How much have you read?

[Persephone]

As the project manager of Crossover Battles and a frequent awards judge, I was curious how many other fan fics the average contributor here has actually read on site. I assume it's a fair bit most of the time, because it's a forum devoted to writing and reading, but then there are always people who casually mention they've never read anything.

So, this thread could serve a handful of purposes:

1) You can post the amount of stories you've read. But this is simplistic, so if you post please also do one of the following:
2) Why do/don't you read many other stories on site?
3) What are you interested in reading?
4) Given someone else's response to #3, what (aside from your own work) would you refer them to?
5) What, aside from your own work, would you recommend on site?

If this hasn't been said enough this is not a self-promotion thread. Please don't mention your own stories unless it is in passing reference while talking about topic #3.





Anyway, to answer my own questions I've read a fair few stories here because of judging and Crossover Battles, but right now I've only read six or so in the first 25 due to recent inactivity and a torrent of new stories as of late. I haven't read in a while because I've been very, very busy with personal life and time spent reading isn't spent on homework or my job. But I'm starting to figure out how to make time again.

I guess I'm interested in relatively long dark fic and late-stage journey because of what I help write. But I've actually read fairly few of those since there aren't many stories that meet those descriptions running at present. Any old ones I should look at?

 

[Lord Kyuubi]

Not as much as I might like to have read, that's one thing for sure. Not being a particularly adventurous or experimental one, I tend not to go looking for new stuff to read nearly as often as I should do... I've been meaning to rectify this, but my success in doing so is rather lacking so far.

So anyway, what have I read? Well, there's The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Unova, which I read in its entirety a couple of years ago, and I've read about eight or nine times now; I've read The Long Walk about three or four times, and I think I'm up to date with it still; Survival Project I've read a couple of times but I think I'm pretty far behind on that now (and I've owed it a review for months now); I read Lucky Egg once or twice; I've read A Sine of Things to Come a while ago, and somewhat recently started Pokemon: A Marvelous Journey. Actually, when I thought about it, that was more than I thought I'd read - also I have a sneaking suspicion I missed something. I should get on hand with reviews really.

Really, I think one of my problems is that I'm not good at reading stuff released episodically. If I want to read an update to something I've not read recently, I always just start again from the beginning, else I feel I've missed something. A tad silly of me, maybe, but I can't really help it. To clarify, in case there was any doubt at all, it's more a problem with me than a criticism of any stories, but I guess it is partly what has me reading Surprising Adventures over and over more than starting anything new...

 

[AceTrainer14]

I want to read more on the site, but I have issues around finding the time between writing my own work and various other real life and online projects (i.e. putting together the Awards). I aim to read more, and my goal is to try and catch up on some of the stories I have been meaning to follow for quite some time. I think that reading other people's work really helps you get a taste of what you are doing right and what could be done better.

The active stories I'm caught up on I'd recommend are Stainless Steel and some rise by sin. I prefer reading stories that I feel are of a similar tone to my work - generally, journey-ish fics with a more serious tone. Anything with interesting characters I can get on board with. I like what I've read sofar of Unpredictable and plan to keep reading, and I like anything that Athena produces really. There are a lot of other stories I need to read and follow, and I am always open for more recommendations. I prefer stuff more in-tone to what I am aiming for as I find it helps to look over what other people have done: reading things like the dynamic between TUPpy and her Pokemon has made me more invested in making the Pokemon in my own work more compelling.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I don't know if I can really be called average in the context of the Workshop. I've probably read at least some of the majority of stories posted here at one point or another. I actually think that in general the stories here are better than on, say, fanfiction.net. There's an awful lot of scrappy shipping stories there, for a start. Here, even if I'm not really a fan of whatever I'm reading I can usually at least get through a few chapters.

I prefer in general to read works that lean towards the slice-of-life end of the scale. If I can't get that - which is likely since even in this fandom that's quite a niche genre - then I do like to read something with a genuinely mature tone. I say "mature" and not "dark" quite deliberately, because I don't see them as synonymous.

In terms of recommendations I can think of several stories that might appeal, depending on one's preferences. Storm Island for original regions, Unpredictable for a different take on the Kanto journeyfic, {some rise by sin} for the better class of dark fic, A Sine of Things to Come is fairly good slice-of-life, Lucky Egg for the same (Unfortunately not much advanced on the plot so far)

 

[Lugion]

I read a ton back in high school, but kinda fell out of touch since I graduated (and holy shit that was four years ago). I've been working on getting back into the habit of reading, but it's not always easy for me. At the moment I'm reading through Storm Island, and I read through The Long Walk fairly recently. I've read both of Flaze's Pokémon Academy fics, and a bit here and a bit there of more recent stuff like Lucky Egg and My Way. I'm looking at Eight Easy Steps next, God help me.

I am not a picky reader. As long as it's competently written, I'll be pretty satisfied. I'm also interested in non-Pokémon fare, but only if it is within my interests (so stuff like Godzilla, Transformers, Zelda... what a weird mixture).

 

[kintsugi]

Yay numbers and lists I like these

1) I'm probably above average in terms of readership of stories, but I don't know by how much. Most of the stuff is for Awards, but that's a self-feeding cycle that I'm trying to break out of. Honestly, if it's been written in the past two years, I've probably read at least a little of it.

2) mine enemy thine name is real life and external commitments

3) grimdark, well-applied science (because srbs, honestly, doesn't), solid worldbuilding, solid characters. Am honestly not as huge of a fan of journeyfic as I may sound.

4/5) Vaira for mind-fuckery semi-apocalypse stuff, Survival Project for well-done heartbreak in Johto, and the rest that come to mind easily have already been said.