Friday 13 February 2015

A Book/Reading Meme

I don't usually do memes here but Aurealis reading has left my blog a little bereft of content, so why not. Courtesy of SF Signal:
  1. What was the last sf/f/h book you finished reading?
    • Amok: Antho of Asia-Pacific Spec Fic edited by Dominica Malcolm, read for judging purposes.
  2. What was the last sf/f/h book you did not finish reading and why?
    • None this year (obviously not counting the two books I'm actively halfway through). Going back to last year, it depends on your definitions. I started reading the audiobook of Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta, but stopped because I wasn't commuting over the holidays and now I'm reading too much to want to listen to more fiction in the car (I've been catching up on mainly Galactic Chat podcasts instead). Books I left partly read last year I still vaguely hope to finish at some point include The Godless by Ben Peek and Help Fund My Robot Army edited by John Joseph Adams. The last book I consciously decided not to finish was Trucksong by Andrew Macrae because it was just not for me.
  3. What was the last sf/f/h book you read that you liked but most people didn’t?
    • I'm not sure. I don't pay a huge amount of attention to "most people's" reading habits. I don't think I've read any terribly controversial books recently, or if I did, they were the kind of controversial that people I associate with tend to approve of. If we're talking about quality of writing/story... I just don't know. Maybe Blades of the Old Empire by Anna Kashina. What books have I liked that you haven't, blog-reading people?
  4. What was the last sf/f/h book you read that you disliked but most people did [like]?
  5. How long do your 1-sitting reading sessions usually last?
    • On a good day in excess of an hour if I'm reading on the couch (usually that happens only on weekends). In bed I usually read for half an hour to an hour.
  6. What are you currently reading?
    • Symbiont by Mira Grant for fun and The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 8 edited by Jonathan Strahan, which is my last Aurealis book.
  7. Do you like it so far?
    • Can't comment on the Year's Best, but I am enjoying Symbiont. It's just taken a turn into "I don't know how you're getting out of this" territory, so that's fun.
  8. How long ago did you buy the book you are currently reading (or the last book you read)?
    • I bought Symbiont in November, which is when it came out.
  9. What was the last physical sf/f/h book you bought?
    • I bought ten paper YA books just before Christmas, which are listed here. I have read four of them so far.
  10. What is the sf/f/h sub-genre you like the most and why?
    • On principle I feel like I should say science fiction. I want  to like science fiction best. But in practice, what I like most are the kind of BFF books written by Australian Women since the late 90s/early 00s.
  11. What is the sf/f/h sub-genre you dislike the most and why?
    • Body horror. Horror with an excess of gore. Some of what I've read has struck me as gratuitous and not an effective way of advancing the plot. Other books have just made me too uncomfortable with their ickiness. I prefer to be made uncomfortable psychologically. (It seems more clever, usually, too.)
  12. What is your favorite electronic reading device?
    • My phone (iPhone 6+). Before I got my current phone late last year, my answer would've been the iPad, but it's the last device I have with large pixels (my laptop has a "retina display too") and being an iPad 2, there are a few interesting bugs it's acquired. Like I can't dim the screen all the way in landscape mode because it leaves an undimmed slice at the side. (The fix is to switch to portrait, dim, them switch back. And sigh. The sighing is important.) I still mostly read on the iPad because it's easier to prop up rather than having to hold my phone while lying in bed. Sometimes I get Voice Over to read books to me, in which case I use my phone because it has a better voice that the iPad isn't compatible with.
  13. What was the last sf/f/h eBook you bought?
    • Sourdough and Other Stories by Angela Slatter. Before that, Dangerous by Shannon Hale and The Swan Book by Alexis Wright.
  14. Do you read books exclusively in 1 format (physical/electronic)?
    • I feel like this question is answered above. I prefer ebooks for a bunch of reasons but I don't hate reading paper books. I'm less fond of audiobooks, but obviously not to the point of not enjoying them. (Well, it can depend on the narrator. Also, I've developed a desire to stab people who format their ebooks poorly enough to make my phone read out "new line" every time, or render the entire book as a link for some reason, or OMG you really learn the ways people can fuck up their formatting when you're using a screen reader.)
  15. Do you read eBooks exclusively on a single device (eBook reader/ smartphone / tablet)?
    • As mentioned above, I read on my phone and my iPad. Also my computer (the iBooks app syncs across all three mostly nicely). And when I travel I take the Kobo which is a piece of shit I have frequently wanted to throw at a wall, but it's a piece of shit with a week-long battery. It's terrible for reading PDFs, though. I read a PDF on it once only because I couldn't bear to put that specific book down. Have I mentioned my annoyance at PDF ARCs? Especially the trade paperback/hardcover sized ones for which I have to zoom every iPad page by hand. Ugh.

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