TGIF. Almost there. Almost the weekend. Just a little more to go.
I sort of had a realization last night during sprints. I've been trying settle on what book to read next. I started to re-read/sample/having another go at THE WAY OF KINGS. I tried it last year and got to page 75 and for the first time, I wanted to throw a book against the wall.
Let's see if I can say this in a nutshell (probably not). Most of the readers I know every year create the number of books they want to read in that year. For me lately, it's been 100 books. It's a self-imposed thing, absolutely.
I hit my goal at the end of October so I'm okay there but there are BookTubers out there who start to panic and binge read anything around this time of year to make that self-imposed THING.
On top of that, being a self-acknowledge mood reader by far, I'm always on the hunt for the next big read.
Sometimes when I push myself, like doing the scavenger hunts, I've found some good new authors that I wouldn't have otherwise. Sometimes I find some not-so-great ones.
Also in play is that there are a lot of books I'd like to get to but maybe they're chonky monkeys or more dense reading and remember, I'm trying to hit a self-imposed number of books in 12 months - a little over eight books each month.
Last piece of the puzzle here is an analogy I've used many times before about reading itself. I read fairly quickly. I can read fast enough that it creates a sort of film in my mind as I do it.
Another way to read is slowly, deliberately, each scene is an artwork to be savored. Nothing wrong with either way. I've mainly done the former.
Last night as I was reading the Brandon Sanderson, slower so I could grasp his worldbuilding this time around, I had the epiphany that maybe, in 2025, instead of a big reading goal, I'd read more deliberately. Alan Rickman speed not Gilmore Girls speed.
So maybe, just maybe, 2025 reading goal is 36 books. I'll be reading my new releases and so forth still so I'm sure this will not be a problem whatsoever, but also to allow the time and space to read the chonkey monkey books without the pressure of a made-up number hanging over it all.
Giving it another try. THE WAY OF KINGS by Brandon Sanderson. 1st in the Stormlight Archive fantasy series.
Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter. It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them. One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable. Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity. Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.
Published 2010; 1137 pages. I've also read another book of Sanderson so I'm a little better tuned into his writing and worldbuilding vibe. Maybe this is the right time and the right place to get it done.
Also started a scavenger hunt one, A CHRISTMAS CAPER by Shea MacLeod. 3rd in Sugar Martin Vintage cozy mystery series. Chosen because I think the cover is gorgeous.
With Christmas fast approaching and her bank accounts woefully low, Sugar Martin is spending her first holiday in Meres Reach, England instead of back home in Oregon. When the festivities are interrupted by an urgent call from her employer, she heads straight to London with Tippy in tow only to discover that her great-great-aunt Euphegenia has left her a final bequest—and a mysterious mission. Christmas is a time for magic and miracles and Sugar will need both if she’s to succeed in her quest.
Published 2019; 102 pages. Now I consider this to be a novella, HOWEVER, at present there are a LOT of cozy mysteries published - most often independently published, under 200 pages and are called "books". I'm finding the reading to be very fluffy which I'm not in the mood for but because of the cover, I'm counting it for the scavenger hunt anyway.
Sprints tomorrow afternoon. Advent Calendar Bedtime reading tonight through Sunday evening.
Have a good weekend
Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster
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