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More reconstructing my book list
Jan. 23rd, 2022 01:43 pmI have continued to compulsively try to reconstruct the gaps in my reading list. I can't really explain this other than archiving always helps me deal with my anxiety and I've been anxious a lot lately.
The gap in my list corresponds to the exact time I was working as an editor in publishing. My journal ended at the end of college, and I started recording what I read on goodreads in 2008, the year I was laid off from my editorial job. Also, I'd had some sort of purity idea about it, so I didn't record books unless I'd read every single word. I also didn't record books I was reviewing for publications--I had some idea that, as Publishers Weekly was paying me for it and my reviews were anonymous, I shouldn't create a trail. At this point, I don't think that matters. Though the actual substance of the reviews are all PW's copyright (sold for the handsome price of $45 per) so I won't be reposting those.
Since I tracked all of my freelance work, though, this gives me a record of all the many, many things I read for work.
- My 100+ book reviews. 30-40 of these are graphic novels, most of which I don't remember. There was a lot of vol. 1's of manga that I didn't continue. They also sent me a lot of underground gay comics that I am not the audience for, and a lot of horror comics that I am HOLY SHIT not the audience for.
- I wrote articles for more than a dozen Uncle John's Bathroom Reader books. Each of these had a bibliography, and for many of these, I acquired and read books on the topic. Some of those books I know I bought just to skim, but a lot I read all of. For adding to my book list, I used the metric of: Did I remember this book/sometimes still reference it in conversation? And, do I have no intention of ever going back to it, ie, it's as read as it's going to be.
- I also have records from my job of the books I edited. I also intentionally left these off the list at the time, but I sure as hell read them--more than once each.
- And I have a record of submissions. Most of these are totally un-noteworthy, but there were a few that I fought to acquire and was over-ruled. So I searched to see if any of these had been subsequently published.
And one had.
There was an absolutely delightful thriller mystery story that the editorial board rejected because the main character/detective was a homeless alcoholic woman. They (rightly) said that that was unmarketable. I remember really enjoying it, though--but I was 25 at the time so I won't make promises that it wasn't full of cringeworthy representation problems.
That author has self-published it, about seven years after I rejected it. And on the amazon listing she has a pull quote from me. Which must have been from the compliment part of my rejection letter. Which is an odd feeling. (Because this links to my real name, I won't put the name of the book here, but DM me if you want to know).
Since I worked on mystery novels, poking around in the series I used to work on shows that a lot of those authors have gone on to continue those series in the now almost fifteen years since I was an editor on them.
There was one author that I was given as a very junior editor when my boss quit. He should've cancelled this book series a while ago for lack of sales, but hadn't, so I was told to lower the boom. This woman wrote me hate mail for years. YEARS. Well, I can now see that she self-pubbed at least one more book in that series.
What all this has shown me is that:
a) Even with only books I read for work purposes, I was reading 60-70 books a year in those years. And I know I was also reading books for fun. I just don't have records of those.
b) I read an ENORMOUS AMOUNT of stuff in genres I don't like. I was trying to be a mystery editor, so in addition to the actual books I was working on, I was also trying to read other bestselling mystery authors. All that showed me is that I don't actually like mystery. I reviewed graphic novels, which I pretty much don't ever read anymore. I also reviewed chick lit, which is a genre I don't think I've ever enjoyed a book in. And I've read a lot of them.
I think ultimately leaving publishing was good for me if for no other reason that I am a very distributed reader and I don't think there's any genre I would have been happy exclusively reading for my entire career.
The gap in my list corresponds to the exact time I was working as an editor in publishing. My journal ended at the end of college, and I started recording what I read on goodreads in 2008, the year I was laid off from my editorial job. Also, I'd had some sort of purity idea about it, so I didn't record books unless I'd read every single word. I also didn't record books I was reviewing for publications--I had some idea that, as Publishers Weekly was paying me for it and my reviews were anonymous, I shouldn't create a trail. At this point, I don't think that matters. Though the actual substance of the reviews are all PW's copyright (sold for the handsome price of $45 per) so I won't be reposting those.
Since I tracked all of my freelance work, though, this gives me a record of all the many, many things I read for work.
- My 100+ book reviews. 30-40 of these are graphic novels, most of which I don't remember. There was a lot of vol. 1's of manga that I didn't continue. They also sent me a lot of underground gay comics that I am not the audience for, and a lot of horror comics that I am HOLY SHIT not the audience for.
- I wrote articles for more than a dozen Uncle John's Bathroom Reader books. Each of these had a bibliography, and for many of these, I acquired and read books on the topic. Some of those books I know I bought just to skim, but a lot I read all of. For adding to my book list, I used the metric of: Did I remember this book/sometimes still reference it in conversation? And, do I have no intention of ever going back to it, ie, it's as read as it's going to be.
- I also have records from my job of the books I edited. I also intentionally left these off the list at the time, but I sure as hell read them--more than once each.
- And I have a record of submissions. Most of these are totally un-noteworthy, but there were a few that I fought to acquire and was over-ruled. So I searched to see if any of these had been subsequently published.
And one had.
There was an absolutely delightful thriller mystery story that the editorial board rejected because the main character/detective was a homeless alcoholic woman. They (rightly) said that that was unmarketable. I remember really enjoying it, though--but I was 25 at the time so I won't make promises that it wasn't full of cringeworthy representation problems.
That author has self-published it, about seven years after I rejected it. And on the amazon listing she has a pull quote from me. Which must have been from the compliment part of my rejection letter. Which is an odd feeling. (Because this links to my real name, I won't put the name of the book here, but DM me if you want to know).
Since I worked on mystery novels, poking around in the series I used to work on shows that a lot of those authors have gone on to continue those series in the now almost fifteen years since I was an editor on them.
There was one author that I was given as a very junior editor when my boss quit. He should've cancelled this book series a while ago for lack of sales, but hadn't, so I was told to lower the boom. This woman wrote me hate mail for years. YEARS. Well, I can now see that she self-pubbed at least one more book in that series.
What all this has shown me is that:
a) Even with only books I read for work purposes, I was reading 60-70 books a year in those years. And I know I was also reading books for fun. I just don't have records of those.
b) I read an ENORMOUS AMOUNT of stuff in genres I don't like. I was trying to be a mystery editor, so in addition to the actual books I was working on, I was also trying to read other bestselling mystery authors. All that showed me is that I don't actually like mystery. I reviewed graphic novels, which I pretty much don't ever read anymore. I also reviewed chick lit, which is a genre I don't think I've ever enjoyed a book in. And I've read a lot of them.
I think ultimately leaving publishing was good for me if for no other reason that I am a very distributed reader and I don't think there's any genre I would have been happy exclusively reading for my entire career.