Today’s TTT is how our reading habits have changed over time. First up, though, the ol’ Teddy Tease.
Loeb made a small sound, and Roosevelt waited for more, saw his son Archie running past in pursuit. With a hint of alarm, Loeb said, “Which one was that, sir?”
“That was Archie, my second youngest.”
“No, sir, the animal.”
“Oh. That was Josiah, the badger. I call him Josh.” (The Old Lion: A Novel of Theodore Roosevelt, Jeff Shaara)The thing is, enchantment that doesn’t compel you to change your life is not enchantment at all. It’s going to be hard to make this journey back to a richer and more vital understanding of our spiritual lives, but what else can we do? As Virgil says to Dante when they first met in the forest clearing, if you stay here, you’re going to die. (Living in Wonder, Rod Dreher)
So! Ways my reading has changed through the years…
(1) Rereads. Before entering the workforce, I didn’t have the means to buy books very often, so I would constantly re-read the titles I had. My copies of The Rainmaker and The Last Juror, as well as many Star Trek paperbacks and S.E. Hinton paperbacks, are absolutely battered. These days it’s rare that I re-read a book, with some exceptions: Asimov’s Black Widower mysteries are always enjoying little diversions, and occasionally I re-read a book to give it a proper review or to see how my perspective has changed over a course of years.
(2) Reading anything. As a kid, I’d come home from the library with books on anything and everything, but in high school I’d drifted to reading far more narrowly — just history, Star Trek, and thrillers. In 2005/2006 I began questioning my worldview rather drastically and began reading much more nonfiction and from a broader range. It began with my rediscovering the joys of science, but then I began reading philosophy, economics, urban planning, etc.
(3) A shift to e-reading. After I finally bought a smartphone (in 2018 — very much the black mirror skeptic) and could begin reading Kindle titles on my phone, ebooks have grown to account for at least half of my reading in any given year. I still read and love physical books, but the space saving and convenience have counted for a lot, not to mention my library’s ebook collection grows steadily with every year.
(4) The force is not with this one. I used to read Star Wars novels on a regular basis, but after the rat-empire seized Star Was as a property and declared the entirety of the Extended Universe vanquished, in favor of its far inferior cinematic storytelling, I’ve lost interest in the franchise as a whole.
(5) Fiction has had a huge upsurge this year, seizing a lead early and never relinquishing it. I’m still rooting for NF. (“Aren’t you ….in charge of that?”, a reader may ask, the answer is — no, not really. I follow the Muses, or their bookish equivalents.)
(6) Religious reading has changed enormously since I first began writing this blog in 2007 — back then I’d just left Pentecostalism and was mostly reading anti-religious works, but within a couple of years, I’d become inexplicably interested in religion, philosophy, and meaning: religion & philosophy reading hit a high water mark in 2009, and was all over the place. I’d read stuff I knew I wouldn’t like just to be exposed to it, like The Four Agreements and Deepak Chopra. Over the years (beginning with 2011) my religious reading has become more tightly focused to Christianity, and specifically to Catholic & Orthodox theology & practice.
(7) and (8). Science fiction and historical fiction have both grown over the years. Early on, the only Hf I read was Jeff Shaara novels, but then I stumbled onto Steven Saylor and Bernard Cornwell and they led me to others, like Kane and Harris, and soon I was even reading historical fiction that didn’t involve stabbing and shooting. Science fiction, likewise, began as “Star Trek and Isaac Asimov”, but now I’m fairly active reading it and have several favorite contemporary authors: Daniel Suarez comes to mind.
(9) Audiobooks are now a thing. For most of this blog’s history, I almost never read an audiobook except for the occasional one on CD. That changed when I learned that Wil Wheaton was an audible reader, which proved to be my gateway drug into Audible in general.
(10) This is less about reading and more about reviewing, but if you go back to 2007/2008 you’ll find my reviews are painfully formal, whereas now I’m perfectly happy to post something like Kinfolk, half of which was written in a southern vernacular inspired by both Sean Dietrich’s folksiness. I think my reviews have gotten progressively more ‘personable’ over the years. I don’t go back to my early reviews unless I want to find out about a book, whereas I’ll read my reviews from later years simply to amuse myself with my own writing. (Or facepalm, because how in the hell have I let that sentence fragment live long enough to get a driving license?)
Reading Freely 
Its interesting how much reading tastes and habits can change over time. Sometimes finding the right book can lead to you picking up an increasing amount within a genre, as you mentioned. Hopefully when I finally check out some of the sci fi books on my list the same will happen for me 😂
I’ve always been wary of ebooks (I worry I won’t take them in) but I do want to give them a try as they make it possible to read at times you couldn’t otherwise. I’m glad the right narrator helped you get into them.
I meant audio, not ebooks. I have plenty of those 😂
Well, whether I give a book a shot ALWAYS depends on the narrator. I once borrowed a title by a prominent writer & podcaster, only to discover that they didn’t do the audiobook themselves! Listening to them present would have been most of the appeal.
I also feel like my reading life has been…led, I guess is the word. Yes, maybe by the muses…
Since I was a teen, I’ve been fascinated by the ideas of philosophy and religion, and I’ve loved reading about other possible worlds in science fiction.
It’s funny how books can find us and then just change our lives!
Audiobooks are a newer thing I’ve gotten into as well! They can be quite handy under certain circumstances.
Thank you for stopping by earlier.
Lydia
I totally get the thing of reading whatever was available as a kid, I’d grab whatever I could at the library. Now I have adult money I can afford to be much more picky.
Yep! There’s a reason my DNF rate is very low.
It’s amazing how much our reading tastes change over the years. I agree with you on the audiobooks point. I never would have thought that I would listen to an audiobook, but I’m trying to do so more often now. I still prefer physical books over other forms, but maybe that will change someday.
Thanks for visiting my blog 🙂
Wil Wheaton is indeed so so good!
Now, what did you just do to me? I didn’t know The Black Widowers series (66 books??!!) nor Daniel Suarez. If my TBR explodes, you will be partly to blame, lol
Black Widower books by Asimov are just 5-6 collections of short stories — they have titles like Tales of the Black Widowers, Casebook of the Black Widowers, etc. I say 5-6 because one volume was published after Asimov’s death. If you like near-future SF that’s borderline tech thriller, Suarez is indeed dangerous. Planning on reading his Delta V in November.
Ah yes, that’s only 66 stories, lol.
And yes scifi/tech thriller is totally my thing. YOU are dangerous, lol
I’m doing an SF focus in November, so be warned…..
Looking forward to it! [lol] Next year I’m going to try and read some SF that’s less than 10 years old. From just looking through some of my book stacks, that’s going to be a challenge!
I was a latecomer to e-reading and audiobooks as well, but now I can’t live without either format. Good narrators are key for me and audio, though. If a narrator’s voice and/or style grates on my ears, I’ll DNF that sucker (at least in audio) without hesitation!
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
I have so many comments but calling it The Rat Empire has me rolling 😂😂 if you are still reading on a smart phone, I did that a LOT until buying a Kindle which I didn’t think I needed, and my eyes are 1000 times happier and less strained. It’s really an amazing difference – Athena @ OneReadingNurse
Definitely relate to the first point! I used to reread books all the time because the books I had were so limited, definitely read more now!
For the very first time in a very long time, I’m rereading a book. I’m doing this via an audiobook ( which is also new to me) so I can remember the book well enough to rate it. Otherwise I rarely reread, except for a few nonfiction.
I stopped attending church a few months ago, I’m just not feeling the organized religion vibe. This has upset my husband very much but I think the fact that I continue to read Christian books is helping him to be okay with it.
I feel like my reviews need a little help, especially if it’s a three star read. Good books that don’t wreck me emotionally don’t get much emotion out of me in my review.
Lol I was just talking with another blogger friend about how our writing styles for our blogs have changed since we first started blogging. When I first started I was the same, so formal and stiff like I was writing a paper for school. Now I am so far from that my professors would be tut-tutting and shaking their heads.
Your #5 made me giggle. As for audiobooks, during Audible 2 for 1 sales, basically any book narrated by Wheaton is an auto buy, just because he’s the narrator.
I hope you have a great weekend.
Here’s my TTT if you wish to visit – https://justanothergirlandherbooks.blogspot.com/2024/10/top-ten-tuesday-books-on-my-tbr-longest.html
I was an early adopter of ebooks. I think maybe the very first Kindle had been released, but I started with a Sony ereader. It’s funny how clunky they look, looking back! Watching people in general swing to more ereading has been really interesting, especially since a lot of people (me included) are hybrid rather than exclusively one or the other.
I don’t know that the Sony e-reader ever made my radar! I was only aware of Kindles and nooks.