Books and such

Man, I am such a flake when it comes to reading books that I actually own. Like, I buy books. And then I don't read them? And then I go take out five books from the library instead of reading the books I have at home? ???? WHY. This is silly.

I've been going through the books in my room - my bookshelf is tiny and can't hold even half of them, so most of them end up in boxes or piles - and... there are so many, and all of them look interesting, why I haven't I read these?

And then I realized that it's because a lot of them are kind of, well, heavy or difficult nonfiction. Most of the ones that I haven't touched are military history, mainly WWI-centric stuff, etc. Depressing (though interesting) subject, sometimes rather dense text. And then there's the one about the Great Northern War that I started reading but had to stop because some of the accounts of the things that happened were so disturbing. (I am a delicate flower. ;p ;p ;p )

Point is, most of them are not exactly ideal bus stop reads. And since I do most of my reading either while riding the bus or waiting for it, well....

BUT I really should make a point to read all of these. And cull the ones that I can't get into for whatever reason. Starting today. :D

Probably won't end up taking most of them on the transit, though. ;p At-home reading it is! Which isn't such a bad thing, really, more time reading = less time looking at a computer screen. Probably a lot better for my eyes, I'd think.

Reading Wednesday ☆

Fun fact: I finished reading 80 books this year, and might finish more before the year is out. To be fair, a lot of them were short, but still - I can't remember the last time I read so many. For leisure, I mean - I sure did read an assload of stuff in university, but it just isn't the same.

Just finished: Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey. An exploration of hauntings in the USA - the reason certain places are thought to be haunted, and so on. It isn't concerned with the question of "Are ghosts real" - the subject is more focused on what kind of stories people choose to tell, why some stories stick and others don't, what causes some places to be thought haunted rather than others, and so on.

Currently reading: The Guns of August by Barbara W Tuchman. I started reading this ages ago, but I think I got distracted by something shiny halfway through. Anyway, it's very engaging, and I appreciate that it discusses the eastern front more than most of the WWI-focused books I've read do. I wish it covered the Battle of Galicia more, because I have a specific interest in that for obvious reasons, but one can't have everything. ;p Looks like I'll have to look up some books specifically on the Austrian empire for that one, I suppose....

Also currently reading: Minds of Winter by Ed O'Loughlin. This is set partly in modern-day Nunavut, and partly in the 1800s; it's inspired by the real-life mystery of a chronometer from Sir John Franklin's ship, the Erebus, which was thought to be lost on the fatal expedition, but later turned up in English disguised as an ordinary clock.*

Reading next: Scion of the Fox by S. M Beiko; I don't really know anything about this except that it's a fantasy novel set in Winnipeg, Manitoba. That's more than enough to catch my attention. :D