D-Day: The Battle for Normandy - reading

Finished "D-Day: The Battle for Normandy" by Antony Beevor. Loaded with facts and perspectives from both the Germans and the Allies, this was an interesting overview of the period running up to D-Day all the way to the liberation of Paris. Spoiler: Hitler doesn't die in this one. (That's the year after.) I learned what a Bangalore Torpedo was. YouTube video of Bangalore Torpedo

The Hand of Oberon - reading

Finished "The Hand of Oberon" by Roger Zelazny. (Again, this is my second time walking the Pattern.) I love this book for the simple fact that there is a world of Zelazny's construction, and unique aspects of that world play into the tension inherent in several of the scenes. This one is hard to put down!

American on Purpose - reading

Finished "American on Purpose" by Craig Ferguson. This is one of those times when I really like the audiobook version of a book, as this one was read by the author. While there was a point in the book that dragged a bit, the rest of it is top notch. Craig is honest and transparent, funny and entertaining, irreverent and occasionally appropriate. Is that what alcoholism looks like?

2012 Top Ten Books

This time last year I was finishing up Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. This year I'm in the middle of the Amber series. This is my second time walking the Pattern, and I'm loving it.

I participated in the reading challenge on Goodreads.com and pledged 30 books. I reached my goal, but only barely. I abandoned "One Perfect Word", but I gave my own book "Tunder's Year" a read-through in April, making 30 finished. 13 of 30 were non-fiction, and amazingly 8 of those 13 appear on my top 10 list for the year! Nine of 30 were printed books (as opposed to audiobooks that I listen to on my commute), which seems like a low number. That's the trouble with a long commute. Four were about a celebrity: Michael J. Fox, Betty White, Carrie Fisher and George Carlin. One was a novel draft written by a friend, and one was a novel co-written by an online friend.

Without further ado, here's Brett's Top 10 of 2012:

10. Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazies and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre
9. Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science by Lawrence M. Krauss
8. Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History But Never Learned by Kenneth C. Davis
7. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
6. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey
5. 1776 by David McCullough
4. No Ordinary Joes: The Extraordinary True Story of Four Submariners in War and Love and Life by Larry Colton
3. The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell
2. The Guns of Avalon (Amber #2) by Roger Zelazny
1. The Good Soldiers by David Finkel

Even though I'm listing one third of all entries here, my own book Tunder's Year does not appear in this list. It's not good enough (yet).

As to worst book of the year, I can either count "One Perfect Word: One Word Can Make All the Difference" by Debbie Macomber because I couldn't make it all the way through, or "You Lost Me There" by Rosecrans Baldwin because I made it through and rated it lowest.

Happy New Year!

Sign of the Unicorn - reading

Finished "Sign of the Unicorn" (Amber Chronicles 3) by Roger Zelazny. What can I say? The story continues. The Unicorn made an appearance. Is there such a thing as too much order? This book says "yes."

The Guns of Avalon - reading

Finished "The Guns of Avalon" by Roger Zelazny. The amazing story continues. The Black Road appears and the Courts of Chaos get much closer to Amber. Corwin considers fratricide (as usual), and also meets up with Dara, who will play a bigger role in future books. With NaNoWriMo over, it's nice to have some time to read again.

NaNoWriMo 2012 - the rest of the story

I had in mind that I would update you every five days during NaNo, but we all see how that turned out. For the record, I had:

8,346 words on day 5 (par 8,333) = ahead
14,362 words on day 10 (par 16,666) = behind
19,083 words on day 15 (par 25,000) = behind
32,238 words on day 20 (par 33,333) = behind
42,311 words on day 25 (par 41,666) = ahead
50,409 words on day 30 (par 50,000) = WINNER!

If you correlate to days of the week, you begin to see a picture of my writing habits this year. NaNo started on a Thursday, and the following Sunday I was caught up. The next full week (November 5-11) I fell further and further behind, and on Sunday I was caught up again. The following week (November 12-18) my word count was again pretty flat during the week, and by Sunday night I was caught up again. Toward the end of the month, though, I wrote pretty consistently and stayed even with par until the end. A picture to show what I mean:

Words written by day:

Monday	3254
Tuesday	2747
Wednesday	8687
Thursday	7415
Friday	5248
Saturday	11429
Sunday	11629

Weekday total: 27,351 words.
Weekend total: 23,058 words. You can see when I did most of my writing. This is not a surprise, though. It's also not a surprise that Tuesday was my low day as that is my busiest day that starts earliest and ends latest.