Deciding who and what

Deciding who and what to read...

I actually awoke thinking about this. How nerdy can I be? Seriously? Who wakes up at 6-something a.m on New Year's Day thinking about setting rules for the year's reading plan? I do, that's who...

I have some goals for my year of reading women authors' works, though perhaps goals is too strong a word as I might change any of them at any time, if it suits me, because... I can.

1. Read only works by women. This is rather the purpose, yes? I'd like to think this is the easy part but as only about half of the one hundred plus books I read in 2014 were by women and most of those were written by only three or four authors, I really will have to make a conscious effort, most likely.
2. Read works by women I have never read anything by before (that is a horrible sentence, I know....). I do have a tendency to find an author who interests me and read or even reread everything they have written (Jane Austen comes to mine), even if that becomes a ridiculous endeavor (I'm looking at you Anthony Trollope and partially blaming that particular insanity on my friend David E.) or just consumes too much time. In 2014, for example, I (mostly) reread all of Sue Grafton's alphabetic detective novels. Starting these helped me get out of the mental slump in which I found myself after a serious illness in summer. They are interesting but not too terribly intellectually challenging. I don't mean that disparagingly, just that I rarely need to look up a new word or grasp a totally new concept when reading them. The entertainment is more about the story, the characters, and the mystery, but not so much on expanding my mind or extending my vocabulary. 
3. Read works written in a wide variety of time periods. My penchant for reading a series of works by a single author is complemented by my often stupid focus on one period of time. This might be the present (Who doesn't want to read cool new contemporary books?) or reading one author then reading books by his or her contemporaries.
4. Read works written in a wide variety of time periods and set in a variety of time periods. My penchant for reading a series of works by a single author is complemented by my often stupid focus on one historical period that interests me (World War II, for example). In 2014, I read a number of books, both fiction and non-fiction, with WWII settings, such as The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Night by Elie Wiesel, The Nazi Officer's Wife, and Monuments Men (no, I haven't seen the movie).
5. Read works from a variety of genres. While I believe I read a reasonable wide ranging set of book genres types, I do have a habit of getting too focused at times (see items 2 through 4 above) and sometimes that focus is on one particular type of writing. For example, in 2014 I read (or listened to) a ridiculous number of detective/mystery/suspense novels and spy/thrillers, not only because of working my way through all of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series (Hooray! A female author and a female protagonist!) but also due to finding Christine Kling (Who suggested her to me? I don't recall but THANK YOU!) and reading all her books, and reading some excellent first novels in the spy/thriller genre (Amy Lynn by Jack July, The Old Spook by Charles Ameringer). Of course, our habit (meaning my husband's and mine) of listening to unabridged audiobook versions of Tom Clancy novels when traveling cross country adds even more to my time in this genre [We particularly enjoy Clancy's novels in the John Clark/Jack Ryan/Jack Jr. series]. I am not complaining because audiobooks have helped us through a lot of necessary and stressful travel the past couple of years, including many trips to/from Houston for my husband's cancer treatment (I could go off on my love of audiobooks and Audible.com here but I will refrain...). Another genre I love is science fiction (Douglas Adams, or Neal Stephenson, anyone?) and fantasy (Stephen R. Lawhead, Stephen R. Donaldson, G. Norman Lippert...). Although at least a quarter of my 2014 reading falls into the SF/fantasy realm, none of the books were written by women. Why is that?
6. Read works of a variety of types. I do love fiction and, particular types of fiction, but I should read more non-fiction so I'm going to make a conscious effort to include non-fiction here. Additionally, I know very little of poetry (although I can quote some of Edward Lear's less juicy limericks!) and I read no poetry at all in 2014 so I want to read a bit of poetry this year, as well. Variety is the spice of life, right? So, I'm going to work on variety in several ways.

Thus end my rules or goals for the present. As previously mentioned, I might change them at any time if a change will improve my reading experience but I do want to stick with female authors this year. 

I do enjoy reading books by people I know, with whom I have corresponded, or who are known by people I know. Connections are an important part of life and I don't mean that in the 19th century British sort of "her family has connections" way but rather the broader inter-connectedness of humans. In 2014 I read a history book by my date to the senior prom (Dan P., now a history professor), a fascinating memoir by a cycling friend (Scott Thigpen's Trail Magic and the Art of Soft Pedaling), two excellent first novels (thrillers) by writers with whom I've traded messages on goodreads (mentioned above), and a lovely mystery novel (Janice MacDonald's The Roar of the Crowd) by an acquaintance of a friend (Kelly M.), for starters. So, this year's reading will probably include a few books by friends or friends of friends, just because.

Another rule, or rather preference, is that the books are available in ebook format. I need font control, people, I really do. On my Kindle, eight font sizes are available and I tend to read the sixth one (third from the über large end!), which is a sign, you know, of something...  That is not to imply that I will not read hard copy books (Neither Ukraine: A History nor In the Shadow of Hitler were available as ebooks in 2014 and some books, such as dual language readers or books with lots of illustrations or maps, are better in hard copy for sure).

Getting Started

So, getting started, here are my first two books begun this year:

1. Among Others by Jo Walton is an award winning novel of fantasy published in 2011. It has won a host of awards including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel (2012),  and the British Fantasy Award. 

I don't recall who suggested this book to me (although it was probably someone from my academic circles, a group I've pumped for suggestions) but a Hugo Award is generally a guarantee that it is a book I will enjoy reading. Furthermore, as I am learning (I've read about 15% of the book thus far), it is, secondarily, a book about books, wherein the protagonist is a voracious reader and is reading real books (i.e. those that actually exist outside the fictional setting of the novel). What's not to love? I read a (non-fiction) book about reading books [The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller] to finish off 2014 and quite enjoyed it so that added twist is a major bonus.

2. Knitting for Beginners by Susan Wilters is exactly what it sounds like, a book about knitting for the initiated. I took up knitting a few weeks ago thanks to, or perhaps, to be blamed on, my friend Jennifer F. I know next to nothing and my knitting friends seem to think "Find a youtube video!" is the answer to every question I pose. Now, that is not bad advice, but I like to really understand what I'm doing, if possible, and to have reference material to hand. 

So, I've started this knitting book, mostly due to my friend Erin K. who posted the link to me on Facebook a day or so ago at a time when the set (it's part of a set of three) was free for the Kindle. Free? Did someone say free? I jumped right on that, of course, and it is no longer free one day later (Sorry to disappoint! But it is free for borrowing for Amazon Prime users, if that helps.). Thus far I have read one chapter (of six) and am learning some fundamentals about materials, mostly, such as needles and yarns. I don't know a thing about the author but the book was free, the first chapter is quite readable, and the accompanying photos are clear, even in black and white on my Kindle Paperwhite.

I will probably start another book or two today or tomorrow since the first few days in January are the end of my winter break from my real job, which is that of accounting professor. So, I will try to read as much as possible in the first week of January before the Spring semester rush begins in earnest.  Surely, I'm not unusual in having more than one book going at a time. While I do not often read similar books (same genre, same period, etc.) simultaneously, I often have several disparate books going at once. Since a few of the books/authors I want to read this year are available on Audible.com, I will likely have one audio book going at times (the better to knit to?) as well as several books on the Kindle and perhaps, now and then, one in hardcopy.