Thursday, November 08, 2007
Booking Through Thursday: Volume
This week's Booking Through Thursday is another good one.
Would you say that you read about the same amount now as when you were younger? More? Less?
Why?
I've read less this year than in the past two. Between writing and agent hunting and ... well, okay. My feed reader (over 370 subscriptions!), I'm not reading as much as I did in 2005 and 2006, both of which were banner years. This year, I'm hoping to read 100 books. It's not looking great, sad to say.
The problem with this smaller number (as if 100 is small!) is that I've got literally hundreds of books sitting here, waiting to be read. I need to read those before I'll let myself buy more -- but don't you know that my plans for Sunday, since the Tour Manager will be out of town and I lose my Sunday morning to work, is to drop the kids off at Sunday School and then dash out and buy ... a book. And then, I'm going to sit at the temple and read it!
It's The Heroin Diaries that I'm planning to buy. I know you're not surprised to hear that from me, of all people.
So, yeah. The next time you send me a book and it takes years for me to get to it, blame it on Nikki. Or the heroin. Or Trevor. He likes hanging with other bass players, especially ones more messed up than he is.
Would you say that you read about the same amount now as when you were younger? More? Less?
Why?
I've read less this year than in the past two. Between writing and agent hunting and ... well, okay. My feed reader (over 370 subscriptions!), I'm not reading as much as I did in 2005 and 2006, both of which were banner years. This year, I'm hoping to read 100 books. It's not looking great, sad to say.
The problem with this smaller number (as if 100 is small!) is that I've got literally hundreds of books sitting here, waiting to be read. I need to read those before I'll let myself buy more -- but don't you know that my plans for Sunday, since the Tour Manager will be out of town and I lose my Sunday morning to work, is to drop the kids off at Sunday School and then dash out and buy ... a book. And then, I'm going to sit at the temple and read it!
It's The Heroin Diaries that I'm planning to buy. I know you're not surprised to hear that from me, of all people.
So, yeah. The next time you send me a book and it takes years for me to get to it, blame it on Nikki. Or the heroin. Or Trevor. He likes hanging with other bass players, especially ones more messed up than he is.
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I don't read nearly as much as I used to and I blame work, writing and the computer in general.
Dan just finished The Heroin Diaries, btw. He's no more able to pass up a rock auto/bio than I'm able to pass up one about a silent film star!
Dan just finished The Heroin Diaries, btw. He's no more able to pass up a rock auto/bio than I'm able to pass up one about a silent film star!
In a typical year, I read about the same amount, or perhaps more, than I did when young. This includes wild swings from two weeks of no reading (this recently happened, sad to say, though I was writing a lot for my blogs), to several-week periods where I read all night a good part of each week. Then I crash and burn.
I get to hang out with a rock band, sort of. My 14-year old (15 in January) is a pretty amazing guitar player (classical, rock and school jazz band). We used to play together a lot, even did a coffee house gig as a duo (when his teacher and fellow students forgot to show up). Now, though, I'm writing a lot, playing very little, and getting really bad (as opposed to just mediocre). He is playing hours a day and I can't keep up.
Lost and gone forever, I suppose.
Glad I found your blog via your comment on my book site. I can write in full sentences and don't know why I'm writing in shorthand here. What can I say? I'm an impulse writer.
I look forward to exploring your back pages and future writing. You can take that as a Dylan reference if you wish.
Best wishes, Jim
I get to hang out with a rock band, sort of. My 14-year old (15 in January) is a pretty amazing guitar player (classical, rock and school jazz band). We used to play together a lot, even did a coffee house gig as a duo (when his teacher and fellow students forgot to show up). Now, though, I'm writing a lot, playing very little, and getting really bad (as opposed to just mediocre). He is playing hours a day and I can't keep up.
Lost and gone forever, I suppose.
Glad I found your blog via your comment on my book site. I can write in full sentences and don't know why I'm writing in shorthand here. What can I say? I'm an impulse writer.
I look forward to exploring your back pages and future writing. You can take that as a Dylan reference if you wish.
Best wishes, Jim
Ah, there was time when I could read 100 books in a year. Let me see, it must have been...before the internet! And free weekly news magazines! And college! And employment! And household chores that never get finished! And a really adorable but perpetually annoying dog that thinks my sole purpose is to play fetch or hold his chew toy so he can get destroy it quicker! And that inexplicable nagging sense of guilt that there is something "important" I should be doing! Argh!
[/innapropriate comment meltdown] =P
But, uh, go you! Anything even approaching 100 sounds like a good number for the year to me! =D
[/innapropriate comment meltdown] =P
But, uh, go you! Anything even approaching 100 sounds like a good number for the year to me! =D
Yeah, I hear ya. Having kids did a number on my book numbers (and I'm just the Dad). That, and work, are why I have to stay up all night if I want to put some serious hours in, but at age 49, I pay a price.
I can happily say that reading is about quality, not quantity, though through quantity we can be exposed to many qualities that might otherwise escape us.
My real problem is that it is hard for me to read highly challenging books, whether because I have to remember a large cast of characters, or a mood or tone, over gaps of days or more. My memory isn't very good. That is one of the main reasons I started blogging about literature: I became fed up with reading books and immediately forgetting the title and author (though not the story). Cheers, Jim
I can happily say that reading is about quality, not quantity, though through quantity we can be exposed to many qualities that might otherwise escape us.
My real problem is that it is hard for me to read highly challenging books, whether because I have to remember a large cast of characters, or a mood or tone, over gaps of days or more. My memory isn't very good. That is one of the main reasons I started blogging about literature: I became fed up with reading books and immediately forgetting the title and author (though not the story). Cheers, Jim
I hear you, Jim. If I hadn't started writing down the books I've been reading, I wouldn't be able to keep them all straight. Every now and then, I'll come across something and wonder if I've read it. Often, I have. Just as often, it's merely on my wishlist.
Most Sundays, I start early for that second hand pavement Bazaar where I get my books dirt cheap. The collection is piling up...
# posted by 
: November 09, 2007 11:59 PM
: November 09, 2007 11:59 PM
I used to read 100 books a year when I was a kid (grownup books, not kid books), but no way anymore. 100 sounds like a lot to me now. How do you do that AND all your blogging? AND writing? Yeeps.
pussreboots and susan - your feed reader leaves my 25 subscriptions in the dust.
Does reading blogs count as reading?
My ideal holiday: two weeks in a cabin on the coast with my husband, a suitcase of books, and nothing else.
Does reading blogs count as reading?
My ideal holiday: two weeks in a cabin on the coast with my husband, a suitcase of books, and nothing else.
I've always wanted to spend a year reading one book a day.
I'm not sure where I stand this year. I meant to keep track, but I lost track quite a bit ago ... still, it feels like I'm not getting anywhere. :-(
I'm not sure where I stand this year. I meant to keep track, but I lost track quite a bit ago ... still, it feels like I'm not getting anywhere. :-(
I've lot of books that are waiting for me to read them too, which have been sitting in my TBR pile for longest times. But the feeling of having the books sitting there is comfort for me. I'll be afraid when my TBR pile goes down...when am down or sad, buying books is what made me feel better :) But I can understand what you mean when you said about the problem being that you got hundred books waiting for you to read... ;)
I read more today than I did when I was younger....
Thanks for visiting my blog :)
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I read more today than I did when I was younger....
Thanks for visiting my blog :)
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