John Kovalic writes and draws the popular – and highly amusing – webcomic Dork Tower. He’s co-creator of popular games such as the Munchkin series and the immensely popular Apples to Apples. Plus he’s a heck of a nice guy.
So last week he posted on Twitter about the book he was reading: Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England, by Juliet Barker. Which of course I blogged about reading a while back. He really liked it. I replied that I was reading it too, and it rocked. Which it does.
And he Tweeted back that I’d probably finish it before he did.
I doubt that very much. I’m still at it. In fact I’m all of just about halfway.
Now, part of this is the fact I’m reading, as is my wont, several other things at once. I’m also reading the first Kitty Norville novel by Carrie Vaughn, a Glen Cook Garrett P.I. yarn, and a Deathlands novel by Alan Philipson. Depending in part on time of day, my mood, and what I want my mood to be.
Part of it is simply that I’m reading all of those things for pleasure. Granted, I’m reading the Barker book, and for that matter the Deathlands yarn, as research. I combine the two when I can.
Some of my friends will rip through a novel in like two hours. Which I probably couldn’t do if I wanted to. But I don’t want to.
Sometimes I need to read stuff purely for research, and not entertainment. Usually because it’s not entertaining. For times like those, yeah, I wish I could read super-duper fast. Oh, and actually retain a useful proportion of what I read. It might be worthwhile to study some technique. Then again, maybe not.
Reading has always been one of my chief pleasures, if not the chief one. Big surprise, right? According to my Mom, my first more-or-less coherent sentence was a request to be taught to read. (Granted, it wasn’t that coherent: something on the order of, “Make me to read.” So I had a bit to learn, okay? Cut me some slack. I was two.)
To me, to slam down a novel like Kitty and the Midnight Hour or Petty Pewter Gods, or a wonderful read like the Agincourt book, is like dropping a thousand bucks on dinner at some hyper-gourmet restaurant and then ramming it all into your gob as fast as you humanly can, as if you were in a hot-dog eating contest.
If it gives you pleasure, by all means, knock yourself out. That applies to pretty much anything, so long as you don’t try to force me to pay or play. Reading that way’s just not to my taste.
One reason for posting this is I got nudged last night by my boon pal Larry, in the form of a comment on my last post. (You could always visit his blog to see how much he gets to bug me about tardy blogging.) I do appreciate his thought and effort. I can’t leave you people hanging too long: don’t want to lose my loyal readers!
This time my feeble-ass excuse is, well, I’m behind again. Also totally failing to implement the really cool and eminently workable plan I outlined in the post he posed the comment to. And the deadline I’m bothered about now isn’t, for some perverse reason, getting any farther away.
Ah, well. I have been making progress. Just not enough. Also working on other projects, the coolest and most promising of which I … can’t tell you about right now.
And the last two days I was sick. Mildly so: just enough to feel drowsy, unfocused, and generally crappy all the time. Today was better, although not exactly a high-energy day.
It was especially better after I took Emma Dog for a walk on Bear’s Ditch a little before six. Gorgeous afternoon. The trees and brush along the ditch have leafed out nicely. Plus it almost always feels good and recharges me to walk there. Or in any of our favorite places, like the Vineyard or the RGNC bike path.
While out on the trail I got some good ideas for the Deathlands novel I’m writing. Also some good refinements of the plan I set out in my last post. So I’ll put them into effect tomorrow.
You might cross your fingers. Please?
