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I found myself kind of stuck trying to figure out what to post today, so I think I'm going to try out something I've seen a few people on my reading list do.
Some general commentary about my reading habits first. I stopped reading significantly in 2014, my first full calendar year out of high school. (Meaning I went from averaging a hundred to a hundred and fifty books a year to fifty, but that's heavily stacked towards spring; the last few months, since I moved out, it's been one to three/month.) I think in some ways, this is indicative of the fact that I no longer feel like I have to hide behind a book or laptop to exist, so in that way it's a good sign.
More of it, though, is that I have been utterly glued to my laptop since I left high school. Almost all of my book reading was done during blocks of time in which I couldn't access the internet, usually in class or during commutes or waiting at the therapist's office, that kind of thing. I still read constantly on my laptop -- it's just mostly fanfiction, because that's what's available on my laptop without paying extra money.
In light of this, I think I'm going to bite it and go ahead and spend money on ebooks more regularly. I've bought a few ebooks and nearly always read them quickly once I get started, but between DRM, my lack of love for Amazon, and feeling like it's wasteful to spend money on ebooks when I have several hundred print books I've never started in my apartment and a ton more at the library, I don't do it much. But if the choice is between ebooks and giving up novels, well, I like novels. I'll be supporting authors as well as Amazon, and it's not like I'm choosing between reading my bookshelves and reading ebooks, I'm choosing between ignoring my bookshelves in favor of fanfic or in favor of ebooks.
And now onto the possibly regular Reading Wednesday bit.
What I'm Reading Now
I'm finally starting In Ashes Lie by Marie Brennan, one of the aforementioned books lying around my apartment. I bought this not too long after it came out, I think in 2010? I know I'd previously read the first book in the series at the time. Anyway, I've been chipping at it waiting for class to start and similar for a few weeks and I'm currently sixty pages in. So far it includes exactly the type of political maneuvering I find fascinating, along with some interesting stuff about the Fairy court. It's set in seventeenth century London, and eventually deals with the Fire of London although I haven't gotten to that part. Right now the characters are mostly concerned with Parliament being dissolved, England's imminent war with Scotland, and the Irish Fey trying to insist the English Fey interfere with English colonization of Ireland. I'll have to get further in to have more of an opinion.
On Kindle, I'm two chapters into Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry (edited by by Zion Zohar), an academic anthology on the above subject, which aims to be the first relevant anthology written to be accessible to laymen and undergrads but utilize current scholarship according to the introduction. I bought this for writing research reasons. So far it's fairly interesting because I'm a history geek, but I don't have much of an impression overall. The article subjects look pretty diverse (a bunch of general historical overviews of specific periods or locations, but also articles on eg. liturgical music and Sephardic slave holders in the United States) and I may start jumping around shortly since only some of them are useful to me
What I've Read Recently
According to my records (my memory is less than reliable) the last book I finished was The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes last month, which I reviewed in detail at the time.
More recently, I read the first short story in the lesbian BDSM erotica anthology Her Private Passion: More Tales of Pleasure And Domination (all proceeds go to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission for both this and the gay men's companion anthology, so I recommend you check it out if it sounds like it's up your ally). That was "Bound in Silk and Steel" by Rebecca Tregaron, which was a fun, fluffy story about a spy going to historical Venice to investigate a possible conspirator during Masquerade. Very luscious description (more memorably of the city and clothing than the sex in my opinion), overall the sort of thing I'd describe as fun.
Fanfiction wise, I spent last night marathon reading Revenge of the Jedi by elizabeth_hoot, which is a novel length alternate universe Star Wars fic set after the Empire Strikes Back. It's compliant only with A New Hope and the Empire Strikes Back but uses some ideas from other areas of canon. I kind of wish it had been continued, but sadly, there is no sequel; it does come to a good stopping point, though. Includes Leia being crowned Queen of Alderaan, Shmi Skywalker the Force ghost, Darth Vader being menacing and having a more gradual redemption arc, and a lot of adorable friendship between Leia, Luke and Han. Definitely recommended if you're a Star Wars Original Trilogy fan.
Some general commentary about my reading habits first. I stopped reading significantly in 2014, my first full calendar year out of high school. (Meaning I went from averaging a hundred to a hundred and fifty books a year to fifty, but that's heavily stacked towards spring; the last few months, since I moved out, it's been one to three/month.) I think in some ways, this is indicative of the fact that I no longer feel like I have to hide behind a book or laptop to exist, so in that way it's a good sign.
More of it, though, is that I have been utterly glued to my laptop since I left high school. Almost all of my book reading was done during blocks of time in which I couldn't access the internet, usually in class or during commutes or waiting at the therapist's office, that kind of thing. I still read constantly on my laptop -- it's just mostly fanfiction, because that's what's available on my laptop without paying extra money.
In light of this, I think I'm going to bite it and go ahead and spend money on ebooks more regularly. I've bought a few ebooks and nearly always read them quickly once I get started, but between DRM, my lack of love for Amazon, and feeling like it's wasteful to spend money on ebooks when I have several hundred print books I've never started in my apartment and a ton more at the library, I don't do it much. But if the choice is between ebooks and giving up novels, well, I like novels. I'll be supporting authors as well as Amazon, and it's not like I'm choosing between reading my bookshelves and reading ebooks, I'm choosing between ignoring my bookshelves in favor of fanfic or in favor of ebooks.
And now onto the possibly regular Reading Wednesday bit.
What I'm Reading Now
I'm finally starting In Ashes Lie by Marie Brennan, one of the aforementioned books lying around my apartment. I bought this not too long after it came out, I think in 2010? I know I'd previously read the first book in the series at the time. Anyway, I've been chipping at it waiting for class to start and similar for a few weeks and I'm currently sixty pages in. So far it includes exactly the type of political maneuvering I find fascinating, along with some interesting stuff about the Fairy court. It's set in seventeenth century London, and eventually deals with the Fire of London although I haven't gotten to that part. Right now the characters are mostly concerned with Parliament being dissolved, England's imminent war with Scotland, and the Irish Fey trying to insist the English Fey interfere with English colonization of Ireland. I'll have to get further in to have more of an opinion.
On Kindle, I'm two chapters into Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry (edited by by Zion Zohar), an academic anthology on the above subject, which aims to be the first relevant anthology written to be accessible to laymen and undergrads but utilize current scholarship according to the introduction. I bought this for writing research reasons. So far it's fairly interesting because I'm a history geek, but I don't have much of an impression overall. The article subjects look pretty diverse (a bunch of general historical overviews of specific periods or locations, but also articles on eg. liturgical music and Sephardic slave holders in the United States) and I may start jumping around shortly since only some of them are useful to me
What I've Read Recently
According to my records (my memory is less than reliable) the last book I finished was The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes last month, which I reviewed in detail at the time.
More recently, I read the first short story in the lesbian BDSM erotica anthology Her Private Passion: More Tales of Pleasure And Domination (all proceeds go to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission for both this and the gay men's companion anthology, so I recommend you check it out if it sounds like it's up your ally). That was "Bound in Silk and Steel" by Rebecca Tregaron, which was a fun, fluffy story about a spy going to historical Venice to investigate a possible conspirator during Masquerade. Very luscious description (more memorably of the city and clothing than the sex in my opinion), overall the sort of thing I'd describe as fun.
Fanfiction wise, I spent last night marathon reading Revenge of the Jedi by elizabeth_hoot, which is a novel length alternate universe Star Wars fic set after the Empire Strikes Back. It's compliant only with A New Hope and the Empire Strikes Back but uses some ideas from other areas of canon. I kind of wish it had been continued, but sadly, there is no sequel; it does come to a good stopping point, though. Includes Leia being crowned Queen of Alderaan, Shmi Skywalker the Force ghost, Darth Vader being menacing and having a more gradual redemption arc, and a lot of adorable friendship between Leia, Luke and Han. Definitely recommended if you're a Star Wars Original Trilogy fan.