But where fixity enabled us to become better readers, can iteration make us better writers? If a text is never finished, does it demand our contribution? Fixity is important if you deem the text the end; but perhaps instead the text is now a means—to our own writing, our own thinking. Perhaps it is time for the margins to swell to the same size as the text.

— Mandy Brown, Deploy

To me, portability is the greatest strength of the Kindle. We bought it in January after moving boxes upon boxes of books from one storage spot to another, and I only wish we had bought one earlier so I didn’t have to give away nearly all of the books we accumulated while in Japan. It’s hard to give up bookshelves, but I know it’s impractical for the expat/nomadic life. The Kindle fits nicely into that life (and my travel bag). It was one of the few things I packed when we left Fukushima for a bit after the earthquake, and it really helped to be able to escape from reality through the travels of Tolkien’s company of nine. While there are several issues with e-books (editing standards, price points, DRM, etc.), I still find it worthwhile to have a dedicated e-reader.

Now for the numbers. I read 67 books, which is nearly double the number I read in 2010. Of those, 37 (or 55%) were read on my Kindle. I accomplished my reading goals — 50 books, including The Lord of the Rings and the Foundation series — and tracked everything on Goodreads. Here’s the breakdown by month, according to the date finished:

January: 10
February: 6
March: 7
April: 4
May: 6
June: 4
July: 5
August: 5
September: 9
October: 5
November: 0 (Hello, NaNoWriMo!)
December: 6

And here is what I read (note: covers are shown in reverse chronological order, whereas titles are in chronological order):

Books of 2011
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Season 8, Vol. 1-4) by Joss Whedon
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Persuasion by Jane Austen*
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen*
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut
Emma by Jane Austen
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman*
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells*
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien*
The Awakening by Kate Chopin*
Kraken by China Mielville*
The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht*
Confessions of a Yakuza by Junichi Saga
2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake by The quakebook community*
The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami
Batman: Year One by Frank Miller
Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Foundation by Isaac Asimov*
Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov*
Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov*
The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton
Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov*
Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov
Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov*
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak*
13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson*
Write for Tohoku by Write for Tohoku Project*
Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times edited by Kevin Smokler
The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane*
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender*
The Magicians by Lev Grossman*
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith*
Summer by Edith Wharton
Reality Hunger: A Manifesto by David Shields*
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi*
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern*
Room by Emma Donaghue*
The Reasons I Won’t Be Coming by Elliot Perlman
The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris*
The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi*
The Last Colony by John Scalzi*
The Magician King by Lev Grossman*
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1) by George R.R. Martin*
A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2) by George R.R. Martin*
A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3) by George R.R. Martin*
A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, #4) by George R.R. Martin*
A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5) by George R.R. Martin*
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami*
Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #1) by Laini Taylor*
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides*
The Art of the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

* = e-books
Note: List does not include books started, but not yet finished

Potential goals for 2012:
- read x books by Australian authors
- read x nonfiction books
- take notes on each book I read

But the thing about grad school is I have to write a dissertation. I spent a large chunk of my first semester doing research and I’m now at the point where I should start writing. So while I love NaNo, my brain told my heart that I should be practical and work on my thesis project because time has this way of getting away from us.

I’m not always the most practical person, however.

That is why I have decided to dedicate this month to writing. Writing, writing, and more writing. I’m doing NaNoWriMo and tweeting about it daily. I also just found out about the first ever Academic Book Writing Month. As I’ve mentioned before, I feed off of the excitement and inspiration from fellow writers. By participating in both events, I hope to stay motivated to write daily, even when I get stuck on dialogue or can’t stand to look at another footnote. As I am writing, whether it be fiction or academic, I’ll be tracking the progress on Twitter using #NaNoWriMo and #AcBoWriMo. Please follow along, or better yet, join me. Let’s all make the clackity noise.

I thought it would be interesting to design a project around an authorless book, in which everyone would have written something. Its purpose is the process. Writing is interesting because it is a process.

Described as an interactive installation that celebrates and ritualizes the passage from handwriting to digital writing, Bidjocka’s oversize notebooks have been traveling the world, inviting people to write on the blank pages “as if theirs were the last words to be written by hand”.

Read more about the project on www.ecritureinfinie.org.