(no subject)

[alicebentley]

I'm often drawn to reading here, but rarely comment or (even more rarely) post. And I'd like to change that.

But I stutter to a stop trying to craft posts about work (surely only interesting to myself) or home dynamics (very stable, pleasant) or projects (haven't been doing gardening for more than a year).

This morning I realized that one activity I could easily spout out about is reading, which went from not very active, hardly more than a book a month or so, to three or four a week. The biggest instigator of that change is audiobooks, which I never really got into until last spring and The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. I had read them all as hardcovers as they came out, but found that the audio adaptation read by Kevin R. Free bought a new level of enjoyment.

Changes at work also led to a better environment for listening to books - I might now spend as much as a third of my work day assembling models that I've become very familiar with, and can build swiftly and well without constant referral to Standard Operating Procedures.

Another audiobook series that prompted my listening change from "never" to "commonly" is Dungeon Crawler Carl, which had the perfect mix of entertaining, imaginative and, well, flighty - not something I have to pay close attention to - which lead to my binge-listening at every good opportunity.

It helps my budget that I make good use of the Libby app from the King County Library system - their selection is limited compared to the big audio suppliers, but there's enough to keep me busy and FREE is a very attractive price point. Better than free even, because I know the borrowing activity helps the library and the authors.

Today's audiobook, via Libby, is Babel by R. F. Kuang.

Comments

[johnridley]

Dungeon Crawler Carl surprised me.
I did find that in one way I'm complete opposite of most everyone else - I like the text version better.
I do appreciate that you're on Story Graph. Currently the only friend there.
I super duper recommend When The Moon Hits Your Eye. It's typical Scalzi silliness and as usual for him, it's ridiculously readable. The other 5 star I've given recently is the short book "Even Though I Knew the End"
And of course I'm working my way through Seanan McGuire's stuff, having come to it late. I made the mistake of binging Incryptid so now I just have to wait for new ones. I've got a few October Day books yet, and many, many short stories, most of which I can't find anywhere.

[minnehaha]

John Ridley? What are you doing here?

K.

[johnridley]

Commenting?

[johnridley]

OK fine I made a post. I've been hugely negligent in that regard.

[redbird]

The King County Library System is excellent; I'm getting many of my ebooks from them, including the one I'm currently reading, because they have things that the Boston Public Library doesn't. I keep expecting someone, or some automated system, to notice that I no longer live in Washington.


I don't know whether/how lending ebooks to people who don't live in King County affects their budget, though. I'm trying to get more of my books from BPL, which I am helping fund, and then look at KCLS if BPL doesn't have them, or has a long waiting list for the book in question.

[alicebentley]

Rumor has it that the library seldom purges the membership lists because they would rather have more activity than less.

[redbird]

That makes sense. But when I lived in Washington, I had to renew my library card, in person, less than three years after I'd gotten it. So I've been expecting to be asked to renew again for five or six years.

[minnehaha]

You misunderestimate your audience and interestingness.

I think you do some sort of job with skeletons. Or woodworking?? I think there's an artist who might be making interesting items in your near vicinity? I think there's been some health concerns about someone else nearby, but not how it worked out except that I think I might have heard if he didn't make it. I think gardening/not gardening are both defensible and interesting positions.

Audiobooks have not captured my attention as yet. I am hoping to become interested in podcasts as this year rolls on.

K.

[bibliofile]

Yay for audiobooks becoming more and more useful, and for Libby making them easily available.

Murderbot is so fun.

Post what you want; I'll still read it.

[quility]

I also want to write more here and struggle with topics and time.

But I agree with others here - post about whatever you want and I’ll read it.

My library’s Libby seems to only have Dungeon Crawler Carl in French. I’m guessing there is a reason for that, but I don’t know why.

Thanks for posting! It’s lovely to have fun content here. :)

[alicebentley]

Until very recently DCC was a self-published book and not really available to libraries. The audio version is an Audible exclusive (with, I've heard, a 10 year term). PenguinRandomHouse has picked up the book rights just this year, and has issued the first three volumes as hardcovers, so perhaps the libraries will have access soon. They would still need the budget and perceived need to make the buy.

[quility]

Wow! Good info to have. I often start things in the library and then buy them on audible if I'm taking too long. I may just go straight to audible.

[pameladean]

So nice to see you!

This is not necessarily something you can just turn on or off, but not worrying about whether what you write about is fascinating to your friends is a good first step to posting more. When I do post, which isn't as often as I would like either, I'm always surprised by what people choose to engage with or be delighted by. Well, except cat behavior: I expect that to get responses. So I just write about what I like, and somebody else generally likes it too.

I know lots of people who want their journals to be more purposeful than that, though, and that's a valid choice.

I cannot get along with audiobooks, but have found ebooks very useful. We are out of room for paper and it's a momentous occasion when I get a paper book nowadays. And reading on my phone is easier on wrists and hands, and also allows more space for a cat.

I'm mostly rereading things these days. I've read new books in a bunch of series I'm engaged with (Seanan McGuire's October Daye and Incryptid series, Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series, and Katherine Addison's Cemeteries of Amalo series). The last new book I read was a novella by Katherine Addison set in the same universe but not part of the series proper, so maybe that's not really new. This puts the last new book at, huh, I am not sure. Well, I've read Cameron's second novel that she just turned in, but that's not quite the same thing.

P.

[alicebentley]

This week has shown me that I'm distracted from going online much during the work week, but that Saturday and Sunday have the potential to make time for commenting and posting some more. I'll see what happens as time goes by!