Half a Year's Reading

Last year, as the pandemic lock-down went on, I was kind of surprised that I wasn't reading more. I always read a lot, though some years more and some less*, and here I was with more free time than usual, so the assumption seemed reasonable, and yet. Wasn't happening. I felt as though I had a harder time finding books I wanted to read, or enjoying the ones I tried.

*And the list I keep is by book, not page counts, especially because with e-books what even is a page count, so, you know. Not all books are created equal, and my record-keeping is not an exact science.

This year, as we hit the halfway point, things seem to have turned around. I'm reading a lot! 

Delving more deeply:

• About a quarter of the books I read (or, more accurately, finished) came from the library. I love the library!
  
• About three-fifths were re-reads, and thus two-fifths new to me.
• About two-fifths were books I read on the tablet or my phone. Some of them were only available that way, or were easier to get from the farther-away library that way, or sometimes I was pinned down by the lap cat and wanted to read something that wasn't otherwise within reach.
• One book I actually read via three different methods: The Witness for the Dead. The publisher had given out an excerpt that was an e-book (which I read again and again while waiting impatiently for the whole thing to come out); then my print copy wasn't here last Tuesday, on release day, but I had the audio, so I listened to the middle, and then when my print copy arrived I finished it that way. Not my choice for a regular reading method, but in this case, it worked!
  
• Non-fiction? All of one. I just don't get into NF that much. Though I just borrowed Knitting Comfortably: The Ergonomics of Handknitting by Carson Demers, via the magic of interlibrary loan (all the way from New Mexico, wow! it came 2,000 miles for me), so that will go on the list soon.
  
• Women authors? Plenty: over 90%, which is kind of cool. I didn't plan this, and I have nothing against reading men's work, but I do like for my list to not be all that way.
• I still start a lot of books that I don't finish; those are not on the list.
  
• Sci-fi/fantasy: lots! interestingly enough (to me, at least), fully three-quarters of the books I have read so far in 2021 count as thus.

So who/what have I been reading? A lot of Martha Wells, both Murderbot and the Raksura series. I did a big old Patricia Briggs re-read. And Lois McMaster Bujold, who has a variety of books I enjoy, but I discovered the Penric and Desdemona novellas and tore through them (all 10! I now own! some print and some e-book).

And just to end on a random note, here are some favorite first-time reads:

• The Return of Fitzroy Angursell, by Victoria Goddard; not exactly a sequel to The Hands of the Emperor, but it makes a lot more sense if you've read that one first. And why wouldn't you, it's also great! (Get the e-book of the latter, though, unless your hands want a workout: it's heavy.)
  
• Winter's Orbit, by Everina Maxwell. So good! Why is it her only book so far, I want to read more.
• Fugitive Telemetry, by Martha Wells. Of course! I was always going to love the new Murderbot story, it was just a question of how it would get me there.

I'm glad to go on about any of them at more length, if anyone wants, so if you do, just say so. And hey, read any good books lately?