Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Reader Problems Tag

I saw this on someone's channel on YouTube (forgot already whose channel it was), and I thought I would give it a try! 


01 - You have 2000 books on your TBR. How in the world do you decide what to read next? I have two methods. The first being to just go look at my bookshelves and see what jumps out at me. The second is a mason jar of prompts and I chose a book from there. I will eventually put the prompts back in, or add new ones to the jar, but for now I'm just trying to complete a challenge so we leave them out of the jar. 

02 - You're halfway through a book and just not loving it. Do you quit it or push through? It's already going to take me something like forty years to finish the books I own, not counting the new ones coming out in the future that I may like and want to read, so if I'm just not into a book, I will ditch it in favor of trying something else.

03 - The end of the year is coming, and you're so close but so far away from your Goodreads goal. Do you try to catch up? No. That's a deal I made with myself a long time ago. If I make it, cool. If I don't make it, also cool. I set the same goal every year and don't worry about whether I met it or not. One year I hit 84. The next, it was only 41. Last year was 76. My goal? 50. 

04 - The covers of a series you love do not match. How do you cope? Pretty much as long as the books are the same dimensions, I'm not all that concerned about the cover art. It is what it is. I'll just be happy that the book has a cover. 

05 - Everyone and their mother loves a book you really don't like. Who do you bond with over shared feelings? I have a few friends with tastes similar to mine that I talk with over the books we've read. However, I also have a rather broad taste in books with the only ones I don't like being hard sci-fi, westerns, and erotica. So, unless I just don't jive with the writing itself there's not much I won't be able to talk to people about. 

06 - You're reading a book and you're about to start crying in public. How do you deal? I just cry. It takes a lot for anything to make me cry period, so when it does happen I roll with it. I don't see any shame in crying in public if something's moved you that much. 

07 - A sequel from a book you love just came out but you forgot the plot of the first. Do you reread the first, skip the sequel, try to find a synopsis on Goodreads or cry in frustration? Usually I'll look at the Goodreads synopsis and see what my own review was. That's generally enough to actually spark memory of what the book was about before I head into the second one. Sometimes I just say fuck it and read the second with no clue. A lot of the time the author puts enough past sequences in that I can pick up what happened previously.

08 - You do not want ANYONE borrowing your books. How do you politely tell people no? I just politely say "No." I don't allow many people to borrow my books because I hate when they don't return. Even my own mother borrowed one and never gave it back! If anyone asks, I just tell them "I'm sorry, but I don't lend my books out." 

09 - You picked up and put down five books over the last week. How do you get over your reading slump? I take a break for a week or two (or like, five) and let my mind focus on other things before starting a new book. Sometimes the books on my shelves just aren't interesting because of my mental state, the season, or any number of reasons. I just let it alone. Sometimes I draw, I do crafting projects, I write. Just other things to let my reading mind just reset itself. 

10 - There are so many new books coming out that you are dying to read. How many do you buy? I rarely actually very rarely purchase new books unless they are something I'm actually interested in. I tend to wait until books drop in price or if my interest in it rises. There are very very few that I buy when they come out. In fact, I think in my entire reading life I've only ever had one pre-order. 

11 - After you bought the new books you can't wait to get to...How long do they sit on your shelf before you get to them? Again, it depends on interest level. The more interested I am in the book, the faster I get to it. There are some that I was stupidly excited for that I bought last year, the year before that, that are still sitting on my bookshelf unread. It is the nature of the beast I suppose. It's the way I am. Something else shiny and new captured my attention.

Sunday, March 8, 2020

Currently Reading: 23 February - 07 March 2020

Currently Reading

- Chinese Myths by Jake Jackson (37%)
The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow (29%)
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (47%)
A Reader's Book of Days by Tom Nissley (08%)
Schrodinger's Cat by Robert Anton Wilson (08%)
- Mo Dao Zu Shi by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (13%)
-  IT by Stephen King (40%)
Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en (39%)
The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (59%)

* * *


Before anyone asks, yes, there are more Chinese themed books on my list. I am researching for NaNoWriMo 2020 season and my project involves China. I figured I would acquire and read as much as I could. Myths, history, culture, everything!

Proud of myself for hitting 5 books in February. Managed to finish one on the 29th at like 12:30. Just barely managed to get it in before I ran out of time. Now then, March is going to be horrific. I have 24 books on the TBR. I know I won't get to all of them, or even half, but it's the thought that counts. Two groupings (#2-7 & #8-14) are for readathons that are happening in March. I can only hope that I get through some of them.

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Schrödinger's Cat by Robert Anton Wilson
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Wild Swans by Jung Chang
Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian
Autumn Princess, Dragon Child by Lian Hearn
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Love and Friendship by Jane Austen
China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Ashes of Roses by M.J. Auch
If I'm Being Honest by Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegmund-Broka
I Ching by David Hinton
Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en
Mo Dao Zu Shi by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Chinese Myths by Jake Jackson
The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow
The Dark Road by Ma Jian
Mac on a Hot Tin Roof by Melinda Metz
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
IT by Stephen King
The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Realized that from where I am now, if I read 100 pages a day in March, I can finish Journey to the West by the 15th. Let's see if we can do it with the other bookish readathons going on in the middle of that. My life in March will be dedicated almost entirely to books. 

My current favorite thing is that I found the original (I think?) Mo Dao Zu Shi by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu on eBay and I grabbed it. I couldn't help myself. I had to have it. I love the show in its multitude of forms. I can't wait to get it and add it to my collection of books that I have that I cannot read. It will be fun.