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Reading in 2018
Jan. 3rd, 2019 08:49 amFor the last couple of years I've been trying to track my reading, both for the fun of analysis (I am and always will be a data nerd) and to get a sense of what I'm actually enjoying reading. Also, in the last year I have made a concerted effort to mostly read female and NB authors and I wanted to see how well that was actually going.
Pretty well, turns out; in 2018 I read 122 books, 72 of which were new (to me). 96 were by women, and 53 of the new reads were by women (I don't think I ended up reading anything by a non-binary author but would have to double-check some). All the ones by men were read for my book club, were authors I am following series for, or were specifically recommended to me. I have to note at this stage that I spent two months of 2018 On A Boat (not the same boat) with very limited internet access, and this contributed hugely to my book-reading time. In 2017 (only three weeks on a boat, very good internet) I read about 40 fewer books.
The stand-out new-to-me books were, in no particular order, The City of Brass (S A Chakhraborty), Dread Nation (Justina Ireland), Witchmark (C L Polk), Santa Olivia/Saints Astray (Jacqueline Carey), and the Books of the Raksura series (Martha Wells). I enjoyed them in a completely unqualified manner and would recommend them to nearly anybody. Honourable mentions to Trail of Lightning (Rebecca Roanhorse), Provenance (Ann Leckie), The House of Binding Thorns (Aliette de Bodard), the Lady Astronaut duology (Mary Robinette Kowal), and the Order of the Air series (Melissa Scott & Jo Graham), which were good and I enjoyed but not so very exactly My Thing as the first lot.
Reading so many new books this year, and in particular mainlining fifty books in four weeks in September (On A Boat), also helped me really pin down what it is that tends to separate "books I quite enjoyed" or "books I wanted to enjoy but didn't" from "books I absolutely adored" for me. In the last couple of years there have been a few books I have had recommended to me by people who know my tastes very well, which I should like, but I just...didn't. The most notable have been Swordspoint (Ellen Kushner, an old classic), The Lies of Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch), and the Steerswoman series (Rosemary Kirstein), all of which have elements that should be perfect for me and which I DNF'd out of either sheer boredom or sheer distaste for the characters.
I know I like genre fiction; I know I like romance mixed with plot; I know I like intrigue; I know I like action; I absolutely love science and characters who are curious about their world; but it turns out the magic ingredient for me, when it comes to books, is people who actually like and/or respect each other. I don't mind if lots of other terrible things happen, up to and including a full-scale apocalypse, but I want there to be at least two main characters who respect each other and and enjoy each other's company, and preferably at least one who likes people in general. It's okay if the book is about them learning to do those things, but it needs to be clear that that's the arc. If it's full of people barely tolerating each other and the world at large I can't tolerate them either. Even a really rattling-along adventure plot isn't going to save the book for me.
I'm not sure how or if this revelation is going to change my reading patterns in 2019 but I think it's going to be very helpful when seeking book recs from friends.
Pretty well, turns out; in 2018 I read 122 books, 72 of which were new (to me). 96 were by women, and 53 of the new reads were by women (I don't think I ended up reading anything by a non-binary author but would have to double-check some). All the ones by men were read for my book club, were authors I am following series for, or were specifically recommended to me. I have to note at this stage that I spent two months of 2018 On A Boat (not the same boat) with very limited internet access, and this contributed hugely to my book-reading time. In 2017 (only three weeks on a boat, very good internet) I read about 40 fewer books.
The stand-out new-to-me books were, in no particular order, The City of Brass (S A Chakhraborty), Dread Nation (Justina Ireland), Witchmark (C L Polk), Santa Olivia/Saints Astray (Jacqueline Carey), and the Books of the Raksura series (Martha Wells). I enjoyed them in a completely unqualified manner and would recommend them to nearly anybody. Honourable mentions to Trail of Lightning (Rebecca Roanhorse), Provenance (Ann Leckie), The House of Binding Thorns (Aliette de Bodard), the Lady Astronaut duology (Mary Robinette Kowal), and the Order of the Air series (Melissa Scott & Jo Graham), which were good and I enjoyed but not so very exactly My Thing as the first lot.
Reading so many new books this year, and in particular mainlining fifty books in four weeks in September (On A Boat), also helped me really pin down what it is that tends to separate "books I quite enjoyed" or "books I wanted to enjoy but didn't" from "books I absolutely adored" for me. In the last couple of years there have been a few books I have had recommended to me by people who know my tastes very well, which I should like, but I just...didn't. The most notable have been Swordspoint (Ellen Kushner, an old classic), The Lies of Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch), and the Steerswoman series (Rosemary Kirstein), all of which have elements that should be perfect for me and which I DNF'd out of either sheer boredom or sheer distaste for the characters.
I know I like genre fiction; I know I like romance mixed with plot; I know I like intrigue; I know I like action; I absolutely love science and characters who are curious about their world; but it turns out the magic ingredient for me, when it comes to books, is people who actually like and/or respect each other. I don't mind if lots of other terrible things happen, up to and including a full-scale apocalypse, but I want there to be at least two main characters who respect each other and and enjoy each other's company, and preferably at least one who likes people in general. It's okay if the book is about them learning to do those things, but it needs to be clear that that's the arc. If it's full of people barely tolerating each other and the world at large I can't tolerate them either. Even a really rattling-along adventure plot isn't going to save the book for me.
I'm not sure how or if this revelation is going to change my reading patterns in 2019 but I think it's going to be very helpful when seeking book recs from friends.
