52 Books Challenge - December

So we'd already concluded that 52 books this year was out of reach, but for consistency's sake I'm keeping the title.
Anyway, the final books for this year are:

39 Look who's back - Timur Vermes
40 Kleine zeemeermin per ongeluk dood - Helena Hoogenkamp
41 The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter

41 books in total, that makes 1 above the new goal I'd set myself, and 1 below the answer to everything, so good enough for me.
Again, a mixed bag. Look who's back is a satirical, but mostly very critical novel about Hitler waking up in our modern times and picking up exactly where he left off. Before you know it. he's out there preaching propaganda, but also going against some of the baffeling things of our modern times (why are televisions only showing crappy shows? Why does everything taste so sweet?). If you've seen the film - the novel is nothing like that, the novel is way more intelligent and subtle. It's scary, how sometimes when you're reading, you think 'yes, he's exactly right, why didn't I think of this before? Why aren't we doing anything with/against/for this?' and then realise that it's Hitler's opinion transposed to our times. Which is kinda scary on it's own, but even more so when it makes you wonder whether we're not all little racists/nationalists/fantasists underneath it all. So as a novel, especially a socially critical one, it works really well.
Then there was a very short novel (they call it a chapbook) by someone I actually know, who got published through the Wintertuin collective. It was nice, it was fun, but mostly because I know Helena personally. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone in particular, although of course if she becomes massively famous in a couple of years, they may become collector's items.
And finally, The Bloody Chamber, a retelling of fairy tales, mostly from the female perspective. These days, everybody is retelling fairy tales (Neil Gaiman in particular, but I also can't wait for the new Michael Cunningham collection of fairy tales), but when Angela Carter wrote these, it was still pretty new. I really liked some, because they were cleverly done and gave a possible new angle to a story you know very well, but I felt some were a bit over the top; pulling the whole thing completely out of context to make a point. Also, with the more famous tales, she left out the ending, sort of like 'everybody knows where it goes from here', and I'm not a big fan of open endings. Although it does make for a nice ending to my book list.

So, 41 new novels in a year. It was quite an experience - I've never read only new books for a whole year. There were several moments when I wanted to dive into something I've already read, just because those familiar stories are so much easier and faster to get through. With a new novel, you have to force yourself to pay attention, to read everything carefully.
Going for all new books did make me hesitate to pick some of the larger novels I've been wanting to read for a while, because the Discovery of Heaven experience taught me that one big one can set you back 3 novels in your count. So I've been saving some big ones (Middlemarch, The Count of Monte Cristo, Anna Karenina, The Fountainhead, Vanity Fair) for 2016. And at the moment, I'm reading two wonderful books, Grief is the thing with feathers and The Art of Asking, which I could have raced through to get 42 or even 43 books in 2015, but which I want to read slowly, to really get them.

A few weeks ago, someone posted a visualisation of how many things (pizza slices, visits to the cinema, etc) they'd left for the rest of their lives, taking averages per month or year multiplied by how many months or years they could statistically expect to still have. Given that I'm 30, and my life expectancy is around 80, I have 50 years of reading left. Optimistically, 50 years with 40 books a year makes for 2,000 books in total, This sounds like a lot, but looking at how many books I've probably already read, I'm way more than halfway through. And most years, I won't make the count of 40; if I read the 5 big novels I mentioned above next year, there won't be many others. So with that in mind, I won't be wasting my time rereading something like The Da Vinci Code, but really aim for novels I think will 'contribute' something. Which sounds really heavy, but it's good to think about these things, and make the choices you think are worthwhile.

Next year, I will again try to read only new novels, but I won't make it a hard and fast rule; if I feel like rereading Harry Potter for the tenth time, I'm going to. Because I missed the rereading, and some novels just really need to be reread. Also, I won't be setting myself any goals in numbers, because as I've noticed, it keeps me away from the really big classics that take a lot of time. But most importantly, I will read with my full attention, really getting into these stories. If I'm going to dedicate time to them, which I will, because I still love to read, it's going to be quality time.
And of course, I will keep on writing about the books I've read, because after reading, the next best thing with books is talking about them.

Wordfeud

As you may know by now, I'm not that quick to jump on technological bandwagons of any kind; I was late coming to digital cameras, smartphones, Netflix, and Spotify. So it will come as no surprise that I only recently started playing Wordfeud, more than 800 days after most people discovered it (Wordfeud tells you when people started playing. It's embarrassing). Again, this was not due to lack of encouragement from my surroundings; several colleagues have been bugging me about it for the past few months, and for one new co-worker, it was one of the first questions he asked me, right after 'What is it you do here?'
So, I finally caved, created an account, and set about finding people to play with. This the fun thing about Wordfeud; in contrast to other addictive games, such as Angry Birds and CandyCrush, here you actually play against other people. Which makes it feel less like 'I'm such a loser wasting my time on games', and more of 'look at me being social and interactive'. But which also means you can lose.
Boy, did I lose, the first couple of games. Big time. We're talking 300+ points. And to make it even worse; I wasn't expecting to lose. Because most of my co-workers are beta-y types; mathematics, physics, the hard sciences. Not language-y. Not wordy. So I was expecting it to be easy.
But it isn't. Because Wordfeud is not just about thinking up the best words that will make you play the most letters, and placing these as tactically as possible on the board. It's also about strategy. About planning ahead, about thinking which TL and TW (triple letter and triple word) spaces you're giving to your opponent. About which words can easily be extended into many more points. And even (I found this unbelievable) about counting letters. About knowing which letters are still in the game, and planning ahead so you can use those letters to make a long and high-scoring word at the end, to grab the final victory. Which is not something I'm doing, I'll tell you, but you can. If you're really addicted.
So it was a steep learning curve. My first few games were a disaster; once you're behind by 100 points, it's hard to get even. But in the end, I did manage to win my first game, and from my 6 regular opponents, I've won from 3 (including my boss, which may be slightly embarrassing). But it's not about winning, it's about having fun, and coming up with crazy and inventive words, and trying out what the game will accept and what it won't, and outsmarting the person you're playing against. It has a nice chat function too, which has moved some of my conversations from WhatsApp to Wordfeud.
In the end, it's a shame I didn't discover Wordfeud earlier. But that does give me an excuse for when I lose (again); I'm still learning!

52 Book Challenge - November

In all that craziness of writing a novel, I completely forgot to tell you about the novels I've read. Which weren't a lot, because I spent all my free time writing, but here goes:

37 In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

38 Kom hier dat ik u kus - Griet Op den Beeck

When I bought the first one, the salesperson told me that it was the best American novel she'd ever read. So the standards were pretty high, and sad to say, In Cold Blood didn't really meet them. I don't know what the best American novel I've ever read is, but this one certainly isn't it. Too factual, too cold, too unimaginative. Mind you, it's a great feat of literature, but not really for me...

The second novel is in Dutch, obviously, or more correctly in Flemish, which I think is a lot prettier and softer than Dutch. The novel is absolutely brilliant, following the life of Mona at three different ages, as she discovers who she is, how she wants to live her life, and with whom. Especially part 1, when she's about 8 years old, is beautifully written. If you're Dutch, and you haven't read it: lezen dat boek!

So as this year has only 29 days left, and I still have 14 books to go, I think we can conclude that I won't be making 52 new books this year. But I've decided to set my standards a little bit lower, and aim for 40 books, which should be possible, now that NaNoWriMo is over. Which gives me something to aim for, but something a bit more realistic than 52!