Projects

The other night the FP Gal said something to me about how she doesn't get into long term projects in the same way that I do. This is interesting because no one who knew me back in my 20's (or high school or earlier) would think of me as a 'project' kind of guy. In fact, if it wasn't for this blog I still don't think that I could be mistaken for one. There is something about having an audience to keep promises for that helps tremendously. On the flip side, and maybe more importantly, a project is a great way to make certain you have things to write about.
In some ways I really do wish I had started this stuff earlier when I had time. The first movie project was based on an idea I had back in 2000 or so. If I'd started that one when I was single, I could have gone through it much more easily. Now that I have a wife and a toddler, I don't think I could do it again.
The book projects are a bit easier because you can always carve out small amounts of time to read. You don't need to set aside two or more hours like you do for a movie (or fourteen for 'The Thin Red Line').
I'm finding the Hugo project more fun than I expected. Certainly easier to chain myself to than the Great American novel list. Sci-fi is every bit as interesting and somewhat more mind expanding than general Lit. At least that's been my impression so far.
Also of interest is that I'm not the only one doing this. A little bit of Google searching has uncovered at least three others. The first one I found was Paean's Progress, a sympathetic soul who is reading this list out in Colorado. Then I found that a blogger from the Guardian, Sam Jordison is reading from the Hugo list and also with the Booker books that I like so much. Today I ran across a blogger with the possible name of Cynarion who is also attempting the 'Hugo Challenge'.
I'm behind all four (and am not promising that I'll catch up) but I like reading their reviews after I'm done reading each book. I think I'll start including links to each of them as I write my own. (I might also steal Paean's scoring system.) If I looked hard enough I could probably an organized book club that reads the Hugos but this seems to be much more convenient.