January Recap

So the vital statistics: I started January with 54,328 pages to read, and ended the month with a total of 2,128 read.  That leaves 52,200 left to go.  Let's get visual on this breakdown:

Projected Reading Progress for 2012

Ouch, line graph.  While the blue line represents the pace I'd need to read to complete my goal, the red line is the 12 month projection of what I will accomplish at my current pace.

I don't think I ever actually expected to be able to read everything on the list but the goal is still a good one even if I fall short of completing it.  So I will push on to get done what I can and prepare a savings account to pay for what I can't.

And it may be time to ask for some help.

The Player Of Games

The Player of Games is a tremendous book that I am hesitant to talk too much about, because there is an element of mystery involved that could be ruined by a loose tongue.  A disillusioned man (though as with any of Banks' Culture novels, the entire society is out-of-whack) whose role in life is to play games is 'given' an opportunity to travel to the exotic and barbaric empire of Azad, to play in their great tournament, which decides the station of all who play and the makeup of their heirarchy.  Fireworks ensue.

One of the most successful parts of the writing is the way that Banks describes the playing of several games, while not actually describing any games at all.  He finds just enough detail of the mechanics to show you how someone would approach the games he has not truly invented, and in doing so externalizes the inner workings of his characters.  Their actions often represent entirely their engagement with the world around them and Banks uses it to his best advantage.

It is fair to say that books have been written more closely resembling the record of a game - especially histories which catalog movement, action and outcome - but could not be less interesting to read.  Banks' approach with this book serves to draw the reader into Gurgeh's story, even giving you the impression that you can imagine the board or court where the game is taking place, though you can't fully and, frankly, what you've imagined is not right.

I'm sorry, but you're wrong.  That piece is actually supposed to go over there, and you've got it upside down.

I would recommend this book:  and would then yell "Jenga" or "Uno"

I got this book:  winning an intergalactic poker game, in a pot with two spaceships and the deed to a black hole.  I lost everything but the book on the next hand going all-in with a pair

This book is now:  Going back on the shelf until I see the Hauths again, because Jim would like it

What Else Is There To Do?

I suppose at this point the $64,000 question is "Why have a blog if you don't post to it and does your silence mean you aren't reading as much as you should be?"

Touche, me-pretending-I'm-you.  Yes, it means I haven't been reading enough. I've been distracted of late and I'll tell you how, in no particular order.

#1: The Y - A few years ago I joined the YMCA and lost a bunch of weight, then promptly gained most of it back.  Last fall I made some lifestyle changes and decided the Y might be a good substitute for some of my poorer decisions.  Then Christmas and New Years happened.  I have been back the past 2 weeks though, and going almost daily.  I'm still looking for a goal, or some motivation.  Is there a shirtless holiday about 6 months off I should know about?

#2: Television/Wall - I sold my TV to a coworker last year in an effort to spend less time idolizing it (I hope he is enjoying it still.)  My roomate, however, has a projector.  Fortunately for me, I haven't spent all my time watching it.  Just some/lots of my time.  One note: Grumpy Old Men is a fantastic movie and I don't regret at all having watched it last week.

#3: Work - One would think that working at a bookstore is helpful to reading, but no.  In a perfect world I'd set a time every day for reading, say 10am-2pm, and stick with it.  The world isn't perfect though, and I work a somewhat random schedule.  Add to that the constant temptation to buy more, different books and you've got a recipe for not getting things done.

You didn't expect me to be so predictable, did you?  Truly, I am dull, folks.

I am still reading, I promise, and I will have a post up about my most recent conquest shortly, as well as a recap of my first month of reading every book I own.  In summary: not done yet.

The Dangers of Liking Something Too Much

Next up, and up again, is The Player of Games by Iain Banks.  Banks' Culture stories are great in the way I imagine that a tiger best friend would be.  I would call him a favorite author of mine with just a minimum of debate, mostly for formality's sake.

I often hang on to books to re-read them and there are many examples of these titles on my shelves (I'm mildly notorious for going on a Dark Tower binge and flying through the thing every couple of years).  I've decided that since I never got rid of some of the books I've finished, I must have meant to read them again and therefore they're just like any other book on the list.  

There are a few books which I've exempted - the Dark Tower books and a handful of others that I consider  'Library Titles' in my collection.  My marker here is whether it's a title I pick up repeatedly, or if it's something I read once and didn't part with in the great sell-off of 2010.  If I've read it twice or more, I don't have to re-read it by December and I certainly don't have to get rid of it.

After Banks, I will loose an assault on Catching Fire and Mockingjay.  I didn't like that Hunger Games ended without ending, so I haven't read the other two yet.  Since they will be quick reads, I'm going to get them out of the way instead of paying for them later.  I'm thinking it will then be time for something non-fiction, maybe finishing Ratification, to restore my sanity.

Hidden Empire and Seven Suns

There are two books on my list titled Hidden Empire, oddly enough.  Orson Scott Card's Empire books are his thought experiment about an American conflict between red state values and a liberal cadre with future weapons.

Kevin J. Anderson's Hidden Empire is the first in a series of seven books, The Saga of Seven Suns, the story of mankind's expansion into the galaxy.  Various factions of Humans and their alien neighbors, the Ildirans, become embroiled in an ancient, desperate conflict after Humans make some poor assumptions about a bomb they find laying around in the ruins of an abandoned planet.

That is a colorful over-simplification of the story and yet I'm comfortable with it.  

I liked the book, although seeing that I will read the next six at some point in the coming months, I wish I had loved it.  

The plot drives, much more than the characters and often at their expense.  Given the scope of the universe these people inhabit, the story jumps between viewpoints spread across the whole of known space.  It's understandable but happens so frequently it prevents Anderson's characters from rising above the pseudo-stock sketches they truly are.  Balancing plot and character development is always a wrestling match but when his most compelling characters are ignominious, mute, seldom-seen, diamond-hulled warships, there is room for improvement.

The hope I carry now, as he's already introduced the characters and set the stage, is that the remaining six books will not struggle as to how to present themselves.  At the end of the book the plot has complicated itself to a point of promise for the future, if the characters can get out of the way.

One final thought:  there is too much retreading happening.  The reader is left holding the thread of one character's view of events between many chapters because of the overall development.  Refreshing the who/what/when aspects is helpful but the constant reiteration of key character information only serves to make them seem thinner in my mind and draws the story out unnecessarily.  Repeating that your generic shopkeeper has a brown apron doesn't really make him less generic and I'd appreciate you just getting on with things.  

I would recommend this book: be streamlined a bit.

I got this book: last year coming home from Mexico, where it would be called El Imperio Oculto, el primer libro de La Saga de Los Siete Soles.

This book is now: refusing to open again on my Kindle.  Guess I'm done.

Tripods

Blaster has mightily recommended some changes for me and my blogging habits.  First, she'd like to see daily blog posts from me.  This is possible, so I will attempt it.  Maybe it won't be about a completed book, but I'll put something up.

Further, she wants me to elaborate on the books I'm finishing.

I wrapped up the main trilogy of the Tripods by John Christopher, a late '60s series about giant mechanical Tripods that rule over humanity.  This is children's science fiction; I was assigned the first book in the series somewhere around the 4th grade.  These are kids books in the truest sense.

A young man chooses to flee his home, rather than succumb to conformity, finding wild adventure and suspense as he travels through northern Europe and joins up with the last free men on Earth.  Will, the teenage protagonist, becomes the lynchpin in the struggle to rid our planet of the Tripods' tryannical torment.

I picked them up out of a sense of nostalgia.  Having read them again, I'm not really impressed, though I can easily see why a young person would like them.  I found them to be odd, and there is probably the difference of 45 years and cultural variation to blame.

I was made a bit uncomfortable when Will infiltrates the city of the Masters, and he is playing the part of the obedient human slave.  The scenes in which his Master is "fondling" Will with his tentacles and Will has to pretend to enjoy it were plain old wrong.  Yikes, for real.  These kinds of scenes aren't uncommon in dystopic fiction, but the presentation of it here, with an unwilling male teenager and the Master ... we just don't write things that way anymore.

I have not yet read the prequel, When the Tripods Came. I am sorely tempted to skip it, but it isn't long and I'll probably read it in the morning just to be done with it and to save the $1.60.

I would reccomend this book: to anyone reading to a niece/nephew who maybe doesn't like that niece/nephew

I got this book: at work, $1 for all four

This book is now: going into the donation box

Moving Quicker, But With More Style

One of the challenges of trying to blog simultaneously with a large reading goal is how completely incompatible the activities are with one another.  Trying to read a book while posting is simply not possible.  If you believe they are tasks which can be completed in unison, your eye biology varies from my own and your brain works in an alien and marvelous way.

I have been challenging myself to read for shorter stints and trying to move faster through the text.  I am concerned that in the attempt to read all of this material, I might have to rush through things and will not get to experience what some author might have envisioned to be read at a languished pace.  That, I suppose, would have been something to consider when I didn't read that book last year.

I've also been avoiding the constant temptation of mine to jump from book to book and read several things at once.  This is a great tactic for television: everything happens in segments with defined beginnings and endings.  It is possible to compartmentalize between episodes and move between shows regularly.  Reading, for me, is not nearly so successful when handled as such a free-range enterprise.

I can only hope that in the long run I may transfer these efficiencies from my reading into my everyday life and work.  I am an easily distracted person by nature.  Like how I just posted to my blog instead of finishing up a chunk of reading.

You, extant reader, are becoming the problem here.