In Which We Discuss My Unread Pile - Day 20!

After 20 days, my unread pile is down from 204 to 167. I read these;

...and donated three more, getting rid of ten since the 15th.  So I have another 11 days in which to read 17 books.  It's not even 8am on the 20th yet, so I've actually got twelve days.  I've been aiming for two a day, so I'll just keep doing that.

In Which We Discuss My Reading Speed

Before I start talking about how fast I read, I would like to make it very clear that I am talking about reading with sub-vocalisation, not speed-reading. In other words, when I read, I say the words in my head and follow the story.

I didn't learn to read until I was eight, but I took to it very quickly.  I have a memory from when I was nine that still riles me; my class were split into reading groups, and each group was assigned a book.  Another member of my group noticed that I was much further through than he was, and called a teacher over to tell her I was skipping pages.  I was not skipping pages.  The teacher believed him, and I never forgave her.

What's the point in skipping pages?  If you're going to skip pages, just skip the whole thing, surely?  How can reading every other page or every third page possibly seem like a good idea to anyone?  I am baffled.

Anyway; when I was fifteen or so, I remember using Goosebumps books to get a rough idea of my reading speed.  Those books are all a fairly standard length, and I found that it took me between 20-30 minutes to finish one, from cover to cover.

It's now almost ten years later, and I'm wondering whether I've improved or not.  So I've decided to time myself reading 100 pages, and figure out the average.  Since I have approximately 25 books to read to get my unread pile down to 150, I've decided that I'm going to time myself on 25 books I've not read previously, thus killing two birds with one stone.

I did actually do something similar to this two years ago.  Then, I found that I averaged 30 minutes for 100 pages, that I was slower on books I'd read before, and that I was faster on children's books than adult books.  That was out of a dataset of 10, so not much to go on.

There are some problems with this method, of course.  I'm using all physical, paperback books, so they vary in page and font size.  Also, the act of observation affects my speed.  I tend to focus more, and don't start daydreaming or give in to distractions.  In short, what we're really measuring is my average speed on 100 pages (with varying amounts of words on them) under observation.  Which is a little different than my actual average speed.  Still, it's interesting to me, and it helps me get through my unread pile quicker, so we'll give it a go.

In Which We Discuss My Unread Pile - The Halfway Point!

My unread pile consisted of 204 books on the 1st of May. I got it down to 194 on the 5th, and 179 on the 10th. It's now the 15th, so we're almost halfway through May, and I'm down to 177. That doesn't include books I've started, so I'm halfway through two or three of those. I might make a graph, at the end of the month.

I have read more than 2 books off the pile in the last five days. In fact, I've read these;

So why has my unread pile only shrunk by two? Pretty much purely because I decided to count the five books in the Pop Larkin Chronicles as five, when I'd previously been counting them as one volume. I think I must have picked up another book from somewhere, too, but god knows where.  I swear they breed when they think I'm not looking.

I've still not finishing Thinking, Fast and Slow.  I took it back to the library and bought the ebook instead.  I'm focusing on books off the unread pile, so I'll probably only read a chapter or two at a time.

In Which We Discuss Decisions and Reading

I recently read The Decisive Moment (alt title: How We Decide), which has been in my unread pile for quite a while. Right now, I'm reading Thinking, Fast and Slow, which contains a lot of the original work that The Decisive Moment is based on. Both books are about how we think.

Lehrer (author of The Decisive Moment) labels the two systems 'instinct' and 'analysis'.  Kahneman labels them 'system 1' and 'system 2'.  Both use the following question to illustrate the two systems;

The price of a bat and a ball together is £110.  The bat costs £100 more than the ball.  How much does the ball cost?

The part of you that said the ball costs £10 is instinct, system 1.  The part that worked out that the correct answer is £5 is system 2, analysis.

I include that question not to illustrate that instinct is always wrong (it isn't; try catching a ball using analysis) but because you can feel the two systems working.

System 2/analysis normally takes more effort.  Your pupils dilate, and your heart-rate speeds up very slightly.  Kahneman mentions that, if asked to calculate something like 17 x 24 while walking, you will most likely stop walking.  I've also noticed another of his observations myself; that it is very difficult to be in a state of physical exertion and to think complicated thoughts at the same time.  That's what I like about running (during the relatively few moments when I do like running).  It is a welcome respite from thinking.

Kahneman also talks about flow, which is when you're performing an activity that would normally use system 2/analysis, but you're in a state where it feels effortless.  You know that feeling when you get really into something?  Like when you're drawing, and the entire world disappears?  I get it when I draw sometimes, during tests, and, sometimes, when reading.

It was only relatively recently that I realised that reading takes effort for most people.  It was, really, when I read this article, on how to read fifty-two books in a year.

...seriously?  People need a guide on how to read a  book a week?  They think that's a big number?  This was news to me.  He also describes a lot of things that I'm in the habit of doing, like reading while commuting (I don't have a commute right now, but whenever I travel).  What do people do if they don't read while travelling?  Sure, I don't read sometimes.  I listen to music or podcasts, or stare out of the window and switch off, every so often.  But I read most of the time, while travelling.  How do people not die of boredom otherwise?  This honestly baffles me.

He also talks about using every minute to read.  I typically read a lot in queues.  It's a lot easier with an eReader, especially since my Kobo mini fits easily in my pocket.  Whip it out, read a few pages, queues are no longer boring.  I also read while I brush my teeth.  My electric toothbrush only needs one hand, and the Kobo only needs the occasional tap.  Paperbacks are trickier, but totally possible.

I don't force myself to do these things, and I don't have an end goal (most of the time).  I just like reading, want to find out what happens next and/or it's the easiest way for me to deal with dead time, like travelling or waiting.  I don't know what else to do with that time.

As I said, I am often in a state of flow while reading.  It doesn't take me any effort.  It was a bit of a realisation for me that it does take effort, for a lot of people.

That said, sometimes I'm not always in a state of flow.  Then, I automatically do what he suggests, for instance, dividing a book into pages.  I'll read until I hit fifty, or until I'm a quarter of the way through, or a third, or a half, or three quarters, and so on.  It's kind of like counting sheep to fall asleep, making yourself read until you hit a state of flow.  You know that state is there, ready for you to fall into; you just fake it till you make it.

I've been doing that more this month, since I have that goal of getting my unread pile down to one hundred and fifty.  It's paying off.  So many of these books I wouldn't have gotten round to, if I'd left it totally up to system 1, and the payoff has been worth it.  The Decisive Moment, for instance, or Atonement.  Atonement brought up lots of feelings, and I don't want to say that I enjoyed it, or liked it, because those feelings weren't all happy.  But it was interesting.   I'm glad I got round to reading The Catcher in the Rye, even though I didn't really connect with it.  It's one of those books that's nice to have read, you know?

Anyway, Thinking, Fast and Slow is due back at the library today, so I should probably go finish it.

In Which We Discuss Point Horror

When I was younger, my mother had quite a collection of Point Horror books. Unfortunately, the dog ate them.

The Point Horror series was published by Scholastic in the early nineties. It consisted of several short books (between 100-200 pages each) aimed at young adults. There were also a few books of short stories. Writers include R. L. Stine, Caroline B. Cooney, and Christopher Pike.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to find a full list of Point Horror books online. I hate missing out on anything, so I even wrote to the publisher, and they basically had no idea what I was talking about. Poor form, Scholastic customer service. Very poor form. You get my 'bad reviews'  and 'unprofessional' tags.

Anyway.  Several of the books were collected into sets of three, and published as Point Horror Collections. Others are only available as stand alone titles.  There were also offshoots such as Point Horror Unleashed,
and Nightmare Hall.

I want to try to write a list of Point Horror Books as complete as I can make it. Alphabetical by title.  This list doesn't include the Unleashed or Nightmare Hall series', but does include the 2003 revival, all six of which are available for the Kindle.  It turns out that quite a few of the books were made available for Kindle.  Go figure.

Title	Author	Notes
The Accident	Diane Hoh	In Collection 2.
Amnesia	Sinclair Smith	NA
April Fools	Richie Tankersley Cusick	In Collection 3.
The Babysitter	R. L. Stine	In Collection 4 and in the R. L. Stine Special Collection.
The Babysitter II	R. L. Stine	In the R. L. Stine Special Collection.
The Babysitter III	R. L. Stine	In the R. L. Stine Special Collection.
The Babysitter IV	R. L. Stine	NA
Beach House	R. L. Stine	In Collection 1.
Beach Party	R. L. Stine	NA
The Body	Carol Ellis	NA
The Boy Next Door	Sinclair Smith	In Collection 10.
The Boyfriend	R. L. Stine	In Collection 4.
The Bride	D. E. Athkins	NA
Call Waiting	R. L. Stine	In Collection 8.
Camp Fear	Carol Ellis	NA
The Cemetery	D. E. Athkins	In Collection 5.
The Cheerleader	Caroline B. Cooney	The first of the Vampire Trilogy.  In Point Horror Collection 6.
The Claw	Carmen Adams	NA
The Dark	Linda Cargill	Part of the 2003 revival.  Available on Kindle.
The Dark II	Linda Cargill	Part of the 2003 revival.  Available on Kindle.
The Dead Game	A. Bates	In Collection 8.
The Dead Girlfriend	R. L. Stine	NA
Defriended	Ruth Baron	Part of the 2013 revival.  Available on Kindle.
Demon	Samantha Lee	Part of the 2003 revival.  Available on Kindle.
Demon II	Samantha Lee	Part of the 2003 revival.  Available on Kindle.
The Diary	Sinclair Smith	NA
Double Date	Sinclair Smith	NA
Dream Date	Sinclair Smith	NA
Driver's Dead	Peter Lerangis	NA
Fatal Secrets	Richie Tankersley Cusick	NA
The Fever	Diane Hoh	In Collection 5.
Final Exam	A. Bates	NA
The Forbidden Game: The Hunter	L. J. Smith	Part 1.  I LOVED these, especially when I was younger.  Available in a collected edition.
The Forbidden Game: The Chase	L. J. Smith	Part 2.  Available in a collected edition.
The Forbidden Game: The Kill	L. J. Smith	Part 3.  I would have picked Julian.  Available in a collected edition.
Freeze Tag	Caroline B. Cooney	In Collection 5.
Funhouse	Diane Hoh	In Collection 2.
The Girlfriend	R. L. Stine	In Collection 4.
Halloween Night	R. L. Stine	NA
Halloween Night II	R. L. Stine	NA
Help Wanted	Richie Tankersley Cusick	NA
Hide and Seek	Jane McFann	NA
Hit and Run	R. L. Stine	In Collection 7.
The Hitchhiker	R. L. Stine	In Collection 10.
Homecoming Queen	John Hall	NA
Identity Theft	Anna Davies	Part of the 2013 revival.  Available on Kindle.
The Invitation	Diane Hoh	In Collection 1.
Krazy 4 U	A. Bates	NA
The Lifeguard	Richie Tankersley Cusick	NA
The Mall	Richie Tankersley Cusick	NA
Mirror Mirror	D. E. Athkins	NA
Mother's Helper	A. Bates	In Collection 1.
The Mummy	Barbara Steiner	NA
My Secret Admirer	Carol Ellis	In Collection 2.
Night School	Caroline B. Cooney	NA
Party Line	A. Bates	NA
The Perfume	Caroline B. Cooney	In Collection 9.
The Phantom	Barbara Steiner	In Collection 9.
Pool Party	Linda Cargill	Part of the 2013 revival.  Available on Kindle.
Prom Date	Diane Hoh	NA
Prom Dress	Lael Littke	NA
The Return of the Vampire	Caroline B. Cooney	The second of the Vampire Trilogy.  In Point Horror Collection 6.
Return to X-Isle	Peter Lerangis	Part of the 2003 revival.  Available on Kindle.
The Ripper	D. E. Athkins	NA
Second Sight	Sinclair Smith	NA
Silent Witness	Carol Ellis	In Collection 9.
Sister Dearest	D. E. Athkins	NA
The Snowman	R. L. Stine	In Collection 3.
Spring Break	Barbara Steiner	NA
The Stalker	Carol Ellis	NA
The Stranger	Caroline B. Cooney	In Point Horror Collection 8.  I love this book.  It's strange and wonderful.
The Surfer	Linda Cargill	NA
Sweet Sixteen	Francescca Jeffries	NA
Teacher's Pet	Richie Tankersley Cusick	NA
Thirteen Tales of Horror	Various	NA
Thirteen More Tales of Horror	Various	NA
Thirteen Again	Various	NA
The Train	Diane Hoh	In Collection 7.
Trick or Treat	Richie Tankersley Cusick	NA
Twins	Caroline B. Cooney	NA
Twisted	R. L. Stine	NA
Vampire's Love: Blood Curse	Janice Harrell	NA
Vampire's Love: Blood Spell	Janice Harrell	NA
The Vampire's Promise	Caroline B. Cooney	The third of the Vampire Trilogy.  In Point Horror Collection 6.
The Waitress	Sinclair Smith	In Collection 3.
The Watcher	Lael Littke	In Collection 10.
The Window	Carol Ellis	In Collection 7.
The Witness	R. L. Stine	NA
The Yearbook	Peter Lerangis	Part of the 2003 revival.  Available on Kindle.
X-Isle	Peter Lerangis	Part of the 2003 revival.  Available on Kindle.

In Which We Discuss My Unread Pile (Again) (Again)

My unread pile now has 179 books in it, down from 194 on the 5th and 2014 on the 1st. Go me!  I read eight;

...and donated a few more.  Including India Knight's Comfort and Joy.

I used to love India Knight's books.  I liked My Life on a Plate, and adored Don't You Want Me.  Then I read her comments on Shannon Matthews, and couldn't pick up any of her books without remembering them.

From Owen Jones' Chavs;

...as India Knight put it about Maddie, she had vanished from a holiday resort “which specialises in providing family-friendly holidays to the middle classes.” The joy of these resorts were that they “were populated by recognisable types” where you could sigh in relief and think, “Everyone is like us”. They were not places you would expect to meet “the kind of people who wallop their weeping kids in Sainsbury’s.”

Journalists were often honest about why there was less interest in Shannon’s disappearance. “It is ‘up North’, it is a bleak mix of pebbledash council blocks and neglected wasteland, and it is populated by some people capable of confirming the worst stereotype and prejudice of the white underclass,” wrote one Times journalist. Melanie Reid argued “we are as removed from that kind of poverty as we are from events in Afghanistan. For life among the white working class of Dewsbury looks like a foreign country.”

I'm the mixed race result of a teenage pregnancy, raised by a single mother on a council estate.  India Knight's comments reveal her thoughts; that people whose families looked like mine, whose homes looked like mine were not "people like us".  Instead, we are "the kind of people who wallop [their] weeping kids in Sainsbury's".  Because, as everyone knows, it is impossible to be whatever makes up 'people like us' when you grow up on a council estate.  It is impossible not to be the sort of person who 'wallops' weeping kids in Sainsbury's when you're poor.

I cannot read India Knight's books without being reminded of those comments and that mindset.  So, no, Ms Knight.  Just no.  Fuck you.

In Which We Discuss My Hometown Being Invaded by Bats and Put Under Martial Law

I've spent the last hour or so reading my first Guy N. Smith book. To be totally honest, I assumed he was American.  My mother had a few of his books, and they were on her shelves with her Dean Koontz and Stephen Kings and Virginia Andrews, and lots of other Americans. 

So, I was reading this book, Bats Out of Hell, under the assumption that he was American and the book was set in America.  Generally speaking, assuming that books are set in America and that the main characters are white is a totally reasonable assumption to make.

I continued thinking that Bats Out of Hell was set in America for a little while after the first mention of Birmingham.  There's a Birmingham in Alabama, after all (and a Paris in Texas, and a London in Toronto, yes I know Toronto is in Canada...).

What eventually tipped me off was the mention of Snow Hill Station, and Colmore Row, and a bunch of other places I walk past at least once a week.  That's always quite exciting, when a book suddenly starts talking about places that you know intimately.  Annie Murray does the same thing.  A favourite of mine is My Daughter, My Mother  which is set in Birmingham in 1984.  The main characters are single mothers, and one of them is even Asian (I know Subcontinental Indian, but I forget which bit specifically).  I was born in 1988.  My father is Indian, and my mother raised me by herself.  I remember reading that book on a bus, back when I lived in Edgbaston, near Bearwood (as opposed to Edgbaston near Basall Heath, where I grew up).  The character was on the 9, heading towards a building near the Edgbaston Reservoir.  I was on the 9 heading towards a building near the Edgbaston Reservoir!  That was both spooky and awesome.

I don't know if people who live in places like London get this sensation more or don't get it at all.  But, it's awesome when you're reading a book and you've walked down the streets it's mentioning.  It's really disappointing when they get it wrong though, like Ben Elton did in High Society when he offhandedly referred to "one of those all night fast-food places in Birmingham City Centre".  We don't have any all night fast-food places in our city centre.  We have the McDonalds in Paradise Forum that stays open till 3am on Friday nights/Saturday mornings, but that's about it.  Completely ripped me out of the story.