Status, Reading
Jul. 7th, 2009 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snurriAside from a brief period where I kept a written reading journal, this year is the first time I've tracked my reading like this. I did it more to see what it would be like than anything else, but it's been useful for reminding myself what I've read and thinking about books in relation to one another.
What I've learned so far:
1. Right away I looked at what was on the To-Be-Read shelf and had an uncomfortable realization: all of the dozen-or-so books were by men. I already alternate fiction and non-fiction pretty rigorously, and I think I've got a good mix of writers of color, but realizing that I had this blind spot was alarming. I immediately began alternating male writers with female writers, although that has broken down once or twice, notably recently. I guess I could believe that I have some deep-seated assumption that fiction by men will scratch my particular itches, but the fact is that the deficit in my collection is much more pronounced in the nonfiction area. So that's been a bit troubling.
2. Since I do most of my reading over lunch, in bed, or on the bus, I've been getting through fewer books since the weather got nice and I started riding my bike. I expect this trend to reverse by late October/early November.
3. I don't often have strong reactions to books. Most books disappoint me in one way or another, but it's not the sort of disappointment that gets me riled. I think that I actually expect to be disappointed, at least by writers I'm unfamiliar with, so the exciting thing is to be proven wrong.
4. I've only abandoned three or four books so far this year. That doesn't count books that I've picked up to read the first few pages or first chapter just to see if they'll grab me, then set aside for later. Sometimes bouncing off a book is just a matter of timing, at least for me.
5. I don't really know how to talk about nonfiction, particularly nonfiction I'm reading for research. The only criteria I can come up with are "Was it readable?" and "Did it give me information I needed?"
Anyway, here are my top ten so far, in no particular order:
The Adventures of Amir Hamza, Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction, by Ghalib Lakhnavi and Abdullah Bilgrami, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi
From the Files of the Time Rangers by Richard Bowes
Voices of Rondo: Oral Histories of Saint Paul's Historic Black Community, gathered and edited by Kate Cavett (Hand in Hand Productions)
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart (Part One of the Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox)
Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn
On Revolution by Hannah Arendt
The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach, translated by Doryl Jensen
The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang
White Butterfly by Walter Mosley
Hmong and American: Stories of Transition to a Strange Land by Sue Murphy Mote
What I've learned so far:
1. Right away I looked at what was on the To-Be-Read shelf and had an uncomfortable realization: all of the dozen-or-so books were by men. I already alternate fiction and non-fiction pretty rigorously, and I think I've got a good mix of writers of color, but realizing that I had this blind spot was alarming. I immediately began alternating male writers with female writers, although that has broken down once or twice, notably recently. I guess I could believe that I have some deep-seated assumption that fiction by men will scratch my particular itches, but the fact is that the deficit in my collection is much more pronounced in the nonfiction area. So that's been a bit troubling.
2. Since I do most of my reading over lunch, in bed, or on the bus, I've been getting through fewer books since the weather got nice and I started riding my bike. I expect this trend to reverse by late October/early November.
3. I don't often have strong reactions to books. Most books disappoint me in one way or another, but it's not the sort of disappointment that gets me riled. I think that I actually expect to be disappointed, at least by writers I'm unfamiliar with, so the exciting thing is to be proven wrong.
4. I've only abandoned three or four books so far this year. That doesn't count books that I've picked up to read the first few pages or first chapter just to see if they'll grab me, then set aside for later. Sometimes bouncing off a book is just a matter of timing, at least for me.
5. I don't really know how to talk about nonfiction, particularly nonfiction I'm reading for research. The only criteria I can come up with are "Was it readable?" and "Did it give me information I needed?"
Anyway, here are my top ten so far, in no particular order:
The Adventures of Amir Hamza, Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Conjunction, by Ghalib Lakhnavi and Abdullah Bilgrami, translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi
From the Files of the Time Rangers by Richard Bowes
Voices of Rondo: Oral Histories of Saint Paul's Historic Black Community, gathered and edited by Kate Cavett (Hand in Hand Productions)
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart (Part One of the Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox)
Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn
On Revolution by Hannah Arendt
The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach, translated by Doryl Jensen
The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang
White Butterfly by Walter Mosley
Hmong and American: Stories of Transition to a Strange Land by Sue Murphy Mote
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-07 07:21 pm (UTC)That is, in a nutshell, my experience as well.
Darrell Huff wrote a series of five questions to ask when "talking back to statistics" in his book How To Lie With Statistics that I think apply to pretty much all non-fiction:
1. Who says so?
2. How does he know?
3. What’s missing?
4. Did somebody change the subject?
5. Does it make sense?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-07 08:15 pm (UTC)