Random Thread ~Usagi-Chan ☮ Tūsurī~

[Zunu]

When you're reading ~2 books a week like that, do you mean cover to cover or are you skipping through some sections? And is it just fiction or including scholarly material? I ask because I made an effort to read every day last year, maybe missing about 5 or 6 days at most, and I only managed about 1/4 the pace you're going, ie about 1 book every two weeks. And even then forcing myself. Sometimes it was a real struggle to get really absorbed into the material, even if I was enjoying the book overall. Lately it's been even worse; so far this month I've started 5 different books, plus a textbook, and haven't finished any of them yet (including - sorry Erilaz! - Embassytown, which I wanted to like but I just couldn't get into).

[esm]

Cover to cover, and mostly fiction but some non-fiction. These are the books so far:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (bought this in Savannah)
*The Story of More by Hope Jahren
*Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Metropolis: A History of the City, Humankind's Greatest Invention by Ben Wilson
*The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
*Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
*In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (currently reading)

The ones with asterisks are books I found either at a Little Free Library or just for grabs in my apartment lobby. I'd seen the movies for Never Let Me Go and Fight Club ages ago.

I was a pretty big reader as a kid, like ever since I could read English when I was around 7. My focus became garbage around middle school, but I was still in the habit of borrowing books from the library all the time. A lot of times I end up not really reading the books because I'd end up spacing out too much and losing track of what I was reading. But I was always stuck in the mindset that I *should* be a reader, and I want to read a lot of literature. Like I have books I bought since high school that I haven't read and still carry around with me everywhere I move to. I read manga translated into Thai a lot too as a kid, and even with those I wouldn't always be able to focus on reading some of them. I'm actually really good at reading scholarly articles though, especially more modern stuff, since there's a structure to them so I'd know how to just skim for the main points. Of course the oftentimes bullshit thing you do in grad seminars is discuss and argue over the fine details.

In my adult life I often feel like I don't have time or I'm too distracted, but in the right setting I'd still be able to read. Last year I had jury duty for 4 days and I finished 2 books through all the waiting. I can't ever read in a moving vehicle so I kinda envy people that can do that, but I also just like enjoying music during my commutes. I also think I've worked through all the shit that made me head too cluttered to read over the years, so now I can focus better and enjoy reading again. Plus, I think it's also about making a habit of it.

[Zunu]

Hmm, cool. I read "Never Let Me Go" years back, before the film came out. Ishiguro used to be one of my must-read authors, but I've been lagging lately and still have a couple of his newer ones sitting unopened on my Kindle. I read Fight Club too, but after the movie. It left a way different aftertaste than the big screen version.

(bought this in Savannah)

Haha, I sometimes remember books by which vacation I bought or read them on, going all the way back to the Chronicles of Narnia boxset I found on vacation in upstate NY between 4th and 5th grades. Between that and my (at the time) baby cousin almost drowning, that's basically all I remember about that trip.

The "Metropolis" book sounds interesting, how was it?

[Moh]

I haven't checked out any books since before I moved. Or read any, honestly. I was taking advantage of that particular library's option to have books sent to my house. I have a card for the local library here but I haven't set foot in there since I got it. Kinda silly since a pandemic seems like a good(?) opportunity to read lots of books!

My mom fell in her bedroom early this morning and hit her right arm really hard. Dad took her to the ER where she got diagnosed with a proximal humerus fracture. It's right below where she had an artificial shoulder placed in 2020. Idk what's worse; the fact that it happened at all, or the fact that she's already recovering from extensive nasal surgery that she just had on Tuesday.

[erilaz]

I ask because I made an effort to read every day last year, maybe missing about 5 or 6 days at most, and I only managed about 1/4 the pace you're going, ie about 1 book every two weeks.

That's roughly my own pace, with a mixture of fiction and non-fiction and occasionally stuff in languages other than English. I do most of my reading at the laundromat and on public transit, but I don't have a long commute. I only got through 13 pages on the bus ride home this evening.

So far this month I've read The Power of Babel by John McWhorter and The Lyrics of Syd Barrett, and I'm most of the way through The Way Between, a YA fantasy novel by Rivera Sun, who is supposed to be the Author Guest of Honor at this year's Mythcon, if it doesn't get postponed yet again. I'm also making slow progress through Once Upon a Time in Ghostly Japan (まんが日本昔ばなし 妖しのお話), a bilingual collection of supernatural folk tales by Sayumi Kawauchi and Ralph F. McCarthy, but I need to have a dictionary at hand to read the Japanese text, since the facing-page English translation is VERY loose.

Next up: Maria Dahvana Headley's translation of Beowulf, which the Mythopoeic Society's Bay Area chapter will be discussing in March.

[Zunu]

I read "Babel" as well. McWhorter's pretty entertaining, when he sticks to linguistics, anyway . I have been slowly working my way through his Language Families of the World audio course.

My brother-in-law would probably like that Syd Barrett book. As for me, while I like Pink Floyd's music, I don't know anything about their personnel, and until this very moment I always thought that the name "Syd Barrett" belonged to a circa 1970 punk/glam/art scene/modeling adjacent woman.

[erilaz]

^ I've been fascinated by Barrett since high school, when I had heard only a few songs of his œuvre. He was kicked out of Pink Floyd during the recording of their second album, and I didn't have their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (where he was the main songwriter and vocalist), until the summer after graduation. For me, that album is like those vacation books you were talking about: I bought my first copy of Piper in West Berlin.

[Zunu]

Moh, so sorry about your mom. Getting that second injury on top of the first one, I can only imagine that it must be as demoralizing as it is painful. For your sake and hers, I wish her a swift recovery.

[esm]

(bought this in Savannah)

Haha, I sometimes remember books by which vacation I bought or read them on, going all the way back to the Chronicles of Narnia boxset I found on vacation in upstate NY between 4th and 5th grades. Between that and my (at the time) baby cousin almost drowning, that's basically all I remember about that trip.

The "Metropolis" book sounds interesting, how was it?

It's actually a book about Savannah! I read it after I came back because I missed the place. Also, the bookstore I got it from, E. Shaver Booksellers, was so cute and had 3 cats just hanging around the store. I went there while waiting for what was literally the best soul food in the world (Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room -- there was a wait of like 1.5 hours but they give you food for like 4 people for $30).

Metropolis was a great read! I interested in cities and urban life in general, especially looking forward to more sustainable city living, and I saw an ad for the book on Instagram, so I ordered it right away (note: I don't usually get book ads on Instagram and I wish I did). I actually went to the National Building Museum in DC that weekend too, and it was amazing. I mean, just look it up; the architecture on the inside is amazing.

Anyway, back to the book. I actually finished almost 400 pages of it in a weekend. The first chapter felt a little dry because I'm not so into ancient history, but it gets better and better once it's on historical periods I'm more into (more of modern times).

On a random note, my MacBook is like 7 years old now. It feels a little weird how it's still completely functional because I used to have to get a new laptop every 2 years or so before I switched to Macs.

[Zunu]

I mean, just look it up; the architecture on the inside is amazing.

A friend of mine had a MacBook Air around that age, then all of a sudden it stopped being able to carry charge, it would only work plugged in. She loved the meaning and wanted to keep it at all costs, so sent it to get repaired, but it was still the same when it came back. And she absolutely needed it for work, so she relented and bought one of the M1 "Apple Silicon" MacBooks. I'm only slightly exaggerating to say that it ended up being the happiest purchase of her life.

(Windows laptops these days last longer than 2 years as well, tbh. It's not necessarily that they are better made, but more that hardware requirements haven't really gone up in years for major software. So once you get past the new baseline of having a solid state drive, pretty much any recent machine is capable of most any non-specialized task.)