Reading involves choices; has done since long before we passed the point that a single human being could hope to read everything ever written, even in their own language. So, what are the choices that I make when selecting my reading material, and what informs them?
These days, I confess that I shy away from ongoing series, although that used to be a shoe-in for me. Of course, I used to ask essentially one question: Is it on the SF/Fantasy shelf at the Fleet Library. That was how I ended up reading Battlefield Earth, the Atlan saga (featuring a female protagonist whose sole contribution to anything seemed to be to bounce haplessly around the landscape like a rogue billiard ball, putting out for anyone who seized her roughly and then pining about them when they got killed/bored/forgotten by the plot) and just about everything the Davids Eddings and Gemmell ever wrote.
Why have I changed my modus operandi? Well, aside from the evidence above, Robert Jordan has a lot to answer for in that respect; not because he died before he finished The Wheel of Time, but because it was notably the first series in which boredom overtook the completist demands of my egg-hoarding lizard brain and I decided that I just could not be arsed. And yet, I still kinda want to know how it ends; thus my new policy. If I stick to self-contained novels, then if it's shit I can find out what happens without having to slog through three more volumes.
If I do see a promising series, I will usually look for a standalone by the same author to test the waters.
I still focus a lot on SF and Fantasy, because that's my jam, but crime fiction is in the ascendant with me. On the plus side, since most mass market paperbacks go for £5.99, £6.99 or £7.99, regardless of size, fantasy gives you a lot of paper for the price. SF and crime tend towards more modest volumes.
I read a lot of children's and YA fiction, having got into it very much as a teacher. Honestly, I enjoy the absence of the tawdry, pointless sex scenes which seem to be de rigueur in books for grown ups these days (and that's another shift in my tastes since I was a teenager).
Moreover, there is just so much stuff out there that I go more by recommendations than I used to, although I have to be careful with that. My mother recommended Angela's Ashes, and I don't think I've ever completely forgiven her.
I am also a full-on convert to the Kindle, for the simple reason that it's much easier to read on a bus, and with my smartphone my books and music are in the same place. The mobile telecommunications aspect is kind of a fringe benefit.
So, Kindle books, ideally non-series, in the SF, fantasy and crime genres; with some exceptions, naturally.
I also don't read as much as I maybe should, which makes me sad. Perhaps when I am commuting by train I will get more into the rhythm of the thing.
These days, I confess that I shy away from ongoing series, although that used to be a shoe-in for me. Of course, I used to ask essentially one question: Is it on the SF/Fantasy shelf at the Fleet Library. That was how I ended up reading Battlefield Earth, the Atlan saga (featuring a female protagonist whose sole contribution to anything seemed to be to bounce haplessly around the landscape like a rogue billiard ball, putting out for anyone who seized her roughly and then pining about them when they got killed/bored/forgotten by the plot) and just about everything the Davids Eddings and Gemmell ever wrote.
Why have I changed my modus operandi? Well, aside from the evidence above, Robert Jordan has a lot to answer for in that respect; not because he died before he finished The Wheel of Time, but because it was notably the first series in which boredom overtook the completist demands of my egg-hoarding lizard brain and I decided that I just could not be arsed. And yet, I still kinda want to know how it ends; thus my new policy. If I stick to self-contained novels, then if it's shit I can find out what happens without having to slog through three more volumes.
If I do see a promising series, I will usually look for a standalone by the same author to test the waters.
I still focus a lot on SF and Fantasy, because that's my jam, but crime fiction is in the ascendant with me. On the plus side, since most mass market paperbacks go for £5.99, £6.99 or £7.99, regardless of size, fantasy gives you a lot of paper for the price. SF and crime tend towards more modest volumes.
I read a lot of children's and YA fiction, having got into it very much as a teacher. Honestly, I enjoy the absence of the tawdry, pointless sex scenes which seem to be de rigueur in books for grown ups these days (and that's another shift in my tastes since I was a teenager).
Moreover, there is just so much stuff out there that I go more by recommendations than I used to, although I have to be careful with that. My mother recommended Angela's Ashes, and I don't think I've ever completely forgiven her.
I am also a full-on convert to the Kindle, for the simple reason that it's much easier to read on a bus, and with my smartphone my books and music are in the same place. The mobile telecommunications aspect is kind of a fringe benefit.
So, Kindle books, ideally non-series, in the SF, fantasy and crime genres; with some exceptions, naturally.
I also don't read as much as I maybe should, which makes me sad. Perhaps when I am commuting by train I will get more into the rhythm of the thing.
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