Happy Sif’s Day!

National Novel Writing Month?:

I have done National Novel Writing Month in November many times, I have also succeeded twice. As we approach November this time I haven’t participated in the last few years as I was focused on school and writing for that.   That said, I could do this but I am conflicted because I could also use the same concept for my Non-Fiction Book as a major restart and massive getting the work done time as well.  So is it National Non-Fiction Writing Month instead?  I think so and it has the same acronym.  My plan is basically also to do 60,000 words too.  That makes it easy with 2000 per day.

Recently though I realized my first non-fiction book should not be a scholarly work but rather my own story of my journey from faith to atheism.  It also has the flavor of being something I can do without a lot of research.  It’s my story or at least my memories of my story and that inspires a lot of the possible titles but I won’t get into that yet. What I  do know is that there is a high probability that this time next week I will be writing this book. By the end of November, I plan to have it mostly there.  December will be finishing it up and polishing.  Then I will sit on it in January and then Edit it in February.  I guess this is a good process that would allow me to produce and edit a book every three to four months and I think this is a good habit to get into.

I want to use the concept of NaNoWriMo to get started.   Eventually, as a writer, I can see a month to write a book, one month to let it rest while starting something else and then a month of editing.  Having one book being written while a second is being edited sounds like a good way to go.  It would lead to three books in the creative forge at a time but that is the life of a writer.

2020 Reading List: 

A week or two ago I changed my bucket list item under Truth form learning Latin to reading a book a week for the year 2020.  it’s one of those ‘so I can say I did it’ bucket list items. But also I have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to my education.  So at the present time, I am looking into not only starting the habit of reading a book a week but also putting together my reading list ahead of time os that part won’t take a lot of thought other than to order the books in enough time to get to me.

Mostly I am looking at books under a couple veins but they have to be new to me in that I have never read them before.  This has to be a reading list, not a re-reading list.  I also am trying to hit a variety of topics but I have a couple themes

1. Books that at one time were burned by religious people.
2. Books on science particularly evolution the origin of life.
3. Books by the Founding Fathers – I have read the federalist papers or at least most of them but some of the books by the founders like Thomas Paine’s Common Sense I have actually not read.
4. Books on Economics and Political Science
5. Viking Mythology and Culture (duh)
6. Not to forget fiction – science fiction and fantasy probably but new stuff I haven’t read before.
7. It’s going to be half non-fiction and half fiction.
8. Half my fiction will be fantasy and the other science fiction.
9. No book I am going to read in 2020 can currently be in my library.  I am using those books to get started the next couple of months to develop the habit. But the process of buying a new book and reading it is part of this.  I will make a few exceptions for books I just purchased for this purpose but other than that, I am going to read new shit.

Looking at this, I would say that it’s going to be a pretty eclectic list and I need to have it down before I start.  I do want to deal with one book I have put on this list because of #1 and it is a modern book: The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American by Andrew L. Seidel.  And the video below which was posted yesterday explains why.

Yeah. book burners piss me off. It tells me your afraid of what it says might disturb your precious world view.  It tells me ‘goose-stepping morons should try reading books instead of burning them’. 

My 2020 List So Far: 

The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American by Andrew L. Seidel.

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

 The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine

Leviathan Wakes, Caliban’s War, and Abaddon’s Gate by James S A Corey

Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

Outgrowing God by Richard Dawkins

Letters to a Young Contrarian by Christopher Hitchens

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

It’s a pretty good start, but I plan on getting this list done before Yule so maybe they can be gifts to me.  🙂 I will probably organize this later to make sure I have a good mix but in the end, it is going to be what I want to read. Although I am interested in books that people have burned and they go to the top of the list.

I am planning on using Goodreads to document my progress and write reviews on the whole thing.  If you follow my Facebook page, you will get each review.

Closing Thoughts:

If you haven’t noticed Sif’s Day has become pretty much whatever I want to write unusually under the moniker – The Rabyd Skald.  I kind of feel this is needed right now because I am using it to fill gaps in my thoughts and the normal weekly process. I just don’t always feel like doing something ordered so the end fo the week is getting the last bits of Choas out of my brain.  Hope you don’t mind.

I remain,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!