many have fallen by the wayside.
Some of you may know, I read a lot. Really. It’s true.
In 2024, I was in the top 1% of GoodReads’ readers in books and pages read. Seriously.
Why, you ask, should you care.
Perhaps you are in search of different authors, want to find & read early examples of certain types of fiction such as old science fiction, mysteries, detective thrillers etc. Or, you might be curious to know how an OCD reader manages to keep track of all the stuff he reads.
If so, then press on. Keep in mind this article represents but a prelude to what I can drone on about, if anyone is interested. I’ll remind you about that, again, toward the end.
With respect to all the reading I do, let me characterize it a bit for you.
The great majority of my reading includes novels and authors whose work(s) is (are) in the public domain. As a result, I come across a lot of forgotten, under appreciated works. Perhaps, you would like to know more!? Here are some details:
- Most of the novels I read predate 1920. Yep, they are 100+ years old; just a little bit older than me- but not by ‘that’ much.
- I tend to focus on the following categories:
- classic literature, those I missed in school or those I want to re-read.
- mysteries, crime and detective fiction; you would be amazed how good some of these forgotten gems are e.g, John Buchan, J.S. Fletcher, Anna Katherine Green
- early science fiction; which can be quite hokey and illuminating
- young adult mysteries and adventures- to share with my grandsons
- fantasies and middle-earth, think H.G. Wells, L. Frank Baum, E.R Burroughs
- espionage, spy thrillers- yes, they had those in the past, and some really good ones
- Horror- this is literature I have come to appreciate. I never did before e.g., Stoker, Lovecraft
- Humor-e.g., P.G. Wodehouse, Mark Twain
- As to where I source my reading/ listening & audio materials, I get most of mine on/at :
By way of full disclosure, I make every effort to keep my ‘reading addiction’ costs at zero. I’m neither Jeff Bezos nor Elon Musk. I am not even a wealth piker like Donald Trump; so, I do my best to keep my out-of-pocket costs at zero. I am simply a regular, garden variety, frugal human being. Thus, I use libraries and will for as long as libraries remain able to offer books; oh, and as long as I’m still alive.
I obtain all my texts in ebook (Kindle) format and/or audio format from LibriVox, Hoopla, OverDrive/Libby.
I manage my ebook library (some 1500 ebooks) using Calibre (opensource software). Calibre works on most computing platforms and is available at no cost. More importantly, Calibre is amazing!
Okay, I’m now done with the overview (context setting) I wanted to accomplish via this article. I hope you have been able to glean something useful from it.
As I promised earlier, I’ll now through a request out to you, my readership.
Are you interested in more writings on my reading journeys, adventures? Ideas of topic areas might include:
- writer/ author discoveries
- exceptional books
- information on books within a particular genre
- something else???
- anything of interest especially to you??
If you desire further information from these realms, then please let me know. I’m happy to share what I am able. Who knows, some of it may even be interesting or useful.
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