Tag: Personal Page 5 of 12

Flashback Friday—I’m Curious: What Was the First Book That . . .

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On February 19, 2021

In Books, News/Misc.

While I was looking around at the February 2016 posts, this title caught my eye. I figured I’d throw this up while I was at it–hopefully this generates some comments, I’m feeling curious today (as I was then–I also see I had a similar problem with producing actual content on February 24, 2016. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…

I hate these kind of days — I try to get something up at least 6 days a week. But some days a combination of my job, parenting, husbanding and need for sleep — IOW, the stuff that happens when I’m not reading or blogging — has to take precedence. Today’s such a day.

I did accomplish some things today for the blog, but it’s all behind the scenes stuff and/or things I can’t post quite yet.

Anyway. . .

This was asked a couple of weeks ago on some Facebook group I belong to and I thought the answers were interesting enough, I’d ask you:

If you can remember, what was the first book that destroyed you?

For me, it was either: Where the Red Fern Grows (which I read most of several times, and all of a couple of times); The High King by Lloyd Alexander between the deaths and goodbyes, I still can’t do it dry-eyed; or Bridge to Terabithia — I can’t tell you anything about the plot (there were 2 kids, 1 girl and 1 boy, right?), the characters or anything, and I read it 2-4 times — all I can remember is emotional devastation.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Share the emotional scars we all know you have. 🙂

The Irresponsible Reader in 2020: Thoughts, Thanks and Stats

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On January 1, 2021

In Calendar Items, News/Misc., Nick Kolakowski

Programming Note: Over the next few days, I’ll be looking back over 2020—but I’ll trying to come up with some new material, too. Many/most others have already done their best-of/year-end wrap up posts, but I’m a stickler—I can’t start doing this kind of thing ’til the year is over—a few years ago, pre-blog, the last thing I read (finished on 12/31, as I recall) just blew me away and was easily the best thing I read that year. Ever since then, I just can’t start to think about it until January 1.

As we kick off 2021, as is my custom, I wanted to take a glance back at 2020. 263 books finished (plus comics, picture books, short stories, and the like that I don’t know how to count)—and that’s with pretty much taking one month off! I exceeded my goal (nothing like exceeding an arbitrary number to boost the ol’ ego), too; around 80,000 pages; with an average rating of 3.77 Stars. I only DNF’d one book, which is nice (and man, it was bad).

On the blog front, I put up 480 posts—128 more than last year!! (and again, that’s with some time off). I had some strong gains in traffic—views and visitors—actually, strong gains doesn’t quite cut it. Consider my mind boggled. I’m also seeing good growth in followers here and on various social media fronts, which is encouraging as all get out—not just growth in numbers, but the level of and amount of interaction is up to the point that my socially awkward self doesn’t really understand it.

I didn’t finish two of my projects for the year—my trip through The History of Tom Jones and my survey of the first twelve Spenser novels. I’m getting back to both of those in the coming days (and I might lengthen the Classic Spenser series by three or four, we’ll see).

In addition to the changes in lifestyle brought on by the global pandemic (perhaps you heard of it), I moved my blog to a self-hosting platform. That created more headaches than I want to think of (comments went down at least 3 times, for example). But I think it’ll be worth it in the long-run. And not just because I can save some money. And then, my family had to move, which was a lot more disruptive than I expected. I know I’ve talked too much about it already, just a little more…in the first decade or so that my wife and I were married, we lived in 6 different places, moving was just a thing that happened. In the next 13 years, we lived in one place and planned on at least two more years there. That’s a lot of inertia to overcome—but we’re almost settled, most of my books have a place to be, and I’ll soon shut up about it all.

As is my habit, here’s my breakdown of books by genre (and I’m going to have to change things soon, this chart doesn’t show up well anymore, I just like showing the trends). Genre labeling is more difficult lately as I’m reading a lot of hybrids (most of us are, they’re being produced more), but I tend to go with the overarching genre. Basically, everything’s the same, with just a percent or two of adjustment. It’s been forever since I’ve read a Western or a Horror novel—and “humor” is pretty useless, as a lot of things I read could be considered that. Once again, for someone who doesn’t plan too thoroughly, the percentages stay remarkably consistent from year to year—tastes (and series I follow) apparently stay the same.

Genre 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
Children’s 5 (2%) 7 (3%) 11 (4%) 7 (3%) 5 (2%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Fantasy 35 (13%) 28 (10%) 30 (11%) 7 (3%) 31 (13%) 17 (9%) 11 (7%) 15 (8%) 12 (6%)
General Fiction/ Literature 16 (7%) 21 (8%) 22 (8%) 29 (10%) 27 (11%) 17 (9%) 7 (4%) 30 (16%) 30 (14%)
Horror 0 (0%) 1 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (.4%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Humor 2 (1%) 4 (1%) 3 (1%) 1 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (1%) 3 (2%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 90 (34%) 105 (38%) 107 (38%) 102 (37%) 61 (25%) 64 (34%) 62 (37%) 63 (33%) 73 (35%)
Non-Fiction 28 (10%) 25 (9%) 22 (8%) 10 (4%) 11 (5%) 8 (4%) 4 (2%) 2 (1%) 11 (5%)
Poetry 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Science Fiction 20 (8%) 30 (11%) 25 (9%) 27 (10%) 37 (15%) 16 (8%) 17 (10%) 14 (7%) 11 (5%)
Steampunk 2 (1%) 1 (0%) 3 (1%) 1 (0%) 2 (1%) 7 (4%) 3 (2%) 3 (2%) 11 (5%)
Theology/ Christian Living 23 (8%) 34 (12%) 25 (9%) 30 (11%) 33 (14%) 42 (22%) 42 (25%) 37 (19%) 10 (5%)
Urban Fantasy 42 (16%) 25 (9%) 29 (10%) 45 (16%) 36 (15%) 19 (10%) 20 (12%) 26 (14%) 48 (23%)
Western 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (0%)

Thanks to the nifty spreadsheet made by the Voracious Reader, I was able to get a few more stats. I find them interesting, maybe you will to.

I keep saying I want to re-read more, I’m doing okay on that front, but want that to get higher.


I knew I was listening to more audiobooks this year (just the nature of my work enables me to do a lot of these, plus gym time—before March, anyway), but that it’s the majority of what I “read” in 2020 is pretty surprising. A lot of the “Borrowed” and re-read slices above are tied to that.

Enough about me. I want to talk about you, who keep me going and show an interest in what I’m doing here and give some thanks to people for their impact on The Irresponsible Reader (the blog and the person) in 2019:

 

Have a great 2021, hope you find plenty of good things to read!

Thanksgiving 2020

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On November 26, 2020

In Calendar Items, Miscellany, News/Misc.

Happy Thanksgiving/Turkey Day/Thursday

Even in the midst of this dumpster fire of a year, there’s a lot to be grateful for–not just the fact that we got two Dresden novels from Jim Butcher (but definitely that). I do a semi-serious/semi-jokey post on this day, but this year, I think I’ll just simply say a sincere thank you to everyone who’s read this blog, commented, (re)tweeted a post, tweeted at me, recruited me for a Book Tour, asked me to read their book, wrote/published a book I’ve read (and/or bought with the intention of reading someday).

I hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving—full of whatever it is that you like to fill the holiday with.*

* or, y’know, a good Thursday for everyone not in the U.S.

Shelfies! (an Irresponsible Reader first!) Also, Looking for Some Advice

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On November 12, 2020

In Books, News/Misc.

Shelfies are a pretty common thing for Book Bloggers to post, I’ve never shown any of my shelves for one simple reason—for the last few years, my shelves have been a disastrous, disordered mess, comprehensible to me and me alone (my wife would frequently have to get my help to find her own books!).

But now, I’ve managed to get my library in some sort of order—the best it’s looked in ages—and I can’t wait to show you the pictures:

Fiction
Non-Fiction

Sure, I’ve got a little work to do on the presentation, but I think I’m off to a good start.* It’s going to take me a little bit to get through the 33+ cubic feet of Fiction and 31+ cubic feet of Non-Fiction and get them set up decently and in good order, but I’m looking forward to it.

* Or, you know, not off to any kind of start at all.

While I’m at it, I think I should finally get around to cataloging/inventorying my collection. It looks like the best two options are LibraryThing and Libib, does anyone have any experience using them for cataloging? I’ve used LibraryThing a little bit for reviews, but not for adding a lot of books all at once. Does someone have another/better option?

Quarter 2: #ARMEDWITHABINGO Check In

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On June 24, 2020

In Books, News/Misc.

I forgot to do a March Check-in, so I haven’t talked about this Reading Challenge since December. I’m not doing too bad—I’ve got 2 Bingos and am not that far from others/clearing the board. My other challenges aren’t doing so well, to be honest—but I’m not terribly worried about any of them. For this Bingo Card, several boxes could have many entries, by and large, I went with the earliest book I read that would fit (for the 1 or 2 of you who wonder how this sausage is made).

Here’s my Board:
ARMEDWITHABINGO June

For the less-graphically inclined (also, those who might want to read the categories…), here’s the list with links to whatever I might have written about the book.

2020 Reading Challenges and Other Plans

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On January 2, 2020

In Books, News/Misc.

I don’t have a lot of reading plans for this year, but I’ve got a couple of things I want to tackle.

First, I’m going to finally read Tom Jones (more on this tomorrow).

Secondly, I’m going to re-read the first twelve Spenser novels by Robert B. Parker—I’ve been wanting to re-read the series for a while now, and I’m going to force it this year. I used to read the entire series over a three-day weekend each year, but once I got married, my wife seemed to want me to interact with her for those 3+ days, and I only sporadically read individual volumes since then. It should actually work out pretty well this way, I do one a month (should have no problem fitting that in) which allows me to cover the best of the series, ending with a transition point to the series.

Thirdly, I’m part of the Book Blogger Novel of the Year Award Panel. You’ll hear more about that later.

And that’s about it—otherwise, it’s just read whatever seems interesting that I can get to.

I’m tweaking my approach to Reading Challenges this year. Bookstooge asked in a comment section a few months ago why I did these things* and it got me thinking about it—I’m tired of just doing the “How Much of X Have You Read?” Challenges—they really don’t do anything for me other than getting me to track stuff that I don’t need to. I prefer the ones that make me think of book selection differently than I usually do—preferably the ones that have some sort of interaction between participants.

* Yeah, it may take me longer than it should, but I do try to respond to everything.

The two exceptions to this are the Goodreads Challenge, which takes no effort at all and the Library Love Challenge—yeah, it’s largely a “how much” challenge, but there’s good interaction over on Goodreads, and I like the idea of celebrating Libraries anyway.

So, here’s what I’m going to be up to:

Library Love ChallengeThe Fourth Annual Library Love Challenge
Hosted by Angel’s Guilty Pleasures & Books of My Heart.


The Third Annual While I Was Reading Challenge

Ramona Mead’s got some great categories this year, and while the Facebook group isn’t super-active, it’s an interesting little group. I’ve had plenty of fun with this challenge the last two years and figure I’ll keep it going.

2020 TBR Reading Challenge
2020 TBR Reading Challenge

I saw this one while blog hopping recently, and it looked like fun. Similar to the above, but it’ll stretch me in different ways.

I’m supposed to tag 5 people to go along with this…hmmm….Okay, I challenge kerrimcbooknerd, Witty & Sarcastic Book Club, happytonic, Kelly Curtis, and brainyjaney. You all should give this a shot.

#ARMEDWITHABINGO
#ARMEDWITHABINGO

Similarly, I saw this on Twitter a week or so ago and it also struck a chord.

So, some fun ways to track reading and think about what I’ll read, and some moderate goals. Leaving 2020 for a lot of “whatever seems like a good idea at the time” kind of reading.

All this needs to be taken with a grain of salt, obviously. Maybe a salt lick. Remembering all too well the poet’s lines:

But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

Looking back at 2019 for Books and the Blog

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On January 1, 2020

In Calendar Items, News/Misc.

Programming Note: Over the next few days, I’ll be looking back over 2019—but trying to come up with some new material, too. I know a lot of people have already done that, but I’m a stickler—I can’t start doing this kind of thing ’til the year is over (for good reason, I read 3 things that will likely end up on best-of lists after I started seeing “Best of 2019” posts).

As we kick off 2020, as is my custom, I wanted to take a glance back at 2019. 275 books read (plus comics, picture books, short stories, and the like that I don’t know how to count)—I exceeded my goal (nothing like exceeding an arbitrary number to boost the ol’ ego), too; more than 83,000 pages; 378 posts (short of my goal by a couple hundred, but 98 more than last year, so…yay). I had some strong gains in traffic—views and visitors—actually, strong gains doesn’t quite cut it. Consider my mind boggled. I’m also seeing good growth in followers here and on various social media fronts, which is encouraging as all get out—not just growth in numbers, but the level of and amount of interaction is up to the point that my socially awkward self doesn’t really understand it.

So here’s my breakdown of books by genre. Genre labeling is more difficult lately as I’m reading a lot of hybrids (most of us are, they’re being produced more), but I tend to go with the overarching genre (for example, Brassley’s The Drifting Lands books are fantasy novels in a SF setting, I went with Fantasy). Basically, everything’s the same, with just a percent or two of adjustment. It’s been forever since I’ve read a Western, although I had one checked out from the Library for a couple of months, but I couldn’t manage to get to it. Theological books went up a tad in actual numbers (thanks to the Vos set). Still, for someone who doesn’t plan too thoroughly, the percentages stay remarkably consistent from year to year—tastes (and series I follow) apparently stay the same.

Genre 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
Children’s 7 (3%) 11 (4%) 7 (3%) 5 (2%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Fantasy 28 (10%) 30 (11%) 7 (3%) 31 (13%) 17 (9%) 11 (7%) 15 (8%) 12 (6%)
General Fiction/ Literature 21 (8%) 22 (8%) 29 (10%) 27 (11%) 17 (9%) 7 (4%) 30 (16%) 30 (14%)
Horror 1 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (.4%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Humor 4 (1%) 3 (1%) 1 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (1%) 3 (2%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller 105 (38%) 107 (38%) 102 (37%) 61 (25%) 64 (34%) 62 (37%) 63 (33%) 73 (35%)
Non-Fiction 25 (9%) 22 (8%) 10 (4%) 11 (5%) 8 (4%) 4 (2%) 2 (1%) 11 (5%)
Poetry 0 (0%) 1 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Science Fiction 30 (11%) 25 (9%) 27 (10%) 37 (15%) 16 (8%) 17 (10%) 14 (7%) 11 (5%)
Steampunk 1 (0%) 3 (1%) 1 (0%) 2 (1%) 7 (4%) 3 (2%) 3 (2%) 11 (5%)
Theology/ Christian Living 34 (12%) 25 (9%) 30 (11%) 33 (14%) 42 (22%) 42 (25%) 37 (19%) 10 (5%)
Urban Fantasy 25 (9%) 29 (10%) 45 (16%) 36 (15%) 19 (10%) 20 (12%) 26 (14%) 48 (23%)
Western 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (0%)

Have a great 2020, hope you find plenty of good things to read!

2019 While I Was Reading Challenge

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On December 27, 2019

In News/Misc., While I Was Reading 2018 Challenge

I finished this challenge last week and posted about the last couple of items this week (the other reading challenges I participated in this year were just “how many of X can you read?”, so there’s no real endpoint). Like last year, I thought it’d be no trouble whatsoever to get this done, and I’d just finish this by reading what I’d normally read. I was almost right. But not really.

I struggled to find one in a country I wanted to visit, well, just one, anyway–but Ireland (preferably Ronan Boyle’s Ireland, if it only existed) did the trick. I purchased another book for the “one word title” item, but didn’t find the time for it. Thankfully, Jacka’s books are always one word, so I ticked off that box anyway. I’d picked the last two books months ago, but struggled to find time for them. It all worked, it was nice to have something to force me to read some of these and

I’m doing this challenge again next year, I like the way that Romana Mead makes me think a little differently about what I choose to read—and because I enjoy reading some of the discussion on Facebook between participants. Am hoping I don’t have to race to get this finished next year, but . . . I think I know better.

Here’s my official list:

While I Was Reading 2019 Challenge

✔ A book with a curse word in the title: The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind by Jackson Ford
✔ A memoir or biography of a favorite celebrity: Riding the Elephant by Craig Ferguson
✔ An essay collection: Death Valley Superstars by Duke Haney
✔ A book with a one word title: Fallen by Benedict Jacka
✔ A classic you’ve been meaning to get to: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
✔ A book written by a comedian: Riding the Elephant by Craig Ferguson
✔ A book set in a country you’d like to visit: Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles by Thomas Lennon, John Hendrix
✔ A book by an author you’ve never read before: Flight of the Fox by Gray Basnight
✔ A book recommended by someone you trust: An Accidental Death (Audiobook) by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson
✔ A book with your favorite animal on the cover or in the title: Heart of Barkness by Spencer Quinn
✔ A book mentioned in another book: The Art of War by by Sun Tzu, James Trapp (Translator)
✔ Read a book with “how to” in the title: How to Kill Friends and Implicate People by Jay Stringer

Thanksgiving 2019

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On November 28, 2019

In Calendar Items, News/Misc.

Happy Thanksgiving/Turkey Day/Thursday

When I think about all the great things that have happened around the blog and behind the scenes this year leaves me at a loss for words, let me list a few things I’m thankful for—a very incomplete list, I assure you:

          bullet The readers of this blog, the authors who’ve corresponded with me/provided books for me to read/encouraged me—even promoted this here project.
          bullet The publicists, publishers, book tour hosts, etc. I’ve been working with this year who’ve especially made things great—I typically hesitate to mention any by name, so as to not inadvertently miss anyone and cause offense (and make me feel bad). But I want to mention a few by name this year—Lola’s Blog Tours, iREAD Book Tours, Bloodhound Books, Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers, Love Books Group, Let’s Talk Promotions, Lori Hettler of TNBBC Publicity and Emma at damppebbles blog tours. You have expanded (and pushed) my boundaries this year, exposed me to some great reads I’d have not tried, and put up with my quirks and memory lapses with grace.
          bullet Books
          bullet Authors!
          bullet Books
          bullet Coffee (and other beverages both caffeinated and adult)
          bullet Books
          bullet Time to read
          bullet Books
          bullet Easily finding an appropriate image for this post for the third year in a row—actually, two of them! (it was oddly difficult before)
          bullet Books
          bullet Audiobooks and talented narrators
          bullet The Nampa Public Library (and The LYNX! Consortium)—and their generous grace period, which is now late fine free!
          bullet Books
          bullet Rediscovered Bookshop, Rediscovered Bookshop – Caldwell and Libro.fm
          bullet Books
          bullet Goodreads, WordPress, NetGalley, BookLikes
          bullet Books
          bullet Evernote
          bullet Books
          bullet Organ Transplants and the good people at St. Luke’s Lifestyle Medicine (just to get serious for a moment)
          bullet Authors!
          bullet Authors!
          bullet My supportive, understanding and encouraging wife and kids who do a pretty decent job pretending to care when their old man drones on and on about what he’s reading or what’s going on with the blog.
          bullet Again, all of you who read, follow, like, tweet, comment, email, etc. this page—you have no idea how much every little bit is appreciated.

New Bookstore! Rediscovered Bookshop in Caldwell

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On November 27, 2019

In Books, News/Misc.

I’ve mentioned Rediscovered Bookshop in Boise a time or three (or more)—it’s my go-to Independent Bookstore and has been for a long time. Well, last week they opened a new location—in my county, about 11 miles closer to me (but it seems closer than that). Which is good, I’ve been trying (and not really succeeding) to do a better job of shopping indie and doing less online, but it’s just too inconvenient to get into Downtown Boise as often as I want to. I expect (hope?) that this new location will make it easier for me to stick to my resolution.

I managed to stop by tonight for the first time, and walked away with a nice little haul (sorry for my poor photo quality):

I saw The White Man’s Guide to White Male Writers of the Western Canon out of the corner of my eye—kudos to whoever shelved it. This looks like a lot of fun. And what’s a trip to a bookstore without a good impulse buy?

And a 1975 hardcover edition of Rex Stout’s A Family Affair—it’s a book club edition, not the original printing, but it’s close enough. Best of all, I got it for a song. I’d have paid 5x what they asked for without blinking (Mrs. Irresponsible Reader probably would’ve blinked, though).

Lastly—and this is the personal touch that makes local indie stores invaluable—I was trying to special order a copy of Tom Jones, but one of the clerks insisted they had a copy. Their inventory didn’t show one, but he went off and looked through books that hadn’t been entered yet and came back with this spiffy hardcover in a slipcase. No online store is going to do that.

The location is fantastic—there’s a coffee shop right across the street, and right now there’s an ice skating rink, too. The space is great—and you can’t ask for friendlier, more helpful staff. It’s got it all.

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