How many of us have read less than usual since covid hit?
I usually read a lot more but throughout last year I just did not. Sure I read tons of news articles or reports but very few books. So is the doomscrolling and newsreading to blame?
For my part, I finally finished Rhythm of War and immediately followed up with two brain candy romance books (by Illona Andrews which I highly recommend to anyone so inclined) and feel like I am ready to read more again.
I read fewer books but thats because of my depression. I dont read the news.
I lost the several hours a week of audiobook/podcast time that I normally have on the way to and from gaming sessions, but my overall reading seems to have been about the same (142 books in 2020, 139 in 2019).
My (very mild) depression is very much helped by not reading the news so I don’t. There’s probably stuff I miss via other channels, but it doesn’t seem to have done me any harm, and I’ve been doing it for 15 or so years now.
Just read the Andrews’ Blood Heir which I think suffers from trying to be both another Kate Daniels book and something new at the same time. The books of theirs I like best are the Innkeeper series.
MUCH less. Crazy amounts less. I have a monthly book club and have barely been getting through the books for that, where in the year before I was reading entire shelves.
Me. For some reason I’m struggling to start books. I had a big spurt over Christmas and read 3 in a week or so, but have fallen off again. I’m currently reading a selection of Bryant& May short stories by Christopher Fowler which I got for Christmas, but I’ve just realised that I’ve already read it!
That is good to know because I haven’t read those. The series I just devoured the last two books of last week was Hidden Legacy which is much better than the covers suggest. Kate Daniels has been a recommendation to many a friend and they’ve all enjoyed it.
My reading’s been steadily declining over the years as I struggle to get myself to concentrate and stay invested. Though I’ve been trying to get myself to do more reading and I’ve had some limited success 
Here. I have read a lot less last year, and COVID has not really affected our lives that much in NZ besides the March-May hiatus, where I was still going to work every day as essential worker (and going for a daily walk, which I do not now).
If I want to tackle the source, I think I went through a couple of dense books that really put me off for a while. Plus I consume way more YouTube and podcasts than a year ago, for example.
My reading has been slightly hindered by having trouble getting access to libraries for a few months; my normal reading ration includes more books than I can afford to buy or have shelves to store. But I somewhat compensated by rereading books off my own shelves as I unpacked them. Then there were post-move replacement books; for example, I reread nearly all of the Peter Wimsey novels.
I read most of the Kate Daniels books and enjoyed them though at some point the formula is kinda repetitive. But all in all they are an easy and enjoyable read.
I have the Innkeeper series too but haven’t started. Good to know 
If anything I’ve been reading way more. Particularly the last 3 months or so during this prolonged period of lockdown. I started January at a much quicker reading pace than usual, on course for finishing my 12th book this month, which is more than double the rate I’d been reading at last year (about 5 per month). Couldn’t tell you much about what’s happening in the news of late mind you! 
I don’t know if its the covers on Goodreads but these LOOK like the worst kind of trashy romance fantasy (although there is nothing wrong with that, I suppose, if thats what you’re in to) - are the (I’m guessing American?) covers misleading?
There’s certainly a trashy romance element as well as a bunch of other urban fantasy tropes, but there’s rather more to it than that. I’m not claiming they’re great literature or anything, but they’re well done urban fantasy with decent worldbuilding.
Hidden Legacy especially suffers from horrible covers.
But the Andrews do write interesting magical worlds with a massive amount of romance. But they somehow make it way more palatable than some others I’ve read.
Basically, what @RogerBW said above me
Seanan McGuire also does a pretty good job in a similar direction without writing anything at all like the Andrews do (Illona Andrews is a couple), for one the Andrews live and write their stories in Texas and Seanan McGuire is west-coast.
Both do a good job with the female characters, they are strong and independent and resent being rescued. Cannot speak for the male characters they seem to fall more into the traps of romance tropes. Also I learned a lot of names for different firearms and big cars from the Andrews books.
In any case, I call this kind of reading brain candy for a reason. It is not difficult to read, I can read a book in a day easily and want more.
OK, we’re not quite matching in tastes - I find McGuire basically unreadable. The skin is too thin and I can see the machinery of plot driving everything.
One reason I read this kind of thing is as a break from more serious books; I’ve found that if I read all of a series back to back it’s a disorientating transition when I get to the end, so I like to intersperse it with something different, and trashy urban fantasy or action-adventure does a good job of resetting my mindset.
Well, I basically have that problem with almost all romance (do not watch Bridgerton, I could have told you how it ended after the second episode including who the narrator is). But I agree that the “cases” in the plots of the Andrews are a little harder to predict.
Maybe I like Seanan McGuire because I listened to the whole October Daye series as audio and Mary Robinette Kowal started her audiobook career with this and her development throughout the series is so incredibly fascinating. The first book her reading is still a little shaky but she improves with every book until in book 8 or so a character re-appears who was missing for several books and I could easily recognize him from her voice. She also does incredible things with the male voices to the point where I looked up if she was really reading this all on her own…
PS: plot is not the most important part to me in a story. Characters are. Then worldbuilding and then plot.
Yes, I want things to happen because they’re the things that character would do, rather than because the plot needs them to happen.
Of course in most books it is the plot that ultimately drives things (at the very least, in choosing who the characters are) but during my reading I don’t want to notice that.
I think there are other Mick Herron fans on here. He’s doing a talk about the new book on Tuesday 9 February at 7pm GMT.
PM me if you want the details
I’m wrapping up The Broken Earth Trilogy, and then will get into my annual re-read of The Great Gatsby, before my students dive into it. I expect the shift from Dirt-Based Fantasy to Disillusionist American Tragedy to be somewhat jarring.
I read The Great Gatsby, in 2019 I think. It was a really unpleasant experience and I don’t think I want to reread it; I actively disliked nearly every character in it. On the other hand, I did manage to read to the end; there are classic novels I haven’t been able to finish.