A look back on reading, 2012

2012 came to an end what feels like more than five days ago, and 2013 is shaping up busily. Freelance work has come in in a rush, to the extent that I begin to suspect what I said last year about building momentum and a client base wasn't just blowing smoke at concerned relatives. Input is coming back from beta readers for the two novellas I wrote last year, and it turns out that getting feedback gives me more of a sense of having written something than looking back at the actual drafts. Now, all of a sudden, it feels like I've actually been doing something for last 12 months.

It's time to retire the lists of media I've consumed in 2012. I thought to include it this past year because I really do believe that your media intake has an effect on your output, and if anyone wants to know what's going on in my head they could do worse than to look at what's going into it. Perhaps there's room for some highlights from my reading.

What I Read in 2012: 
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
F&SF has provided me a steady, varied, and fairly nutritious diet of literature. Ironically, I spent most of the year without new issues because of some mistake involving my move, which it took me shamefully long to address. As a result I'm working through my 2012 back issues now. But really, F&SF deserves a mention as an influence on this year because of what I read 2011: namely but not exclusively "Rampion" by Alexandra Duncan, which convinced me it might be worthwhile to write stories of the scope and nature of the two novellas I've just started showing to people.

Lost Christianities, Bart D. Ehrman
This book was the chief enemy of my productivity in my first few weeks working from home, before I amended my personal contract to put a limit on how much reading I could do before I had finished my work. The look at the evolution of Christian orthodoxy was illuminating in itself, and also reminded me to leaven my reading with nonfiction now and again.

The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
With the movie coming, I had to reread The Hobbit. But if I remember correctly, I actually went to these books to remind myself how quest adventures are done. 

It, Stephen King
This turned out to be better and richer than I had expected, possibly because some fragments of writer's-workshop condescension still lingered from my college days. I have little in the way of regrets regarding the two months or so it took me to get through this doorstopper. Also, if anything in my 12 Dancing Princesses adaptation ends up disturbing you, it probably had its genesis in me reading It.

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, Neil Gaiman
I mention this graphic novel primarily because I read it shortly before watching The Dark Knight Rises, and found Neil Gaiman's conception of the Batman character much more satisfying than Christopher Nolan's. C'est l'art.

The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft
I didn't actually finish all of the Cthulhu Chick's compilation, but I read a lot and learned a lot. Also, I probably lied earlier when I laid the blame for anything disturbing in my 12 Princesses story at Stephen King's feet. I'm pretty sure Lovecraft gets some credit, too.