Rick Silva's Blog - Posts Tagged "reading"

Arisia is this weekend, and Dandelion Studios has a table in Artist Alley. Come say hi! We're bringing our three-year-old son and our intern (for parts of it).

We are also on panels. Here is our panel schedule.

Friday

Fri 5:30pm Tell the Truth: Non-Fiction Comics (Gynn)

Saturday

Sat 5:30pm Reading: Nelson, Silva, & Taaffe (Rick, reading his story from Fat Girl in a Strange Land)

Sat 5:30pm Comics: Not How You Start, But How You Finish! (Gynn)

Sat 7:00pm Race, Gender & Disability Politics in Comics (Gynn)


Sunday

Sun 10:00am The Best Young-Adult and Children's Comics (Rick)

Sun 2:30pm Creating Minicomics (Gynn)

Sun 5:30pm Building the Perfect Beast: How Comics Get Made (Rick and Gynn)

Monday

Mon 11:30am Attending a Con with Kids (Rick)

Mon 1:00pm Marketing Independent Comics (Rick)

My first-ever public reading of my fiction went really well. I read my story "How Do You Want To Die?" from the Crossed Genres anthology Fat Girl In A Strange Land at the Arisia convention in Boston tonight. I managed to read fairly smoothly, and the audience seemed to enjoy the story. It was also nice to see some friends among the listeners.

I also really enjoyed readings by novelist Resa Nelson and poet Sonya Taaffe who shared the timeslot with me.

If you're at Arisia, I'll be in the dealers' room all weekend with Dandelion Studios (aside from a few slots where I'm at panels). Stop by and check out my comics!

When we made the decision to move overseas, one very obvious thing that happened was that, at least for the duration of our travels, my massive library was going into storage.

I bought Gynn a Kindle for her birthday that Spring. This is the logical reading solution for someone living a traveling lifestyle: One small device, and access to books whenever you want one. She likes it, and gets some use out of it, probably about at the level of use she was getting taking books out of the public library back in the US.

I always had the collector's bug when it came to books. My library was like a trophy case to me, so I didn't borrow tend to books, and I was a bit reluctant to taking the plunge into digital reading. I did find that Goodreads made for a reasonably satisfactory alternative to the "trophy case" vibe, but I still had reservations about the Kindle. For one thing, I spend a lot of time staring at screens of various devices, and my reading time is a break from that. And there is a lot I do truly love about printed books.

So when we packed for Vietnam in the summer of 2014, I loaded up my suitcase with reading material. And soon discovered the joys of airline baggage weight limits. Fortunately I hadn't completely overdone it, and all that was required was some shifting and redistributing of books between suitcases.

Upon arrival, I soon discovered the local book shop, which had a decent-sized English-language section that at least covered classics and most current bestsellers. I also found a decent used book dealer in the backpacker district, and I discovered that there was a pretty decent selection available in my school's library.

With two summer trips back to the States under our belts, and starting on our third year in Vietnam, I feel like I have it down to something of a system. I buy books in the US, trying to stick mostly with things not available here, pack them evenly distributed through our bags, and haul them here. When I am done reading them, unless it's a book I'm keeping for specific sentimental reasons, I give it away, either directly to friends, or add it to the "leave/take" book shelf in my school's faculty room.

I buy books here on occasion, especially local interest stuff, and use the school library. I use my Kindle app on my iPad for the occasional ebook. I also bring a stack of comics from the US, and return those to storage each summer.

It's a reasonable compromise between my old-school collector mentality, and the digital-nomad approach that many of my fellow expats take. I've learned to let go quite a bit, but there's still the occasional thrill of finding something like my absolutely gorgeous Grosset & Dunlap Junior Illustrated Library edition of Jane Eyre that I found this summer on the West Roxbury MA public library's book sale shelf for a buck. That's sitting on my bookshelf here in Saigon, and it's coming home with me next June to go into storage for someday when we're done wandering the planet and I get my library set up again.

My Top 5 Books Read In 2017

5. Never Let Me by Jennifer Brozek
4. Lisey's Story by Stephen King
3. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
2. Castle Waiting by Linda Medley
1. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

My Top 5 Books That I Read With The Kiddo In 2017

5. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
4. The Diary of Amos Lee by Adeline Foo
3. Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown
2. The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen
1. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Kiddo's Top 5 Books Read In 2017

5. How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell
4. Magic Tree House #35: Night of the New Magicians by Mary Pope Osborne
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #4: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney
2. Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown
1. Dog Man Unleashed by Dav Pilkey

I'm going to do a year of reading only books by women in 2019. I've got some amazing-looking books lined up, and I'm looking forward to this as an opportunity to hear some different voices and to read some things I might not have otherwise chosen.

Here is the list of works by female authors that I've got on my shelf right now:

Finished Reading:

Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova
The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

Currently Reading:

So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
Hack College Like An Entrepreneur by Antonia Liu

To Be Read:

Shut Up Shakespeare and Other Poems by Ellen Beener
A Book Without Dragons by Olivia Berrier
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis
The Distant Land of my Father by Bo Caldwell
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
The Vengeful Half by Jackie Dolamore
Moonlight Sonata by Elizabeth Donald
Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
China Homecoming by Jean Fritz
Seaworthy by Linda Greenlaw
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
A Thousand Miles to Freedom by Eunsun Kim
Mambo in Chinatown by Jean Kwok
Dragon Magic by Andre Norton
Seven Spells To Sunday by Andre Norton
Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce
Lumberjanes Vol. 4 by Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, and Brooke Allen
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan
Spectra by Rebecca Thompson and Kerry G. Johnson
Space Opera by Catherynne Valente
The Flutter Collection by Jennie Wood
Wizard's Hall by Jane Yolen

That accounts for just under half of the goal of 75, although I will pick up some of the remaining ones from the Kiddo's to-be-read pile. Open to suggestions of any genre. I am somewhat limited in terms of what is available at easily accessible bookstores in Shanghai (I prefer not to read ebooks, which limits things a bit further, but I expect to have some opportunities over the course of the year to do a bit of book shopping).

Exceptions:

With any absolute statement, there are usually some exceptions attached.

I have three books by male authors that I am in the process of reading, and one I'm reading with the Kiddo and the other two are books that I've been reading in really slow bits at a time.

I do a comic review blog, and individual issue comics in my Random Stack of Unread Comics are, well, random, so I'm not including them in this exercise.

I sometimes have required professional development books for my job that I don't get to choose.

For the books that I read for bedtime reading with the Kiddo, I do have a really nice selection of books by women authors lined up, and I plan to try to stick with those and let him read other books on his own, but some of this is his choice.

I got a huge list of ideas to add to my wishlist from Facebook friends, but I am always happy to take other suggestions! Looking forward to some great reading in 2019!