I just started reading the Asimov memories. So easy to grab, basically a 500-page book with 150 chapters of 2-3 pages, definitely fits in my free time schedule of “I have to juggle 785 things at a time”.
4 Likes
Reading a single book in a year is more than the average person does so you did great!
1 Like
How did you like Decender? I read it as single issues up to (I think) #6 and dropped it as I just found it too slow. I imagine it’d read better in collected format.
1 Like
I liked it! I planned on reading through the rest though admittedly I’ve forgotten the premise so I guess it didn’t stick with me hahaha.
1 Like
They say you don’t have to compare yourself to others to find happiness, but to yourself. And as this is the worst reading year by far for me, I just found misery.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk
4 Likes
I’m in the same spot! I live in Utah (home of Brandon Sanderson) so the library holds are insane. It’s been so long I need to refresh, I’m currently 25% of the way through Way of Kings on audio, but each book is 45-50hrs! It has been interesting how much was laid out and not explained in the first book that comes to fruition in Oathbringer. Sanderson is really a master of his craft. I snagged a signed copy of Wind and Truth, but probably going to wait until I’m anticipating being between jobs in the Spring.
1 Like
I finally looked into what Gaiman did and he is literally the parole officer/guardian in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (otherwise known as Men Who Hate Women). I literally cannot speak further on what he has done. It is horrifying. I will no longer be recommending his books and may legitimately get rid of my copies. I didn’t even do that with the Harry Potter books I own (I still argue with myself about this).
2 Likes
Further or this, my wife and I had something of a clean out last weekend. This included books that I hadn’t read/ wouldn’t read again.
I looked at my Gaiman books and…I just don’t know. Some of them, in particular Stardust, means so much to me. Even with what he’s done they still pinpoint a special time in my life.
The Art of Neil Gaiman, which is a biography, is going. American Gods probably will too as it’s not my favourite of his books. The children’s books (Wolves in the Walls etc) will probably go as well.
But the Coraline illustrated by P. Craig Russell is so beautiful - Russel had nothing to do with the horror’s Neil did and his work is inspirational to me - and I love my Absolute Sandman editions so much I don’t think I could get rid of them. Same with the Mirrormask film.
The books I’ve not read of his yet will go. I’ll never buy another thing by him. But some of these are so important to me; I know this is incredibly selfish, but I still feel so angry that he’s sullied what we’re such important works for me.
2 Likes
I don’t think it’s selfish. It’s a very nuanced and complex sense of disgust with the person being weighed against artwork he created that spoke to you. It’s easier for me to get rid of Gaiman’s books because while I enjoyed what I’ve read so far, I am not emotionally attached to them.
Harry Potter on the other hand I am quite emotional about. It had a huge influence on my childhood for many reasons beyond just liking the story. Which is why I haven’t removed those works from my collection. But I have stopped participating in the fandom. I have stopped purchasing anything to do with the IP. I have stopped talking about them and try to remove them from any favorites lists I have online.
The reality is, you already purchased those books. Whether you hold onto them or not will not impact Gaiman’s wallet in anyway unless your bookshelf somehow influences someone else to purchase his works. They’re your belongings. If you want to keep them but not acknowledge them, maybe just pack them up in storage. Do what feels right to you.
4 Likes
@Roach already said this, but I agree that re-reading something you already own really doesn’t really have any impact on anyone else. Buying new things would. I got rid of American Gods and a few other books, but it’s hard to part with Sandman, especially since a big part of what I loved about Sandman was the art, and that art was made by people other than Gaiman. I don’t think keeping anything we already own will hurt anything. At most it just becomes something we have to negotiate on a personal level, and negotiate the impact engaging with that work has on us as individuals. If reading something by someone hurtful bring me emotional distress, I’d probably get rid of it. I did that with Harry Potter because it’s really the work of a single person and engaging with it just doesn’t make me feel good. But what will have an impact like that will be highly specific to each of us.
2 Likes
re-reading something you already own really doesn’t really have any impact on anyone else
I disagree. Might not have a direct financial effect, but definitely has other ones
it just becomes something we have to negotiate on a personal level, and negotiate the impact engaging with that work has on us as individuals
I agree with this, which is basically the reason I disagree with your previous statement.
Re reading and re analysing stuff we already have can definitely change our opinion on their work, on other works influenced by that, and our expressions/verbalisations/communicative acts about the matter. Having it there also makes you keep in mind those contradictions and arguably make you become better while confronting and accepting those acts which you might have known or not beforehand. Binning them, however, might just make you forget easier. Remembrance is easier when there are physical forms present in your day to day life, probably one of the reasons there are so many statues and monuments about events past: just not to forget.
I’m not advocating the erasure of the works or the widespread binning of books, nor am I arguing that we shouldn’t continue to apply critical analysis to them. Case in point, I think there is still validity in continuing to critique and analyse works in a learning environment, to provide only one example, even if the book is embroiled in problematic circumstances. What I am arguing is that, on a personal level, people need to negotiate their own relationship to a text and decide for themselves whether or not they want to continue to engage with it for pleasurable purposes. There are different contexts under which I would advocate for certain relationships to texts. For the purposes of this discussion, I was limiting my scope to that of someone deciding whether or not keeping a work for personal reasons is worthwhile. I’m well aware that continuing to engage with a text can have impacts on perspective and thus impact discourse, and discourse can have multifaceted impacts (socially, ideologically, etc.). For the purposes of this thread I was trying to keep things simple and not really engage the broader socio-political, cultural or ideological ramifications of engaging with problematic works.
In other words I agree with you, I just wasn’t really trying to take that specific thread in that direction for the sake of simplicity.
My favorite author was Ben Bova and we were pen pals back in the day. Though as of late have not had the time to read that much becasue of work.
1 Like
