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Reading Week #71

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sidewalks

You know when you’ve been feeling low and then you begin to feel yourself rising out of the fug? That.

This week has been all about establishing new patterns and positive habits. How’ve you been?

 

–– ON ROBOTNIC.CO ––

You have until tonight to enter my International Subscriber Giveaway! [VIDEO, 7 mins]

I also did a wee Friday Reads video today [VIDEO, 3 mins]

The time has come for Bookish Blether Episode 18 – Our Favourite Books. [AUDIO, 34 mins]

 

 

–– ARTS & CULTURE ––

So this white American man called Michael Derrick Hudson has been using the Chinese pen-name Yi-Fen Chou to get his poems published. Jenny Zhang of Buzzfeed wrote this scathing and absolutely necessary takedown: They Pretend To Be Us While Pretending We Don’t Exist.

In related, I loved hearing Margo Jefferson on Privilege & Race on the Lit Up podcast. [AUDIO, 42 mins]

Renata Adler was excellent on the Longform podcast and I caught up on her infamous piece called The Perils of Pauline. I never got the fuss over deified film critic Pauline Kael either.

“Promotion is expensive”: Elena Ferrante on anonymity is a lesson in clarity.

To Hell With Vox’s Victorian-Living Idiots. In short, “They are anti-tech Silicon Valley libertarians who believe identity is derived from what stupid shit you surround yourself with, regardless of what horrors brought it to you.” Eviscerating. Brilliant.

Taking bets on how long til the Texas school system puts Mallory Ortberg’s Ayn Rand’s Charlotte’s Web on the syllabus.
 

 

–– DIGITAL ––

I loved Hank Green’s video on Tumblr, and Yellowstone: The Terror of Change. [VIDEO, 4 mins]

Laura Bennet, for Slate, writes about The First-Person Industrial Complex and how it’s harmful. She has a point, but the focus is squarely on tabloid internet – there’s value in the diversity of voices the web brings (see Jenny Zhang’s piece, above). Perhaps it’s not such an epidemic. Maybe it’s a phase.

Hey so uhh What Ever Happened to Google Books?

This writer is Coming Out of the Closet as a Yahoo Mail User – and actually her inbox hygiene sounds pretty good. (Not as good as mine though. I’m getting, like, 6 emails a day right now.)

 

 

–– ON PAPER ––

I’m on a real short book kick so I’ve read tons this month. This week’s highlight was Morvern Callar by Alan Warner, a modern Scottish classic that I much preferred over its film adaptation.

This weekend? I made a video about what I’ll be reading. (If you’re a super-keen newsletter-opener and try to click on this before 12.30pm this won’t be live yet.)

Hit reply and let me know what you’re reading, too.
 

 

–– &c. ––

Meanwhile, in South Africa, they’ve discovered a new human-like species. What!!!

Ann Friedman’s latest is ostensibly about making friends in college, but moreso it’s about why starting over is an art.

 

––

Read anything good this week? Hit reply or tweet me about it, won’t you?

​Have a lovely weekend!

 

Reading Goals for 2014

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2014-goals

2013 is all wrapped up. (Missed it? Click here!) It’s time to look forward to 2014.

As in every year, I have a big pile of unread books and a plan to read them all. Here are a few key goals I’d like to accomplish in 2014.

Reading Goals: Books

  1. Read 52 books (including all books for book club – no slacking!)
  2. Read more non-fiction than in 2014
  3. Read more diversely – more females, more authors of colour, and try out new genres
  4. Read more books than I buy

The first should be easy enough, as should the second – I’ve several unread non-fiction picks. Three will probably be the biggest challenge, one to be the most mindful of, while four will mostly take willpower.

I’ll also plan to keep up with my current system for keeping track of the books I’ve read, by list and using Goodreads. I also intend to continue with monthly capsule review blog posts.

With these in mind…

 

Reading Goals: Short Stories & Essays

In addition, I’m giving myself a couple of shorter-reads challenges:

  1. Read 150 short stories
  2. Read essays and #longreads

In 2013, I read 6 short story collections, but most of them in the earlier half of the year. I find working my way through a collection a slog at times, and there are always short stories languishing in my Pocket to-read list, so my goal this year is to pick and choose short stories from various collections and to read more online. I’ve set my target at 150, which is 2-3 short stories per week.

Similarly, I have become a Pocket fiend since investing in an iPad, so I’d like to continue reading longreads, essays, long-form interviews and articles on a regular basis. Some of my favourite sites for these are Paris Review, New Yorker, and Vol 1 Brooklyn.

 

Other Enjoyable Habits

While I have no specific goals in mind, there are other habits that I have developed in 2013 and would like to keep up.

Lately, I’ve been listening to podcasts more frequently, particularly: Book Riot, Literary Disco, Books on the Nightstand, Book Talk by Scottish Book Trust, Bookrageous, and NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour. This year I’ll have a lot of work and walk hours to while away, so maybe I’ll add a couple more to the list.

As I mentioned in my 2013 wrap-up, BookTube has become a huge part of my reading life. It’s where I discuss books most often and have made a number of bookish friends. It’ll take a bit of effort to stay involved, but I’ll definitely be keeping in regular contact with these guys in 2014.

What are your reading goals for 2014?