The Book Project Update

So, six months into my attempt to start reading for fun again, this is what I've read: 

15 prose novels

5 anthologies of short stories 

4 novellas (including the first three "Murderbot" stories)

1 essay collection

1 graphic novel memoir

1 prose memoir

1 nonfiction

The longest book I've read so far has been Michael Chabon's The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, at over 600 pages.   The oldest, not counting some of the short stories in the anthologies, was Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, first published as a novel in 1973.  I'd attempted to read it in high school but decided that I wasn't old enough for it.  Now, almost thirty years later, I still don't think I'm old enough for it, but I get more of the references.  

One of my goals was to expose myself to more authors that I wasn't familiar with, and I've managed about an even split between male and female authors.  However, I did check in on a few old favorites, including Stephen King.  I read two of his anthologies, If it Bleeds and You Like it Darker, and I'll probably be checking out more of his Holly Gibney books soon.  In my ongoing quest to find more funny science-fiction books, I was very happy to come across Martha Wells and her Murderbot series.  I'll be reviewing the Apple TV+ adaptation in a few days.

Speaking of adaptations, I sought out several books that I knew were going to become movies or television shows in the near future, including Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary, and Victor LaVelle's The Devil in Silver.  One of the King anthologies included "The Life of Chuck." I also read several books that were slated for adaptations at some point, but they fell through.  It seems like every popular book gets optioned, an adaptation is announced, and then they end up in limbo.  It's been a lot of fun deep-diving these projects.  Some, like the unmade The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay movie, even have development artwork still floating around online.  Right now I'm rooting for Madeline Miller's Circe and R.F. Kuang's Yellowface to get adaptations, just because I'm super curious how these would translate to screen.  I find I'm less interested in tracking down the source material for projects I've already watched.  One exception was INT. Chinatown, which is very different from the resulting Hulu series.  I prefer the series, because it's funnier.  

I don't have much of a budget for reading material, so I've been relying on Libby, the local library, and whatever I can pull out of the local Little Free Libraries.  I'm currently on multiple wait lists to borrow more books, including the next installment of Murderbot.  I compiled a list of titles to look out for at the beginning of the year, but can't find most of the nonfiction ones.  The memoirs of various Hollywood figures have been particularly difficult to get a hold of.  I remain an incurable film nerd, remember.  I managed to find Penny Marshall's "My Mother Was Nuts" on the Internet Archive, at least.  Alas, Barry Sonnenfeld's multiple tell-alls have been elusive.  I'm wary of spending too much time on books about filmmaking or the creation of television shows, however, because I don't know if these are really helping me learn to enjoy books again as their own artform.  The nonfiction book listed above was only included for accuracy - it's a glossy coffee-table book about "Black Mirror" that had enough substantive text in it that I was willing to count it as a proper book, but at the same time an awful lot of the content was nice photo spreads.    

In any case, things are looking good going forward.  I haven't had any issues finding more books to read or coming up with new titles I'm interested in.  There hasn't been a single book I've regretted reading, though there were definitely some I liked better than others.  I don't feel stressed out or obsessed about finishing books, and I've had no trouble taking breaks and setting a good pace for myself.  I think I'm ready to take on more challenging novels, but I currently have enough books that I'm looking forward to for casual reading that I can wait a few more months.

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