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Oh, how I have been reading. I have made a decision this year to try not to read anything I can tell is badly written; when I realise it so, I declare myself done with it. It is both simpler and more complicated than it might seen, as I have always been the sort of person to keep going just in case the book gets better, or just in case the flaw is in myself and I might suddenly understand the true glory of the work before me. This year, no; if it is bad, then it is bad, and I quit. This had slowed my reading speed a good deal, because I am no longer racing through poor works to find out how the story ends, and instead only reading those things I may give my full time and attention to.
I find it interesting that, when I have told people in my circle of friends about this decision, so many react with outrage, as though I were in some way criticising or challenging them. It relates to other thoughts I have had, about media consumption and identity, but they are not fully formed yet.
So what have I read? A great deal of manga, some terrible that I gave up on partially through, one indifferent series that I finished and then put into the bags going to the used bookstore. One I am quite fond of -- CLAMP's xxxHolic does not yet exhibit the difficulties I find with almost all other CLAMP series, but then I have not finished it yet, so it still has time to fall apart. Combining as it does the visual and the text, reading manga puts my mind into a usefully liminal state, where the urge for image and word balances, and sometimes I may get to my own feelings more clearly through it. And sometimes of course, not, and it is just enjoyable, like any reading might be.
More titles must wait for another post, as I should eat something.
I find it interesting that, when I have told people in my circle of friends about this decision, so many react with outrage, as though I were in some way criticising or challenging them. It relates to other thoughts I have had, about media consumption and identity, but they are not fully formed yet.
So what have I read? A great deal of manga, some terrible that I gave up on partially through, one indifferent series that I finished and then put into the bags going to the used bookstore. One I am quite fond of -- CLAMP's xxxHolic does not yet exhibit the difficulties I find with almost all other CLAMP series, but then I have not finished it yet, so it still has time to fall apart. Combining as it does the visual and the text, reading manga puts my mind into a usefully liminal state, where the urge for image and word balances, and sometimes I may get to my own feelings more clearly through it. And sometimes of course, not, and it is just enjoyable, like any reading might be.
More titles must wait for another post, as I should eat something.
