A Year in Books

I realized today as I was memorizing my parking spot number (D2) that I’m probably more of a Star Wars fan than I thought (I visualized R2-D2 to remember it of course). However, my primary geekdom remains and will always be my bookworm habits.

Last year my friend Erin revealed that apparently the average American only reads 4 books a year. She decided to track how many books she read during the year to see how it compared. Given my own love of reading and obsessive tracking habits, I decided to do the same.

Now I didn’t actually start tracking the books I was reading until April (since Erin’s post wasn’t until the end of March to give me the idea), so I don’t have a full year’s worth of data. Even with missing a few months I realized there are actually a lot of interesting trends I could determine from the numbers.

Let’s start with the simple logistics. I had two sheets I used to track information. One was my number sheet where each month I tracked the numbers of books I finished reading during the month. Initially I had broken this down in two columns, print books and iPad books. I quickly decided I wanted a third column to track which books were actually re-reads that I had read at some point before. On the second sheet, I simply listed for each month the name and author of each book I finished reading, highlighting in blue any re-reads. 

As the months passed I realized there were some issues with my tracking mechanisms. Because I didn’t add a book to the sheet until I finished reading it, what would happen frequently is that I would read the bulk of the book one month but finish it the first or second day of the month where it was actually tracked. This shows especially in November. I didn’t do any reading in November because of NaNoWriMo, except that I had a book I was reading that I finished on November first simply because I only had like 40 pages left.

The other main issue is that this setup doesn’t capture all of my reading, only the books completed. I’ve discussed before how I don’t really read in a linear fashion, and many times I start a book and then give up. The thing is sometimes these are VERY large books, and I read 200-300 pages before I give up. That’s a lot of reading that’s not being accounted for!

Still, while keeping that in mind, I think nonetheless I gathered enough information to start identifying some of my reading trends in a year.

Let me throw some numbers at you. I read a total of 65 books from April 1 through December 31^st. Not bad for a year. 40 books were print, 7 were on the iPad, and 18 were actually re-reads.

Typically I read about 6 new books a month. I had a least 1 re-read a month as well, although technically it might average out to 2 per month.  

There were 3 months during the year that bucked the trends a bit, and I find it very interesting to consider what happened during those months.

In July, I actually read 12 new books. My first thought was maybe I had started a very engaging new series, but looking back at which books they were, actually only 2 were in the same series.

August was the next month that was a little off. I read far less in August (only 4 books tools). Most of the books were re-reads, I only read 1 new book in the month.

The last month that didn’t match the normal pattern was September. September was split evenly between new books and re-reads, but all the new books I read that month were on the iPad instead of print.

Those 3 months just so happen to be part of our “busy season” at work. Given what I remember of the year and what I see on the spreadsheet, I’ve drawn some interesting conclusions about what happened.

The first conclusion is that when I’m stressed/unhappy I read more. Although August was a little lower that was partially because of people visiting and things like that, but both July and September were higher than the average. As the stress/unhappiness continues, I tend to fall back on re-reading. Looking through the specific books I chose to re-read, I realized I have some “comfort books” and that I turn to them to cheer myself up.

The second conclusion is that despite all my complaining about e-reading, when push comes to shove it works. Why did I have more iPad books in September? I had started the Mortal Instruments series, and I decided to download them on the iPad as other people in my family were going to read them too (we share an account). Plus when I finished one I wanted the next in the series instantly - none of that driving to the bookstore stuff when wincest is on the line! And despite the fact that I was reading on the iPad, which I always say doesn’t feel like a real book and I can’t do it easily at home, I managed to get through 4 books on there in one month.

All in all I think I did pretty good for a year of reading. I’ve started tracking my books for 2014 (2 finished so far), but I still need to think through if I want to make some edits to the spreadsheet. It might be interesting to start tracking the books I abandon and maybe later figure out if there is a pattern to that as well. Plus at some point I should look for a method of tracking non-traditional reading, like fanfiction and manga. I’m also excited to see if trends change year by year. Maybe I start to read less, or read more. Who knows! 

TVD Week: It Begins

You may or may not remember that back in June, I possibly promised a week’s worth of Vampire Diaries blogs. Maybe you forgot, maybe you hoped it would never come to pass, or (ideally) you’ve been waiting anxiously for TVD week to start. Well I’m here to announce friends that it has finally arrived! In honor of season 3 of Vampire Diaries (or TVD for those who get sick of writing it out over, and over, and over again, and are well aware of the bad-joke ramifications of calling something “VD”) being released on DVD this upcoming Tuesday, I am devoting a full week of entries to vampires, friendship, love, and the wonders of TVD!

Now if you watch the show, or plan to watch it at some point, be wary of spoilers. Sooooooooooo much happens in the show that it is impossible to say anything without some sort of spoiler. I will be respectful though and try to avoid anything too major, mainly from season 3. Seasons 1&2 are a little more open for abounding spoilers.

Additionally, I will start the week off with a few more general posts on vampires so even if you’re not a TVD fan, you have a little somethin’ somethin’ to get your fix until my next non-TVD post.

One of the things I was surprised to love about TVD was its take on vampires. I’m a big vampire fan. I’ve always loved vampire books and movies, despite the fact that some of them scare the crap out of me. When I was a teenager, I worked at a used bookstore so it was fairly easy to find new vampire books in the horror section.

Then one day, this strange new trend started called paranormal romance. The emergence of paranormal romance fiction deserves a pros & cons list of its own, but that’s not what we’re here for today. At first, I was excited. This meant a huge influx of new vampire-related reading material. Unfortunately, I soon realized that not everyone who writes should, and when people are trying to be unique while using a stock type situation/character (such as vampires) they fall into this trap where they try to make their vampires cool and distinct, and instead they wind up retarded and sparkly.

But I’ve always enjoyed comparing the different myths on vampires, and how they emerge in fiction.

Take, for instance, the mirror thing. In some versions, vampires don’t have reflections. Good examples would be Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Daybreakers, and the Real Vampires Have Curves series which I love, because Glory often discusses the difficulty of putting on makeup without a reflection. True dat. This one is fairly inconsistent though, and doesn’t really mean much as opposed to other areas of the lore. So what if someone doesn’t have a reflection? It’s really only used to identify vampires, and can too easily be excused as a trick of the eyes.

Better areas to explore are things that repel vampires. Garlic, for instance. I don’t find this one to pop up too frequently, but it gives a whole new appeal to garlic bread as anti-vampire assurance. Crosses are controversial. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes, as in the Anita Blake series, it’s not the symbol that’s important but your faith in it. I like that version. Series where crosses always repel vampires are basically endorsing Christianity. Not that I’m against it (we are NOT getting into religious debate people, let’s focus on the vampires here), but I like my vampires to be more universal.

Now some vampire lore areas are ones people have heard of, but it’s hard to find examples. Such as vampires cannot cross running water. In fact the only instance of this I can recall off the top of my head is actually in the book I Am Legend when Neville proves this one is just a myth. Yet I had heard that one before, so I’m not sure where it originated. If anything I think it’s an honest mistake confusing vampires with fairies, as running water is supposed to be protection against fairies. Or maybe early vampires were thought to be an offshoot of fairies? That’s a totally interesting concept that I should explore some day in a story!

This looks like Christmas with my family...

For the most part, the vampires of TVD aren’t encumbered by the typical vampire issues. Garlic doesn’t bug them. They can eat, and drink alcohol like it’s going out of style. No problems with mirrors or videos. But they do, however, have to deal with the house issue.

Vampires cannot come into houses unless invited. While this isn’t true in some versions like Twilight (hard for your main male character to be such a sketch stalker if he can’t wander into houses as he pleases), it is true in other popular series such as True Blood and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have to say I quite like in True Blood how you can rescind the invitation, because it makes it interesting to watch the vampires getting thrown out of the house.

Sadly TVD doesn’t have that option. Once a vampire has been invited in, you’re basically screwed. Better move. Although be wary of apartments. Damon at one point goes on a little ramble about how it works. Public buildings are open to vampires. Owned houses are always safe. Apartments are tricky depending on the lease.

Now one has to ask, why do the creators of vampire fiction go with some myths over others? Why do they create the limits in such a way? And I am personally convinced that when it came to the house invitation issue, the TVD think brains decided against rescinding invitations because they want it to be easier to kill people. Yeah, that’s right, this isn’t just some little teenage fantasy where the vampires are good and no one ever dies. People die ALL THE FREAKING TIME. In fact, stay tuned this week as that will be a separate post all on its own.

What I mainly like about TVD is that I do think there are some pretty unique features to their vampires. Sure, they have some of the basics, but they have some interesting new stuff going on too.

But this is already fairly long, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow: How to Make/Kill Your Own Vampire.

Honest And True Time

When defining nerds, geeks, and thus neeks one key word really sticks out: obsessive. The past few weeks have really kicked this trait into high gear. Why? Two words my friends, two words. Vampire Diaries.

IT SHOULD BE GOOD!

Let’s start at the beginning of the story. My friend Jenn accidentally started watching the show when Netflix didn’t have something else she wanted to watch available. A few days later she starts recommending the show to me, swearing up and down I’d absolutely love it. I had no intention of watching it though. Not because I doubted Jenn (she’s fairly spot on with her recommendations), but because I don’t have Netflix, and I have a very firm rule about not buying movies/shows I haven’t watched yet. This rule stems from when I bought The Fountain. Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. Legend of the fountain of youth. What could I possibly not like about this??? Everything, apparently.

So Jenn, knowing how I am, took it upon herself to buy me the first season of Vampire Diaries. I currently both love and hate her for this.

Because I am OBSESSED. In fact, I’ve already finished the first season. Halfway through the first season I realized I would die a little inside if I didn’t have the second season ready to go when I finished (they’re big on cliffhangers) so I ran out with the sole intention of buying it. I’m a little on edge knowing that the third season isn’t available until August. In fact, around when it comes out I might declare Vampire Diaries week and have a post every day about something I love from the show.

It’s not just that it’s vampires. I mean I like vampires, but anyone that reads/watches a lot of vampire related material knows there are vampires, and then there are vampires done right. I was sure this would not be done right. It’s a teen show for crying out loud! Clearly it had to be some kind of bad Twilight knockoff (which makes me shudder to think of something worse than Twilight).

But the characters are brilliant, the storyline is compelling, and almost beside the point, I’m actually really enjoying their take on vampires.

The problem is, Honest And True Time, I really love Damon over Stefan.

Hold up, before I explain why, let’s delve a little into the idea of Honest And True Time.

Honest And True Time is a phrase I started at some point in college. I have no idea why I first said it, but once I did, it was the phrase one would use before revealing some bit of information fundamental to yourself. So saying, “Honest And True Time guys, the sky is blue,” is a misuse of the phrase and deserves punishment. However, something like “Honest And True Time, I think I have an addiction to diet pepsi” is completely acceptable even if everyone else ALREADY KNOWS IT. The point is that the revelation is new to you.

I don’t remember if this is when I first used the phrase, but a prime example of Honest And True Time would be the Harry Potter Naked Horse episode.

You’ll probably remember that at some point Daniel Radcliff decided to do the play Equus which involves horses and him being naked on stage. That’s all I really know about that. But this picture of him standing naked next to the horse was all over the web. My roommate called me and Jenn to her computer to see it, and after a moment of silence, we both realized that when faced with a naked man and a horse, all we could notice was his jawline.

Weird, right? This was our moment of discovery that we are primarly attracted to men with strong, chiseled, delicious jawlines. It was a light bulb moment. All of a sudden I realized all my favorite male celebrities have the same type of jawline. I’ve been unconsciously seeking strong jawlines my entire life! Thus I could now declare Honest And True Time, I’m attracted to men’s jawlines.

Now that you understand the idea of Honest And True Time, you might wonder why it matters that I prefer one fictional vampire over another from some silly tv show.

Sexpot on right = Damon

Because this is indicative of my preference in general for men. It’s not because Damon is hotter (although I find him super lust worthy, don’t get me wrong). And honestly, Stefan is the way better person/boyfriend. He’s sweet. He’s caring. He tries to understand your feelings and behave appropriately.

In the words of Damon himself, Damon's kind of a dick.

But I love him! He’s exciting. He’s dark. He’s not all broody and sentimental all the time. Sure, he kills people ruthlessly and he can’t handle rejection. Yes, in his efforts to help people he isn’t above threats and maiming. And yeah maybe half of what he says is sarcastic and cutting, but that’s okay, right?

I know, I know, guys always say girls just want the jerks. Here I am, proving them right. First of all, I’m not saying this is true for everyone. I’m saying that personally, Honest And True Time, I have realized that I really don’t want a good guy. At least not somebody that’s good all the time, like Stefan. And certainly not somebody as clingy as Stefan. I need to know I can be free to wander around on my own making bad decisions. And I need to know a guy is going to wander off on his own, making bad decisions too. Because that keeps us growing. What I fear above all else, is life becoming too stagnant. It’s boring. I can’t handle boring.

And Vampire Diaries is ANYTHING but boring.

When Life Gives You Lemons... (a defense of fanfiction)

There’s been a lot of talk recently about fanfiction. Some authors have been saying they don’t approve of it, and why their work is off limits. I respect their opinions, but honestly some of the comments are just a little nasty, and seem to misunderstand the point of fanfiction.

My college roommate and I actually bonded over fanfiction. We had been randomly assigned, and didn’t have much contact before coming to college. Just a few emails that managed to completely freak her out, poor thing, when I mentioned my bird alarm clock. For my part, I had initially thought I’d been assigned a guy which had thrown me in a tizzy. This is what happens when you skim emails. I caught the name “Patrick” without noticing that “Hall” right next to it. 

Roomie & me trying on funny hats

We were pretty typical random roommates the first week. We tried to hang out sometimes but often left to do our own thing. In the room, we were incredibly polite to each other. Although we had some similar interests, we didn’t exactly click initially. There was just too much awareness that we were stuck in a room together and didn’t really know the other person. What was appropriate to share? What would super offend the other? It wasn’t until my roommate came back in earlier than expected one day and caught me reading fanfiction that our barriers came down. Here she loved fanfiction too! It was a guilty pleasure we shared, and from there we found more and more shared interests and habits, until we became inseparable and people started to referring to us as a combo package instead of separate individuals.  

I’m more of what one calls a fanfiction lurker. I read TONS of it. Not constantly. I definitely go through cycles, but when I’m getting my fanfiction fix I’ll read for hours straight. To me, fanfiction is the ultimate expression of fan devotion in writing. It shows that somebody loves the world and characters you’ve created so much, that they want more of them. They want a chance to play in the world. If it’s a series that’s over, they want a chance to envision what comes next for the characters. 

Now some of the comments about fanfiction have implicated that fanfiction authors don’t have enough creativity to write their own material, or that it’s a waste of their time to devote so much effort to working with someone else’s creations.

Again, I disagree. Many great fanfiction authors write their own stories as well, and some are working on novels. And sure, some stories are just as long, if not longer, than a typical book. But fanfiction gives authors the opportunity to practice their craft and have fun with it. Writing should be fun. It also is absolutely an art that must be practiced in order for one to excel. If you’re trying to write frequently, and you have a fandom you love, why not combine those things and write new adventures for your favorite characters? It’s a great exercise.

Writing (good) fanfiction is surprisingly tough. You have to stay true to characters that your audience already knows, but you don’t want to fall in the trap of using just a few main traits to define them. You need to think of new ways to describe places, characters, and situations without using the exact same verbiage of the original creator, or the tons of other fanfic authors. It’s like being given a prompt in a writing class. While you’re following certain conventions, it’s up to you to come up with something unique for your story. Unlike a class though, you have so many more people working with the same prompt. How do you represent the fandom you love so much, without being cliché and writing the same thing as everyone else?

Within any fandom you’ll find certain themes that have been done to death. There are also some themes that pop up across genres that have created a language used for the fanfiction world. Familiar words like lemons take on whole new connotations, while new terms like mary sue and mpreg are created.

There are also trends in the writing style of fanfiction. When I first started reading it, way back around 2000, most fanfiction was written in a style with characters performing *actions* or lines and activities described in a play type format. There was a lot of interaction from the author as well. It was fairly frequent to see the author inserted at some point in the story, describing their control over the characters. At that point in time fanfiction was more lighthearted. It allowed people to write and read, while still making fun of itself.

Now fanfiction is both more serious, and less precise. Good fanfiction has evolved into real stories. The author is more removed from the process, although there is still a tendency to have author notes at the beginning or end. Unfortunately, while fanfiction now takes itself more seriously, there has also been an influx of authors with less writing skills. A whole new generation thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to write stories in txt talk or lack even basic punctuation.

The tone of responses has changed as well. Before, fanfiction was not widely known. At this point, it seems like almost everyone has heard of fanfiction, and unfortunately, they are only acquainted with the bad examples. Thus great fanfic writers start to write less and less as they get few constructive comments and far more flames.

I happen to write fanfiction. Not very often, to be sure. Nothing extraordinary. But I find it very calming. When I write fanfiction for some reason I tend to write fluffy, silly pieces. I don’t do that in my own writing. My stories tend to be far more angsty. Fanfiction provides me with a way to write the type of stories that for whatever reason I can’t write with my own characters.

Additionally, I often find myself loving the side characters of a story, movie, or series. Fanfiction lets me get to further explore and get to know characters that get very little screen time. It lets me rationalize their choices and actions, and sometimes reflect on my own life as I often write about characters I identify with. Fanfiction, like any type of writing, is basically another form of therapy.

So before you judge the world of fanfiction, let me ask you, have you ever discussed a movie, book, or tv series? Have you ever spoken to someone about a fandom you love, analyzing plot or motives? Complained that you should have seen more of Snape’s back-story, that Anakin turned evil too quickly, or that X-Men 3… well basically ruined everything about the series? Then you’ve started on the path to fanfiction. The only difference with fanfiction is that the authors have taken the time to write out their own interpretation instead of just discussing it.

Someday if I’m a famous author, it’s totally cool to write fanfiction about my world. My momma taught me young that imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Why Reading Should be a Sport.

 I’ve never been great at sports. Actually, I’ve never even been okay at sports. Part of it is my fail genes. I have no hand-eye coordination. Seriously. None. I can’t even throw things in any kind of consistent fashion. I’m not even sure I know how to aim. I think I’m aiming, but considering where things end up I’m starting to suspect otherwise.

For a while I played soccer, which I did much better at (and yes, I’m ending my sentence with a preposition, deal with it).  Eye-feet coordination is way more my thing. But that didn’t last long, because of the second part of the issue… my inability to stick with activities. Sure, if I had practiced I’d probably get better, but I never liked any sport enough to dedicate the time. Probably for the best. My brother swears I would have gotten kicked out of almost every soccer game as I got older. I was a teeny bit aggressive.

Now reading, that was something to get into. Fate & genetics, nurture & nature all combined to develop my reading skills. Initially I found it very hard to learn to read. I wasn’t one of those prodigies reading newspapers at age 2.  I remember struggling with stupid flashcards while my mom quizzed me in her bedroom. There were a lot of ducks all over the walls. Maybe that’s why I hate ducks? I subconsciously associate them with hating to learn my phonics? Nah, it’s more likely the result of a vicious duck & geese attack while trying to innocently feed them bread.

Anyway, despite the rough start learning the basics, I loved reading. Both my parents are great readers. They read to me frequently when I was young. Actually, my mom used to read The Hobbit to my brother and I. Talk about starting neekness at a young age.

I still might have just been an average reader at best, but other factors combined to increase the appeal. They say reading is an escape, and boy was it ever for me. I used reading to escape more and more situations until it was my answer for everything.

Take for instance my brother. We get along great now, but when we were younger I couldn’t stand him. I’ll give you a hint why… his common nickname was “Annoy Boy.” He could only entertain himself by irritating others. My parents told me time and time again to ignore him. But I couldn’t UNTIL I started reading all the time. There’s this great about me and reading. When I’m really into a book the world is dead to me. You can be talking right to me and I don’t hear a thing. That is not an exaggeration. At all.

Then there was the whole thing with me being a picky eater. I’d like to first point out that while I’m still not perfectly normal on that factor (ask me about sandwiches sometime…) I am MUCH, MUCH better. As a child there were very few things I could eat. Nothing complicated. Food couldn’t touch. Nothing even remotely spicy. Even food I liked could gross me out depending on the texture. I soon realized that if I read while eating, I didn’t notice the taste or texture as much. I wasn’t allowed to read during family dinners, but this saved me a lot during lunch.

Additionally, I was a very fearful child. Many things scared me… aliens, spiders, the dark, sharks… just to name a few. I also had trouble sleeping. This led to frequent reading at night when I couldn’t fall asleep, and starting to smuggle books into the bath so I could distract myself from the possibility of sharks emerging from the drain.

I know, I know, at this point you’re thinking I was the worst child in the world. Luckily I was at least adorable. But what it comes down to is that eventually I became a super awesome fast reader. Seriously, I’m a champ.

Back when the Harry Potter books were still coming out I worked part-time at a bookstore, and we would always have a midnight party when the new book was released. I would work the midnight party, get home late, read the entire new book, and then open the store the next morning by 8. When the 7^th book came out I actually re-read a book every night that week so that the whole series would be fresh in my mind. This was while working 2 jobs, roughly around 70 hours a week. I worked during the day, came home and read, and besides the night of the midnight release for Deathly Hallows still managed to get a decent amount of sleep.

So why should reading be a sport? Because I’d win. Not every time. There’s always a faster, more comprehensive reader out there. But at least some times!

It seems like everything else can be defined as a sport these days. Seriously what is the criteria? In college my friends and I decided that any activity that can make your nipples bleed counts as a sport. This came up after discussing cross-country track, and while I’d like to say I’m not that one that made that definition, there is a strong possibility it was me. They always seem to blame me for those kinds of things. Anyway, this quickly opened up the world of sports to several new activities in our minds. At the time, reading was not one of them.

I guess it could be. Maybe if you accidentally closed the book quickly and your chest was bare? Or if you were reading naked while walking down the steps and tripped? I think the better plan is to just make a new definition for sports. Something that would include reading, so we can start having reading matches. I can win some, get an endorsement, and eventually get paid to read. That would be AWESOME.