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>I read 203 books in 2019. That is really remarkable! Can I ask how you go about selecting what to read? Compared to the ~20 books I read every year that seems

>I read 203 books in 2019. That is really remarkable! Can I ask how you go about selecting what to read? Compared to the ~20 books I read every year that seems like an absolute firehose. I wouldn't even know where to start assembling such a long list.

dsr_ 6y ago
The vast majority of my reading is SF/F, history, biography, autobiography, and sciences. Each of these have excellent reviewers who I treat as sources of recommendations. e.g.: for current SF/F, James Nicoll, Locus, and John Scalzi's posts which are nothing but "here's what publishers sent me as ARCs which they are hoping I will blurb" are all good sources. I have access to NetGalley and some insider-baseball publishing sites thanks to my wife, who used to be a professional reviewer for Publishers Weekly. When I read a book by an author I really like, I try to add their blog or website to my RSS reader. I think the 203 in 2019 was not a record for me, but it was certainly much larger than in 2020, where I had several multiweek periods of not wanting to read. This year is looking up. One of my long-term tactics is to have some reserve books that I know I want to read but haven't, yet. Currently that pile includes a Walter Jon Williams, a Steven Brust, and an Elizabeth Bear. If I see a long run of not-so-great books, I know I have those to pull me out.
- harperlee 6y ago
  How quickly do you read!? That’s 1.8 books per day! Assuming a book is 240 pages, that takes me about 6 hours if it’s not too dense prose, so for me that would be a full time job with quite some overtime and weekends, assuming I don’t get tired. Honest question, there’s a couple assumptions in my napkin calculation :)
  - 0xffff2 6y ago
    I think you did the division backwards. By my math that's 1.8 days per book. I'm guessing OP reads pretty fast, and 1-2 hours per day spent reading isn't outside the realm of possibility. I would probably read 2-3 times as many books, except I'm a fairly slow reader and since I read for fun I have pretty much zero interest in reading faster.
    - harperlee 6y ago
      Haha that makes loads more sense, thanks!
    - dsr_ 6y ago
      Yes, this. I do read quickly, and I typically get 2 hours or so a day to read. FWIW I don't read slower when I need to absorb serious content, but I do reread repeatedly -- flipping back and forth to make sure I understood the argument, critiquing it in my head, and so forth. Pleasure reading doesn't get that treatment unless I catch the author doing something egregious.

dsr_ 6y ago

The vast majority of my reading is SF/F, history, biography, autobiography, and sciences. Each of these have excellent reviewers who I treat as sources of recommendations. e.g.: for current SF/F, James Nicoll, Locus, and John Scalzi's posts which are nothing but "here's what publishers sent me as ARCs which they are hoping I will blurb" are all good sources. I have access to NetGalley and some insider-baseball publishing sites thanks to my wife, who used to be a professional reviewer for Publishers Weekly. When I read a book by an author I really like, I try to add their blog or website to my RSS reader. I think the 203 in 2019 was not a record for me, but it was certainly much larger than in 2020, where I had several multiweek periods of not wanting to read. This year is looking up. One of my long-term tactics is to have some reserve books that I know I want to read but haven't, yet. Currently that pile includes a Walter Jon Williams, a Steven Brust, and an Elizabeth Bear. If I see a long run of not-so-great books, I know I have those to pull me out.

harperlee 6y ago
How quickly do you read!? That’s 1.8 books per day! Assuming a book is 240 pages, that takes me about 6 hours if it’s not too dense prose, so for me that would be a full time job with quite some overtime and weekends, assuming I don’t get tired. Honest question, there’s a couple assumptions in my napkin calculation :)
- 0xffff2 6y ago
  I think you did the division backwards. By my math that's 1.8 days per book. I'm guessing OP reads pretty fast, and 1-2 hours per day spent reading isn't outside the realm of possibility. I would probably read 2-3 times as many books, except I'm a fairly slow reader and since I read for fun I have pretty much zero interest in reading faster.
  - harperlee 6y ago
    Haha that makes loads more sense, thanks!
  - dsr_ 6y ago
    Yes, this. I do read quickly, and I typically get 2 hours or so a day to read. FWIW I don't read slower when I need to absorb serious content, but I do reread repeatedly -- flipping back and forth to make sure I understood the argument, critiquing it in my head, and so forth. Pleasure reading doesn't get that treatment unless I catch the author doing something egregious.