post in my FaceBook Feed:

(Side note - if any of my readers are interested, now you know how to find me on Facebook!)

And as a long-time reading enthusiast, I clicked on the "Like" button and awaiting further information.

I was rewarded a day later with the following direct message:

Hi! So the way this works is you'll copy and paste this status:
Hey Facebook Friends! I'm participating in an international book exchange. I'm a huge bookworm and can't wait to see how this works out! Who wants to join me? All I need are at least 6 humans to participate! You only need to send one book to the address I will give to you. It may be bought new, or use one of your favourites that has been laying around untouched! Expect to receive approximately 36 books back!!! If you are interested, let me know or click "like" and I will PM you the details
#savetheculture 🌏🌞

Or make a similar one about #savetheculture and send one book to:
To the people who will like your status, you will give my name to have them send a book to
***ADDRESS OF THE PERSON WHO CONTACTED ME***
Then change the addresses and write yours when you're passing this on to get books back! Hooray for bookworms!
So It's now been a month and here's how it broke down; I sent away a book (mailing cost, $10) and over the next few weeks received a couple in the mail myself.

Now, you'll note I didn't receive 36, but I did get to send a book I was done with to a good home, and I got a couple new (to me) books for my trouble.

Worth it? Sure - the effort on my end was pretty low, and I doubled my original investment.

Also I liked the fact that this was about book sharing, rather than a business opportunity. Will I get anymore books? Probably not, but I still had fun, and I have to admit it's nice getting stuff in the mail that isn't a bill.

So I've caught up with the Outlander Series!

During my lunch hour today I finally caught up with all those other Diana Gabaldon fans and finished Written In My Own Heart's Blood, the eighth book in her Outlander series. Having read the first novel back in 2010, and thoroughly enjoyed it, I decided to read the series at the rate of one a month back in April, and have done just that.

These books average somewhere around 900 pages each, and use aspects of fantasy, time-travel, historical and romance fiction.

In reading them I've gotten:

1) A greater respect for romance fiction
2) A lot more knowledgeable about parts of the world in the mid-to-late 1700s
3) Reading Glasses (not necessarily related, but a fact nonetheless)
4) better biceps (seriously, these are HUGE books! - try carrying them around in Hardcover for a week at a time and see what happens to you!)

Written in My Own Heart's Blood moves (sorry for mild-spoilers, don't worry I won't talk about the end) back and forth between Claire in the United States circa 1778 and her daughter Briana in Scotland, circa 1980. Much of the book focuses on how the American Revolutionary War affected the lives of women, and considering there are a number of massive historical battles and events taking place in the novel, I was really impressed to see how these were depicted from Claire's point of view as a doctor (or Conjure Woman, a term often used to describe her), a wife, and a grandmother, and giving the narrative enough time to focus on each of these.

Part of what I've enjoyed about this series overall is how it doesn't seem to be afraid to follow Claire from her twenties into her thirties, forties and fifties, showing just how much her age can change her world view. The last time I recall reading a book that impressed me this much with changing perspectives of a single character was probably Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin.

If you've never given the series a shot, it's definitely worth it, and now, like every other fan, I wait with baited breath for the next one...

Ominous Clouds Approach (a.k.a. I may be getting sick)

For the last few days I've been getting that ominous feeling you sometimes have when a cold is on the way.  Sort of a, not feeling too bad but something is certainly heading in your direction and if you can hide behind a mailbox before it gets here you should give that a try.

So now that I've come to work the last few days on a comforting cocktail of tea and DayQuill (making sure to stay a comfortable distance from my coworkers and keep myself properly hydrating), I think I'm getting ready to call it a loss to the common cold.

Also I'm not a fan of when co-workers come into the office obviously sick, and as I'm edging closer to that myself it may be time to give everyone (especially me) a bit of a rest.

For me, the worst part of the who thing is that fact that I won't be able to do much reading/watching/gameing for the next few days as it will all end up either being immediately forgotten or in the best case smushed together into some sort of unrecognizable blob of plot, character and sudden twists...

You may have won this time cold, but next time... next time... (that bit would be funnier if you knew I sounded like Doctor Claw right now)

December Reading Plans

Happy December Everyone!

Having entered the final month of 2014, I’ve got eight books ahead of me and hopefully a couple weeks I can dedicate to clearing out the various magazines, comics and trade (collected comic) collections I’ve gathered over the last year.

Most exciting for me will be the first three volumes in Phillip Jose Farmer’s The Dungeon series, a six-volume collection that has intrigued me for years as I came across various volumes at various used-bookstores, and as I found earlier this year that volumes three and five were written by Charles de Lint, I’ve now got the excuse to finally buckle down and check them out.

Each year after I’ve finished my various pre-selected reads, I hit the magazines and comics I’ve added to my collection – top spot this year goes to the zombie-themed Afterlife with Archie, followed by the Hack/Slash Army of Darkness Crossover, and hopefully catching up with Astro City again.

My Marathon with Melmoth

For the last few years I've been working my way through editors Kim Newman and Stephen Jones 1988 reading guide, Horror: the 100 Best Books.

At this point I've read roughly 75% of the novels and short story collections covered, which stretch back as far as Christopher Marlowe's 1592 play Doctor Faustus and as recently as Ramsey Campbell's short story collection Dark Feasts (1987).

Over the years I've read a lot of older horror novels and plays, and some of them still work as frightening reads for me today, even after multiple rereads (hello Frankenstein).

But one novel on the list ended up taking two attempts and nearly three weeks to finally get through.

Charles Robert Maturin's 1820 Gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer, took me an awful lot of time to get through - in my first pass at the novel a few years back I didn't even manage to finish, and I'm pretty proud of the fact that I usually finish the books I've started.

I had it listed as my Horror read for June, and three weeks ago I took a deep breath and dug in.

The problem was I found myself slogging through an uphill trail of slightly outdated language that seemed to bog me down as I attempted to move through it.  Now I'll be the first to admit, my University degree is in Communications (i.e. Film, Radio & Television) studies, not English literature, so perhaps I was not grounded enough in the stories of the era to appreciate it - at the same time I've read and enjoyed Frankenstein (written two years earlier), Northanger Abbey (three years earlier) and Wuthering Heights  (27 years later), so I don't necessarily think I can simply say the writing style of the time is difficult.

What I can say I liked about the novel (sorry for the 196-year-old spoilers here), was the nesting structure of the story, wherein different aspects of the story are told in a story-within-a-story format, the imagery of many of the set pieces throughout - including one of the most negative views on monasteries I've ever come across, and the overall concept, wherein an immortal being attempts to offer his immortality to others for a simple deal that no one seems comfortable taking.

In the end, I'm glad I read the book, it had a lot of eerie imagery and some concepts that won't be leaving my mind anytime soon.  But for right now I think I'm going to be taking a break from horror novels written in the early 1800s; next up for me is Robert W. Chambers 1895 short story collection, The King in Yellow.

Back to eleven books a month!

Or at least eleven books for this month - yup, April 2014 had me beat my average monthly reading for the last three years by four.

Which is pretty nice as I've got more than a few massive stacks of books I've been meaning to read for a while - first of all the 107 tiles waiting on my "for later" list at my local library, than the eight boxes of classic Science Fiction sitting in my garage, and that doesn't even count the entire shelf in my study dedicated to my collection of books to be read - and also my kids various collections that I've been perusing for the last few years.

I have to admit I'm finding Charles de Lint's second novel Moonheart to be a bit of a chore, the build up is pretty slow, and although I'm enjoying the male characters I'm finding the female ones to be a bit simple so far.

Anyway, next month has got a lot of cool titles on my list, including Orange is the New Black, Half Bad, and the second Divergent novel, Insurgent.

Free time is pretty darn cool!

So I'm on goodreads Now...

For years I've been keeping track of the books I read.

First on a spreadsheet on my computer (that one keeps track of every book I've read since 2002), then a few years back I joined LibraryThing (hence the widget on the side of my blog which tells you what book I'm currently reading), and as of two weeks ago, I've finally joined goodreads.

So why have I decided to keep track of my reading habits in three different places?  I mean, in theory my electronics are designed as labour-saving devices which means listing each book I've read three times sort of misses the point of saving my time.

The goodreads story for me comes form the bizarre nature of social media - I join things to help connect with other folks in the library/reading community and surprise surprise, if there is an online way to keep track of reading habits library folks are bound to join, start accounts and then ask me if I'm on their reading site of choice.  Also I just found an online Fantasy/Horror/Science Fiction reading tracking site...

So yeah, now I'm on goodreads!

Why I Don't Read the Inside Flap of books

Right now I'm reading the book The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway for one of my book clubs.

At two chapters in I can tell you it involves truckers, a world existing in the aftermath of something called "The Go-Away War" and is sort of like Earth (many of the same cities, movies and cultural concepts are there) but clearly is not our Earth.

I have to admit, after I finished the second chapter and was still unable to say where in the world this story was taking place a part of me wanted to read the inside flap of the dust-cover, you know the bit that gives you a brief plot summary to help you decide to purchase/read the book?

But here's my problem - I'm reading the book already, do I really need to know exactly what the overall story is about or should I just trust the author to take me to some interesting places with some interesting characters.  As of yet I haven't read any summary or review of the book and honestly I don't think I will either before I finish it.

Looking back at all the books I've read in the last couple years I realize that I really don't tend to read the inside flaps (or brief plot outlines online) anymore - I trust the authors I like and as many of my books are either based on recommendations from friends or come off of lists of "best 100 books" I tend to trust that whatever the story is about it's probably worth my time.

Following Fantasy Series

Over the years I've read a lot of Fantasy, whether part of a shared world (DragonLance), or of the stand-alone variety.  The problem is that very few fantasy books stop at just one title.  Case in point - I've just finished up reading Orson Scott Card's Tales of Alvin Maker series, which is comprised of six books, but does hold out the promise of a seventh.  Following taht I'm currently going for my first run through Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber - which is such fun I'm likely to revisit it again in a few years.

Every month I try to make sure I read at least one book from each of my favourite genres; Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction (SF), but although Horror and SF both have plenty of series, Fantasy seems to be almost nothing but series.

On the positive side I can invest a lot more in the characters in a Fantasy series than I can those who only appear in a single novel, but at the same time, while I'm trying out a large number of different Horror and SF authors, I find that over the course of a year I'm reading as few as two or three Fantasy authors, as it takes me months and months to get through their series.

I don't really have a solution to the problem, because I love reading these series, but sometimes I wish I could just find a nice collection of Fantasy short stories, and that would be enough.

A– Z Survey - Bookmonkey Style

One of my favourite parts of blogging has always been the fact that whenever I run out of stuff to talk about, I just have to scan through a few others blogs and I’m bound to find something neat to comment on.

Earlier today I was reading the blog “The Written Word” - which is itself a pretty fun read, sharing a lot of interests with my own tastes (I actually got there by looking up a good reading order for all of my Fables trades), so I thought I would both send a thanks to that blog for the list and then I found something pretty neat – a reading-themed A-Z survey – so here goes:

Author I've Read The Most Books From: Although friends may guess Stephen King or Neil Gaiman, it is actually Louis L’Amour – hands down. I’ve read all 89 of his novels, 14 story collections, 2 books of poetry and his autobiography. Man that guy could write!

Best Sequel Ever: The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, by Stephen King

Currently Reading: Fables #4: March of the Wooden Soldiers, by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Craig Hamilton, Steve Leialoha, and P. Craig Russell

Drink of Choice While Reading: Fresh Brewed Coffee, first thing in the morning.

E-Reader or Physical Book: Physical book, but to be fair I have almost no experience with E-Readers

Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Dated in High School: Carrie White – although to be honest I’d probably have run when I met her mother…

Glad You Gave This Book A Chance: Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card – I don’t care if it’s basically a fantasy retelling of the found of the Mormon Church – it’s pretty amazing

Hidden Gem Book: Brooklyn Dreams by J.M. DeMatteis, one of the funniest, honest looks at remembrance, childhood and the teen years I’ve ever come across.

Important Moment in Your Reading Life: Realizing a book could talk directly to me while reading The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover by Jon Stone

Just Finished: Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living, by Nick Offerman

Kind of Books I Won't Read: None – unless my wife says it’s horrible.

Longest Book I've Read: Probably the Bible.

Major Book Hangover Because: If I’m reading older paperback where the font size gets so tiny I need to use a magnifying …..

Number of Bookcases I own: approximately ten – but that doesn’t count the boxes in the basement or garage, or the DVD shelves I use as convenient book storage.

One Book I have Read Multiple Times: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Preferred Place to Read: Leaning against the kitchen counter in the morning and smelling coffee brewing.

Quote That Inspires You/Gives You All the Feels From a Book You've Read: “Once Upon a Time…”

Reading Regret: I wish I had read Catcher in the Rye when I was younger

Series You Started and Need To Finish (All the books are out in the series): Currently working my way through Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series – limiting myself to one title a month so I can enjoy them

Three of Your All-Time Favourite Books: The Talisman, by Stephen King and Peter Straub, The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Unapologetic Fanboy For: Nora Roberts Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy. Although Romance novels don’t tend to be my thing, I dare you to read these and not get swept away in these stories of destiny, love, and magic.

Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others: Neil Gaiman’s upcoming sequel to American Gods

Worst Bookish Habit: Collecting series before I read them, not a great habit when you crack open book one and realize that it’s not really your cup of tea…

X Marks The Spot: Start at the Top Left of Your Shelf and pick the 27th Book: The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie-The-Pooh, by A.A. Milne

Your Latest Book Purchase: The Walking Dead Volume 19: March to War, by Robert Kirkman

ZZZ-Snatcher Book- Book That Kept You Up WAY Too Late: Ironically, Doctor Sleep by Stephen King.

Things I've Noticed: Making time for reading is important

In case I haven’t mentioned it before; I like to read, a lot – actually a whole lot.

On average I read roughly 100 books a year and I’m not counting articles for school, single issues of comic books, magazines or newspaper articles.

Now, a lot of people ask me, “how the heck do you find time to read all those books?” and honestly, it’s pretty simple.

1) I do a little bit of prep work to ensure I have stuff to read when I need it

The first rule is pretty easy to follow – as one of those horrible people who wake up early in the morning, I stick whichever book I’m currently reading next to my coffee maker and get five to ten minutes every morning to read before my morning cup is ready, at which time I stick my book in my jacket pocket… hmm…

1a) Have a jacket with pockets that can fit most books

2) I carry a book with me everywhere.

On the bus, on car trips, to the grocery store, pretty much everywhere, because I’ve always found if I have a book and get stuck in a big line at the store, I’m doing pretty good, but if I forget to bring a book with me, my bus trip/car trip/grocery store trip suddenly has plenty of stops and pauses that would have been perfect for me to spend time reading.

3) I limit how much time I spend watching TV/playing games/etc.

Because otherwise, I’d be very knowledgeable in terms of Honey Boo Boo (which to be fair, I’m fairly knowledgeable about) but would get nowhere near the amount of reading I like to get done each day completed.

So there you go, if you like to read, plan ahead, keep a book on you, and cut down on your other stuff so you have room to read.

5 Things about Me and Reading In no particular order

1. The first piece of mythology I can recall reading is the story of Theseus, but even though he is much more famous for his adventures in the labyrinth with the minotaur, what interested me the most was his dad telling him; “I’ve put a bunch of stuff under this big rock, when you’re old enough to move it you can take what’s there and go make something of yourself”, which is pretty much exactly what happens and was the first moment I understood the concept of “not until you’re older”
2. Like many children of the 70’s, my favourite preschool book is The Monster at the end of the Book by Jon Stone and Michael Smollen.  If you’ve never read this 4^th wall-breaking story I am entirely jealous of the fact that you will get to read it for the first time.
3. When I was eight years old, my third grade teacher Mr. Murray read the entire class the novel The Hobbit, a chapter at a time for a month.  I think I can honestly say that every time I read a fantasy novel I’m trying to recapture the state of awe and wonder I felt in that classroom almost thirty years ago.
4. Each month I set out to read at least seven books, and even though I don’t quite make my quota every month (with comics, course readings, family time, etc.), my punishment is I get to read eight or nine books the next month, which is pretty much the best punishment ever.
5. As many readers eventually do, I have tried my hand a few times at creative writing – netting me a couple rejection letters and one short story which can still be found online related to a role-playing game I was really into at the time, and honestly, I still like it!

Things I’ve noticed: I do better at Nonfiction if I pace myself

Overall I’d saw I’m a pretty voracious reader – if I read less than half a dozen books over the course of a month, I feel like I’m falling behind.  (Actually, even reading my current seven books a month has me actually falling behind, but what can you do?), so in terms of reading any of my book club, fantasy, horror or Science Fiction books, I just fit in my reading into coffee breaks, lunch breaks, trips on the bus and early-morning reading sessions.

Nonfiction, however, is an entirely different beast.

Right now I’m reading Peggy Orenstein’s Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the front lines of the new Girlie-Girl Culture and I’m totally digging it!  As a father of two daughters, a book which focuses on the proliferation of princess-y images and values our culture aim at little girls is right up my alley.

It will take me about a week-and-a-half to get through, though.  Even though the book is only 192 pages of text (Big secret as to why nonfiction rules – the last fifth of the book is made up of indexes, bibliographies and other notes, so you finish faster than you think you will), I’m limiting myself to a chapter a day.

Personally, I feel that as nonfiction has so much information it’s trying to convey to the reader, I miss a lot of it if I just breeze through the book, so for me, I limit myself to a slower pace, allowing the info time to soak in.

Now the obvious question is – if I’m willing to do it for nonfiction, why not fiction?  Honestly, I think it’s because an ongoing narrative makes me interested in reading it whenever I can, because for short stories I do the same thing as nonfiction – a story a day until I’m finished.  I don’t know, for me this just feels more natural.

So there you go, some musings on nonfiction reading.

Things I've noticed: I'm getting behind on my reading

As I’ve said elsewhere, I’m pretty regular in terms of what I read; I like to visit my favourite genres, current author, my two book club selections as well as whatever other book tickles my fancy in any given month.

Right now (20 days into the month) my list looks like this (let's focus on September):

Which shows I’ve still got a book dating back in July (and it’s not even mine, I’ve borrowed it from a friend), two from August (Luckily I own both of these) and six remaining from this Month.

Lets break it down shall we?

Science Fiction: This month I’m planning the read Agent to the Stars, by John Scalzi – I loved Old Man’s War a few months back and this was the next one published.

Horror: I had originally written The Flesh Eaters, as it is the 2011 winner of the Bram Stoker Award for best novel, but it is actually the third in a series, starting with Dead City, by Joe McKinney, so there you go.

Fantasy: The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.  Completed, blogged about it here.

Book Club 1: Ubik, by Phillip K. Dick.  Completed, actually it was a re-read from an earlier Phillip K. Dick read through I did in the mid-90’s.

Book Club 2: The Passage, by Justin Cronin.  Currently Reading – actually re-reading, but am quite excited as it’s sequel The Twelve is coming out next month.

Matheson: …Now You See It.  Won’t be touching this one until I finish his previous book, Shadow on the Sun, which was my Matheson book from August.

Me: Die Trying, by Lee Child.  Completed – after reading Killing Floor for one of my book clubs last month I just had to continue on with the series.

Classics: The Plays of Aeschylus, which I’m not going to be starting for at least a few more months as I’m still working on the previous book in my Classics list, The Old Testament (I’m currently up to Proverbs), but haven’t touched it since I started my new job.

So there you go, I attempt to read eight books a month and if I have time left over I hit my backlog of comics and magazines (which I haven’t looked at since May).

Thank goodness there haven’t been any Saw novelizations as I think October is going to be crazy busy as it is (8 movies, including the original short, a comic book, and two PS3 games).

Things I've noticed: My Summer is 18 Days Long

Over the spring and summer of 2012 I’ve been taking evening classes to continue my work towards my Masters of Library Science Degree. The Spring had me focused on a budgeting course and the summer is focused on a course called The History of the Book. Both of these classes have been fun and informative in different ways (one of them will probably have a bigger effect on my future in the library world, and the other on my understanding of the library world).

One side-effect of the two courses however, is that once I’m all finished, I will have exactly 18 days before I hit the Fall 2012 term and begin again.

So… what to do with those 18 days.

Bookmonkey’s Top Priorities for his (almost) three weeks of course-free Summer 2012

1. Start working on stuff for my 15^th Wedding Anniversary: mostly I know I’m going to be busy in September and October with school and the new job, so this is my big opportunity to do some grunt-work involving the big event

2. Get on to my reading list for August: As I’ve said in previous posts, I try to read 7 books a month for my own pleasure. This month I’ve been reading an awful lot of books on the Mass Market Paperback format for my class – interesting reading but I still have six books to go this month and so far have only got to Warm Bodies.

3. Write Thank You / Update Letters to my Grad School References: At this time last year I was waiting and waiting to hear whether I would be accepted into Grad School or not – little known fact, you actually need letters of reference from previous teachers and others in your profession to apply. As I sent my four references the news last year that I got it, I figure this year I should send them an update on what their letters have got me so far in my continuing education

4. Begin to weed my home book/music/movie collection: August is a perfect time to follow the instructions from one of my earlier posts and begin to see if I can make some room on the many shelves I have throughout my house. As my birthday is near the end of the month, I’m pretty sure I am going to need the space.

5. Take a vacation maybe? For years my family has done summer camping trips, usually sticking to mid-week camping as the crowds are thinner, but if I want to get out at all this year I only have two available weekends in which to try (we don’t even bother trying on long weekends), so if we want to get out there this year I’ve actually only got two small windows in which to make the attempt.

And after all those things are done, maybe I’ll take a nap! Or start planning for Christmas.

Things I’ve noticed: Sometimes Books come to you

Yesterday morning I was sitting on a bench in Southgate mall reading my oversized fantasy novel and drinking my small coffee (Starbucks – Pike Place Blend – Short – Non-fat) when this guy sits down beside me, drinking coffee out of a travel mug (I know, I know – I’ve tried a few times, but I hate carrying extra stuff on me when I travel) and reading his own oversized fantasy novel.

We do that thing that readers do on benches – sizing each other up and wondering if we should see what the other guy is reading and then he takes the plunge, leans forward slightly and says:

“China Miéville, eh? – I really liked King Rat, and Perdido Street Station”

To which I replied:

“Yup, It’s his newest, Kraken” (Which I will do a review of on Monday) and then I check out what he’s reading. It’s a book calledThe Heroes by Joe Abercrombie. He goes on to describe it as an adult fantasy book without being an adult fantasy book (which so many categorized as “Urban Fantasy” really are – and yes Sookie Stackhouse I’m looking at you – and am still reading anyway!)

He suggests that if I want to start reading the author I should start with his first novel, The Blade Itself, which he read about a year ago and really liked.

So you know what, bench guy? I’ll give it a shot – right now I’m reading the historical fiction of Canadian Jack Whyte, but once I’m done I’ll be sure to give your book a shot.

Man, it’s pretty cool when books come to you.

Things I've Noticed: There is a process to having a good read

I read a lot - maybe 10 books a month, not including manga, comics or magazines, so over time I've noticed that I can dramatically increase my reading enjoyment if I do a little prep work. My logic is pretty simple - if you like reading, give yourself a couple minutes of prep time to make sure that you can really enjoy a good read.

Bookmonkey's recipe for a good read

1. Find a good book

I really can't stress this enough, although I suppose I could spend an afternoon reading the ingredient lists on the food in my kitchen, I will probably have a better time if I've found a good book to read.

2. Get rid of distractions

Take a minute to look around the room you will be reading in and get rid of distractions, a quick tidy might help and make sure you've got good light - no need to damage your eyes. Also a big one for me - don't read while the television is on - you might feel like you are incredibly intelligent doing both at the same time, but in the end you are just doing both half as well as you should be.

3. Find a good time

Basically you are looking for a time to read where you can actually sit down and put your focus on the book. For some people this is on the bus during the commute to work or school, for others it's a comfortable late night read. Lately, I've been doing morning and lunch-time reading.

4. Get a reading theme song

Yes I know this sounds ridiculously corny, but if you play the same tune before you start reading, you will teach your brain to realize that when that song is played, you are about to do some reading. Right now my reading song is "It's a good day" by Peggy Lee, but my song changes every couple weeks. (and yes, the theme song to "Reading Rainbow" has been my reading song from time to time) The importance is to have a musical cue which says to your sub conscience "SHADUP, I'm reading now."

5. Get a beverage

For me, this is a coffee (pictured right), but anything will do, just have it at hand so you don't have to stop reading to go get a drink. I don't know why, but often my brain will start coming up with excuses to stop reading for a moment and "You need a coffee" is a pretty common excuse for me.

6. READ!

Sit back, relax and enjoy your book. You've earned it.

So there you have it. I'm sure a similar process could be used to watch Television, or whatever else you like to do. The big thing for me is to remember, I'm doing this for fun, and I deserve to make my fun stuff a little special.

You Owe it to yourself #6: Reading your favourite Author more effectively

One morning while reading the paper I was struck by an interesting idea - what if you read all of an author's books in chronological order? Would it change your perception of the world? Would it change me from a black-and-white '50s Dad into some sort of demented bookmonkey? Only one was to find out.

I started the habit back in 2003 - never having read any crime fiction I thougt I would try some Elmore Leonard, and more specifically, I would read his books in the order he wrote them. I had just finished reading all of Louis L'Amour and as Leonard started with Westerns before he moved to crime fiction, I figured it would simply be a fun couple of months reading.

6 months and 40 novels later, my reading habits had changed. I was hooked on reading authors in publication order.

What I noticed as I went through Elmore Leonard's books (his first novel, The Bounty Hunters, was published in 1953) was that over time, the quality improved. I love his early stuff (again, big fan of westerns - thanks Mom), but by reading his books in order I could see that over time his pacing, his descriptions and his already amazing dialogue just get better and better.

I only had two problems with my experiment: first, reading 40 books of a similar style and tone in 6 months kind of made all their plots run together, secondly, it felt really cool to read an author like that, really, REALLY cool - I had to do it again.

The next author I tried this with (starting in July of 2004) was Terry Pratchett, and to solve my first problem I limited myself to one book of his a month. I just caught up with him this spring (March 2009). Pratchett wrote his first book - The Carpet People, when he was 17 years old, so again, over the course of nearly 50 books and 30+ years I got to see the evolution of a writer.

Since then I've done the same with a few more writers - Lois McMaster-Bujold, Michael Crichton, Robert B. Parker, Pierre Burton, and Robert R. McCammon, next up is Canadian fantasy author Charles De Lint.

The rewards are great - especially if you are personally looking to get into writing yourself. What I do not recommend is doing this with an untested author - often their first book is the worst place to start - read something you've heard good things about first, and once you've decided you want to commit, then you can go back to the beginning.

It'll show you a lot of stuff about the writer you might not have noticed before, which will make you appear much smarter (and slightly annoying) to your friends and family.

If you've already done this - congrats - get yourself a celebratory piece of cake and send me a comment letting me know about your experience, otherwise give it a try, after all, you owe it to yourself.