2011 Readings

Having been gifted an ereader last Christmas I was curious to see which effect it would have on my reading habits, if any, so I decided to keep count of the books read in 2011 and if they were paper books or electronic books. The results are surprising to me .

In total last year I read 83 books (counting full-lenght works only) including a few door-stop tomes 1000 pages or above, last time I kept count, in 2007, I capped at 60.

Of the 83, 4 were paper books, 79 were ebooks. In fact I not rarely found myself passing over something I was curious about because it wasn't available in ebook form in favor of something else that was.

I'm not sure that (as some other have reported) I read faster on my Kindle, I know, though that it's always in my bag when I'm out, and I can snatch at least a little reading almost everywhere.

I read quite a few academic works, in fact the Kindle 'saved' me in at least an occasion, when the date of a lecture I had to do was moved closer and I found I had less than a week to find and read some additional material I needed. A fast search on Amazon, WiFi delivery, and I was set and ready to dig in.

Another advantage is the possibility to sample books before buying, leading to less bad aquisitions and a few fascinating discoveries. Following a few friends raccomandations I found some very interesting Fantasy and SF works, for instance:

First in line, I'd like to recommend Aliette de Bodard (aliettedb here on Live Journal) her Obsidian and Blood trilogy had me hooked from the start and I'm not even that keen on Meso-American cultures, usually.

A lighter, but equally fun, reading, were The Cardinal's Blades and The Alchemist in the Shadows by Pierre Pevel. Instead of the old and tired pseudo-medieval, pseudo-generic-European setting, this is fantasy in a  Dumasian 17th century France, having my favorite musketeer putting in a cameo appearance was an added bonus.

Ben Aaronovitch is a British writer, his urban fantasy series ( Rivers of London is the first book) features Constable Peter Grant, one of the few PoC main characters in the genre and a very interesting 'voice'.

Hannu Rajaniemi is a Finnish author writing in English, The Quantum Thief isn't easy to get into, but it's definitely worth it.

Here is to a new year of good books! :)

Poetry Fishbowl

ysabetwordsmith has opened her first fishbowl for 2012, the theme is 'heras and vilainesses'.

Come over and join the fun :).