Elizabeth Fraley's Blog

In 2017 I binge-read over 300 books within the calendar year. When I reflected back in an attempt to write up my annual best-reads blog post, I found that there were quite a few books on the list that I couldn't remember reading. Even if I skimmed through the first few chapters, I still couldn't remember whether I'd read it or not. I remembered that I'd wanted to read it. It was on my Goodreads Read list and, more often than not, was sandwiched in between other books I did remember.

And that was when I decided that you *could* read too many books.

For 2018, I didn't want a repeat. I enjoy reading and I want to remember the characters and places I spend hours with. In an attempt to throttle back my habit, I decided I would force myself to read books that were outside my comfort zone.

In my case, those books are non-fiction books.

I am not naturally drawn to non-fiction. NF reading isn't my go-to. It takes me longer to get through them--to really digest and understand them--especially if they are technical in nature. Knowing that adding NF to my reading challenge would slow me down, I decided that I would add 6 NF books and alternate months. One month would be all fiction, in the next I'd start with a NF book. If I finished it before the month was over, I could read all the fiction I wanted until the next NF month rolled around.

2018 went so well that I ended the year at 187, only 56% of what I read in 2017. I have to admit that felt a lot more reasonable.

It's not that I don't like non-fiction, I do; I just don't gravitate to it and sometimes we have to trick ourselves.

The great 2018 NF reading experiment was and success and I knocked several NF books off my "interested in" list.

In fact, it worked so well that I decided to do 1 NF book every month in 2019. I expected my count to drop as well and set my reading challenge at 96.

Turns out...

2019 didn't see the same experimental result. I did read 12 NF books in 2019, but my total count didn't drop farther, rather the reverse happened: I read 234 in 2019 or 125% of 2018's total.

Turns out when you push yourself further out of your comfort zone, your comfort zone pushes back. My fiction reading increased in 2019 even though my non-fiction reading also increased.

Not that I'm complaining. I read a lot of really great books both years.

But I think the lesson here is...Figure out the balance that works best for you. And absolutely step out of your reading comfort zone. You'll increase your chances of finding some really great books.

If you want to know more about exactly which books were the best, both years, you can find my write ups for Top Authors and Books from My Reading Challenges here:

2018 Challenge, 187 books, 6 Non-Fiction
2019 Challenge, 234 books, 12 Non-Fiction


I hope you find some good ones and share your favorites from your own challenges with me.

Over the last two years, I've read over 500 books. Because I read so many, I rarely leave detailed reviews. There just isn't time. Instead, I've taken to writing up my top-10 lists annually.

Now, these are not top 10 lists for all time, just of the books I happened to read within a calendar year.

In 2016, my total was 237. I wrote up a top 10 list of the books I liked best and why I chose them. See the list: http://bit.ly/2016EFRC

In 2017, my total was 329, nearly 100 books more than in 2016. The secret? Binge-reading. It's just like binge-watching, only with books. Instead of the top 10 books in 2017, I wrote up the top 10 series, how I got them, and why I picked them. See the list: http://bit.ly/2017EFRC

For 2018, my goal is a lot more moderate and I'm trying to work in more non-fiction reading this year. So far, so good. I'm looking forward to reporting back in next year. And with a decreasing volume, I'll likely get the list written up a lot earlier next year, too.

I know Arbortext 103 is late. I was really hoping to get it written in 2017, but events got out of hand.

A lot of people have been asking for it, so it's a priority this summer. I'm working on it now and making sure that it addresses Windchill 11, instead of 10. There are some important differences.

In the meantime, if you're in the greater Minneapolis area, I'll be at the Arbortext User Meeting at Toro on Tue July 10th. It's free to attend and includes lunch.

So if you have questions and you're in the area, be sure to come. I'll be there representing Styler and available to chat with attendees.

Over 45 people have already registered! The room is filling up, so register soon to attend! Don't miss out!

Here's the registration link:
https://www.ptc.com/en/products/servi...

Originally, I'd only planned to produce epub versions of the Arbortext Monster Garage books. I'm an ebook reader anymore. Even for technical books. Maybe especially for technical books. It's easy to search through electronic books and find the thing you need to do--in your other monitor--and then take immediate and direct action.

As soon as I announced it, though, everyone asked whether I was going to have a print book.

My day job is XML publishing and I work for an Arbortext reseller/partner. I know how to publish print-ready PDFs which is what most printers require. So I figured why not?

I converted it to DITA and created a new stylesheet and published a high-quality PDF that was accepted by the print house -- in one day!

The promise that XML publishing tools have been selling us for 20 years is real! I mean, I knew, but I didn't at the same time. It was so easy!

For any of the technical writers out there, if you use DITA and want details about everything, you can find more info here:

http://one-day-publishing.single-sour...