I’ve read books all my life. As I saw myself getting near to retirement, I laid in a stock to keep me interested, and my time filled. There must be 25 or 30 lying around the house that I haven’t got to yet, with more arriving all the time. I promised poor Art Browne @ Pouringmyartout, that I would read his eBook by October, and here it is January.
I discovered blogging, and, composing my own pitiful output, as well as reading and commenting on what you guys write, has cut down on my book-reading somewhat. The busiest year I ever had was 1977, when I read 72 books in the calendar year. Usually I read about a book a week, or about 50 a year. This past couple of years, the totals have been less. In 2013 I read 31 books. The following is a list of how I spent some of my time.
The first two batches are the community writing I posted about. They are credited to a “James Axler”, but no such author exists. Instead, 8 or 9 writers for each series, rotate publishing a book a month.
Deathlands Series: Hell Road Warriors
This is the book I had the most trouble with. The action scenes are fine, but the story starts 50 miles from my home town. Early in the book I was already saying, “That highway doesn’t connect to that one.” Then it goes north across Lake Huron. This is the passage where they got there early to get a good birth on the ferry, but forgot to chalk the wheels, and the breaks failed.
Then they went through the Soo Locks, to get into Lake Superior. The “locks” are giant log and steel constructions, pulled across the river by 40 pairs of oxen, to prevent unpaid passage. This ignores the 21 foot difference in water level between the two lakes. Every chapter, sometimes every page had a word misusage. This is probably the straw that broke this reader’s back.
Palaces of Light – Wretched Earth – Crimson Waters – No Man’s Land
****
Outlanders Series:
Dragon City – God War – Genesis Sinister
***
Travis S. Taylor – One Day on Mars
*
Eric Flint – Grantville Gazette IV – The Eastern Front – The Saxon Uprising
***
Virginia DeMarce – The Tangled Web
*
Charles E. Gannon – the Papal Stakes
*
Robert Buettner – Overkill – Undercurrents
**
Lee Child – Killing Floor – Die Trying – Tripwire
***
Greg Loomis – Sinai Secret – Voodoo Fury
**
Clive Cussler – Fire Ice
*
Richard Greener – The Knowland Retribution – The Lacey Confession
**
Wen Spencer – Tinker – Wolf Who Rules – Elfhome
***
John Scalzi – The Human Division
This book was originally 13 long chapters, essentially short stories, published in an on-line journal. They have the same general group of people, on and off the same interstellar spacecraft, but the paper and print compilation seems somewhat disconnected.
*
Jefferson Bass – The Inquisitor’s Key
*
James Rollins – Deep Fathom
This is the first in a series new to me. There are eleven more, and all available at no cost from an on-line library – if I can wrestle the Kobo away from the wife occasionally.
*
Jonathan Haidt – The Righteous Mind, Why good people are divided by politics and religion
This is the deepest and most educational book I read all year. The author explains how and why people make certain thoughts and ideas “sacred”, even when others, or the evidence, don’t agree with them. It gave some nice insights into puzzling behavior. I’m almost proud of myself for reading this one.
We all read, because we all write. Anybody else want to brag about a book or two you’ve recently read?
