ladybusiness | Entries tagged with projects: eight book minimum

I read books! More than I did during the main brunt of the pandemic, but fewer than I did before 2020 and the great burnout. Instead of recapping all of my 2022 reading, I figured I'd do a quick recap of the highlights!

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... If you think you see any commonalities between my favourites this year: no you do not.

I don't have any big plans for 2023 on the media front. I'm honestly a little too scared of making any – three years of trying and failing will do that to you, I guess. The closest I've got to a plan is "read things you like," which seems like a good place to start. Hope 2023 treats you and your reading gently! ♥

spindizzy

HELLO INTERNET, it's been a while! I posted about my reading anarchy plan two lockdowns, one house purchase, and a literal entire year ago and I'm here to report that it was a mixed experience.

The good:

I returned to my comfort-reading habits of historical romance, queer mysteries, and survival horror! Giving myself permission to follow my reading whims and binge-read all my trashiest favourites has been so relaxing. Apparently putting pressure on yourself about what you read makes it harder to enjoy yourself? Sounds fake, but okay.

Scooby-Doo style pulled the mask off all of the "But this book should be my thing, why don't I love it?" reactions I had to books and discovered that it was seasonal depression all along! I don't remember who it was that commented on an Eight Book Minimum post to point out that it sounded like depression, but you were right!

My partner and I have F I N A L L Y been able to get all of our books out of storage! I'm still organising our bookshelves, but this is such a joyous thing. I've got a bookcase dedicated to the books I love most, which is peak KonMari goals! And I can shelve things in groupings that make sense to me! My bookcases are in the process of becoming an oddly-shaped mind map and I am so excited.

The bad:

I just... Stopped tracking my reading online. No reviews. No GoodReads. No Storygraph. Only the most sporadic acknowledgement that I've ever even seen a book on twitter. Which had the knock-on effect of...

... I stopped writing reviews. I've always been spotty at posting regularly, yes, but Eight Book Minimum was basically how I figured out what I thought about books. Most of my reviews started life as three sentences in an Eight Book Minimum post and spiralled from there! So Eight Book Minimum falling out of my writing life... Kinda took everything else out with it. And on the one hand it's fine! 2021 was specifically a year of recovery! On the other hand: that's a lot that got taken out.

Like I said, mixed experience! I can't say how much of the bad stuff is seasonal depression/regular depression/burnout finally catching up with me, and how much was specifically due to not giving myself a reason to come back here and yell about books! But I can say that I missed you all, and I missed being here. So... What if I start small? I don't think I could deal with setting a big yearly goal right now, but maybe i'll be okay with a small monthly goal! I'm gonna try to read some books, and actually come back to talk about them. Eight books sounds like a good minimum. ;P

In the meantime: how are you all! What are you reading? I've just started reading an f/f manga called Still Sick, about a woman whose coworker discovers she draws f/f doujinshi; they presumably kiss at some point, but the protagonist has a lot of wishing for the ground to swallow her up to get through before then.

Stay safe and look after yourselves, internet. I'll see you in February. ♥

spindizzy

In a change from my usual plans for this time of year, this is not a goals post. This is in fact an anti- goals post, because I am officially declaring 2021 a year of reading anarchy.

Like most of the people I know, 2020 was not a good year for my ability to read anything but fanfic – shout out to the Scum Villain's Self-Saving System section of AO3 for getting me through the last half of the year! As for 2021... Well.

*gestures at Brexit* *gestures at pandemic* *gestures at executive dysfunction issues exacerbated by all these apocalypses*

Instead of doing my usual and setting numeric goals so that I can analyse my reading stats, I am officially saying FUCK IT. 2021 is the year where I'm just gonna read whatever and see what happens. If that means that I read nothing but mid-2000s BL manga/speculative fiction anthologies with brightly coloured covers/queer sff novellas from last year/this stack of lesbian detective novels, then so be it! 2021 is not a year for trying to push myself harder, it's a year for recovering.

(I am definitely going to come back and capslock about whatever it is I read though – I haven't finished a full review since... Maybe June? And it's been weird!)

To round off this post, I'm going to ask a question! If you're recovering from a reading slump, do you have a specific book/genre that you turn to? If you have recovered from a reading slump (congratulations!), what was the book that broke you out of it? For me, it was Two Rogues Make a Right by Cat Sebastian. Yes, I did have a little cry about finally being able to read again, and then another cry because I forgot that having feelings about fictional characters and seeing aspects of yourself represented in fiction was a thing that happened! Feelings are the worst, why did I miss those. ... Whereas Two Rogues Make a Right was exactly what I needed to read at the time, because apparently "the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one" and "we are trying our best to respect each other's needs, but also we're terrible at communicating" are just my bulletproof tropes.

Happy new year everyone! Stay safe and take care of yourselves! ♥

spindizzy

Okay, it's that time of year when I remember that I set myself some reading goals and suddenly start running numbers! As ever, I'll be going my total numbers, which you can check on GoodReads, so if you're going "Wait, hang on, these numbers don't match your Eight Book Minimum post!" that's what happened.

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So that's where I'm at with reading during the apocalypse! How is everyone else doing? Respect to everyone who is trying to keep up with their reading goals, and to everyone who's just declared 2020 the year of goal anarchy, you're all doing good work.

spindizzy

I don't know how anyone else's reading is going this year, but every time I look at a book, my brain does this:

Mariah Carey putting on a pair of sunglasses and saying 'I can't read suddenly, I don't know.'

Mariah Carey putting on a pair of sunglasses and saying 'I can't read suddenly, I don't know.'

Wasted Talent Volume 1: We are the Engineers by Angela Melick [Jump]

How to Bullet Plan by Rachel Wilkerson Millet [Jump]

A Witch's Printing Office Volume 1 by Mochinchi and Yasuhiro Miyama [Jump]

The Kingdom of the Gods by In-Wan Youn, Eun-Hee Kim, and Kyung-Il Yang [Jump]

Spy x Family Volume 1 by Tatsuya Endo [Jump]

Drifting Dragons Volume 1 by Taku Kuwabara [Jump]

Pulp Friction by Julie Anne Lindsey [Jump]

Slippery Creatures by KJ Charles [Jump]

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Reading Goals

Reading goal: 24/80 (8 new this post) Prose: 7/20 Nonfiction: 3/12
Netgalley: 12/50 (3 new this post)
#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: 9/40 (1 read this post)
#unofficialqueerafbookclub: 4/20 (1 new this post)

spindizzy

It's incredibly weird to think that the last time I posted Eight Book Minimum – and when I wrote most of these reviews, and when I set my reading goals for the year – we weren't in lockdown. I don't have any profound interpretation to add to that, I just needed to acknowledge for myself that I read these books in 2020, even though it doesn't feel like it because March was a long decade. I hope that all of you and yours are safe out there!

These Savage Shores by by Ram V and Sumit Kumar [Jump]

Stanislaw Lem's The Seventh Voyage: Star Diaries by Jon J. Muth [Jump]

Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood by Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey [Jump]

Wasted Space Volume 1 by Michael Moreci and Hayden Sherman [Jump]

Hell's Paradise: Jigokurako Volume 1 by by Yuji Kaku [Jump]

The Promised Neverland Volume 1 by by Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu [Jump]

Kokkoku: Moment by Moment Volume 1 by Seita Horio [Jump]

Ascendance of the Bookworm Volume 1 by Miya Kazuki, Suzuka, and You Shiina; translated by Carter Collins [Jump]

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Reading Goals

Reading goal: 16/80 (8 new this post) Prose: 4/20 Nonfiction: 1/12
Netgalley: 9/50 (3 new this post)
#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: 8/40 (3 read this post)
#unofficialqueerafbookclub: 3/20 (0 new this post. ... Who am I?!)

spindizzy

And for my next trick: actually getting started on the reviews for 2020! This batch has the full spectrum of my emotions: tearing up on my commute, solid meh, and absolute hatred, so this'll be fun!

Nuclear Winter Volume 1 by Caroline Breault [Jump]

Essex Colony by Lia Cooper [Jump]

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey [Jump]

Bury the Lede by Gaby Dunn and Claire Roe [Jump]

Artifact One Volume 1 by J.T. Krul, Vince Hernandez, and Romina Moranelli [Jump]

Journaled to Death by Heather Redmond [Jump]

Good Dog, Cerberus! by Moha Arimura [Jump]

Downfall by Inio Asano [Jump]

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Reading Goals

Reading goal: 8/80 (8 new this post) Prose: 3/20 Nonfiction: 0/12
Netgalley: 6/50 (6 new this post)
#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: 5/40 (5 read this post)
#unofficialqueerafbookclub: 3/20 (3 new this post; Essex Colony, Upright Women Wanted, Bury the Lede)

spindizzy

Real talk: by the end of the year, I did not think I would meet any of my 2019 reading goals. But weirdly, it turns out that even the goals I didn't reach still taught me useful things, which I think is how this "setting goals" thing is supposed to work?

Anyway, as is tradition: looking back on my goals of 2019!

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So I spent most of 2019 coming to the realisation that I am not good at setting realistic goals. I know, I know, you're all shocked by this revelation, but I've finally accepted the truth! Which means that for 2020, I have dialed my goals down about as far as I can go and still feel challenged.

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So that's what I'll be up to this year! How about you? Have you set any reading goals? Have you joined the goal-free anarchy some of the Lady Business editors are embracing? Did your goals bring up any revelations about your reading habits? ... Definitely comment if you had that last one, I would love to not be alone in this!

spindizzy

IT IS DONE, this is the last of my 2019 reading! Or at least, it's the stuff that's been hardest for me to review. Not because I didn't like it, but because it's hard to have feelings about things when *gestures at globals politics* But after this, it's all of the shiny new things that I've been reading in 2020, so that'll be fun!

This is also the post where I realised that my maths didn't add up with what I'd tracked with goodreads and had minor panics until I remembered that short fiction exists!

The Six Skills of Madame Lumiere by Marissa Lingen [Jump]

Fireside Quarterly July 2018 edited by Julia Rios and Elsa Sjunneson-Henry [Jump]

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku Volumes 2 and 3 by Fujita [Jump]

Flying Witch Volumes 4-6 by Chihiro Ishizuka, translated by Melissa Tanaka [Jump]

The Girl From The Other Side: Siúil, A Rún Volumes 1-7 by Nagabe, translated by Adrienne Beck [Jump]

Módào Zǔshī by Mòxiāng Tóngxiù [Jump]

Artificial Condition and Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells [Jump]

Fate/Strange Fake Volumes 1 and 2 by Ryogho Narita [Jump]

Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk [Jump]

Hex Vet Volume 1: Witches in Training and Volume 2: The Flying Surgery by Sam Davies [Jump]

Not For Use in Navigation: Thirteen Stories by Iona Datt Sharma [Jump]

Red River Volumes 1-6 by Chie Shinohara [Jump]

Love in Focus Volume 1 by Yoko Nogiri [Jump]

Behind the Scenes Volume 6 by Bisco Hatori [Jump]

Waves by Ingrid Chabbert and Carole Maurel [Jump]

Moonstruck Volume 1 by Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle, Kate Leth, Caitlin Quirk, Clayton Cowles [Jump]

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spindizzy

I was very confused when I started counting up for this installment of Eight Book Minimum, because I couldn't make the maths of this match up to my Goodreads count. It turns out that I completely forgot that I read short stories at all last year, and that is why my counts have been so different!

xxxholic Omnibus 2 and 3 by CLAMP [Jump]

X Omnibus 1 by CLAMP [Jump]

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie [Jump]

Liselotte & Witch's Forest Volume 2 by Natsuki Takaya [Jump]

The Princess Plan by Julia London [Jump]

Our Dreams at Dusk Volume 1 by Yuhki Kamatani, translated by Jocelyne Allen [Jump]

Bird Brain: Comics About Mental Health, Starring Pigeons by Chuck Mullin [Jump]

Bingo Love by Tee Franklin, Jenn St-Onge, Joy San, and Genevieve FT [Jump]

Unknown Volume 1 by Tsumuji Yoshimura [Jump]

Monster Journey: A Transmasculine Anthology edited by Pat Myers [Jump]

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Reading Goals

Reading goal: 169/180 (11 new this post) Prose: 42/100 (Short fiction: 32/42)
Nonfiction: 12/12 (1 new this post)
#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: 61/100 (3 read this post)
#unofficialqueerafbookclub: 69/75 (4 new this post; The Raven Tower, Our Dreams at Dusk, Bingo Love, Monster Journey)

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Entries tagged with projects: eight book minimum

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