Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls Reading Stories

I read in installments mostly... apart from those stories that are posted here, or on the archive complete, obviously

When I first had regular 24 hour a day access to the internet (Woo-hoo! for the UK university system!) I would make regular visits to the computer room on a Sunday, waiting for the archive to update... and then I'd read all the new additions in one big overdose of fanfic. Not forgetting that at that time TUFS and Season Five were being posted.

Once I've started a story, I just can't stop... this has lead to marathon sessions in front of a computer screen... I can't ration fanfic. So of course all that reading would take out most of my Mondays and sometimes Tuesdays too, and this was bad. Well, in theory.

Anyway, then Zoom's boards came along, and it was the end of all my woes! Fanfic, in handy bite-sized chunks. What more could a girl want!

My social life improved, my results picked up, I discovered that there was more to Mondays that fanfic... Lectures for instance.

I was a happy bunny. And I still am

Helga

The first 70 pages (all I could print before sundown Tuesday) sure were! Tonight I get to read the rest. <rubbing hands in anticipation>

Actually, when you take Masques, shrink it down to 10 pt in a small typeface and reformat out all the blank lines, it's only about 400 pages.

You should see the rest of the pile I printed out. <laser printer hums in the background>

ROTFL, Rivka! That reminds me of another FoLC who cut Caped Fear in half printing it out by reducing the pitch to miniscule size...and then went out and bought a magnifying glass to read it with.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the story so far!

LabRat

Everything I print out, especially epics, I print in Times New Roman, point 8 and as small a margin as I'm allowed, (I usually reduce the margin to 0, then hit fix when Word tells me I'm outwith the print margin!)! I usually feel guilty for eating up so much of the world's rainforest's. My friend does not believe me when I tell her that I can actually read it! And I can read it, honestly!

Loriel

This was my reply exactly. I also only read a few off the boards, I can't begin to tell you how frustrating it is to really be into a story to see that dreaded "To Be Continued" AHHHHHH!!! In the beginning, I printed out the longer stories to read them but was quickly drowning in HC's. So now I copy them from the archives and paste them into word and read them at my leisure from my computer -- bookmarking where I've left off. The other advantage to saving them all on my hard drive is that I can look and see if I've already read something. When I had over 400 of them, my obsessive/compulsive side came out and I started catorgorizing each one after reading. (good AU, read episode extention etc).

Ok, I really gotta get a life man!! NOT!!

ROTFL, you need to talk to Kaethel. <g> She's the one everyone goes to when they need stats on what fanfic has been published in a year.

What's HC btw? Haven't heard that one, I don't think.

[Edit] - 0h, wait, bell just rang. HC = hard copies?

LabRat (who remembers the pleasure she had cataloguing the fanfic she downloaded - indexes that have sadly not been updated in so long it's painful to think about...sigh...maybe one day I'll catch up...)

Ok, you were able to decifer HC -- it is hard copies. So, now I have a newbie duh question for you.... what's ROTFL???

LOL = laughing out loud
ROTFLOL = rolling on the floor, laughing out loud
ROTFL = rolling on the floor laughing
ROTFLMAO = rolling on the floor, laughing <something or other>

Paul

I picked this choice:
Only 17% of us, but, hey, who cares?
The caveat to that statement is that if I *don't* get hooked, I wait for the Archive.

I've *never* printed a story. I read it online, or saved to my hard drive or from my handheld.

Artemis

Okay, add another other to the pile.

Explanation:

I *used* to read almost every single story as it was being posted. Now, that didn't mean I commented on them all (bad Bethy! bad Bethy!), but I was usually reading most if not all.

I think the change happened when I went to France. I had to use an internet cafe and be very stingy with my minutes so that I could communicate with family and stuff and not go broke. So, I waited for the archive version a lot more often. And then this past school year I went on a stupid streak and took on waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many things to do. (Will I ever learn? Hm...let me think about that....Nope. ) So, as a result, my brain refused to keep track of as many stories as it used to.

However, summer is here!! I have stuff to do, but less school work, so I should have a few compartments in my brain freeing themselves up for fanfic! And (yes, I know, I've said this before, but I mean it this time), I'm going to work on vastly improving my commenting skills...or at least frequency.

Bethy (who is sure that's more than y'all wanted to know...)

It would have been -- had I done it right! grrr

I knew I had sections that were printed forward, sections backwards, and that 20 pages had flown all over the room and were out of order. I figured it would be like a jigsaw.

But then, after 10 frustrated minutes, I realized the real problem. Pages 290-400 printed 2x. Pages 70-140, not printed at all. I was up to page 70!

AAAAAHHHHHH!

Forget it, I'm putting it on my Palm.

I'm in the "depends" category. I used to read a lot in instalments but my leisure time was considerably reduced this year, so I've had to cut down on fanfic reading a lot. - and then eventually beg for a tiny excerpt, half a dozen pages, no more , on irc) but these days I tend to read longer stories from the archive when I get some free time.

Kaethel (and LOL Rat, re.stats! Haven't updated my fanfic index in three weeks, yikes! )

Ouch, Rivka. Had a few nights like those myself. I still have hard copies of stories in file folder that almost require Bletchley Park to decipher which part comes next in the reading sequence.

LOL, Artemis. I may have a little something coming the way of these mbs very shortly.

LabRat (who figures that if she tells enough people that the Muse will be intimidated into having to produce the goods. )

Ooooooh!

So it means we're going to get *that* story (not saying more [eg]) and also SDB and Legacy and Ripples and stuff? Hmmmm? WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kaethel (can you tell I'm happy? [g])

oooo..

come on, labby... you can write.

come on...

if you write, i'll give you some...

Paul, figuring that cheese is probably more effective than the alternative ( )

/me gives Kaethel a very long and steady stare.

Let's not get carried away, kid, shall we?



LabRat (sneaking off with that cheese...)

I can be intimdating! See! This is me chasing LabRat's Muse so I can catch her and tie her down somewhere near LabRat's computer.

Loriel

LOL, Loriel. Strangely enough this wasn't tagged as a new post; almost missed it.

LabRat

Yay! It looks like I'm going to have to employ


Loriel (off to find her nearest friendly Dr! :p )