06 October 2008

Stuff I've Been Reading 10

BOOKS READ:

  • Girls For Breakfast - David Yoo
  • Watchmen - Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
  • Personal Days - Ed Park
  • Sweep - Cate Tiernan
  • How to Write A Damn Good Novel - James N. Frey
  • Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper - Michael Reisman
  • My personal goal while being back in San Diego and settling down again is to read a dozen YA novels in the next month. What I've discovered while working on this goal is that I can't read YA stuff along with other things. Usually I have a few books I flip around in but when I'm trying to get into the head space or tone of a YA novel, I can't read really read anything else or I lose my train of thought, as it were. Or maybe I just like these YA novels so much that I'm getting sucked in and don't want to stop.

    Other things I'm hoping to fit into this schedule are books about reading and writing. One of them is titled "How to Read a Book." It's advertised as "the classic guide to intelligent reading" and comes highly recommended. I kind of love it, even if it's slow going. Seeing as I've never really taken a literature or writing class, I feel like I need to self educate myself, and fast. I was talking with a friend the other day and she said that I could probably remedially just learn some proper grammar by working through the right books. That would involve discipline and self motivation of course, but it's something I should challenge myself to do because it's my livelihood!

    I mean, when I was playing with Lulu Titlescorer, a fun little app that tells you the chances your book will be a bestseller based on the title, I got lost on the little drop-down boxes about the words in my title. I mean, do I really fully understand what a "proper noun used as adjective/modifier" or "preposition/article" are? Um, maybe not.

    I took my best swing at it and my chances of producing a bestseller with my next book is 69%. Not bad right? Roll the dice and cue the champagne!