Okay, so, it was November 2nd, and that means the NaNo is Stupid and you should feel stupid brigade is out in full force. I can't even be bothered to read the whole article because I think they dust it off and put it out again every November. This year added:
And all I could think was that a lot of people who do NaNo in my circle of friends (which is, of course, self-selecting) would find reading 10 books in 10 months a really slow year. [ETA: Oh!![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
arkessian pointed out that I read this wrong: it's 10 books/category = 100 books, not 10 books in 10 categories = 10 books. Ack!] They participate in huge reading challenges that kinda boggle my mind: ![[livejournal.com profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
50books_poc, "I'm going to read my height in books!", "this year I'm going to read 12 books in translation", "I'm reading all the classics!" stuff like that. (I number myself amongst the least avid readers I know because I don't read anything anymore that isn't either thesis-related or YA. And I mostly read articles for the thesis.) (As umadoshi puts it, "I used to think I was an avid read, and then I met oyceter", although for me it was meganbmoore)
I just find the NaNo hate so ridiculous. "You could be doing something better with your life!" Yes, and so could you, and yet, you're writing for Salon.
Consider turning away from the self-aggrandizing frenzy of NaNoWriMo and embracing the quieter triumph of Kalen Landow and Melissa Klug's "10/10/10" challenge: These two women read 10 book in 10 categories between Jan. 1 and Oct. 10, focusing on genres outside their habitual favorites. In her victory-lap blog post, Klug writes of discovering new favorite authors she might otherwise never have encountered, and of her sadness on being reminded that "most Americans don't read ANY books in a given year, or just one or two." Instead of locking herself up in a room to crank out 50,000 words of crap, she learned new things and "expanded my reading world." So let me be the first to say it: Melissa and Kalen, you are the heroes.
And all I could think was that a lot of people who do NaNo in my circle of friends (which is, of course, self-selecting) would find reading 10 books in 10 months a really slow year. [ETA: Oh!
arkessian pointed out that I read this wrong: it's 10 books/category = 100 books, not 10 books in 10 categories = 10 books. Ack!] They participate in huge reading challenges that kinda boggle my mind: 50books_poc, "I'm going to read my height in books!", "this year I'm going to read 12 books in translation", "I'm reading all the classics!" stuff like that. (I number myself amongst the least avid readers I know because I don't read anything anymore that isn't either thesis-related or YA. And I mostly read articles for the thesis.) (As umadoshi puts it, "I used to think I was an avid read, and then I met oyceter", although for me it was meganbmoore)I just find the NaNo hate so ridiculous. "You could be doing something better with your life!" Yes, and so could you, and yet, you're writing for Salon.
