Reading. I used to devour books endlessly when I was younger, striding through all sorts of subjects to the pace of something like 8-10 books a week, depending. Of course, that was also back in the day when I had a lot more time in the week, including commute time on buses. And all sorts of other good stuff.
These days I’m often lucky to get through a book a week. This winter break, because of starting out not feeling well, I dove into my to-be-read pile and hacked my way through a lot of reading. But I also ruthlessly pruned out fiction that, after the first quarter or so, just didn’t ring my chimes. No need to force myself to stick with something that just didn’t work for me. While I didn’t quite get through eight books or so, between the San Francisco trip and not feeling well, I managed to do some damage to my monster pile of books. And, in the doing, realized how much I miss my reading.
I also got an Android tablet for Christmas and I’m starting to download not just books but magazines to it. I really think I could end up spending more time reading the popular fiction and a lot of my genre fiction on the tablet so that’s what I’m going to try (I’m also going to buy a dock/keyboard for the tablet so it can also masquerade as a netbook).
So. I read and finished one book this year already. Book #1 for 2012 is Kate Elliott’s Cold Magic. A very interesting story. I like reading Elliott’s work in the long form; while not all of her stories work for me, Cold Magic is one which does. I’m going to be following this series closely.
Next up–Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs.
