What I Read in 2014

Here are the covers of the books and comics I read in 2014, along with some observations below.

Notes:

• Count: If you normalize and remove some of the clutter created by individual comics issues, the total book count comes to 53, where I am including comic book multi-issue collections, as they take as long to read as standalone novellas, which I also count. I'm pleased at having read just over a book per week, my personal best in a while. It's nowhere near what some readers regularly log on Goodreads, but I'm not racing anyone, just enjoying myself.  
• Gender Mix: Only 12 of the 53 books were by women, which is a little disappointing. It doesn't help me that I like prolific male authors. I mean, reading a bunch of Simenons is going to skew the stats, darnit :-) I'll be more cognizant of this going forward, though.
• Short Fiction: I read 228 short stories in 2014. Some of these are captured in the above, but many are not. Probably deserves a separate post. For now, I'll refer back to a short fiction reading spree I did, with 50 capsule reviews of short stories: part 1 and part 2.
• I'm pleased to have read short story collections, anthologies, novels and non-fiction books on various subjects. The mix keeps things interesting and lively.
• This year, after wanting to for some time but not getting around to it, I finally got back into Spider-man, and I started with the first issue of Amazing Spider-Man. Reading these electronically on a touch screen is quite a different experience from what it was like thumbing through the pages as a kid, but no less enjoyable for it.
• I really enjoyed a lot of the books I read. Probably 80% I would rate as very good or above.
• I'll have to give some thought to the 10 books I enjoyed most, and post that in the next few days...

Short Fiction Reading Spree

Leading up to Worldcon each year I like to ramp up my short fiction reading. This is convenient because:

• Normally it gives me an opportunity to go through all the short form Hugo nominees each year.

• It means I feel a little more "caught up" on short fiction, entering the second half of the year, than I otherwise would, which in turn provides extra motivation to keep going August-Dec. Now, this may make it sound like reading short fiction is difficult or unappealing--quite the opposite is true. But reading novels and non-fiction books is easy and appealing as well, and they take considerably more time, so unless I deliberately set aside blocks of time for short fiction, I find that even though I continue to read it all year round I fall woefully behind.

• It's nice to be able to meet people at a large gathering like Worldcon and be familiar with their short form work, whether they have published dozens or stories before, or just the one I read last month. Wouldn't be the first time this has provided an "in" to conversation or a way of quickly establishing a shared reference.

• This is captured in the third bullet point, but I'll repeat it here, because it deserves its own space: I love short fiction.

• As it happens, this year one of the panels I'm going to be on is about short fiction. So reading more of it leading up to the con, and that specific panel, certainly can't hurt. It might even make me pseudo-credible.

Those are reasons, then. But what about method of execution? Well, this year I thought I'd try a slightly different approach:

• Starting tomorrow, Sunday July 20th, I'll endeavor to read five stories a day for the next ten days. This means that, if successful, I'll read fifty stories during this little spree.

• All the short fiction I read during this time will have been published in 2014. (This means, alas, that I'll have to try and catch up with current Hugo nominees on the side, or last minute before voting closes, or be caught up incompletely when it does).

I look forward to discovering new authors and seeing what some of my favorites have been up to!

Ambitious Readers

You gotta love ambitious readers. Like A. J. Jacobs, the guy who tried to read his way through the complete Encyclopedia Britannica, and wrote up his experience in The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World.

I recently came across the blog, to which I promptly feed-subscribed, of an equally (if not more) ambitious reader. Its title appropriate captures the Reader's mission statement:

• Blog - Penguin Classics: An Attempt To Read All the Penguin Classics
  

For anyone who enjoys Penguin Classics, this immediately raises the questions: how many titles are there? and, how long would it take to read them all?

Answer to the first: "According to Penguin there are 1,400 books in the series but I think this includes several duplicates, such as works of Shakespeare in different formats."

And, without demonstrating the slightest hint of emotion at the prospect, answer to the second: "this is my attempt to read as many of the Penguin Classics series as I can. This project started in February 2009 and my estimated completion date is 2029." (italics are mine)

Kudos to this reader, described on the blog only as "Fat Cat, An Investment Manager living and working in London."

I for one plan to follow his reading adventures through the vast catalog of Penguin titles. He started in February 2009 and has already read 43 classics. It's not all about quality of course, so it's a good thing his entries are pretty fun to read also.

Only 1,357 books to go, Fat Cat. Bravely read on!