[Time-sinks] Books and other media
Myriad media are the subject of part 6 of my time-sinks series of posts. The main focus of this post will be on books, but I'll also touch on TV, films, magazines, music and podcasts as I ramble on.
I've been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. As a child, every day would end with me snuggled up in bed with a book, reading long after my light should have been out. When I was at primary school I would take part in the reading schemes that the public library ran, earning stickers and badges by reading certain numbers/types of books, or even certain titles. I remember devouring books as I grew older, and spending hours in libraries and bookshops browsing the shelves (a means of passing the time of which I am still fond). I suspect that having a mum who's a professional librarian is partly responsible for this addiction to the written word; it was great fun being able to exert some small influence over which books she bought for the school library, and getting access to new books before they went on the shelves was awesome.
These days I try to keep up that tradition of ending the day with a book, but there are often occasions when I find myself surfing the Internet just before going to bed instead of reading. I still make it through around 40 books or so a year, mostly fiction but with a few non-fiction books slipped in to cater to some of the interests that I don't otherwise have time to devote to. The frequent journeys that I make up and down the countries on planes and trains help quite a lot with maintaining this level! I quite regularly have more than one book on the go at a time, and although my reading speed seems to have slowed slightly since my school days I can still get through books at a decent pace.
My favourite genres have always been, and shall always be, fantasy and science-fiction. I am prepared to try reading anything that even remotely fits into those categories, and many of my favourite authors write genre fiction. They're such broad categories though, so to narrow it down a bit I tend to prefer epic fantasy (such as the Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin or the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan) and hard sci-fi/space opera books (such as the Revelation Space books by Alastair Reynolds). Anything that could potentially see alternative use as a doorstop is fine by me! I'm also partial to historical fiction (particularly Bernard Cornwell) and crime novels (particularly Jeffrey Deaver). My non-fiction reading tends to focus around military history or science. During my sixth form years I read a lot of popular science books, but now that I actually work in scientific research there no longer seems to be much point, so I tend to go for biographies of famous scientists. Military history is something that's interested me for a while; I can no longer remember whether it pre- or post-dates my involvement in miniature wargames, but it's certainly tied to it.
In the last couple of years I've been making a conscious effort to expand my reading, aiming at some of the 'classics' that I feel that I should really have read. I've been helped in this endeavour by my Christmas present from last year - a Sony e-reader. Don't get me wrong, I still prefer reading physical books to e-books, but the e-reader is much easier to get along with than I expected, and certainly far more convenient for travelling. It also lets me load pdf files onto it, so I can potentially use it for reading scientific papers. I have yet to test out that feature though.
My magazine reading has followed a similar pattern to my non-fiction reading. I get the monthly magazine from the Institute of Physics, and have a large backlog to work my way through. A backlog which is ever growing, as I don't seem to be getting through them! Then there are the wargaming magazines that I read: Privateer Press's own in-house magazine; Miniature Wargames, which focuses on historical gaming for all periods, and occasionally Games Workshop's in-house magazine as well. I also browse my Dad's copies of Autosport whenever I'm home - but more on my motorsport addiction in the next instalment of the this series of posts.
I listen to quite a few podcasts each week. They're mostly wargaming related, for several different systems, but there are a couple of science-based ones, and a motorsport podcast as well.
I find podcasts quite good for having on in the background whilst I get on with other things, as I can follow along whilst only half listening. I find them particularly good to listen to whilst I write computer code, or perform mindless or repetitive tasks at work. But as soon as I have to think about something, I have to turn the podcast off.
I love watching films, and fortunately the cinema here in St Andrews is a gem. It's very small, with only three screens, but the main screen is an old theatre that's been converted (it has balcony!), so it's pretty big and beautifully art-deco in style. I'll watch pretty much anything as long as it catches my interest, particularly if it has a vague science-fiction theme or involves superheroes. My DVD collection is rather extensive, and includes several films that I've never actually watched but which I wanted to see(although I'm trying to rectify that). Films are, however, one of the first things to go by the wayside if I find myself running out of time for everything that I want to do.
Television, sadly, has been the big loser of late in the battle for my time. I still watch television, but theses days it's mostly confined to the news and sports. Or Dr Who, which I'm a big fan of thanks to my friend James. I just don't have the time to watch long series for an hour each week. I've got a lot of television series on DVD and on my hard-drive that I want to watch but don't have time for, so anything new has to be extremely good for me to even consider it. As far as sports on television go I'll watch any international rugby, motorsport, or ice hockey that I can catch, as well as any swimming that happens to make it onto the schedule (a truly rare event in my experience). I've also found myself becoming very interested in American and Canadian football, despite protestations in my younger years that it had to be extremely dull. I blame my brother for this upswing in interest; he started playing it at university, and I discovered that he'd been following it for years without my knowledge. I sat down to watch some with him and became hooked.
That's a brief whirlwind tour through the various media that I partake of. Some of the details will be fleshed out in future posts (I hope) as I get around to discussing and reviewing particular examples. But for now, I think that this post is long enough!
I've been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. As a child, every day would end with me snuggled up in bed with a book, reading long after my light should have been out. When I was at primary school I would take part in the reading schemes that the public library ran, earning stickers and badges by reading certain numbers/types of books, or even certain titles. I remember devouring books as I grew older, and spending hours in libraries and bookshops browsing the shelves (a means of passing the time of which I am still fond). I suspect that having a mum who's a professional librarian is partly responsible for this addiction to the written word; it was great fun being able to exert some small influence over which books she bought for the school library, and getting access to new books before they went on the shelves was awesome.
These days I try to keep up that tradition of ending the day with a book, but there are often occasions when I find myself surfing the Internet just before going to bed instead of reading. I still make it through around 40 books or so a year, mostly fiction but with a few non-fiction books slipped in to cater to some of the interests that I don't otherwise have time to devote to. The frequent journeys that I make up and down the countries on planes and trains help quite a lot with maintaining this level! I quite regularly have more than one book on the go at a time, and although my reading speed seems to have slowed slightly since my school days I can still get through books at a decent pace.
I love these. Stylish bookshelves are awesome. Not very practical for storing lots of books though! (Credit: bookshelfporn.com)
In the last couple of years I've been making a conscious effort to expand my reading, aiming at some of the 'classics' that I feel that I should really have read. I've been helped in this endeavour by my Christmas present from last year - a Sony e-reader. Don't get me wrong, I still prefer reading physical books to e-books, but the e-reader is much easier to get along with than I expected, and certainly far more convenient for travelling. It also lets me load pdf files onto it, so I can potentially use it for reading scientific papers. I have yet to test out that feature though.
The Sony e-reader. My new favourite toy. (Credit: ebookreadersreview.co.uk)
I listen to quite a few podcasts each week. They're mostly wargaming related, for several different systems, but there are a couple of science-based ones, and a motorsport podcast as well.
- The Aethervox - Focused on the miniature wargame Malifaux.
- Boosted Damage - More wargaming, this time (mostly) about Warmachine/Hordes. Lots of good painting discussions.
- Chain-Attack - Warmachine/Hordes battle reports in podcast format.
- The D6 generation - A general gaming podcast, covering board games, computer games and miniature wargames. Their episodes tend to be 3-4hr epics, so I've built up a backlog!
- Firebase Delta - Spaceship wargaming using the Firestorm Armada rules.
- The Jodcast - An astronomy podcast from Jodrell Bank observatory.
- Lost Hemisphere Radio - A fun, light-hearted Warmachine/Hordes podcast
- Radio Le Mans - Motorsport podcasts. They have a weekly magazine show, and do live broadcasts of their commentary from many motorsport events.
- The Skeptics Guide to the Universe - A general science & skepticism podcast put out weekly.
- THAC0 - Another general gaming & geekery podcast
- WWPD - Yet more wargaming, this time concentrating on Flames of War.
I find podcasts quite good for having on in the background whilst I get on with other things, as I can follow along whilst only half listening. I find them particularly good to listen to whilst I write computer code, or perform mindless or repetitive tasks at work. But as soon as I have to think about something, I have to turn the podcast off.
I love watching films, and fortunately the cinema here in St Andrews is a gem. It's very small, with only three screens, but the main screen is an old theatre that's been converted (it has balcony!), so it's pretty big and beautifully art-deco in style. I'll watch pretty much anything as long as it catches my interest, particularly if it has a vague science-fiction theme or involves superheroes. My DVD collection is rather extensive, and includes several films that I've never actually watched but which I wanted to see(although I'm trying to rectify that). Films are, however, one of the first things to go by the wayside if I find myself running out of time for everything that I want to do.
A view of the main screen at the New Picture House cinema in St Andrews, taken from the balcony.
Why can't all cinemas be like this? (Credit: http://swilsonwhatisgood.blogspot.co.uk/)
That's a brief whirlwind tour through the various media that I partake of. Some of the details will be fleshed out in future posts (I hope) as I get around to discussing and reviewing particular examples. But for now, I think that this post is long enough!
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