Tag: reading | Alexander Nachaj

I read four books in a week.

I suppose there’s a first for everything.

In a way, I wonder if I could have done more. I was slowed down thanks to my regular part-time work, lecturing and course preparation, and the publication slate for the JRC, and all that jazz. Could I have gone through another 4 with those 40 hours reclaimed?

I’m not so sure. Being pressed for time — that is, knowing you don’t have enough time — can really do wonders for keeping you focused.

Part of me suspects I would have read less if I had more time, and spend the difference putzing about.

Anyways, before I go off sounding like some speed-reading hero, the devil is in the details.

The longest book was 210 pages, and the briefest 80 — making the whole ordeal roughly as long as a decent length Steven King book; albeit, decidedly more difficult to read (non-fiction, academic publications inevitably require more concentration).

Still, it’s a bit of a wonder that preparing for a composite exam can do so much to your free time — especially in light of a deadline.

Read 20 books in three months and then write an exam? Still daunting, but at least I’m off to a promising start.

I had meant to get this post up sooner, but the nature of a blog is to be ignored and ignored it was.

In 2013, I read a total of 20 books. It’s a little shabby, especially considering the large amounts of free time I had compared to previous years (though, I suspect the lack of free time is what pressed me to read more when I could). As well, I certainly spent more time writing for myself than I have in previous years, so at least I managed to strike some sort of rough literally truce between my pen and the books on my shelf.

Here’s what I plowed through last year:

Stephen King – The Green Mile
Frank Miller – Batman: Year One
Robert Jordan – The Eye of the World
John Wyndham – The Day of the Triffids
Harry Harrison – Make Room! Make Room!
Michael Pollan – The Botany of Desire
Sigmund Freud – Civilization and its discontents
Tristan Das – Documentary Screenwriting
Linda J. Cowgill – The art of Plotting
Kurt Vonnegut – Player Piano
Marilyn Webber – The Writer’s Road Map
Alan Weisman – The World Without Us
Edward Dolnick – The Clockwork Universe
Maurice Druon – The Iron King
Stephen King – Insomnia
Robert Jordan – The Great Hunt
Bryan Lee O’Malley – Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life
Ethan A. Kincaid – Blood Of Midnight: The Broken Prophecy
Robert Jordan – The Dragon Reborn

I also read an ebook called A Crash Course in Visual Content Creation but I can’t seem to find the damn thing or remember who authored it.

I had a good year in the non-fiction category. Most were insightful, others life changing: after reading The Botany of Desire I can honestly say I will never buy non-organic potatoes again (in fact, the majority of all vegetables I buy are now organic).

I wasn’t expecting to read so much fantasy, but that’s just the way the cards hit the table this time around. As always, I squeezed in a few Stephen King novels in there, but that’s to be expected since everyone needs a little junk food now and then (and it’s so plentiful and wondrous!). What I did realize is that I need to branch out my reading patterns a little bit more and dive into new authors, which I have fortunately already started this year.