Reading My Way Through November

 One of the things I've done with the writing journal I started was to start recording the books I read. I have one page for writing-related books, and another for everything else. And, for no apparent reason, I'm sharing my reading list from November here.

1. The Mindful Writer - Moore
2. Writing from the Inside Out - Palumbo
3. Writing Popular Fiction - Koontz
4. How to Write Horror Fiction - Nolan

5. The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza - Lawrence Block
6. Burglars Can't Be Choosers - Lawrence Block
7. The Burglar In The Closet - Lawrence Block
8. The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart - Lawrence Block
9. The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian - Lawrence Block
10. Treason - Orson Scott Card
11. Duma Key - Stephen King
12. Empress Orchid - Anchee Min
13. The Red Queen - Philippa Gregory
14. The Last Empress - Anchee Min
15. Everything's Eventual - Stephen King
16. Mockingbird - Charles J. Shields
17. The Covenant - Beverly Lewis
18. River Marked - Patricia Briggs
19. The Betrayal - Beverly Lewis
20. The Sacrifice - Beverly Lewis
21. Supervolcano: Eruption - Harry Turtledove
22. Brothers - Da Chen
23. Red Scarf Girl - Ji Li Jiang
24. My Fair Concubine - Jeannie Lin (NOT recommended)
25. Rice - Louise Jordan Miln
26. The Three Daughters of Madame Liang - Pearl S. Buck

NOTES: Very little nonfiction read this month. A lot of library books, both paper books and 2 ebooks I borrowed from the library system.

I started the month with Lawrence Block's Burglar series. I consider Block one of my writing role models and the Burglar series is my favorite series of his.

I have a love-hate relationship with Stephen King. I discovered him when my political/religious views were compatible with King's, but as I have altered my views I become very aware of how King feels the need to put-down his conservative and/or Christian readers in every single book. But I keep coming back. The man can WRITE.

I was a fanatic fan of Turtledove during his earlier series, but the more recent ones disappoint. His characters in the more recent books are duller and more homogenized.

In Christian fiction circles there seems to be a fad for making fun of Amish romances. I decided to try one myself, picking one by Beverly Lewis. As you will see, I went on to the next two books in the series and am eager for the final one. And I'm not normally a romance reader.

I was on an Asian kick and have read a number of books with Asian backgrounds. Perhaps my interest is because many of the characters in my NaNo novel are part Korean. I enjoyed all of them except for Jeannie Lin's book. I read it as an ebook from my library and didn't discover it was a Harlequin romance until I was halfway through the checking-out process. The book was set in ancient China but was very 'lite' on setting, claustophobically focused on the love/sex story, and contains a sex scene which went on for the better part of 2 chapters. NOT what I would consider worth reading.

I might also point out that I did a lot more reading this month than I normally do. I recently got some better reading glasses and so reading is less of a pain. Plus, I decided to go to the local library, which I haven't done in years, and found they've got in a bunch of new books I haven't read yet.

You might be tempted to think I did TOO much reading considering I was also doing NaNoWriMo. But I don't think it got in the way--- that was another problem entirely. Being a writer means being a reader, and I spent some serious time being a writer in November, in both my reading and my writing habits.

What about you? Have you done much reading this past November? Discovered any good books or new authors or genres? Or have you found books that disappoint?


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