tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74996078227125586542024-03-20T19:22:45.982-07:00Naked SexyHbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.comBlogger116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-19748306205953131862024-02-06T19:01:00.001-08:002024-02-06T19:01:46.680-08:001 month into 2024 update<div dir="ltr">I finished reading Goshawk Squadron last night. That's 3 books for 2024. Both of the books that I've read in full this year were part of my end of the year Thristbooks order. That's me following up on my plan to read books that I feel like reading rather than committing to some plan that I will struggle to actually follow. I scanned my shelves for what I thought would be a fun, easy read. I picked up The Furies of Calderon after some consideration. I bought that book before moving down here, but I've been skipping it when looking for my next book. It's kind of a thick book, and I wasn't sure I was ready to commit to something that long (and it's the first book in a series). The difference this time was my having listened to the first and most of the second books in Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files. Those are crisp, clever, and well-written books. If this one is anywhere near that league, I figured it would be a fun read that wouldn't take long despite the book's heft. <div><br></div><div>Well, I'm almost 70 pages in after starting it this morning. It's pretty much what I expected. It's been a long time since I've read a book that I want to get back to. The Furies of Calderon fits that category. The other books I've read this year, Goshawk Squadron and 10:04, were not exactly duds, they were both excellent books that went quickly (they're also both pretty short), but The Furies of Calderon is a different kind of engrossing. It's a fast paced, action packed thriller. There is no point other than a fun read. Those have been missing from my reading life for the last couple of years. I need to keep reminding myself that I read for fun. I don't need to prove something with my reading. </div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-79039593918625132662023-12-17T15:02:00.001-08:002023-12-17T15:02:55.439-08:00Project Status<div dir="ltr">An update on pretty much any of my various projects will be about how little progress I am making towards longer term goals. Oh well. The year is winding down so I will have a chance to revisit some of my various projects, assess what's working (and whether I want to keep doing some of these things), and get myself a new direction on one or two of these efforts. <div><br></div><div>My marathon training has been pretty much a carbon copy of last year's cycle. I've run about the same distance, have had similar length runs, and am hitting pretty much the same pace on my runs. The one big difference is the health of my knee this Sunday 3 weeks out from the race. I screwed something up during breakfast on the equivalent Saturday last year. I did not have that issue yesterday. That means I can do a long run this week and some more medium distance runs next week. I did a short run on the Monday of last year and that was it until the marathon. The running I did manage during the marathon was inefficient and super slow. I did very little training the weeks around Christmas two years ago because I was up with family in Virginia. Hopefully training right up until the race (with the appropriate taper) will result in a better race experience. I know I won't be doing an effortless jog over the entire distance. I'm hoping for less than 6 hours. That's an average of 13 minute miles. I would be happy with that. It would be a good building point for starting the new year with a better running plan. </div><div><br></div><div>I'm barely reading. I don't think I've read a single page in over a week. I don't have the energy to read before going to bed and I'm not looking for time to read in at other points during the day. I'm too distracted by games and other trivialities. I have basically zero shot at meeting most of my New Year's Resolutions, but I could read a Dickens book. I read a few pages of Oliver Twist. That's my best bet at finally checking another Dickens book off my list, but I haven't built any momentum. It's more a choice and being lazy than any actual barrier between me and getting some reading done. I need to change up how I use my time and make time for reading. I really don't like this lack of progress on reading books. Hopefully I can use my week off Christmas week to build some momentum and head into the New Year poised to get my owned book pile a little smaller. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-30412024530966950132023-12-02T20:47:00.001-08:002023-12-02T20:47:26.178-08:00Books, training, odds<div dir="ltr">I finally finished another book. My reading time has shrunk to almost nothing, but I still try to read a few pages every night. I used this approach to get through 10 lbs Penalty by Dick Francis. There was a 5 Books post on his novels a month or so ago. I could remember seeing his books in the bookstore so I found one at the library and gave it a go. It was a fun book. The story moved along briskly, the writing style was pleasant, and the dialogue wasn't stilted or awkward. I liked the book enough that I went up to a local library and bought a couple of his books from the used book section for 75 cents each. I don't count these as owned books. They are basically open ended library books. I will put them in the local take one leave one box when I finish them. <div><br></div><div>10 lbs Penalty was my 21 book of the year, but, more interestingly, it is book 799 of my Goodreads list. Assuming I don't start reading something else, definitely not a given, Jefferson and the RIghts of Man will be book 800. This book is going very slowly. I am very much against abandoning this one as I left Jefferson in France when I stopped reading The Hemingses and he's currently in France as I'm about a third of the way through the second volume of the Dumas Malone bio. I would like to get back to the US with Jefferson in one of these chronological biographies. My wife is out of town this week so I will make it a point to read a decent chunk of the book each night. If nothing else I'm hoping to build momentum and get myself moving enough that I can make it to the end of the book. I'm not really feeling anything else I have sitting on my shelves. The most likely usurper would be the 4th Sanderson secret project book. I would like to finish that by the end of the year, but I have a couple weeks until I start feeling pressure on that one. I have the last week of the year off so I'm hoping to do some day reading during that week. A fun book like Sanderson is a perfect fit.</div><div><br></div><div>Marathon training plods on. Saturdays are usually for long runs, but I spent my morning taking my wife to the airport. I tried running after dropping her off last year. That was probably the worst run of the training cycle. My solution for avoiding the heat was to use the treadmill. That kept me out of the sun, but it was still blazing hot, even with a fan blowing on me. My shoes were giving me all kinds of issues and my watch got very confused by the treadmill. I got in 10 miles of a planned 18 and called it quits. My training never really recovered. I did a shorter run the next week, was at Disney World the week after that, and messed up my knee getting into our booth at dinner. I'm still amazed I was able to finish the marathon. So rather than tempting a repeat and getting off my training track, I will skip beer and go to bed kind of early tonight so I can get up and run tomorrow. My plan is for 16 miles. That gets me to the turn toward Animal Kingdom on the actual marathon course. Having that reference in mind during these long runs has helped me stay focused on making the entire distance. It's not just an abstract number. It's a physical place that I can visualize myself running through. The deeper I can get in training, the better I should do on the actual course.</div><div><br></div><div>My plan for the post run portion of my Sunday is to exert myself by hanging out on the couch. Sports betting is once again a part of my life so I will turn on Red Zone and spend the day taking it easy. I should replace a section of screen around my pool, but I'm typically not in great moving around status after my long runs. Maybe tomorrow will be different. I plan on getting in the pool after my run. I've been avoiding the pool while some scraps on my knee and hand heal (I tripped on the sidewalk during my Thursday run the week before Thanksgiving). I've managed to avoid adding more money to my account after my initial deposit. I've been a bit free in making bets. I found a pretty good rhythm when I was betting on college basketball games a couple of years ago. I didn't do as well when I was in Virginia last March during the conference tournaments. I was just betting favorites without really having a strategy or an approach. I have fallen into that same pattern in the first couple weeks of having the ability to bet games again. I thought I was going to have to reload my account, but I put my last $35 on a three game Premier League parlay that cashed this morning. (I usually bet conservatively to avoid big losses, but I read a tweet about Elon Musk's approach to risk and decided it was the right time to go all in.) That bet got me back over $100 so I could take a step back and reassess my approach with a fresh bank roll. I've used the public bet info in the CBS Sports app to get me out of my losing approach. I'm not looking to make a bunch of money. I just want to be able to keep making small bets to keep things interesting. </div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-34754701485939496972023-11-02T19:37:00.001-07:002023-11-02T19:37:13.463-07:00Reading Projects Status Update<div dir="ltr">Bookshelf Zero: My owned but unread list currently stands at 169 books. I finally finished A Bend in the RIver. That's the third book I've read by VS Naipaul. I understand why he is (was?) held in high regard, but his books are not fun to read. It's nice to have read them, but the actual process of reading them is just not very much fun. Rewarding and insightful but kind of boring and tedious. I also read one of my Booker Shortlist from 2021, A Passage North. That book is brilliant. I could write an essay but I won't. I'm currently working on the second volume of Malone's Jefferson bio. I'm not zipping through it because I keep falling asleep rather than reading later in the evening. I may be able to pick up something easier and get through it more quickly in the moments that I am not dozing off, but I'm committed to getting through it. These are books I want to read. There is an ongoing effort to erase important historical periods and people. You don't have to like Thomas Jefferson, but he was a key figure in the formation of the United States. Feel free to criticize Dumas Malone's regard for his subject, but that doesn't mean what he says is false. It's like hearing about someone from a friend. The perspective is colored by feelings, but dispassionate and purely rational regard is inhuman. Rejecting all knowledge that violates the tenets of orthodoxy leftist idolatry narrows our world and shortens our perspective. That's by design. I vehemently reject that design so I engage in the subversive act of reading books about slave holding white guys written by admiring white guys. <div><br></div><div>35 books read in 2023: Not gonna happen. I'm at 20 for the year. This is an improvement over last year's 18 books. Maybe I will figure out how I was reading 30 to 40 books a few years ago and recapture that frenetic pace, but I'm just not getting through books at that clip right now. I just looked over some of my lists from previous years. There were plenty of quick and easy reads in there, but there are a decent number of serious books sprinkled through the lists. My life just isn't built like it was in 2015 or 2016. I need to recognize this simple fact and move on. I've had so much angst over how my life doesn't fit into that mold anymore. It was great, but I'm not in that place anymore. For all that I was doing things that I felt like I should be doing, I wasn't doing anything to grow or expand my experience. I found a very safe and secure spot where I could do pleasant things and not really deal with anything very consequential. So I read lots of books but otherwise just kind of drifted along. I'm not drifting now. I would still like to read more books.</div><div><br></div><div>Read a Dickens work: Nope. I'm just not feeling highly wrought Victorian novels right now. </div><div><br></div><div>Completing various reading lists: I've crossed a few books off of each of my 3 lists this year. A Bend in the River is a Modern LIbrary Top 100 book. That's my second of the year. The first was The Postman Always Rings Twice, which is such a short book it kind of feels like cheating to include that effort in the list. I may read another before the year is out. I've read a couple New Canon titles. Checked off a Drizzt book. I'm working through these things. They don't get any longer and I haven't added any new ones so there is progress being made. I have read enough good books that I would never have thought to pick up if not for these lists that I will continue to pursue completion. They keep me away from so much of that crap that is getting published it's worth going deeper down these rabbit holes to keep escaping from the horrors of the modern publishing enterprise. <div><br></div><div>There are others, but those are the ones that I try to keep in the tightest focus. We'll see how the year progresses. At least I've avoided the ponderous time sucks that plagued my reading time last year. </div></div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-11231527359130978262023-07-24T14:17:00.001-07:002023-07-24T14:17:40.063-07:00A Bend in the River just keeps drifting away<div dir="ltr">Erasure is why I read my way through lists of highly regarded books. I'm not a big fan of books that delve deeply into racial themes, they are usually so obvious and trite, but this one was engaging and interesting. The point of the book wasn't particularly profound or difficult to parse from the text, but I liked how the novel Erasure was really the response to what the publishing industry expects from Black authors. It was human in a way that these kinds of books so often lack. The Sell-out, another racially themed book that I've read this year, lacked that relatable human experience that was so central to Erasure. I may have to explore a bit more of Everett's work. Once I make progress on some of my other reading goals of course. <div><br></div><div>I'm slowly plugging away at The Sea. Another excellent book, but it's surprisingly ponderous given its lack of physical heft. This was supposed to be a quick read to break in my library card before I got back to A Bend in the River. It's not a quick read. I'm past the halfway point and suitably well invested in the book to take it to the end. These kinds of departures from my plan are what slow down Bookshelf Zero. At least it won't be a later contribution to my owned book pile. I had The Sea sitting in my Thriftbooks cart but removed it last night. No need to pick this up anytime soon.</div><div><br></div><div>This morning's Kindle Daily Deal may have extended my hiatus from reading owned books. One of the Drizzt books is on sale. It's a few ahead of where I am in the series, but just seeing it prompted me to check the library for an ebook version of the next book for me to read in the series. My old library (which allows for 3 week check out versus the 2 weeks of my new spot) had it available so I picked it up. I have the book, The Silent Blade, on audio, but I have just been skipping that when picking out audiobooks. (I've been listening to the last of the Mistborn second age novels, The Lost Metal, after finishing an audiobook about The Predator movie.) Drizzt books are usually pretty fun, quick reads. I read the intro of this one after checking it out just to get a feel for how I would respond to another Drizzt tale. I think I could get into it. I'm not committing to anything on that front yet. We'll see how I feel after I finish The Sea.</div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-62243871649230174842023-07-14T14:00:00.001-07:002023-07-14T14:00:49.622-07:00The best laid plans...<div dir="ltr">Of course I didn't shift right into A Bend in the River after I finished The Mind of Thomas Jefferson. My wife and I finally checked out the local library on Saturday. I had this new library card so I had to check out something. I checked out The Sea. I've had it on my radar for awhile. I've checked out the ebook but didn't read a single page. The book is short and the font is large so I figured I could give it a shot. It's a short book so taking a few days to read it wouldn't cause a huge setback. I've read enough to know that I want to finish it. I probably would have finished it by now if I hadn't also checked out an ebook from my new library. I just picked a random book from the new classics list to get a sense of the online collection's depth. The book was there, Erasure, so I checked it out. I have it for two weeks. I made the mistake of starting this one too. It's better than The Sea. It's also a short book, about 6 hours or so according to the Kindle app, so I could theoretically get it read in my two week borrowing window. <div><br></div><div>So I have three books going on simultaneously. A Bend in the River (I have read a few pages so it's not like I've abandoned it...again), The Sea, and Erasure. I should get serious and finish Erasure this weekend (it has the shorter loan period). That will free me up to wrap up The Sea before getting back to A Bend in the River. That's my current plan, but I guess there's an argument that a better plan would be to return them both and focus on the book that I own. That would depend on the goal. Reading good books? Reading them all is the right choice. Reaching my target of reading 35 books this year? Adding two short books to the list is a good step to realizing that goal. Bookshelf Zero? Using all my reading time to get through an owned book would be the right choice. I'm into all three so I'm going with the reading good books perspective. The extra books towards my reading goal is a bonus. </div><div><br></div><div>My plan is still to get to The Count of Monte Cristo after A Bend in the River. Reading these other two books kind of helps make that happen as it will be easier to dedicate the time to such a big book if I have a couple more titles in the bank.</div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-31038779726591088302023-07-05T14:05:00.001-07:002023-07-05T14:05:42.827-07:00Reading plans for July (and an effort to convince myself of taking on a bigger challenge)<div dir="ltr">So here are my (always subject to change) plans as we roll into the second half of 2023. I'm almost finished with The Mind of Thomas Jefferson. It's a book by a historian for other historians. Plenty of interesting insight into the titular subject, but the undercurrent of how academic historians talk to each other also provides interesting stimulation. I have one and a half essays left to read. I will finish that one this week. I will quickly move on to A Bend in the River. I read a bit of this one before going back to the Jefferson book. I was sufficiently engaged, I just decided to pick up the Jefferson book again. A Bend in the River is physically short but my experience with this type of book is deep enough that I no longer confuse physical dimensions with the amount of time required to get through a carefully written work of literature. That puts us somewhere in the middle of July with 14 books read. <div><br></div><div>The third Brandon Sanderson special project book is downloaded on my phone. That will be my 15th book of the year. These haven't been particularly long or challenging reads. I should get to 15 books read (and 170 books to go) before the end of the month. With 22 weeks or so left in the year, I would need to get to a book a week clip to make it to my goal of being under 150 books to read by the end of the year. Or I could bail on that goal and pick up a hefty long read. I could go back to reading two books at a time to get through a big book while maintaining a reasonable reading pace (I did this while reading Anna Karenina), but I'm not sure that system would work in my current circumstances. I also just don't really want to do that right now. </div><div><br></div><div>I spent 3 months reading The Once and Future King last year. What would be the big deal if I spent a month or two reading The Count of Monte Cristo? I wouldn't get to 150 books by the end of the year, but I would have a large book (that many people seem to really love) checked off my list. I would demonstrate to myself that I have it in me to take on these big challenges again. Take on isn't the right phrase. I have the ability to succeed in reaching a big, challenging goal. I picked up the Malazan books because I thought it would be a challenge to read through those monstrosities. I knew they would take time and a focused effort to complete. I got through all 10 of them. I was successful in reaching a well defined long term goal. </div><div><br></div><div>I haven't been successful in reaching many long term goals over the last few years. My energy has been dissipated into just making it through the day. My career is just kind of stumbling along. I'm doing better at applying meaningful effort, but I still have improvements to make. My marathon training, and physical fitness efforts in general, have been abysmal. I've finished the WDW Marathon twice since moving to Florida, but preparing properly is the real point of signing up for the marathon. I use the race as a framework for solid training that is aimed at making me more fit. That hasn't happened in the last two years. I've definitely run more than I would have without the race as motivation to put in long Saturday runs, but I haven't had the extended effort that is central to successful marathon training (like I know what that is). So just getting through a random assortment of short to medium length books to reach some arbitrary count at the end of the year isn't me applying a focused effort on a meaningful task. It's just going through the motions to feel like I'm doing something that I claim is meaningful to me.</div><div><br></div><div>The number of books I read, even the type of books that I read, isn't really the point of Bookshelf Zero. The point isn't to read the books. The point is to spend time on doing something that is meaningful. An evening spent scrolling social media on my phone or flipping through TV channels has a place in my life, but it's also important to stay focused on efforts that have a deeper and more meaningful impact on my life. I've spent 3 years watching my energy just dissipate into a nothingness morass. I've accepted any effort as evidence that I'm still engaged. I'm not looking for an edge or trying to reach new levels of performance. I've been coasting on past accomplishments. I've started to turn that tide, but real effort is going to be needed to make real progress. Getting fit, staying sharp, and staying engaged with a broader world of ideas and opinions are worthy ways to spend my time. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-20966770029602836232023-06-24T21:09:00.001-07:002023-06-24T21:09:17.159-07:00Middle of 2023 update and musing on something that is very unlikely to happen<div dir="ltr">I need to step on the reading gas if I'm going to make my 2023 reading goals. I've read 12 books towards my 35 book goal. Goodreads says I'm 4 books behind. Sheesh. That's a big number. I'm really at a loss for how I used to read 40 or 50 books a year. I'm not sure what extra time I had back then that I don't have now. Maybe I just wasn't falling asleep at 9:30 every night.<div><br></div><div>The past is the past. Where am I right now? I succeeded in my self-imposed challenge to read a book while half my family was out of town. I read Platform. The challenge wasn't much of a challenge. It's not a particularly long book, but it's also a very smooth read. If all my books were like that, I wouldn't be facing a 172 book long reading list. I wasn't sure what to read after finishing Platform (which was my 12th book of the year). I had read the first essay in a collection of essays on Thomas Jefferson (I bought it at Monticello) before I read Platform. That didn't feel like the right choice so I grabbed A Bend in the RIver from my shelf. That feels like a maybe. I started it once before but quickly abandoned the effort. I read. few pages today, but I also read the second essay in the Jefferson book. We'll see what happens in this space over the next few days.</div><div><br></div><div>I was talking about long books with my daughter and she asked me what book is the longest I have read. Goodreads has a handy feature where you can sort books by page numbers so I was able to quickly determine that it was one of the Malazon books. I speculated that it might be one of those when she asked me. I also guessed that it might be It of The Stand (both in my top 5 along with two other Malazan books). I took a quick look at the longest books that I have on my to read list. Le MIs was the longest, but there were lots of history books and more serious novels. Looking at that list kind of makes me want to read one of those, but I'm not sure I'm ready to commit to a really huge book. I read Platform in 5 days, but that was only about 250 pages. I plan on reading all these ong books eventually, why not pick one up now? Just for the record, I think I would go with The Count of Monte Cristo (5trh longest pending read) or Don Quixote (12th longest) if I do decide to take on a really thick book.<br></div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-26759575560725550292023-03-08T18:59:00.001-08:002023-03-08T18:59:15.327-08:00Some Day<div dir="ltr">I have a nice long list of things that I will accomplish someday. They've all been a focus of my plans and short bursts of action, but I haven't really achieved much in the way of my long standing goals.<div><br></div><div>Get my weight around 200 pounds (after years of floating around 220 pounds, I'm currently around 230)</div><div>Read one of several fat books</div><div>Run some distance in some short period of time</div><div>Run an ultra</div><div>Read all the books I own</div><div><br></div><div>I'm not really taking concrete steps to make any of these plans really happen. I constantly trade short term comfort for some of these goals. It's actually getting kind of tiresome revisiting this topic again. </div><div><br></div><div>When does someday become today?</div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-56198285957348686042023-01-17T05:18:00.001-08:002023-01-17T05:18:14.614-08:00Pausing for Progress
<br>I'm trying to learn from last year and avoid weeks and weeks of slowly reading a single book. For Whom the Bell Tolls has not been a quick and effortless read. I'm keeping steadily at it, but it's not even a third read after two weeks. My pace has been about 10 pages or so a night. It's better than nothing, but that just won't do. My short book to read while reading something else radar has been up. I spotted a Rachel Cusk book on the shelf during a family trip to B&N Saturday night. I've had that in my Kindle library for months. I decided right there to pause Hemingway and pick up this slim volume for a week or so. Second Place is a fast read. I'm almost a third of the way through after a couple of days. This is my second attempt, but I'm not sure if the first try really counts. I think I read a bit on the plane on one of my trips back to Richmond last year. I was debating between a couple of books and ended up picking the other one. I've read Cusk's Outline trilogy. I would fail any test of my recollection of those books. Like so much of contemporary fiction, they are so slim and effortless that they just kind of slide over my consciousness. Maybe this one will stick a bit more given that I've read a bit of twice. We'll see.
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<br>I would be a much more successful reader if I could stay up at night. It seems like I'm dozing off every night around 10. Sometimes I rouse myself and read a few pages, but just going to bed is also a popular choice. It's hard to read books if I don't spend any time reading. It's hard to spend time reading if I'm asleep. Last week was my recovery period for the WDW Marathon. The recovery was partially physical, particularly giving my knee a chance to get back to a good point after the pounding it took on Sunday, but just not getting up early a couple of days was also part of the recovery plan. I'm shifting back into a more active mode this week. We'll see if it's sleep time or reading time once I have a few moments at the end of my day.
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<br>I did want to congratulate myself for reading a fair amount on Saturday before the marathon. There was plenty of social media activity for me to follow on the entire Marathon Weekend, but I picked up my book and read a few pages. I've realized that a big point of my reading (and fitness) goals is to regain the discipline to focus on long term goals. I look back on the effort I exerted on my MBA, law school applications, and other efforts with a bit of wonder. I always managed to find the energy to do the work that got me closer to those goals. I very much want to regain that mode of action. I got into so many bad habits during covid and living alone. These resolutions that I give myself sound kind of pointless, but they are a focus for my self-discipline and effort. That makes them worthy no matter their apparent material value.
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<br>While I'm talking about pausing books, I should mention I'm also putting an audiobook on pause. I've been dabbling in Patriot Games for a few months. I'm not sure I will finish it though. Once the endless competence of every character in those books jumped out at me, I haven't been able to just flow with the story. The book is mildly amusing, but I preferred Cardinal in the Kremlin and Hunt for Red October. I started listening to Election last night. Like Second Place, it's a short book. The audiobook is only a few hours. If all the character perspective changes were edited out it would probably be 15 minutes shorter. Podcasts are fine, but some other material would be fun to mix in on occasion. Do I really need to spend 3-4 hours a week listening to a couple of guys talk about college basketball games? Not really. An audiobook is a nice change of pace, especially when it's the same duration as a longer podcast.Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-13257419186173804212022-12-22T13:17:00.001-08:002022-12-22T13:17:32.383-08:00Equilibrium Point<div dir="ltr">It's the fun resolution setting time of year. I guess I could be bummed that I missed most of last year's reading goals, but I enjoy the reset that comes with the new year. All the possibilities! I also like to use the last week or so of the year to purchase a few books, you know, one last splurge before I tighten things up and work on reading what I already own in the New Year. Not that my self-imposed buying restrictions are very successful. I read a few and buy a few. It's a cycle that just keeps on repeating itself. I supposed that I should just live with my buying habit and just hope to maintain some kind of equilibrium between reading old stuff and picking up new books. Maybe finding that balance point should be my real reading goal. Rather than Bookshelf Zero, my goal should just be to read a book or two more than I buy. <div><br></div><div>I recently stumbled on a picture I took back in 2014 that is a good illustration of this idea. I laid out some books that I was going to prioritize for reading in 2015. I didn't get to all of them in 2015, but there was only 1 book in that picture that I have not read. The one book I haven't read, Parade's End, is the type of book that tends to sit on my shelves for a long time. Perhaps I should just stop buying books that I struggle to read and just buy things that I will get to quickly. It will slow my progress towards reading my backlist, but it will prevent too much new accumulation. I've bought 13 books and have read 12 owned books this year. Some of those 12 were definitely books that I bought this year, but that's not such a bad thing with this equilibrium point idea. If I just lower my equilibrium point by 5 books or so a year, I will gradually turnover my bookshelf. The real goal would be to lower the average time it takes me to get to a book. This will be a difficult number to determine at this point given that I don't have a purchase date for many of my books, but I know what is relatively new and what I've had for a while. Prioritizing the stuff I've had for a while should be the real goal. </div><div><br></div><div>The book I'm currently reading, The Wapshot Chronicle, perfectly illustrates this approach. I bought this book back in June 2016. It's a Modern Library book, that's why I bought it from a used bookstore that quickly went out of business, that is not really something that I've been clamoring to read. It's a perfectly good book. I'm not bored while reading a few pages before I go to bed. It's actually a very pleasant reading experience. There are just other books that I would rather read. Some of those I already own, but a pretty good percentage of the 170 (for now) unread books that I own fall pretty neatly into the Wapshot Chronicles category. I looked through my unread books list and it's rife with books that I'm not exactly thrilled to pick up. They are usually really long or notoriously challenging reads. Both of these are features that attracted me to those books in the first place. It would be so fun to just get lost in some impossibly long book that people love (like The Count of Monte Cristo or Once and Eagle) or discover the magic of Proust or Tolstoy! At least that's what drives some of my buying decisions. Those future states are fun to think about, just like making reading plans for a fresh block of 12 months, but they are much more difficult to realize. </div><div><br></div><div>Learning to deemphasize a sense of failure while highlighting the periods of discovery and beauty that come from reading wonderful books is an underappreciated aspect of Bookshelf Zero. The project is really just a reminder to take a look back every now and then and do a little book shopping from my own shelves. It's not a single-minded focus on getting through an arbitrary pile of books. It's a reminder that there are good things waiting if I make the effort. I can still buy books, as my recent purchase of 6 books from Thriftbooks so clearly attests, but there are plenty of new things to read just waiting on my shelves. <br></div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-83868106853249631812022-04-09T21:56:00.001-07:002022-04-09T21:56:35.451-07:00This has been brewing...<div dir="ltr">This post has been brewing for a few weeks. This is not a capitulation, but it's not a re-engaging with the Bookshelf Zero project either. It's more of a reassessment of how I got here, where I am with this project, and what it all means. I'm not sure where to start, and, as I have been starting and never posting thoughts on YouTube vloggers, career prospects, and my general aspect on life, I will likely overthink this post and just give up on it before I get into the real issue.<div><br></div><div>I live a highly quantitated life. I track my running mileage and pace, reading, workouts, and intimate times with my wife. My entire life has had this element of the quantifiable. Grades, weight lifting maxes, 40 times, body weight, standardized test scores, number of publications, my entire graduate research program was just one big effort to measure a very obscure property of some obscure molecules. I was religious about keeping a list of video games that I beat when I was a kid. I was attracted to the Concept2 rowing machine because they supported an online logbook with rankings and challenges. It's no wonder I enjoy gambling. That's the ultimate in quantifiable living. Your value isn't measured in some abstract concept of the Good or a Soul. You're as good as the money you've won. Law school applications are the ultimate in quantified living. We are living in a quantified world and I am a quantified girl. </div><div><br></div><div>Quantification has its place, but deeming personal worth by scores and measures is not that place. Bookshelf Zero sets another aspect of my life into the quantified framework. Do I read to read or do I read to realize another quantified goal? I never really judged my worth by my paycheck, but my worth is certainly wrapped up in how many books I've read, how much weight I can lift, and how many times I've had sex in a year. Earning more points doesn't mean I'm living a better life. More points just means I'm earning more arbitrary value on an activity that in many cases has no material impact on my life. Points have been an easy proxy for value derivation. The more points I'm earning, the better life I must be living or the better person I must be. </div><div><br></div><div>I really don't know how to find value and meaning outside of the quantified realm. I know my best years have been those when all the things I quantify have gone well. I'm healthy (running well, lifting regularly), pursuing meaningful activities (reading good books), and my relationship is in a good place (plenty of sex). My ability to do those things well says that work is going well and my life is in a good, stable place. I'm getting the reassurance I need to feel confident and energized. I feel like I'm important and valuable. My best quantified years were the twenty teens. Plenty of highlights in these years. I got really into the whole experience points thing during this time. I was killing all my goals. Then my kids got older (I also got older) and the points thing wasn't working as well. My job changed, Covid hit, and it's been a struggle ever since. All the things I relied on to feel good about myself just kind of crumbled. I felt exposed and I've been struggling to figure out a way to recover from this exposure. </div><div><br></div><div>I always turn to my points system for salvation when I need an ego boost, but that trick isn't working. My old tricks aren't doing the job any longer. Making progress on Bookshelf Zero doesn't feel like an accomplishment in the way it used to. I started this project when I realized I own books that I will likely never read in my lifetime. I buy books as an aspiration to some higher state. Not reading these books means I will not achieve that state. Bookshelf Zero was a way to ensure I achieved that state, but it became its own effort to achieve a higher state. So I still want to read the books, but I'm not sure Bookshelf Zero is the effort to get me there. I'm also not sure I can give it up. Where does that leave me? Good question.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-85000018566104322802022-03-09T19:37:00.001-08:002022-03-09T19:37:26.687-08:00How do I end up in these ruts?<div dir="ltr">I've finished 6 books so far this year. The latest was H is for Hawk. I've had that book in my Kindle library for a couple of years. I think I picked it up on sale after having had my eye on it after it was well reviewed. It also has a catchy cover. I'm into birds. My last name starts with H. It felt like it was a book that would fit my vibe. I'm not sure I feel that way having read it, but it was definitely a book worth reading. It wasn't the most engaging and page turning read though. That may not be the book's fault. I have not been managing my energy well for the last few weeks. I'm totally tapped by the evening so reading right before I go to bed doesn't get me very far. I know, this is a common refrain. My patterns are well established. <div><br></div><div>My prediction that Bewilderment would be quick proved accurate. It went a bit outlandish at the end, felt like some Covid concerns slipped in as the writing was wrapping up, but the core of the book was strong. Generation X didn't fit on my shelves when I finally got my books out of the boxes so I just went ahead and read it. The wide pages with the pithy slogans and cartoons felt contrived but the book itself was fine. It would likely be forgotten if the title hadn't been used to label my generation. I was curious. I'm not curious any longer. I bought a biography of a Polish poet who lived in California on a whim. It deserves the praise that I read. Reading how this guy turned his California life into poetry (I've read a few of the poems, they deliver) was an interesting contrast to the stream of conscious superficiality of YouTube videos. These people need to do more with the experiences they document. Give us some synthesis. Find some meaning in all these places you go and things you see!</div><div><br></div><div>I'm close to abandoning my current book, The Grace of Kings. It's just not very interesting (or well written). I'm 100 pages in and it's not doing anything for me. I have so many other good books sitting around that I would rather read. I may give it a few more days, but if things don't pick up soon I'm moving on. </div><div><br></div><div>I bought an Agatha Christie book on sale the other day, And Then There Were None, so I'm still at 167 after finishing H is for Hawk. I really need to go on one of my reading spurts and check a few of these things off (so I can buy more books). </div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-37212362650488864052022-01-16T19:55:00.001-08:002022-01-16T19:55:29.332-08:00Great Circle closedThe first third of this book is fantastic. I figured I would have to
<br>read what actually won the Booker Prize because whatever beat this
<br>book out must be fantastic. There is a weird shift somewhere in the
<br>middle of the book where the magic that propelled the early narrative
<br>slips away. The Marian Graves arc flounders. Things wrap up
<br>satisfactorily, but that middle third or so really drags down the
<br>novel. The book is still excellent, but the power of the early part is
<br>not sustained throughout the entire book. I'm happy I read it. It's
<br>such a relief to read a contemporary novel that isn't about a writer
<br>trying to navigate their overwrought life.
<br>
<br>Another Booker Prize shortlisted book that I had on my library waiting
<br>list came available right as I was finishing Great Circle.
<br>Bewilderment grabbed me just as strongly as Great Circle. I read a few
<br>pages this morning and I have been compelled to dip in pretty
<br>regularly all day. I read a decent chunk of one of my owned books
<br>yesterday, I really want to build some owned book momentum, but I was
<br>drawn back to Bewilderment. The writing is top notch, but the book is
<br>also really short. I don't feel like I will get too off track with the
<br>owned books with this one as I will zip through it pretty quickly.
<br>It's so short I expect it will be more uniformly strong.
<br>
<br>I'm back to 169 after buying Kafka on the Shore. So be it. I may buy
<br>Overstory if Bewilderment delivers on its early promise.Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-30775755149243020562022-01-03T20:08:00.001-08:002022-01-03T20:08:47.192-08:00Another book finished, sticking with the planI finished Siege of Darkness today. I should have finished it last
<br>week, but reading is a pretty low priority activity when I'm at home.
<br>It was one of the better Drizzt books. I'm always impressed with how
<br>well Salvatore keeps the stories fresh despite a relatively limited
<br>cast and settings. The limited scope allows him to add depth and
<br>dimension to his characters and settings. Plots move forward with a
<br>good pace but new elements get added so the series moves forward with
<br>fresh new angles. I'm happy to keep plugging away at these.
<br>
<br>I implemented the defined reading time tonight. The first night was a
<br>success. I didn't have to deal with the big question of what to read
<br>next as I've been reading Siege of Darkness and Great Circle
<br>simultaneously. I just picked up Great Circle right where I left off
<br>from my library loan. I read to experience books like this. It's
<br>fantastic. It's such a pleasure to read. I wouldn't know what to say
<br>if somebody asked me what makes it so fun. I may figure out its appeal
<br>by the end of the book, but I'm just happy to go along for the ride.
<br>
<br>As it's the beginning of the year, this seems like a reasonable place
<br>to check in on my progress to BookShelf Zero. Not great. I bought a
<br>bunch of books right at the end of the year to bring my book total to
<br>169. Finishing Drizzt 10 brings me down to 168. I wanted to get below
<br>140 last year. I ended up adding 13 books. That's not really the
<br>direction I want to go, but that's just been life. Hopefully this
<br>regular reading time will get things moving and I'll start checking
<br>off books on the regular.Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-37486922177057600702021-12-02T20:21:00.001-08:002021-12-02T20:21:57.332-08:00Serious reading slumpIt's been two weeks since I finished a book. I borrowed Choke from the
<br>library after hearing the author on Rogan (don't want to look up his
<br>name, it's the guy who wrote FIght Club). I started reading Henderson
<br>the Rain King but wasn't making good progress. I actually started
<br>Choke after Henderson. Choke wasn't anything particularly special. It
<br>wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything particularly good either. I impulse
<br>purchased a Kindle Daily Deal book called The Reading List. I thought
<br>that might get me out of my funk, but it was terrible. It was so bad I
<br>returned it. I had no interest in finishing it. So much for that plan.
<br>I haven't abandoned Henderson yet, but I need to start making progress
<br>soon of it will join the tried once but didn't finish Goodreads shelf.
<br>
<br>I am flying home tomorrow. (Not sure if it's really home anymore, but
<br>it's where my family lives so that's enough to make it home for me.
<br>Maybe it's home 1 while the house down here is home 2.) I'm in the
<br>middle seat on both flights and it will be dark so I was going to get
<br>something from the Sci FI list from the library that I can read on my
<br>phone. I pulled up the list to see what is available (I've italicized
<br>the titles that I have seen in the library catalogue in the list I
<br>keep in Google) when I saw the Drizzt books. I fished the next one out
<br>of the boxes of books that I have yet to unpack at the house. (I would
<br>probably have moved on to something else if I had the books out where
<br>I could see them. All in good time.) I'm not sure how much of it I can
<br>read on the plane tomorrow, but I should have time to read it while
<br>I'm home. I will have stuff to do around the house and I plan on
<br>getting in some good runs, but an easy book to read will be a good way
<br>to spend some time too.
<br>
<br>I should take a Dickens book. That's the most accessible reading
<br>resolution that I have for this year. Oliver Twist is the shortest one
<br>that I have left to read. Little Dorritt is realistic. Dombey and
<br>Sons, not so sure about that beast. It would also be another owned
<br>book read. I guess I'll see if I can find Little Dorritt in my book
<br>boxes...Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-54514178118789914892021-11-05T14:00:00.001-07:002021-11-05T14:00:52.664-07:00<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfo-Yi1g588vkmMlHKyli7oktwtYzZkG_kTBSTW_76GEzJKVvNijWhA8jyfsSZCw7MdnQm09sfWH78LqDra5y1LNBgV3g0nCOs6ewGlBsZ5IO9NGlW4y7gwkrnEMj8tL53TO-tJp2abbx-/s1600/image-752667.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfo-Yi1g588vkmMlHKyli7oktwtYzZkG_kTBSTW_76GEzJKVvNijWhA8jyfsSZCw7MdnQm09sfWH78LqDra5y1LNBgV3g0nCOs6ewGlBsZ5IO9NGlW4y7gwkrnEMj8tL53TO-tJp2abbx-/s320/image-752667.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_7027193785607694258" /></a></p>Did some math blah blah
<br>
<br>Would be down to 75 books to be read
<br>Would be finish in May of 2025Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-64555393406115446822021-11-03T20:24:00.001-07:002021-11-03T20:24:32.533-07:00A week into setting time aside to readThe defined reading time is working reasonably well so far. I finished
<br>reading Sex at Dawn tonight. I had just started the book when I
<br>decided to define a reading time. I would still be in the middle of
<br>the book if I hadn't defined a time to read. Picking up the book and
<br>getting started is the hardest part of reading in the evening. Once
<br>I'm going, it's not hard to keep going. Getting away from all the
<br>other low energy requirement activities is the challenge. Sex at Dawn
<br>is not a particularly challenging read so that always helps too. It
<br>wasn't a particularly good book either. I've read enough of these
<br>books attempting to link our drives to our ancient past that I can see
<br>through the flimsy arguments. They all seem to start with a desired
<br>conclusion and build an argument with scant evidence and ample
<br>speculation. You want to prove we're all slutty, there is data for
<br>that. You want to prove that we're all driven to be in life long pair
<br>bonds, there are data for that. We're highly social creatures with a
<br>tremendous aptitude for adaptation. We can become whatever we need to
<br>become. The only way to be human is to expand to fill your niche as
<br>fully as possible.
<br>
<br>So another owned book (that I've been curious to read for awhile) has
<br>been removed from the I'll get to it someday pile. I took a peek at my
<br>Resolutions to see if there are any other goals that I could pursue
<br>with my next reading choice. Get my to read pile under 140 is not
<br>happening but reading something I own is in the spirit of the goal. I
<br>set a goal to read 5 Modern Library books. I've read 2 this year (The
<br>Heart of the Matter and Death Comes for the Archbishop) so there is
<br>hope I could get to 3. I could read a Dickens book. I'm not seeing
<br>Dickens in my immediate future, maybe later this month. I'm thinking
<br>Henderson the Rain King will be my next reading effort. I also have
<br>Ginger Man on my phone. Those are both Modern Library books. They're
<br>also pretty short. The effort starts tomorrow. Time to go to bed.Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-26944665870128792392021-10-25T17:26:00.001-07:002021-10-25T17:26:22.146-07:00GROWing towards Book Shelf ZeroI had some largely useless training at work last week (some things
<br>never change) that I was pretty much ready to forget the second I left
<br>the room. The awful trainer was wrapping up the course by reviewing
<br>GROW. The idea was to use the framework to develop a strategy for
<br>achieving a well-defined (preferably measurable) goal. As she was
<br>walking her victim through the approach, I decided that I would
<br>subject my long standing reading goal to this coaching technique. I
<br>will not belabor the details of the framework. Do a little searching
<br>and you will likely find more than you ever wanted to know about
<br>realizing a goal.
<br>
<br>The Goal in this case is well-defined. Read all the books I own.
<br>That's a big goal with a very simple solution, read more and buy less.
<br>
<br>I want to say that simple statement obscures a more complex situation,
<br>but that isn't Reality. Meeting my reading goals always comes down to
<br>choosing to read rather than waste time on my phone, play video games,
<br>or take a walk. I've explored this topic before, but deciding to read
<br>rather than do something else is always the conflict. The fact that I
<br>have to make a choice to read or do something else is an interesting
<br>wrinkle. I have a set time to run (first thing in the morning), lift
<br>(currently in the morning but that may shift back to lunch time), and
<br>work. I leave reading to find its own place in my day. I mentally
<br>pencil in reading time for the evening, but it's never a priority. I'm
<br>happy to watch a football game while messing around on my phone or
<br>something else right up until I'm ready for bed. Should I designate a
<br>reading time?
<br>
<br>Reading time is certainly an Option. The length of that time is one
<br>thing to consider, but that could be decided by how much time I have
<br>to allocate for reading. Looking at my regular weekday, I could read
<br>after I eat dinner, after I get off the phone with T, or make it the
<br>last thing I do before bed. I am pretty much always finished eating by
<br>6:30. I usually talk to T at 8:30 so I could allocate some portion of
<br>that two hours to reading. I could also read after I get off the phone
<br>with T. That could be from 9:45 to 10:30 or so. Right before bed is
<br>when I usually squeeze in a few pages. The big issue with right before
<br>bed is fatigue. Drifting off while reading in bed is not uncommon. So
<br>that leaves after dinner or after my phone call. I like to walk or do
<br>other errands after dinner. That leaves after my call with T.
<br>
<br>How Will I implement this plan? Well, how long will I read? At least a
<br>half hour feels appropriate. I could always read longer, but a half
<br>hour ensures that I get a good 20-30 pages of my current book read.
<br>That's 100-150 pages over a week. Throw in some reading on the
<br>weekend, and that's approaching a book a week pace. I will start
<br>tonight. Not sure how much I will read on Thursday, Friday, and
<br>Saturday as I'm moving out of the apartment and into our house, but I
<br>will make my best effort. Not sure how much I will be moving that late
<br>in the day anyway.
<br>
<br>I will give it a week or two and report back.Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-47007013397136112872021-10-17T20:07:00.000-07:002021-10-17T20:08:02.104-07:00Nearing the end of this awful Riftwar series<div dir="ltr">My predictions on Drizzt were sound. I managed to get that one wrapped up quickly. I pretty much focused on the events of Menzobarizon over what happened in Monticello and France so I have still not finished the Hemingses. I read a couple of chapters. I will finish it eventually. <div><br></div><div>I started reading a book about an object from outside our solar system, Extraterrestrial, just to see what the book was like. I got into it and ended up finishing that on the plane ride back up to Vriginia. It was a short read. It had a different angle than I anticipated, but I am sympathetic to the frustrations of institutional inertia against new ideas. New ideas are risky. People who live in big organizations are highly risk averse. That was a book I owned (bought when it was on the Daily Deal) so I was able to check another one off that list. The Drizzt book (Starless NIght, for the record) was also a book I owned. They were both ebooks so I didn't lighten my physical shelves at all with those two. </div><div><br></div><div>The book I"m reading now, A Darkness at Sethanon, is a physical book. I picked Beyond Psychology over this one just about 6 weeks ago. I read it on the plane flight back. That was a lucky stroke. That chunk of time got me deep enough into the book that I was sure to keep going to the end. I was feeling bogged down in the middle, but it picked up in the second half. I have less than 100 pages and there was finally a reference to Sethanon. The book is not good. It's very trite and the dialogue is so stilted and awkward. The pacing isn't good, the characters are boring, and it's just not a very exciting story. If I wasn't doing this NPR list (and I didn't have a Resolution to read a series this year) I would have left this series after the first book. I will be happy to have it finished in the next couple of days. </div><div><br></div><div>My Florida life is moving faster than I anticipated when I was thinking about what it would mean to live down here by myself for several months. My time in this apartment could be ending soon, fingers crossed all goes well, and I could be in a house. I think my life will be much better in a house. I wish the schools were better in the area around my apartment because I prefer this area, but I"m sure I will adjust to Palm Harbor quickly enough. My books will be moved again. Maybe I will actually get a few of them read soon.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-4439709764530091292021-09-26T20:06:00.001-07:002021-09-26T20:06:13.231-07:00Beyond Psychology, finished<div dir="ltr">It took almost 3 weeks, but I have finished Beyond Psychology. I was trying to decide if it was a good choice to start my time down here with a challenging book like that or whether it would have been better to pick up something a bit more engaging. I could have built some momentum by reading a couple of Drizzt books or something equally fast, but finally finishing a book that I started and abandoned is a good precedent. That book lived in the back seat of my car for a long time. I would see it, think I need to get back to it, and forget about it again. I no longer have to worry about getting back to it. <div><br>The main point of the book is solid, we are highly irrational creatures who think we are rational, but the data he used to support his points, myths and beliefs of early cultures, were tedious reading. I feel enlightened having read the book but I'm in no hurry to get back to Otto Rank.</div><div><br></div><div>So what's next? I am going to zip through a Drizzt book. I want to read something that is fun. I read a couple of chapters today and will likely read more before I call it a day. I also read a chapter of the Hemingses today. I think this is the 4th time I've checked it out. I have about half of the book to go. This book is not as tedious as Rank, but it's very long and dense. I feel like I've read a big chunk, but my progress has barely moved. I have had this book sitting in my Goodreads currently reading for a long time. Everytime I open that app I see that I have not finished this book. I want to get it done. It's interesting and a good read. I've just made the choice to read other stuff before this one and by the time I get to it my loan period ends. We'll see if Drizzt keeps me from it again. I don't think that will be the case but you never know.</div><div><br></div><div>I expect to see my reading progress pick up a bit over the next couple of months. I really need to start just hanging out in my apartment. Getting a house will be a big reading time boost as I won't spend hours a week driving by houses, but a couple of hours of just hanging out during the weekend needs to become a habit. That is part of my motivation to read something fun. It's much easier to stay here and read when I have something pleasant to read rather than forcing myself to make it through a handful of pages about the development of a sexual identity. This coming weekend will be a test. I'm back in Virginia the weekend after that so reading will take a back seat to spending time with the family. </div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-81603935538103142862021-09-17T20:54:00.001-07:002021-09-17T20:54:42.026-07:00Another week down<div dir="ltr">I've managed to get through another week of my Florida adventure. Work is going fine. It's challenging not feeling like I'm really contributing, but I'm getting a handle on the process and information flow. I just need to be patient, keep finding ways to contribute, and slowly take over the group. It's going to be a process that takes time. I can manage that. <div><br></div><div>I'm still reading Beyond Psychology. In a previous post I wondered if I would have the mental energy to do much reading while I was learning a new job and figuring out how to live on my own (temporarily!). My mental energy is there, I just have other things to take care of. Cooking dinner, walking, talking to T. There isn't much time to squeeze reading in around all of that. I get in a few pages before heading to bed, but it's not like I'm reading for hours on end. I'm not going to do much reading tomorrow as I will be heading to WDW to get my annual pass and see Happily Ever After one last time. I'm also running in the morning, driving to the beach for the run, and I am looking at a couple of houses before I head to Orlando. I may read on Sunday.</div><div><br></div><div>I think I will be more willing to read when I pick up an exciting book. Beyond Psychology is very interesting and worth reading, it's just not exactly a thrilling page turner. I may read some Drizzt or something else zippy and fun to get some reading momentum going before I pick up another challenging read. It will also be easier to read when I have a comfortable chair. The beach charis are fine for the beach, but they are sub-optimal for a nice lengthy reading session. My foton comes next week. I wouldn't be surprised if my reading pace picks up after that is put together (yet another activity that I will need to take care of one or two nights that week).</div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-87712860752791626612021-09-11T22:15:00.000-07:002021-09-11T22:16:07.606-07:00Progress<div dir="ltr">I have pushed past the point where I got stuck in my first attempt at Beyond Psychology. I finished the chapter where I stopped reading while sitting on the beach this afternoon. It was a lovely way to spend 40 minutes or so. I always want to read at the beach, but my family usually takes my attention away from whatever book I am trying to read. It was nice to read, but I would rather have my family with me. I spent most of the afternoon running errands. I started my day with a run, which was not very good but at this point I'm just trying to get back into a consistent running routine, and the afternoon exploring and getting a few things that I need to make my life a bit better. I did squeeze in 20 minutes or so of reading before I headed out for my errands. I took a beach chair and my book with me to make sure I had the option to stop at a beach and read. I'm glad I did. I wanted to read some more this evening, but I got wrapped up in other stuff. <div><br></div><div>I have no real plans for tomorrow. I want to hit the gym and I will talk to T while taking a walk (doing our best to maintain our Sunday morning walk while being several states apart). I will likely watch football. It's been years since I watched network coverage of the games. I've always watched on Red Zone. At least there will be two games on during both the 1 and 4 windows. I will make an effort to read a bit at some point. I don't want to lose my Beyond Psychology momentum.</div><div><br></div><div>A quick observation about my new living location. I really like living here. I like the proximity to the beach, I like living in an area with so many sports teams, I like that I have to resist the urge to just drive to DIsney World. The only thing missing is my family. They will be here soon. I just have to make it a few months. Once they are here, things are going to be really great. </div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-10244283156077127422021-09-09T19:09:00.001-07:002023-09-10T17:21:02.884-07:00Two days in...<div dir="ltr">I'm two days into my adventure of living in Florida. I've been taking care of several small tasks and starting a new job so I haven't exactly been bored. One small task that I took care of my first night here was getting my books on the one small bookshelf that I brought with me. I knew I brought more books than I had room for on the shelf. There are books on the top of the bookcase and a small pile on the floor. I will box up books as I finish them so maybe I will be able to get the books off the floor relatively soon. Time will tell. <div><br></div><div>I started reading Beyond Psychology on the flight down. I tried reading the book a year or two ago, but I got bogged down about a third of the way through. It sat in the backseat of my car, ignored and unread after I abandoned it . I rescued it before I traded in the car and dropped it in my bag as I was packing up the night before my flight. My original plan was to read the 4th book of the Riftwar Saga on the plane. I thought it would be nice to get that series wrapped up before I started pursuing other reading goals. Beyond Psychology won. The first chapter is great. The second chapter starts strong and gets bogged down in primitive culture stuff. The third chapter gets a little pedantic too. That's what held me up last time. We'll see if I can make it through the entire chapter this time. </div><div><br></div><div>I did finish Death Comes for the Archbishop while we were here moving me in. The book is still on my nightstand. It was very solid. It wasn't quite what I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised by the story. I lived in New Mexico for a decent chunk of my youth. That personal connection resonated with me. It's definitely worthy of being a Top 100 novel. </div><div><br></div><div>I'm going to cut this post short so I can spend some time actually reading. I need to decide the best time for me to read. Is it in the evening right before I go to bed? Is it in the early evening? How much will I read on the weekend? I think the weekend will be big reading time. I'm thinking of taking a beach chair and a book and heading to a park we stopped at while doing some family exploration. I can get many pages read in an hour or so of hanging out at the beach. </div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7499607822712558654.post-57921903761278501582021-08-25T21:09:00.000-07:002021-08-25T21:10:08.968-07:00The Underminer!<div dir="ltr">I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to achieving Book Shelf Zero. I have acquired 8 books over the last few days. I ordered 4 from Thriftbooks and traded some books I had in my office and on the shelves at home to get store credit at 2nd and Charles. I used that store credit to buy 4 books. At least I bought books that further my already established reading goals. I have the next Drizzt trilogy line up (1 ebook, 2 print). I bought a Roth book (a fairly skinny one), and a ML Top 100 book (The Naked and the Damned). Duman Malone volume 3 (I'm pretty sure I have packed volume 2 but I won't be sure until I load the shelves in Clearwater). I even picked up a book from the Contemporary List, Volume 1 of My Struggle. I tell myself I did well by keeping my purchases in line with my reading goals, but I'm still adding more to the pile faster than I am making the pile smaller.<div><br></div><div>I did make the pile smaller by removing some books that I decided I didn't want to read. I removed a book on leadership, it was one of the books from my almost empty office, and a Sci-fi book that I bought used ages ago. It was long and I had no interest in it at this point. So I added 8 but removed 2. My book count stands at 166. And I wanted to get below 140 this year. I guess I should be getting busy.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div> Hbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02040249159728405739noreply@blogger.com0