Saturday, August 4, 2007

100 books!

I knew the milestone was creeping up on me, I just didn't realize that, as I stayed up to finish the mediocre Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure by P. B. Kerr, it was the hundredth book I've read since January 1 of this year. Holy guacamole! If I had realized maybe I would have read Soon I Will Be Invincible, American Born Chinese, Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch, or The Lightening Thief instead, all happily awaiting me in my To Read pile. I guess it doesn't *really* matter what my hundredth book is, just that I have one.

Today is the 215th day of 2007, which means I've been averaging 0.47 books per day. If I can sustain this level of productivity (which I'm skeptical that I can, but you never know), I should be able to read another 70 or 71 books by the start of 2008. Holy crap.

In any case, I wasn't so impressed with Children of the Lamp. Ex-Book once asked me how I find new books to read and I told him from a number of places: book reviews of various newspapers and magazines, blogs, Amazon, ALA websites, etc. I wish for the life of me I could remember who/what recommended CotL, though, so I could take future recommendations with a grain of salt. Or at least be a bit more careful. Maybe in my nifty Books I Want to Read journal I should indicate who/what recommended the book in parenthesis so that I can track which sources I can trust. For example:

Amazon has a nifty feature called "Grown Up School: Expert recommendations from your favorite authors." Where is the bad in this, I ask you? Well, as I've come to realize, just because you absolutely LOVE something a particular author has written, it doesn't mean you necessarily like their taste in books. I love Neil Gaiman, so I took his recommended Shadow and Claw with me on my vacation last month. He describes the book as "The best SF novel of the last century." I mean, wow, that's quite the endorsement! Too bad I really, really didn't like it. Or maybe I would have liked it if it didn't seem way over my head, or if I felt like there was a plot. On the other hand, I've tried a few of the recommendations Justine Larbalestier has given out on her blog, and have liked them all so far. Like I said, we must track, track, track! Reading is a serious business, people, and not for the faint of heart.

I'm curious about where you all find recommendations for new books to read, so if you don't mind, will you respond to the poll I've posted on the right hand side of this page?

UPDATE: As the nifty new "poll" feature on blogger isn't working right now, why don't you guys tell me in the comments how you find new books to read, and where you get your recommendations from.

No comments: