Follow up from https://fred-mouse.dreamwidth.org/701875.html

The 100 days project finished up Friday just gone. This stalled out badly - I worked out that spending time on the computer wasn't good for Things, and basically pulled back, and then pulled back some more. I'm happier for it, but saddened that I'm still not making the kind of progress I want to with languages. I did get about 200 more of the Wanikani vocabulary to the level desired, so I'm a bit of 60% of the way to the original goal.

Reading on the other hand, is going well. I'm reading more hardcopy than ebooks, which is the opposite of what I expected, but it is the same pattern as above, where being on the computer isn't good. However, I've now transferred a stack of interesting and potentially light reading options onto the work iPad (which means I can read the various graphic novels, which work much better in portrait than landscape), and that seems to be a much better choice. Ebooks are at about 50% of 'target', all the others combined are at about 140% of target.

Current progress:

• ebooks: finished 13 / 100; several more started that might be DNFed given how much energy I'm putting in to them.
• published 2019/2020: 8 / 10
• beat the backlist 2 / 10
• work related textbooks 0 / 10 - this was always the most aspirational. I have at least started one!
• non-fiction 3 / 10
• 'read the alphabet' - with the goal of reading 20 books where their authors' last names were different letters of the alphabet. This is at 13 / 20, and I've already got 5 extras! While this is doubling up on the other two fiction goals, it is also where books that don't fit either of those are going. This is a deliberate double dipping to enable me to get ahead early on, so that I'm not fighting to reach a target, but to maintain an existing one. This works for me.

I've realised that doing the 'beat the backlist' as an ad hoc thing isn't working -- most of the books in my TBR shelf are recent ones, so I've been doing some active sorting today. I decided that the book has to have been on the shelf since at least 2018. Given that non-fiction is a separate category, I'm restricting it to fiction, and prose fiction at that. No series, because that will complicate matters. And then to narrow it down, I've picked publication dates of the three years that my kids were born, on the theory that those were years when I wasn't keeping up with what is new. Now I have 198 books to sift through and pick some likely contenders!

I've also identified a collection of non-fiction to sort through. I'll leave that to think more on later though, as there are 776 books in that list at the moment. I'll probably winnow out the cookbooks and craft books, because I don't read those in the same way.

I'd previously done the same kind of sort for books published in 2019, which was much easier, which is one of the reason that that list is as done as it is. I was prioritising reading things so that I could nominate the good ones for the Hugos. I'll not count further Hugo reading as part of this though, because there are still interesting things on my shelves I want to read.

I did finish the judging reading that I was doing, other than the one I declared DNF for not being appropriate for category. The shortlist has been released, and the rest of the judges work has been done, so that is off the list for now. I'm still planning on volunteering for a novel category this year, because I have missed that as an option.

The last challenge on that page was the 750 words for January. Which I did, and then lasted a few days into February, when I realised I'm much happier not thinking at that level about what I'm not getting done. If I could find a way to use it for good, for encouragement and celebration, I would. But I was using it for self-flagellation, and reflecting each day that I still hadn't finished anything and all those projects were there, not good. When it was possible to do first thing in the morning, the planning aspect is great, and gives me motivation. What I might give a go is to see how I feel if I use it just for building myself up. Start gently, trying 100 words. Only mentioning the wins of the day. (and just writing that is making the back of my brain arc up and complain).

So, for the next four months, I'm aiming to continue with the reading project. I'd like to maintain momentum with hardcopy books, and get the ebooks up to say, 60% of target. It would be good to get the textbooks to 1/10, and the non-fiction and beat the backlist to 5/10. Finishing the recent publications seems doable, as does the authors alphabet.

The other project I'm going to add is reading (and voting) for the Hugos. I need to contact my favourite local bookshop with a long email (currently in messy draft form) asking which of these they have in stock and which they can get easily. I need to add the works to my reading spreadsheet, so that I can keep track. The fabulous rmc28 has been providing links to the shorter fiction, so I can at least get started on those.

And I'm thinking about getting back to languages by reading kids books. I have a stack of italian kids books, so just reading those (and somewhat harder ones -- a handful of kids chapter books) would be a good start. I have some simple Japanese and Russian ones in my online bookshop wishlist, but that requires more ability to read. But having bought at least one Japanese one that has transliteration and translation, I might just spend more time reading that. And practicing looking things up by kanji!