The 115 book challenge
Jul. 28th, 2006 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustI've been keeping a reading diary for almost twenty years now. I started at a time when I was unemployed, a little depressed, spending too much time reading aimlessly, gulping books down and not really tasting them. A friend mentioned that she kept a diary, and I thought it would be a good way to slow down and reflect a little on what I was reading.
It doesn't have to be a very intellectual exercise; the deal I have made with myself is that I can write what I like. If all I think about a book is "Why?", I can write that. But if I feel like writing half a dozen pages of plot analysis, I can do that, too. Occasionally I'll write a more formal piece (some of which I've posted here), but mostly this is stuff I don't want to publish: I want to be able to discuss a book without worrying about spoilers, and to look at my response to it without getting all self-conscious.
I write in an A4 notebook, and when I reach the end I index it, and I've just filled the book I've been writing in since January 2005. Since then (give or take - I'm rarely completely up to date on this) I've read :
More comics than in the past, I think, because I have been making some effort to keep up with the reading for the Graphic Novels Reading Group. Not all of them were worth reading, but then again, one of the real stars of the list is a graphic novel (graphic autobiography, really), David B's Epileptic.
It's also clear that LiveJournal is eating into my reading time: but we knew that, didn't we?
It doesn't have to be a very intellectual exercise; the deal I have made with myself is that I can write what I like. If all I think about a book is "Why?", I can write that. But if I feel like writing half a dozen pages of plot analysis, I can do that, too. Occasionally I'll write a more formal piece (some of which I've posted here), but mostly this is stuff I don't want to publish: I want to be able to discuss a book without worrying about spoilers, and to look at my response to it without getting all self-conscious.
I write in an A4 notebook, and when I reach the end I index it, and I've just filled the book I've been writing in since January 2005. Since then (give or take - I'm rarely completely up to date on this) I've read :
Nick Abadzis: The Magic Skateboardsome 115 books, of which about 30 are comics/ graphic novels.
Gail-Nina Anderson/ Chaz Brenchley / Sean O'Brien: Phantoms at the Phil
Jeff Anderson / Steve Carroll: Riddler’s Fayre: The Vaults of the Mind
Anon (editor): Bloody Foreigners
Paul Auster/Paul Karasik/ David Mazzucchelli: City of Glass
David B: Epileptic
Chris Bachalo/ Jeph Loeb: The Witching Hour
Kyle Baker: Why I Hate Saturn
Elizabeth Bear: Hammered /Scardown / Worldwired
Brian Michael Bendis/ Michael Avon Oeming: Powers: Legends
Peter Bennet: Goblin Lawn
Bridget Bradshaw, Farah Mendlesohn, Peter Young (editors): Concussed
Chaz Brenchley: Bridge of Dreams / Confidence: Nothing Broken
Yvonne Brewster: The Undertaker’s Daughter
Julia Briggs: A Woman of Passion
Anthony Browne: Willy’s Pictures
Paul Buhle, Nicole Schulman (editors): Wobblies!
Ross Campbell: Wet Moon: Feeble Wandering
Ann Cleeves: Raven Black / The Healers
Fiona Cooper: The Empress of the Seven Oceans
Jennifer Crusie: Crazy for You / Faking It / Fast Women
Julia Darling: Apology for Absence
Pamela Dean: The Secret Country
Ludovic Debeurme: Mes Ailes d’Homme
Denis Diderot: Jacques le Fataliste
Bob Dylan: Chronicles
Edward Eager: The Well-Wishers
Will Eisner: A Contract with God
Howard Fast: Peekskill: USA
Anne Fine: Charme Académie (trans. Nadia Butaud) / Genie, Genie, Genie /In Cold Domain / Raking the Ashes / The Book of the Banshee / The Road of Bones
Kitty Fitzgerald/ Valerie Laws: For Crying Out Loud
Neil Gaiman: Anansi Boys / The Sandman: Endless Nights
Michael Gaydos/ Micah Harris: Heaven’s War
Greer Gilman: A Crowd of Bone / Moonwise
Ann Halam: Don’t Open Your Eyes / Siberia
J.B.S. Haldane: Possible Worlds
Zenna Henderson: No Different Flesh / Pilgrimage
Mary Hoffman: Stravaganza: City of Masks / Stravaganza: City of Flowers
Michael Innes: The Open House
Klaus Janson/ Greg Rucka: Death and the Maidens
Michael Jecks: A Friar’s Bloodfeud / The Butcher of St Peter’s / The Chapel of Bones
Diana Wynne Jones: Conrad’s Fate / Howl’s Moving Castle
Gwyneth Jones: Band of Gypsys
Derek Kirk Kim: Same Difference, and other stories
Laurie R. King: Justice Hall / The Game / The Moor
Deryn Lake: Death on the Romney Marsh / The Governor’s Ladies / The King’s Women
Jay Lake (editor): TEL: Stories
Ursula LeGuin: Tales from Earthsea
Wiebke Lehnhoff: Bryan Talbot’s Importance for British Comics
Gillian Linscott: Dance on Blood
David Lloyd: Kickback: L’Arrangement / Kickback: Le Ventre de la Baleine
Anita Loos: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Joshua & Jonathan Luna: Ultra: Seven Days
Fitzroy Maclean: Back to Bokhara
Lady Veronica Maclean: Lady Maclean’s Cook Book
Margaret Mahy: Alchemy
Jan Mark: Useful Idiots
Michael Marshall: Blood of Angels / The Lonely Dead
V. L. McDermid: Stranded
The Medieval Murderers: The Tainted Relic
Sarah Monette: Mélusine
Alan Moore: Promethea / The Forty-Niners / The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen / Watchmen
Tim Moore: Spanish Steps
Andrew Morris / Stella Panayotova: The Macclesfield Psalter
Grant Morrison / Philip Bond: Vimanarama
Peter Mortimer: Cool for Qat
E. Nesbit: The Book of Beasts
Naomi Novik: Temeraire
Peter O’Donnell / Jim Holdaway: Modesty Blaise
Dean Ormston / Si Spencer: Books of Magic: Life during Wartime
Gillian Polack: Illuminations
Katrina Porteous / James Dodds: Longshore Drift
Terry Pratchett: A Hat Full of Sky / Going Postal
Ted Rall: To Afghanistan and Back
Manda Scott: Boudica: Dreaming the Hound
Joann Sfar: Le Chat Du Rabbin: La Bar-Mitsva/ Le Malka des Lions
Bryan Talbot: The Tale of One Bad Rat
Josephine Tey: The Franchise Affair
Colin Thompson: How to Live Forever
Fred Vargas: Debout les Morts / L’Homme aux cercles bleus
Brian K. Vaughan / Pia Guerra / José Marzàn Jr.: Y: The Last Man
Ursula Vernon: Digger
Vertigo: The Hellblazer Collection
Jo Walton: Tooth and Claw
Liz Williams: The Poison Master
Pat Winslow: Skin & Dust
More comics than in the past, I think, because I have been making some effort to keep up with the reading for the Graphic Novels Reading Group. Not all of them were worth reading, but then again, one of the real stars of the list is a graphic novel (graphic autobiography, really), David B's Epileptic.
It's also clear that LiveJournal is eating into my reading time: but we knew that, didn't we?
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-29 06:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-29 08:38 am (UTC)I'd read coverage of it when it first came out, long before I found my copy (in Hay-on-Wye, where else?), so the general facts of Nesbit's life were not news. But it was well expressed, and full of interesting little stories: I kept reading chunks of it to people (one of which found its way into my LJ (http://shewhomust.livejournal.com/7369.html)).
Nesbit herself, as portrayed, reminded me of my mother, which was disconcerting: but it was fascinating to see that personality direct, and to recognise it from its reflection in the books.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 03:00 pm (UTC)Good to hear from you!