Classic Words Free, the Android version of the classic board game Scrabble (or Spellofun as I knew it in childhood), is to be blamed for the fewer number of books I read in the first quarter, January-March. I've been addicted to the game since early February that cost me at least six books if not more. The six books I didn’t read would have covered one each of espionage, science fiction, horror, and fantasy, and two of nonfiction.
My target was 15 books and an unlimited number of short stories. Instead, I read just nine books and twenty short stories, and a dozen comics I didn’t keep track of.
The only consolation, as I see it, is that I learned new and often unpronounceable words. The built-in Scrabble dictionary is from another planet. I also played a few games online, with other sleep-deprived zombies, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did playing against my tablet. As of today I've won 80 out of 108 games, a success rate of 74.1 per cent. I was winning most of the games until I switched over to ‘Extremely Hard,’ the toughest level. So far my best word is ‘Untaxing’ that earned me a bingo and my best final score is 491. Is ‘Untaxing’ even a word? Whatever, I've added it to my Word dictionary.
Here then are the nine books I read over the past three months…
Thriller: Touch the Devil and The White House Connection by Jack Higgins
Splatterpunk: AN.AL—The Origins by Athul DeMarco
Mystery: The Rome Express by Arthur Griffiths and A Body in the Backyard by Elizabeth Spann Craig
Western: The Renos by Wolf Lundgren and A Noose for the Desperado by Clifton Adams
Humour: Beating Around the Bush by Art Buchwald
General: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
…and here are the twenty short stories.
Charles Allen Gramlich: Killing Trail, Showdown at Wild Briar, Powder Burn, and Once Upon a Time with the Dead, from Killing Trail
Ross Rocklynne: Sorry: Wrong Dimension
Philip K. Dick: The Father-Thing
Isaac Asimov: Rain, Rain, Go Away
Shirley Jackson: Charles and The Witch
Edith Nesbit: The Mystery of the Semi-Detached
Ernest Bramah: The End of the Beginning, In the Thick of It, and The Beginning of the End, from Smothered in Corpses
Dorothy Les Tina: Nice Corpses like Flowers
Evelyn Waugh: Edward of Unique Achievement, Fragments: They Dine with the Past, Conspiracy to Murder, Unacademic Exercise: A Nature Story, and The National Game, from The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh
There are no favourites. I liked all the books and short stories I read. They belonged to various genres and were written by gifted writers. Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury was a difficult read, like climbing the face of a mountain without gear.
So what do I take away from Q1? I’m back to reading contemporary authors. This time around I read Jack Higgins, Charles Allen Gramlich, Elizabeth Spann Craig, and India’s Athul DeMarco. The review of Charles’ Killing Trail is accompanied by an in-depth interview with the author. The only book I haven't reviewed is Elizabeth’s charming mystery A Body in the Backyard and that will happen soon.
I have a feeling Q2 will be better, in spite of the Android and I continuing to engage in a war of words over Scrabble.
My target was 15 books and an unlimited number of short stories. Instead, I read just nine books and twenty short stories, and a dozen comics I didn’t keep track of.
The only consolation, as I see it, is that I learned new and often unpronounceable words. The built-in Scrabble dictionary is from another planet. I also played a few games online, with other sleep-deprived zombies, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did playing against my tablet. As of today I've won 80 out of 108 games, a success rate of 74.1 per cent. I was winning most of the games until I switched over to ‘Extremely Hard,’ the toughest level. So far my best word is ‘Untaxing’ that earned me a bingo and my best final score is 491. Is ‘Untaxing’ even a word? Whatever, I've added it to my Word dictionary.
Here then are the nine books I read over the past three months…
Thriller: Touch the Devil and The White House Connection by Jack Higgins
Splatterpunk: AN.AL—The Origins by Athul DeMarco
Mystery: The Rome Express by Arthur Griffiths and A Body in the Backyard by Elizabeth Spann Craig
Western: The Renos by Wolf Lundgren and A Noose for the Desperado by Clifton Adams
Humour: Beating Around the Bush by Art Buchwald
General: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
…and here are the twenty short stories.
Charles Allen Gramlich: Killing Trail, Showdown at Wild Briar, Powder Burn, and Once Upon a Time with the Dead, from Killing Trail
Ross Rocklynne: Sorry: Wrong Dimension
Philip K. Dick: The Father-Thing
Isaac Asimov: Rain, Rain, Go Away
Shirley Jackson: Charles and The Witch
Edith Nesbit: The Mystery of the Semi-Detached
Ernest Bramah: The End of the Beginning, In the Thick of It, and The Beginning of the End, from Smothered in Corpses
Dorothy Les Tina: Nice Corpses like Flowers
Evelyn Waugh: Edward of Unique Achievement, Fragments: They Dine with the Past, Conspiracy to Murder, Unacademic Exercise: A Nature Story, and The National Game, from The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh
Julia Greene: Whiffet Squirrel
There are no favourites. I liked all the books and short stories I read. They belonged to various genres and were written by gifted writers. Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury was a difficult read, like climbing the face of a mountain without gear.
So what do I take away from Q1? I’m back to reading contemporary authors. This time around I read Jack Higgins, Charles Allen Gramlich, Elizabeth Spann Craig, and India’s Athul DeMarco. The review of Charles’ Killing Trail is accompanied by an in-depth interview with the author. The only book I haven't reviewed is Elizabeth’s charming mystery A Body in the Backyard and that will happen soon.
I have a feeling Q2 will be better, in spite of the Android and I continuing to engage in a war of words over Scrabble.
My reading has decreased lately too as I've been distracted by various real life dramas. And maybe a little by SKyrim!
ReplyDeleteCharles, my son plays Skyrim often though I've never tried it. There was a time when I was hooked to video and computer games, especially the early Dos games like PCman, Paratrooper, Dave, and Prince of Persia followed by Tetris, Islander, and Mario.
DeleteI remember enjoying Art Buchwald's columns in the daily newspaper when I was in school.
ReplyDeleteRon, Buchwald's syndicated column was very popular among Indian newspaper readers. I particularly looked forward to his political satire which, if I recall correctly, was rather mild. While he was renowned for his humour, he wasn't always funny.
DeletePrashant - nice summary. Reading is reading - I'm sure you'll catch up Q2. I want to try and stay on top of all the short stories I pick-up online. A bit more organisation and I'll do that.
ReplyDeleteI've lost reading time playing Breaking Bricks myself!
Col, thank you. I better catch up if I hope to read as many old and new authors as I want to including the classics. I'm now comfortable reading short stories and plan to read as many as I can every month. But sometimes I just forget. I have never played Breaking Bricks and I wonder if it's anything like Tetris. Let me find out.
DeleteI've got a book by Buchwald on my TBR pile, I should get it out. When I was much younger I read several of his collections and enjoyed them very much. I was very amused and entertained by your description of the addiction to Scrabble!
ReplyDeleteMoira, I read Buchwald's syndicated column in the 80s and 90s and since then I'd forgotten about him until his death in 2007. He wrote political satire but, I think, he took care not to ruffle political feathers. His wit and observation were sharp. I continue to play Scrabble, and read by the side!
DeletePrashant, I may have to try that Scrabble game. I love words but I do get frustrated with games like that sometimes.
ReplyDeleteThis was a good summary and your reading efforts are just fine. Do what you enjoy doing is the most important thing. I look forward to your review of Body in the Backyard.
Sorry to be so late in checking in on your posts. I am getting ready for a trip to Alabama and distracted from both reading and blogging. Everything has been slower for me.
Tracy, thank you and please don't apologise. I hope you have a wonderful trip to Alabama. I enjoy solving crosswords in newspapers and playing Scrabble on the computer although it's more fun playing on a real boardgame with real people. I'm looking forward to reviewing A BODY IN THE BACKYARD, a cozy mystery, by writer Elizabeth Spann. I don't read many of those. And read more contemporary authors this year.
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