Categories
geek

2023 in books

my reading seems to have continued its upward trend in 2023. i feel like i’ve read a bit of everything: a lot of light romantic novels, children’s stories (which often got gifted to my little cousins or niece), historical stuff, health books, books about life in faraway places, books about making art and comics, quite a few featuring death, some graphic novels, a whole series from elena ferrante, and a lonely planet guidebook… i like the chaotic nature of this selection — it feels right for my scattered brain and its many interests.

some thoughts:

– the number of books read surprises me a bit, because i don’t feel like i spend a lot of time reading — apart from audiobooks or time spent in waiting rooms, i rarely read during the day. i had an inkling that i did spend a lot of time reading fanfiction in the night, but it’s only now that i’ve replaced it with books that i know how much i was actually reading. 😳

– getting a digital library card definitely helped, as did the new kindle with backlight. i still wake up in the middle of the night a lot, and reading helps pass the time until sleep comes again. as a result, most of these were read in digital format, then some in paper form and less as audiobooks (mostly while cleaning or cooking):

– i’m the kind of person that gifts books to all the children in my life, and i’ve doubled down on this since my niece came along. it’s been a pleasure exploring new books for her, discovering the ones that are appropriate to different ages and will help her stay curious. i have been making a little stack at home, ready to dole out at the right time.

– highlight reads of the year… probably discovering the light, fanfic-ish style of ali hazelwood, which became a kind of comfort reading. the same with alice ozeman‘s heartstopper series (which i’ve read in one go, on a bout of post-christmas indigestion). i think outlive was probably the book i “underlined” the most, and mouth to mouth was the one that surprised me the most at the end. there were 2 books that i finished but did not enjoy: all of this and i feel bad about my neck.
– looking at the nationalities of the authors i’ve read, i think i actually did a good job spreading things around… but i feel like i could have done even better. in 2024, i want to try to read works from a wider set of nationalities— i guess that will be my reading goal for the year.

Categories
just life

2022 in books

2022 finally saw me reading a bit more again, and i’m glad for that! here’s a book montage of my reads, courtesy of goodreads:

i visited the local library a few times, and did my best to keep things interesting and always have a few different books around in case i got tired of what i was reading. and as a result, my reading was all over the place: there’s children’s books and graphic novels, sci-fi and romance, historical stuff, a memoir, a couple of productivity-themed books… even an encyclopedia about a particular mummy! about half were digital books (either kindle downloads or audiobooks) and the other half i read as physical books, mostly from the library, but also a few that were gifted to me, and one that i found on the trash!

i’m not going to give myself pressure to keep up this rhythm in 2023, but i’m happy this is how last year turned out. onwards!

Categories
languages

graded & grided readers

graded readers are books that are “easier reading”, written for a certain level of language proficiency. often, they use simpler language, or only have a certain number of words or characters in them. they’re great for when you want to read a book in the language you’re learning, but you can’t quite manage all kinds of literature yet… so you want something that matches your level. in chinese, graded readers are usually sorted by HSK level, or number of characters one has learned.

the chinese ones will sometimes have both the chinese characters and the pinyin transliteration in the page, so that it’s easier to read. the issue with this is that our western eyes immediately float to the latin characters we’re familiar with, making the exercise a bit pointless.

and this is where the magic grid comes in! :) you apply it over the text, and it hides the pinyin lines, so that you’re left just with the characters themselves. i didn’t know what it was for when i first noticed it tucked into the back cover, but it’s such a simple and elegant solution — i love it!

Categories
geek in canada

the arthur conan doyle room

libraries are nice places in principle… but a beautiful one, with a literary giftshop aaaaaand an arthur conan doyle room definitely takes the cake! :D

we read about the room on (where else?) atlas obscura and put it on our plans. then, on a day of walking around downtown toronto, we made a detour to the toronto reference library, to discover this room.

it looks like a place right out of baker street, with its carpet and bookshelves, where you can find not only books by doyle, but also books about doyle and his works, translations in many languages, pastiches (which are sort of fanfiction!) and more. some are rare books, but despite this, the nice librarian just let us have a look around and even read, if we wanted.

we had it all to ourselves for a while, snapping photos and taking our time admiring all the spines of books collected over the years, from collections, auctions or just donations.

for a fan, this was such a treat! :)

Categories
just life

the other ana campos

that time we went to granada and i found out someone with my name has been busy writing children books…

i really wish i had saved this card to send them! what have your namesakes been up to?