Bumped into Roxanne at SXSW yesterday - or rather, she stopped to say hi as I was hanging out with Tim and Sarah and Liz - and I proudly relayed that I had read 44 books last year, and was going for 52 books again this year.
I got this idea from her - she listed her read books at the end of 2005, so I went for it in 2006, and even though I fell a tad short of my goal, I think I made more headway than I would have if I hadn't tracked it at all. And I am absolutely going for it again this year. And I should tell about two more books I have read:
"Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need" was recommended by Lisa. Blake Snyder, the writer, is actually here at SXSW, but I have a schedule conflict, and since I am not a screenwriter, I am going to skip it. So why am I reading a book on screenwriting if I am not a screenwriter? Two reasons: I will probably participate in "Scriptfrenzy", NaNoWriMo's screenwriting event in June. And, like I said, Lisa recommended it. She said it helped her structure and improve the first draft of her last novel, The Overworld. I got several good things out of Save the Cat, because it's really about storytelling. And whether you tell the story in a novel, a joke, or a screenplay, is really secondary.
A friend of mine works for a German company, and they gave her "The Xenophobe's Guide to the Germans" to help her understand her new coworkers. It's full of common stereotypes - and you know what? They're all true! I reocgnized myself in almost everything, and kept cracking up, reading the sections about Germans on the beach, Germans being self-righteous, Germans educating and lecturing others, pointing out where they themselves are right, and rubbing in how others are wrong. There's a whole series of these Xenophobe's guides, and I will probably buy a few more. Great and very entertaining tool for anybody who deals with other-cultured people regularly.
Next up ... the three paperbacks that the BookPeople sold me.
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