Sunday, April 10, 2011

Reading List

Let's see if I can make this weekly update happen, even if it doesn't necessary happen next week, with me away for the weekend and Pesach (Passover) starting on Monday.

So what am I reading? is a question I'm sure you haven't asked yourself, but I'll tell you anyway. For what I've finished lately, you can follow me on Goodreads, as I regularly post to it when I finish things.

My reading list is pretty assorted and heavy on the history or sci-fi, mostly history, and I'm always reading Mishnah. But lately I've been devoting time to reading about Regency London. On my list to read:


The reason is I'm thinking of writing a few short stories that take place during The Ballad of Gregoire Darcy and releasing them as a free e-book on all available formats in May or June. I've actually got more books than this - I just don't have them in front of me right now.

My main book-buying option is the Amazon used market, as I don't mind if a book is used unless it's falling apart, and it's easy to avoid the ones that are falling apart. I also cruise used book stores and discount sections of regular stores, picking up not only things I need but things I think I may need later (I'm usually right) and are cheap now. I was actually pretty shocked the other month when I needed to know about Sumerian mythology for another project and realized I had no books on the topic (my ancient Near Eastern history books were post-Sumerian). Books are also a tax write-off for me as someone who works in publishing, so it's always a business expense.

The problem is storage. I live in an overpriced Manhattan apartment, and if I don't find a new roommate this summer (my current one is moving to Brooklyn after she graduates from grad school) I'll have to move. Last time I moved I had 50-60 boxes of books, and that was two years ago, so by now it's gotta be 70 or 80 boxes worth. My Kindle has helped, but not that much. I do a lot of reading of Shabbos, when I can't use electronics, making my ownership of the Kindle pretty worthless most of the time. History books also aren't usually marked down or available in digital format, especially the old ones, or they're in unreadable PDFs. So, traditional books it is.

Twenty days to book 4's release! Really? It's sneaking up on me now.

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