** QUESTIONS for the Avid Reader -- for the Rest of 2012

Somehow, I didn't notice that the previous thread was titled September-October, and here it is past the middle of November! So here's a new thread for the rest of the year.

QUESTION 41.

Here in the US, we're getting ready for Thanksgiving -- a holiday for feasting, family get-togethers (friendly or not), travel nightmares, and, oh yes, giving thanks! For this week's question, think about some books you've read that focus on any one (or more) of these holiday features, and tell your fellow Avid Readers about them.

My most obvious Thanksgiving read was A Ghost at the Table by Suzanne Berne (I know your theme is more general but this immediately came to mind). My recollection is a bit vague, but it was about a family gathering in Concord, MA for Thanksgiving, and the main character was researching Twain's life and picked up on his fascination with young girls. I remember I liked it well enough at the time...oh wait, here is what I wrote: Interestingly, I read this novel over the Thanksgiving holiday - the same time period in which the story is set. I had some misgivings when I began...another dysfunctional family story, I thought. Indeed, Berne does write a engaging story of a dysfunctional family (and don't we all have one)full of secrets, lies, fictions, half-truths, manipulations, and well, family drama. It is so credible, I actually found myself chuckling in spots. Additionally, her use of literary suspense is masterful and pulled me through this family's drama like an amusement park ride. And well, damn it! I got so caught up in all of it...

I don't think I have come a across a single book that fits the description...reading about Abraham Lincoln, I did stumble across the story of how Thanksgiving became a national holiday in the US, instead of various state holidays held on different dates with somewhat differ themes.

Well, I'm not just thinking about Thanksgiving, but the components of it: feasting, family get-togethers, travel nightmares, etc.. The scene that made me think of this question is a big party Nana holds in Nana -- the pages and pages about the endless courses and everyone's riotous behavior are a remarkable set piece, and very entertaining. I'm going to look through my recent reads and come up with some other thoughts, but I just wanted to clarify that this question can have a broader scope.

The Pickwick Papers and Tom Jones both have some fairly robust feasting in them, along with some peculiar journeys.
I'm having difficulty coming up with something more contemporary.

Good feasting to all celebrating American Thanksgiving.

For some reason The Corrections came to mind - family tensions abound.

Based on a story by Isak Dinesen, the film Babette's Feast embodies so much about the spirit of Thanksgiving, while not at all Thanksgiving related: bringing people together over food (in this case building up slowly to the titular feast); giving thanks and appreciation to those sharing in the meal; at its best, a labor of love. Actually, this gives me something new to hunt down!

Sorry I didn't post any question for this week. It's been a crazy one, and next week will be too. So here's a question for the next 10 days or so, and it comes from Lois/avaland, who started the Questions threads.

QUESTION 42.

Within your library (your real one, not your LT one), do you have small collections of books - topical, perhaps, or single authors? Do these reflect a reading pattern of some sort (reading all the books by a single author, for example), just your obsessive nature (I like rows of books that match), something sentimental (a childhood series, perhaps), a past interest or an ongoing or aspirational one? Give some obvious and perhaps some not-so-obvious examples from your library and the psychology behind them.

To the outsider, my bookshelves must look completely haphazardly arranged. Not (entirely) the case, though (although some parts are dictated by book vs shelf size). It is very much grouped together.

In the living/dining room, for example, I've got a row of graphic/illustrated novels, two rows of fiction (with a sub-section half shelf of sci-fi/alt fiction), a row and a half of Swedish, half a row of French, half a row of travel lit. Tucked away in the office, bottom shelves are the books I hated or wouldn't necessarily broadcast having read.

There's further sub-categorising, more or less based on the type of fiction it is (crime, sci-fi, YA, there's even a section on fiction related in some way to Russia/Eastern Europe, etc etc).

We've just moved to a bigger house and I'm going to have a lot more bookshelf space so I'm very interested to hear everyone's organizational ideas! I've always alphabetized fiction, except for my shelf of special editions (Easton Press and Folio Society) which are organized to look pretty. My nonfiction is grouped by categories such as biography, autobiography, history, the arts, gardening, cookbooks, verse, etc. I've also decided to have a separate TBR shelf in the order of purchase.

Q42: No. Every once in a while I succumb to my granddaughter's urging and organize some of my books like japaul22--to look pretty. Then after a few months of not being able to find what I want, I go back to a strict alphabetical order except that some books are separated by size because of different shelf heights. The only exception is some reference books I keep directly over my desk. I used to separate fiction from non-fiction, but in my last reshelving I just put everything alphabetical by author no matter what it is. I have way more books than will actually fit on my shelves, so they are doubled up in most cases. I've put the ones I'm least likely to need in the back, but they are still aligned alphabetically with those in front.

TBR pile is by itself and my organization of it changes as I go along.
Right now it's organized in Japanese-related books and non-Japanese related books. Then sorted by size. Otherwise it's usually separated into "in French" and "in English" categories then sorted by size.

Out of the books I've already read, they are separated by the year I read them for the most part. All my high school books are together. College, grad school, etc. Then organized by language and then size. I purposely try to buy books that are all the same size (for example, buying my French books only from the publisher Folio if I can) to make it easier to organize. Another reason I never buy hardcover. But more or less I know exactly where all of my books are.

Every pile and shelf of books in my house has an organization that is both all its own and utterly inconsistent with everything else in the house. Piles include my TBR shelf of which I hardly ever read from, shelves of poetry, Judaica, history, geology, roadside geology, books from a friend, the untouched Hemmingway-Faulkner-Bellow shelf, a disc world shelf, and a Wheel of Time shelf (the Harry Potter shelf was emptied by my daughter)...not to mention the four long shelves of TBR books above my computer in the office...and there are many others.

The one and only bookcase in my apartment is arranged by size with absolutely no rhyme or scheme to it at all. Fiction resting comfortably with non-fiction. The only thing governing the case is hardcovers and oversized books are on the bottom shelves. This bookcase, however, only houses a fraction of the collection. There are piles of books in every piece of furniture I own. Books in my desk are Geology related, the rest are jammed in whatever order I can fit them in and on the living room tables and nightstands. It haunts me at night that there is no order to the books and occasionally causes disgust that must be corrected in the winter months.

I'm a bit proud of myself though. Over the last few months I have cleared enough space in the kitchen cupboards to put dishes and food in them. The oven was getting a bit crowded.

Q42.

Where do I even start?

I like following authors so if I like someone, I will find all their books and they will stay together on a shelf. Now, with the Kindle, this changed a bit because I would get most of the books on the Kindle instead - which causes a little change in behaviour. And these authors can be very popular ones like Jonathan Kellerman or fairly obscure once such as Sean Chercover, Declan Hughes or Ted Chiang

And then I have my "Publisher's collections". I like small presses and there are a few where I tend to buy anything that they publish (Golden Gryphon Press, Fairwood Press, Crippen and Landru, PS Publishing to name a few) or where I just like the books so prefer to keep them together (Folio Society, Easton Press, LOA and so on). And their books always stay together on a shelf. I should have started with this one - because if one my presses publish a book from an author I collect, the press wins in the shelving.

Add to this my Tudors bookcase or the few shelves with other history times (Richard III being the latest ones).

And my DC comics TPBs tend to be ordered based on continuity (when part of the universe) so you won't see the straight 1,2,3 followed by another 1,2,3 there. Unlike most of my other comics which are shelved based on the main character...

The rest of the bookcases are on the principle of "Oh, new book that fits here. Here it goes then" :)

Hmm. Well, these responses took my original question in a slightly different direction. I wasn't so much thinking of library organization as our literary affinities and obsessions.

So, well, I do sometimes get preoccupied with a single author, so I have sought out their works or associational works, in some cases. Sometimes this is after I've read their work and want to read more; othertimes it's aspirational—I think I want to or should read them. So, there's 70 Joyce Carol Oates books: her fiction, nonfiction & poetry, and books of interviews and literary criticism. I'm guessing I've read about 1/3 of what I have. There's all the Atwoods, Djebars, George Eliots, Boris Pasternak, Angela Carter...

I also accumulate books around topics; such as, early New England history, the Salem witchcraft trials (to name two) and lately I've realized that I've been accumulating African fiction (it was all over the house, so I didn't notice that it might constitute a focus/affinity/obsession until my recent fiction purge brought them all together (about 1/2 were already read) - that's definitely part aspirational reading.

I'm not a books-that-match sort of person (i.e. Viragos, Modern Library, Penguins, Folio) but I do have 6 feminist science fiction titles from Women's Press (that might count!)

To answer the other way: Our library is organized and separated by genre mostly, author A-Z, anthologies A-Z by title (in fiction/poetry mostly), sometimes more specifically by topic (Atwood and Oates share a giant crate together). SF&F is the only subgenre which is organized by binding for space-saving purposes (hardcovers and tradepaper in one area, all mass market paperbacks together).

I will re-answer the question in the direction Avaland had in mind.

Most of my collection dates back no more than a dozen years. Up to that time I had been focusing my reading entirely on the American Civil War, learning more and more about less and less, and finally getting sick of it all. I ran across a list of 100 great novels of the 20th century and decided to read them. I soon found other lists, and so my collection was built in that manner, often buying and reading books that I would never otherwise have considered. So I have a very broad and varied literature collection.

But there have been favorite authors that, even though I may not have yet read much of their work, I knew I wanted to collect: John Hawkes, Kathy Acker, Harry Mathews, Robert Coover, Angela Carter.

Travel has been a big factor. I don't get to go abroad very often, but when I do I make the most of it by reading the history and literature of the country I'm visiting, both before and after. My last trip was two years ago to China, which is why I have so much Chinese literature. We've just booked a trip to Great Britain next year, so I stocked up on relevant history and added a couple of fiction works to my collection.

In the last couple of years LibraryThing has been responsible for most of my book purchases and reading selections, especially the quarterly themes in the Reading Globally and Author Theme Reads groups. I'm finding it hard to say no, in fact, to some of this social reading so I can make time for my personal reading goals.

I am rather a dilettante so anyone looking at my shelves would conclude that I am interested in, well, everything. I do have a few clusters though - books about books (of course) and about polar regions. I struggle to explain my fascination with the latter given that I loathe being cold!

I also have historical strata of books from different stages in my life, for example a lot on China as that was the subject of my degree. I am occasionally tempted to shelve these in chronological order. But I have a deliberate policy of not ordering my books because I know I would be perfectly capable of deciding at 11pm that they need a new arrangement, and then spending the next four hours moving them around.

>17 wandering_star: We have that 'books about books' and cold/ice in common then! (the latter seems to be a recent attraction (and perhaps unconscious).

I too have "books about books" and "polar exploration," although I've merged the latter with exploration in general. Will write in more detail later this week.

I will start with my bookshelves and then go on to my reading obsessions.

I/we have bookshelves in every room apart from the bedroom (there books are heaped up on the floor on my wife's side of the bed, I hardly ever read in bed). The best bookshelf which is hand made from American cherry is in the lounge and that contains most of the art books and some reference books. The cook books battle it out with some travel books in the kitchen. Lynn has her atelier at the back of the house and that contains more practical art books. I have a small room upstairs(the only habitable room upstairs) and this has wall to wall shelving and bookcases, but here the books have to do battle with my extensive CD collection. After joining Librarything I had to fit in yet another bookcase to deal with all the books bought following recommendations from other LTers. My room also houses an extensive poetry collection and my own obsessions in reading. We have two very large attics one of which has even more bookcases and here lies most of the fiction. The other attic contains boxes of books and boxes of LPs.

My reading obsessions: As anybody reading my thread will know I have been reading books from the 14th and 15th centuries over the last two years and I am just starting to break into the 16th century. The Italian Renaissance has dominated my reading over the last six months and will probably do so throughout next year. I enjoy author themed reads and this year I concentrated on Patrick White following a group set up here on LT. Next year I need to find shelf space for Albert Camus and Robertson Davies following the group set up by steven03. Practical music books have also started to seep into my room following my purchase of a saxophone and there is no real home for them at the moment and they are piled up on any flat surface. If it all sound a bit haphazard that is because it is, but I can usually find a book I want fairly quickly.

How many obsessions can a person have? I do tend to seek out all the works of an author I really like, and I also tend to seek out lots of books on a particular subject of interest, some particular obsessions being American politics, Victorians, China and plants.

Nothing drives me crazier than not being able to find a book at an instant's notice. This means that while other things may be strewn everywhere, books are highly, some might say obsessively, organized. Fiction is organized alphabetically by country. If I have a lot from a given country, it is also organized by century and then alphabetically within the century. It is then organized chronologically for a given author. The English are in one room and the Scots in another. Europeans are in yet another.

The more communal Chinese, non fiction and fiction, share a reading room with two tall bookcases on gardening, one on children's literature and others on stuff I dabble in. A small amount of fiction from South America, Africa and India is also here.

The Russians are in the spare bedroom, which they share with philosophers. I always have problems with what to put in there, as I squirm in agony when people mark a book or crack a spine. For a while I had books on third world development there, thinking that they would be too boring for most people, but even that didn't work. Travel and language books are in a hall, as after all, it involves passage, but my "Ahoy" books are in the sunroom, which is high like the bridge on a ship. History and non North American politics are in yet another room, with spy books and crime for relief. History is organized by country where possible; I will also use LC call numbers if in doubt. Canadians and Americans, fiction and nonfiction, share a room as they share a continent, but as in real life, the Americans often threaten to overwhelm the Canadians. The music collection is also highly organized and books on music and musicians, and oversize books on art are together with it, sharing that room with reference books.

All this goes for books I have read; TBR is a complete nightmare. I have started organizing it, so that I don't get into duplicates. It has its own area. I'm still trying to decide if I should enter it here or not. It would probably be a big help.

Mea culpa - sorry if I led folks astray with my interpretation of the question (though in my defence, my shelf organisation does reflect a lot of my reading kicks/themes/obsessions).

My main collection is Edward Gorey and I only wish I had more! That aside, I've gone on various mini-kicks, including ghost stories; travel lit; books with Russian, Jewish, and/or WWII-related themes; graphic novels; Scots & Scottish lit; and cyberpunk, sci fi, alt histories. There's overlap in some of these categories which does make shelving tougher.

Certain authors I've read and accumulated, and will likely obtain when something new comes out (though if it doesn't at least sound interesting I won't bother). In this category, I'd put authors like Michael Chabon, David Mitchell, Colson Whitehead, Neal Stephenson, Walter Moers. I will also accumulate shorter series (often YA or crime), such as Ann Cleeves's Shetland Quartet or Paul Johnston's Quint Dalrymple quintet.

It is a bit off-putting that my Harry Potter 'collection' is a) incomplete (some were library loans, others purchased) and b) not the same publisher so the covers and sizes are different. Ack.

When I get interested in an author, I tend to try to find most of what he or she has written. A few years ago, I did this with Hilary Mantel. This year, I've done it with the Inspector Montalbano series, and am now gathering Zolas and Beryl Bainbridges. There are other authors with lesser outputs that I also have read (almost) everything by, including Vassily Grossman, Victor Serge, and others.

Sometimes I also get a little obsessed with subjects. A year or two ago, reading Matterhorn inspired me to read Parzival and I also read some Arthurian tales and then I bought up a slew of medieval books, none of which I've read yet.

As noted above, I have an interest in polar exploration and books about books; I also have a section on New York City history and natural history, and books of and about maps.

As for how my library is organized, I have bookshelves on two long walls in a room that otherwise is my sweetie's work room, and bookshelves against one long wall in my work room. I organize fiction by country or general area, so that, for example, I have a Russian section, a French section, a Central European section, an African section etc. Within those sections, I keep authors together, and to some extent I try to organize chronologically, at least keeping books from the same century together. Within the larger British and US fiction sections, I definitely organize by time period. I don't alphabetize. I also have a separate poetry section, and a separate section for mysteries.

For nonfiction, I organize by general subject area, sometimes broken down more if I have a lot of books that fall into a category. For example, I have a US history section, organized more or less chronologically, a 20th century European history section (with, for example, the Nazi section separate from the Soviet and Eastern Europe sections), and a Jewish history section, and sections on evolution and ecology, but I only have general psychology and anthropology sections. I also have sections on travel literature, books about writing, reference books, and more. Cookbooks are in the kitchen.

Within this organization, I try to keep books I'm likely to want on more accessible shelves and books I'm not likely to read but still want to keep (e.g., old mysteries) on higher shelves. Some of those I may stack or double book, so I don't take up too many shelves with books I don't need to see at a glance.

Finally, the innovation in my organization was my attempt earlier this year to organize my multiple TBR shelves more. I've tried to use mostly the same organization as my other shelves, with one shelf for books I hope to get to sooner rather than later.

My husband enjoyed Engines of Change: A History of the American Dream in Fifteen Cars, so we’re giving it to two of my brothers. We’re giving Thinking, Fast and Slow to another brother and The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook (which is surprisingly substantive about 1960s NYC restaurants/menus but still mostly just fun) to another. I usually get bookstore gift certs more than actual books, although a box that arrived yesterday includes a hardcover … a bit tall and narrow, so I’m very curious.

I’m excited to hear what everyone gives as standard gifts. I used to give Gift from the Sea to women when they became engaged. I should probably reread that to see if it still fits.

Q 42 - You can see my interests over the years by looking at my book collections. I even still have some of my childhood horse books left, although most of them were given away when I was overseas. I guess my latest collection is Virginia Woolf. I have about 75 books by and about her. Most of them live in the second closet in my bedroom, but some of the nicer editions are in the living room, and some of the tatty extras are in the basement. I have many groups of books, but they're mostly stored in bins as I don't have room to display them.

Q 43 - No one is brave enough to buy a book for me, but I sometimes give books. This year not so much. I did pick up a large box of assorted books at the recent book sale at my daughter's school that I will give to my brother in law, and my sister in law will get two large bags from the sale, but if it wasn't Christmas I would have picked up these books for them anyway (basically it was $20 for all the books I wanted from the sale).

I do suspect I will be a book recipient at the holidays. I've hinted, even outright stated, that there are certain books I'd like (Walter Moers has a couple I haven't read yet, including a new one spinning off from my favorite; Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue), others I've shown interest in that may have been picked up on (largely graphic novels), and maybe even something completely unexpected (always fun!).

I'm very much a last minute shopper, so quite frankly no idea what I'm getting others yet. Books may figure into things. I *have* gotten my sister's family Beck's Song Reader - I know, I know, but could be considered a book of sheet music.

Q43: My wife doesn't let me take part in holiday shopping precisely because all I would ever give anyone is books, so I haven't had the pleasure of giving books for many years.

On the other hand, everyone knows that the only thing I want to be given is books, but they also know that it's pointless to try to guess what I would need or want, so they have to pick from my Amazon wishlist. I try to keep my wishlist stocked with a variety of choices, but they almost invariably buy what is at the top of the list (i.e. most recently added) thinking that it must be my first priority. I don't think they even look to see what the titles are. I do have a bit of fun with it, though, because my family are all prudish, ultra conservative and very religious. So I get them to buy me things like the Essential Works of Lenin or works by authors like Georges Bataille, Kathy Acker or Henry Miller--things they would rather burn than gift wrap.

Very funny, Steven! Do you think they know that those are authors they would hate?

I have one friend that I am comfortable enough knowing her reading habits to buy her books. She also often buys them for me. I buy books occasionally for my parents. They like mysteries and are pretty easy to predict. My mom buys me books sometimes and she often picks good ones. I keep an amazon wish list as well and often get amazon gift cards to stock my kindle.

My husband knows that I love books best, and he will get me a few if he knows they are a favorite author. He also has been indulging my desire for Easton Press and Folio Society books. I'm kind of hoping for the new Folio Anna Karenina that is out. We'll see!

Do you think they know that those are authors they would hate?

Not in all cases, and I don't think they'd be curious enough to look inside the book. But the book covers sometimes are enough, such as when I was given Willie Masters' Lonesome Wife by William H. Gass

We have cut way back on holiday giving this year, so not many gifts generally. We have wrapped a photographic book on horses for a cousin, and I may pick up a cookbook for my son-in-law. To another book friend, I sent several books I had recently finished, The Polish Boxer, Night Dancer but also several as gifts: a Sarah Orne Jewett novella, a Olaf Olafsson novel...hmm, there was one other.

However, it's not like I don't give books. I did a culling of my fiction earlier this fall and probably sent over a 100 books to book friends, most of whom were made here on LT :-) I would rather some of the books be with readers who will appreciate them than be languishing on our library's sale tables (don't worry, the library got over 10 boxes).

Household circumstances have changed so I have started to use use Amazon.com and co.uk wishlists. It's a tough adjustment.

Here is the last question of the year, and it comes from Joyce/nickelini.

QUESTION 44.
What have you learned about yourself and reading this year? What have your reading experiences revealed about yourself and your reading habits this year?

One of the things that stood out for me this year was the fact that until Club Read I tended to read (with very few exceptions) only American and/or English authors. This year I branched out and made a start at reading more globally. I still tend to go on a reading kick on one particular subject (i.e. this year it was Eva Peron) and books I loved a few years ago I still love now.

Oh! And Club Read has certainly added to my wishlist!

I didn't read as many books this year, but found that this aspect did not bother me at all. In 2011 I started a reading project and found that I really enjoyed reading this way. Reading about a subject in a little more depth can be very rewarding.

I enjoyed the author theme reads and managed to read nearly all of Patrick White's novels this year as well as starting some in depth reading on the Italian Renaissance. I have come to the conclusion that this is "my thing". I am already looking forward to Albert Camus and Robertson Davies next year.

I enjoyed taking part in the various club read threads and read most of the reviews. This year I have been a bit more circumspect in buying other peoples recommendations as there are so many I want to read that It is impossible to read them all and so I have satisfied myself with just reading the reviews, with a few notable exceptions.

Q43. I have given up expecting books for the holidays because it is so hard for people to pick books I like. I used to have some relatives who liked to be told exactly what to get me, and I would give them titles that were extremely easy to find in Barnes and Noble, which is how I ended up with a lot of "The Best Short Stories of (year)" and "The Best Mystery Stories of (year)." As for giving presents, I try very hard to think of what people would like, e.g., photography books for the budding photographer, books about climate change for the doomsday crier, etc. Books that I've given to a lot of people include Here Is New York by E.B. White for people moving to NYC, If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents by Gregory Rabassa for people who've read a lot of translations, Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from the New Yorker for people in the hospital or recovering from illness/surgery, and Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman for everyone.

Q44

This year I realized that I can't just read serious, grim books all the time. In fact, I realized I needed a lot of entertainment (the Inspector Montalbano books and Jack Sheppard), a lot of very readable books (e.g., Zola and Robertson Davies), and a lot of shorter books (e.g., Beryl Bainbridge) when I have as stressful a year as this one was. I feel a little bit guilty when I'm not reading all those serious books on my TBR, but if my eyes glaze over when I open them, what can I do?

I also realized that, from a global perspective, sometimes I am more pulled to certain regions than others, and that I basically have to go where I feel like going while trying to remember to read outside my usual comfort area. The Author Theme reads focus on Japan this year made me read authors I probably never would have read otherwise because I had no particular interest in Japan, and that was good. I am especially interested in the 20th/21st century Eastern/Central Europe read for Reading Globally in 2013 because this is an area that I've already read a lot in and I'm eager to read more. But I'm also interested in the RG South America read, because I've got a lot of books on the TBR for that and am eager to expand my reading beyond Vargas Llosa.

I also realized that when I get interested in an author, I really get interested (e.g., Camilleri, Zola, Bainbridge) or reinterested (Davies).

I'll probably think of more later.

>34 avidmom: Oh, that's delightful to hear! (encouraging others to read more internationally was one of several underlying aims to Club Read at the beginning).

I'm not sure I learned anything really new about myself or my reading. I had an extended period of stress during the last half of the year, read very little, and disappeared from CR for some of that time.

--I like to read 'free-range', wandering from book to book.
--I'm content with the general mix of my reading (good gender parity and 30% translated lit).
--I still read a lot new works (about 40% of my reading this year was published in 2012). --I still have obsessions, particularly Joyce Carol Oates (only 5 of her titles this year...), but I seemed to have also had an affinity for cold places this year. Apparently, I'm not afraid of the cold and dark.
--I still consider myself an adventurous reader, happy to wander off into the fictional woods by myself.
--I still tend to avoid what 'everyone' is reading, even here on CR.
--I've come to appreciate short fiction much more over the last 4 or 5 years.
--I've come to appreciate and enjoy the variety and creativity in the art of fiction.
--I do think I am less able to sit and read for long periods as I used to. Whether that has been influenced by this age of distraction or whether it might be a factor of age (mine), I don't know.
--I note that, despite enjoying reading about what others are reading, and what they have to say about it, and respecting these fabulous, intelligent readers around me, there are still less than a handful of LTers who can directly affect my reading.

Q44

A third of my reading in 2012 was of fiction by Japanese and Chinese authors (thanks to Author Theme Reads and Reading Globally). I've found I have a strong affinity for both literatures. I've also learned a lot about the similarities and differences in the two cultures.

Much of my reading over the last decade has been of works that have won high critical regard or came recommended by other readers. This year, however, I did my own little mini-theme of female Mexican authors and read works by writers I'd never previously heard of. I discovered that they were every bit as good as the big name writers, and this will encourage me to do more such exploring in the future.

After reading almost nothing but literary fiction in recent years, this year I began to diversify my reading a bit more with some genre fiction and non-fiction. This is a trend that will probably continue in 2013, though the bulk of my reading will still be literary fiction because that's 90% of what's on my shelves.

All of the goal setting, group reads, reading themes and reading challenges that we plan for at this time of year are like walking into a huge holiday dinner buffet. You want to try a little of everything, and at the same time eat a lot of what you like the most, but, as we say, "the eyes are bigger than the stomach." That's certainly the way it is with my reading plans. In the coming year I'll try at least to sample every themed read, author, region, anniversary, challenge, etc. etc. even though I'll never have the time and energy to read as much as I'd like in any one of them.

Q44

When I started noticing such things (about a dozen years ago), I realized I didn't like reading long books. This isn't really a good thing, so in 2011 I set myself a personal goal of reading one long book a month. The purpose was to make room in my shelves, but also see if I could get over my aversion. It's not that I dislike long books, but rather that I get tired of living in that world and want to move on to another one. Also, I find there's a lot of needless words and repetition in them. At the end of 2011 I realized that this project didn't help and although I had cleared shelf space, I didn't like long books any better than I previously had. And I wondered: if I don't like long books, does it mean I like short stories? Thus my reading project for 2012 became a focus on short stories. But I abandoned the project in April. By that point I had discovered that a steady diet of short stories wasn't my thing either. The problem with reading a lot of them is that my brain constantly has to figure out the world of the story. Just when I have it all figured out, the story ends, and I start a new one and have to figure out the context all over again. I was surprised at how tiring this became. So I took a break and then never came back to it. In conclusion, just give me a nice 200 page novel. And I could have told you this back in 2010 before I took on these projects. I will continue to read both long books and short stories, but I know that where I like to be is in a short novel.

The other thing I learned--and it's not much of a surprise--is the unavoidable hegemony of the American writer. I actively try to read British, Canadian and world authors, and I actively try to avoid American ones. (Why? Because I get tired of living in their cultural shadow. For example, when I went to school, we read zero Canadian authors. I don't think that's okay). However, I read as the spirit leads, and end up reading US authors anyway. Despite my mandate, I ended up reading the exact same number of UK and US writers. I guess I could purge my shelves of all writers from the States, but that would be silly. Who wants to give up Edith Wharton? Not me.

I learned that while imposing artificial limits on the number of books I am allowed to buy during any given period of time is only partially successful at keeping the TBR Pile under control, doing that and then saying, "Oh, screw it, I've already kind of blown that. I'll just forget about any restrictions for the rest of the year, buy whatever I want until December, and start over with more self-control next year" is a recipe for disaster. Possibly the kind of disaster that will involve me being found dead under an avalanche of unread books.

(Does that count? :))

Q44 -

I tracked my reading more diligently this year and found out what I already knew. I tend towards reading women authors and read relatively few books from authors in countries other than the US, Canada, and Britain, i.e. I don't read a whole lot in translation. I read 13 books from "other" countries (out of approx 75). I think I'm ok with that for now though. While I'm interested in reading books that broaden my perspective, I think that many translated works just don't seem to capture the original. Not that I'd really know, since I can't read in any language except English except for possibly something very simple in French. I think there are better translations all the time, and those I'll look out for and I'll continue to read books from other countries that get positive reviews and catch my eye in various LT threads, but at this point in my reading, I have so many books originally written in English on the list, that I'm ok with the ratio I'm reading at (about 1 out of 6/7 books from "other" countries). Of course, I also know that there are plenty of works written in English from other countries, African authors jump to mind, and I tend to enjoy those more than translated works.

One thing I've found myself drifting towards in the 4 years I've been on LT is reading more of what I feel like I should read than books that I want to read. This will definitely change next year as I've decided to simply read what I want with no guilt. If that means a string of mysteries or best-sellers, so be it. If it means all classics, that's fine too.

One thing that my eyes have been opened to over the past years is just how many good books there are out there. To be honest, I'd always considered myself well-read until joining LT! Now I'm just glad I discovered in my early 30s how vast my reading can be. I think it's so interesting to see all of the different books that intelligent readers are reading both here and in my "real life" friends. It's a bit mind-boggling how little overlap there is between everyone's reading!

OK, I got a little off subject here, sorry, but those are my end of the year musings.

I learned that while imposing artificial limits on the number of books I am allowed to buy during any given period of time is only partially successful at keeping the TBR Pile under control, doing that and then saying, "Oh, screw it, I've already kind of blown that. I'll just forget about any restrictions for the rest of the year, buy whatever I want until December, and start over with more self-control next year" is a recipe for disaster. Possibly the kind of disaster that will involve me being found dead under an avalanche of unread books.

Okay, that's scary, because it's like you were in my brain and took my exact thoughts! I failed miserably with the "not acquiring new books until I read my TBR pile" thing. But I love acquiring books. I mean, I really enjoy it. And if I had room to put them, I wouldn't even feel bad about it.

OK, I got a little off subject here, sorry, but those are my end of the year musings.

I love the end of the year musings.

>42 Nickelini:: It is, perhaps, somewhat reassuring to know that it's not just me.

Acquiring books is one of the most enjoyable things in life! But at some point, when you realize that even if you stopped accumulating any more right now it would probably take you four or five years to read the ones you have... That might be the time to admit you've gotten a little out of control. SIGH.

I learned that when I get stressed and/or tired, I default to fast reads or less challenging books. Looking back at my books for the year, I've apparently been stressed and/or tired a fair amount. I say this laughing, but tinged with disappointment. I've read a lot of graphic novels, crime novels or YA series such as the Hunger Games trilogy, as they felt easy to get through and at least kept me reading.

Despite that, I still try to meet unofficial mini-challenges. The main one is to read in other languages (Swedish and French; sadly, no Scots this year, I don't think; one of these days I may re-tackle Spanish!). I also have a mental list of 'I can't believe I've never read X' which grows and shrinks each year. Not as much non-fiction this year as I'd hoped.

There's so much more I want to read, I just need to (re-)find the time, energy and motivation. While LT & Club Read help with that, I hope to give myself more of a nudge in 2013.

Q44: Like you, avaland, I just read what I want to read and very rarely am influenced by other readers on LT even if I really enjoy reading their reviews. The only times I'll add something on my wishlist from an LT reader (which is maybe only about 2 a year) is if they are reading something in my current genre. But often I already knew of the title/author and just needed a reminder.

I find that I'm able to influence a lot of others which I feel happy about. I enjoy sharing what I'm reading. Since it's hard for me to follow group reads created by others, it just made sense to create my own group reads. Too bad I can't put Author Theme Reads on my resume under Successful Projects. I just don't think it'd count.

Q43:
My boyfriend is receiving some books as his presents and he's the only person I'm gifting presents to this year. He'll be receiving a Zweig's Chess Story, Kafka's Metamorphosis, and a book by Ryu Murakami. I also got him a gift card to Half-Priced Books so he can shop for his own books as he loves that store.

I would love to receive any of the books from my Amazon wishlist that are the harder to find Japanese books (at least, in regular stone and mortar bookstores). Receiving some new Akira Yoshimura books would be great.

Great question Rebecca (Q44), we should ask ourselves this every year.

On a negative note I really bummed about the collapse of le Salon this year as that group led to some of my best reading over the previous two years, up to and including Moby Dick this past January. It wasn't the books, it was the way they led me to read those books. My quandary in the future is how to recreate the value I gained from those books without the group. The only answer I know is to read more about the books I'm reading. How to implement that?

But what did I learn this year?

1. Reading the bible was both harder and more rewarding than I expected. I'm only about 1/3 of the way through and on a prolonged break. Hoping to start again in January. Reading about the bible has been wonderfully entertaining.

2. I finally had a poetry break through. I read the 75th anniversary edition of Poetry magazine and it was absolutely spectacular, and I got something from it. After reading high quality poem after high quality poem from a magazine that apparently stresses rhythm, something about that rhythm of the poetry clicked and I started to see what authors were trying to with this aspect of poetry. Ever since, most poems tend to clang in my head because it's not an easy thing to accomplish.

3. This was my year to learn about Israel, as I visited the country for the first time. I discovered a vast pool of potentially amazing literature, something I hope to tap into.

4. And yet again my reading follows the unpredictable route. Most of my TBR are not books I would buy today to read right now, they are books I wanted to have read back when I bought them. So, here's to an ever increasing TBR.

Q44: This is a tough one! I don't think I can say that much about this years reading. It's an eclectic mess for the most part spanning all my reading interests, which pretty much follows the same pattern as the year before and the pattern for next. I've learned that it is incredibly hard to plan out what I want to read and it's not worth confining myself in such narrow terms anyway. It's best that I do things in as broad as strokes as possible and not sweat where things end up. I've also learned that there is still room for improvement with female authors. They make up a sizable portion the best of the year and I've come to appreciate their perspective in literature in a different way than before.

#47, Thanks, Dan, but this was Joyce's (nickelini) question, not mine. So your appreciation should go to her!

>39 Nickelini: (good question, btw) Very interesting answer. Wonder what a psychologist would make of that. Also interesting is your hegemony comment, not because it isn't probably a common complaint, but because with me it used to be the UK authors that dominated (probably because I read a lot of American classics so early on). And I had a year a while back where I had read NO American authors other than JCO. That didn't disturb me too much, but I thought that perhaps in my efforts to be more cosmopolitan in my reading, I overcompensated.

I still find it odd that so many Canadian readers I encounter have read very little of Quebecois authors... (but perhaps it is the translation thing)

>40 bragan:, 42 Agree! I love to acquire books ---- each a promise of exploration and adventure in one way or another. But, I have to be good this year...

>46 lilisin: There is sometimes a more indirect effect on what I read. For example, way back in '06 I bought Half of a Yellow Sun when it came out, after having read and enjoyed Adichie's Purple Hibiscus earlier. It took up residence in the TBR with numerous other equally tantalizing titles. Rebeccanyc read it before I did and mentioned she liked it (this was well before the days when everyone started writing what we now refer to as 'reviews'), which brought it to my attention again and moved it to the top of the pile. Rebecca and I do not necessarily read a large number of the same books, but we do crossover at certain points. But, beyond that there is some 'sense' we share, that I can't quite articulate... what we look for in a book...or take away from a book...or recognize in it...that has made for a lovely mutual literary relationship over the years. And, as a little side note, Half of a Yellow Sun THE MOVIE is in post-production now.

>47 dchaikin: Dan, having recently culled a very large portion of my fiction, I share your TBR note. Some of what I unloaded were arcs from my bookstore days and library sale purchases that reflect interests which were now personally outdated. You might find it therapeutic to unload some. It brings what remains into sharper focus.

>48 stretch: Stretch, perhaps we should welcome you into the 'free range' reader cult :-) And, it's nice to hear the comment about female authors.