I posted a few weeks ago about my attempt to use Evernote to track my reading, so I thought maybe today would be a good time to give a report on that. So far, I’ve managed to keep on track with my minimal goals – a chapter a day from Will Durant‘s Our Oriental Heritage, and at least a chapter a day from the current ARC I’m reading, plus a smattering of other reading material as time permits (magazines, comics, etc., though maybe I should include blogs and web media…?). What’s “unfair” in this comparison is that chapters are not only uneven, but unmeasurable. Although the kindle app supports page numbering, it isn’t universally applied. A chapter in the ARC I’m reading from Pyr could be 6 pages long – and a chapter in the Story of Civilization could be 80 pages long. I only mention the variable chapter lengths because when I started this effort, I didn’t realize how challenging it could be to achieve a chapter a day. I’ve always had a proclivity for reading, but have never answered well to forced, regimented activities. I would never have thought reading could be in that category – how wrong I was. Unfortunately, I can’t dispute the benefits I’ve seen already, so no relaxing on the rules just yet.
Before I can digress any further, here’s what I’ve been reading:
- Our Oriental Heritage – I’ve consistently read a chapter a day. I’m currently wrapping up the section on India and expect to be moving to the Far East in the next day or so. I enjoy the book, although I have to admit that towards the end of the Indian section it seems to be getting a little bit repetitive in its history. The same ground that was tread over in the general history is now being rehashed in topical breakouts about art and culture. Still, a fascinating read.
- Pyr ARC – I’ll wait to give any true feedback until I post my review. I’m not unhappy, but I’m also not over the top, dying to return to this every day. I’m averaging about 1.1 chapters a day, which is to say most days I’m happy to do the minimum, though there are spurts of two and three chapter days.
- Amazing Spiderman, issues 698 & 699 – Hey, what better time to read some comics again then when you’re tracking what you read, and to boot, it turns out the next issue is the last of your favorite title as a kid? Amazing was always my favorite, and this story arc with Doc Oc is reminiscent to say the least.
- Avengers #1 – Like the story, like the artwork – except for the depiction of the superheros. Seems somehow off to me. Maybe not enough square jaws?
- New X-Men #1-2 – A reboot by any other name is still a reboot, even when it involves the title characters time travelling and resetting themselves.
- Clarkesworld, December 2012 – Good reads. I know this is available free, but I subscribe on my kindle to help show my support. Great issue, and the non-fiction pieces are beginning to rival the fiction for appeal. Can’t encourage enough people to support this magazine.
That’s all I took the time to record. This methodology of using the note title to record the title of the reading material and letting Evernote take care of filling in what date, time, and location you entered the note is genius. I’ve had an occasion or two where I’ve forgotten to enter the note when I finished, so going back at some future date I might get confused and think I put everything off till the end of the day, but all in all its been working great.
And now off to do some other writing, possibly even prep a few blog posts. I know, what is this world coming to, right?
