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Reading n stuff

Finished reading my 15th novel of the year today at lunch.

I know I keep harping on this, but it feels good. It feels like an accomplishment. While I do have a 20-book goal for the year, I’m not just trying to race through these novels. There is no point in that. I’m reading at an enjoyable, casual speed and really immersing myself in them. It is the consistency of ready at least 5% of a novel every day this is creating the success because it is becoming 1) something I look forward to and 2) a habit.

Tonight I’m starting a novel by SF author Robert Silverberg. I’ve read a number of his novels and they have been enjoyable. While I knew of him already, a few years ago I read his short story The Iron Star in this anthology of space opera and military SF. I was kinda blown away by the emotional and ethical impact of this story and it made me a fan. Silverberg, like many of his generation of authors, really started writing in the SF magazines and went through a formative period in which he wrote a hell of a lot of stuff. The material I’ve read is from his “mature author” era. His work from this period can be a bit more cerebral than some of the adventure space opera stuff I’ve been reading a lot of lately. It will be a good shift for me.

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That’s the way to do it

This past weekend the London Calling skateboarding event happened in, you guessed it, London. A lot of big shots from the English and U.S. skate scenes were there. It’s kind of an old school event.

Alva was there.

I saw some shots on his Instagram page of him skating South Bank. That spot is no joke. My dear friend Tony Gale took me there in 2015 and it is gnarly. Even the flat is gnarly.

Alva posted this image on his Instagram page. It is everything I love in skateboarding, in one image. What a fantastic shot.

Tony Alva doing a nose wheelie on a skateboard

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Reading

As I have told a few friends, I’ve been spending time reading every day that I suppose was previously devoted to farting around aimlessly on the internet. I started this in April, and since then I’ve read 11 science fiction novels.

If you read 5% of a novel every day you will finish that novel in 20 days. I know that books vary in page counts (obviously) but that means for a 300 page novel, 15 pages a day will get you through that novel in 20 days. That’s pretty good.

So even if I only have 20 or 30 minutes to read it is worth the effort. Usually I get started and end up reading 10 or 15 percent, at least. Having the Kindle charged and ready and in my backpack during the workday is key.

Anyway I’m making a project of this, with the very modest goal of reading 20 SF novels this year. Tracking them on my Goodreads account.