WWW Wednesday – April 24, 2024

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Watership DownI managed to make some pretty good progress in Watership Down by Richard Adams, putting me at nearly three quarters of the way through. It’s an odd reading experience that I don’t have too often where I genuinely have good things to say about a book, but when it comes down to it, I have very little motivation to read it, especially in huge chunks. I think perhaps it is the writing style, which tells a good story overall but has a dryness to it that makes reading it feel like more of a chore than I’d like it to. It perhaps comes across like something written for children by someone who doesn’t quite know how to write for children. At any rate, things are coming to a head in the story as the rabbits of Watership Down are about to kick off their big plan to extract female rabbits who wish to leave the oppressive Efrafa warren. I suspect imminent losses and heartache before the deed is done.

What If 2I also started reading What If? 2 by Randall Munroe, the second book where the author provides serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions. It’s proving to be as much fun as the previous book, and as expected it feels precisely like a continuation of what the last book was doing. It’s funny how humbling a serious answer like the ones this provides can be to a question that at least feels a little plausible, such as the question about how many pigeons it would take to lift somebody on a lawn chair to the top of a skyscraper, which would technically require an amount of pigeons that dwarfs the size of the Earth in order to pull it off. Sounds an absurd number on its own, but as he lays it out it makes a troubling amount of sense.

Recently Finished

Nothing this week!

Reading Next

The Lost WorldAside from my need to read more graphic novels, I’ve got my eye on shorter reads for what I might pick up next to make up for the lost momentum that reading Watership Down has caused. I still have my eye on Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, though I can’t quite remember how long it has been since I even mentioned wanting to read that book (if I even have, I’m struggling to remember). I just eyeballed The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and noticed that it looks quite short, so I may take some time to blitz through that quickly as well, so long as it too doesn’t turn out to feel too dusty and old fashioned of a read.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – April 17, 2024

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Watership DownI’m still chipping away at Watership Down by Richard Adams; I’ve made some progress in the last couple of weeks, but not nearly enough. I actually determined that I allowed a full two weeks to pass without reading a single page of it. I guess I’ve just been a little thrown for a loop lately, which is a shame, because I had some decent reading momentum going before this. At any rate, I’m still enjoying the book fine. I’m particularly interested in the ideas posed by the text about humanity as compared to animals, with the rabbits marking themselves and animals as distinct from the nature of humans, but it is notable that they actually act a lot more like people than this rhetoric suggests, especially in darker ways. A lot of what’s going on feels analogous to human societies, but I wonder how much this is incidental or intentional commentary on the part of Adams.

Recently Finished

The Storyteller GhostsOver the weekend I read through Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Ghosts, a graphic novel anthology by various artists telling ghost stories. I’ve taken to peaking at the graphic novels at the library and just grabbing something and this one caught my eye. It’s funny, I’d never even heard of the show The Storyteller before (starring John Hurt), but the combination of ghost stories and Jim Henson was enough to grab my attention anyway. It turns out there’s quite a few of these volumes now too, with the titular character and his talking dog just playing host to tales collected under a theme. It’s wonderfully accessible, and this was a really solid collection that went to some surprisingly dark places for something with Henson’s name on it. I don’t know if I’ll hunt down any more to read, but this was a nice brisk reading experience.

Reading Next

What If 2Though I still need to keep my attention focused on Watership Down, I decided to take out another book from the library that I will hopefully start chipping away at in the same way that I did with Video Game of the Year; I picked up What If? 2 by Randall Munroe. I really enjoyed reading the first one, which I read an ebook copy of, and instead of fussing over what format I’d want to pick this next one up in, I’m just borrowing it instead. The idea, if you’re not aware, is the author gives serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions, which makes for great bite-sized reading, if you’re in the mood for that. I’ll likely start it soon, so long as it doesn’t distract too much from what I need to finish already.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

Ten-Year Anniversary

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Though it happened a couple of weeks ago and I’m not entirely sure of the date because WordPress’s alert would not tell me (and I can’t remember), some time at the end of March marked the ten-year anniversary of this blog. I consider this milestone to be a pretty big deal despite how unorganized I’m being about this.

Over the years, things were a bit shaky in terms of output. I knew I wanted to review books, but I also wanted to use this as a vehicle to publish thoughts and ideas about all sorts of storytelling media (which I’ve largely left in the past). I remember I started with the idea of posting something every Tuesday, which I recall doing fairly consistently, but I sometimes had to stretch for an idea of what to post when a review wasn’t at the ready to be written. Eventually, blogging became more habitual and I found I could make myself more flexible with when I posted, and I became a lot more confident with my book reviews.

Turns out a weekly schedule of some sort did still come in handy though, as I feel I owe a lot to WWW Wednesday for giving me a weekly meme to take part in that gives me a good excuse to post updates about what I’m reading; of course, I could have just posted updates on my own, but the participatory aspect gave me the nudge that I really needed.

There are many simple things I should have done for this blog in all this time that I just haven’t, most of which I’ve probably not even thought of, but I’m proud that I’ve been able to keep this thing going, regardless of changes in my schedule, for so long. Consistency is the one thing I feel I did right in terms of admin, and I’m routinely pleased with the amount of traffic my existing posts manage to bring in. Time was that I was anxious about how many likes each new post got, but I’m happy it never stopped me from posting. There’s no guaranteed way to make it big, but if you keep at something there’s a good chance of some sort of returns, however modest.

As a note on something I’m particularly proud of, I started reading the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett in 2016, and to date I’ve read 24 novels from that series; each novel has a corresponding review on this blog, and I intend to keep that going.

Furthermore, here’s a small list of five book reviews I’m particularly proud of:

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Tomie by Junji Ito

Into the Unbounded Night by Mitchell James Kaplan

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

I’m sure there’s more if I revisited things in more depth, but these always stick out in my mind. I’m sure I could go on about this milestone, but I wanted to keep this brief while still allowing myself to acknowledge this as something of a big deal for me.

Thank you to everybody who has stuck with me over the years or just stopped by to read a post or two.

Thank you for reading.

WWW Wednesday – April 3, 2024

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Watership DownThough by this time last week I had actually read up to page 203, I haven’t touched Watership Down by Richard Adams at all over the past week; things have been a little stressful with car troubles and whatnot, and for some reason that has made reading this book suffer. Still, I’m continuing to enjoy it, and I was surprised by the development that they’ve already reached the titular Watership Down. Where I’m at, their concern is finding female rabbits to attract to their new home so the warren doesn’t die out, as for some reason all of the rabbits that left the warren at the beginning with Hazel and Fiver were male. I can see how this will likely introduce conflict in the narrative’s future, so I really ought to pick this back up to see where things go.

Recently Finished

Vermis IOver the weekend, I did manage to push myself to read through Vermis I: Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods by Plastiboo, an art book that is constructed as a guide for a dungeon-crawler game that never existed. As I knew when I picked it up, I absolutely loved the illustrations and designs in this books, and it actually ended up being a rather creative way to tell the story of a strange little journey in a strange land, as it outlines a game’s quest and thus has you progressing from point to point, encounter to encounter, outlining objects that can be found and choices that can be made along the way. The only thing I chaffed against is that this book really needed a better proofreader; for the most part it’s still enjoyable and very readable, but a lot of independent clauses are joined by commas alone instead of being separated, which reads awkwardly, and there are a lot of cases of missing articles and subject/verb disagreement.

Reading Next

I haven’t made up my mind on what to read next, though naturally I have some ideas. It will likely be a graphic novel of some sort.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

New Books & Novel Discoveries (March 2024)

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Now March was truly surprising in how low-key of a month it was. No preorders, no big impulse purchases, and no substantial trips to any thrift stores. As usual, I wonder if I’ve forgotten something, but I’m fairly confident the thing I did get is all I have to show for the past month. It’s probably for the best; some personal expenses have come up, so I should be a little less spend-happy anyway.

Let’s check out what I did pick up.Read More »

Book Review – Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

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Annihilation

Annihilation is a 2014 science fiction horror novel by Jeff VanderMeer and the first novel in the Southern Reach trilogy. Area X, a once lightly populated region, has been under quarantine for decades for unknown reasons, long since reclaimed by nature. There have been 11 expeditions into the region, most of them meeting bizarre and violent ends. The last expedition had all of its members return home under mysterious circumstances, mere husks of their former selves, before all succumbing to aggressive cancer. Now, the 12th expedition is underway, made up of four women including our narrator, the biologist, whose husband was part of the 11th expedition. They struggle to comprehend the phenomena they uncover in this hostile yet strangely captivating environment, the trust between them slowly eroding.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – March 20, 2024

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Watership DownI’m happy to report that I’ve made some fairly decent progress on Watership Down by Richard Adams since last week, considering that I haven’t had a huge reading window to sit down with it. I’ve finished Part One, which has me at nearly 120 pages in. Though I have no clue how things will develop going forward, I am excited by this story being an odyssey, though the promised land of the title that I presume they will be seeking hasn’t even been mentioned yet. Already they have faced many tribulations and encounters with other creatures and rabbits. I’m quite captivated by how many of the rabbits are characterized, with certain concepts being difficult for them to grasp; there’s an interesting balance between them thinking like people and thinking like the animals that they are.

Recently Finished

Nothing this week, as I have sadly continued to neglect comics and graphic novels.

Reading Next

Vermis IAs I laid out in the spring TBR I posted yesterday for Top Ten Tuesday, I want to make myself read more from my comic book backlog. Already I plan to be reading A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll soon, though this is hardly an old book that has been left waiting, but I also want to make myself read Vermis I by Plastiboo soon, a mystifying art book about a dungeon-crawler RPG that never existed. I hope I can make myself start or even finish these by next week, but we will see, as I’m not quite sure how my reading time will be divided up in that time.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

Books on My Spring 2024 TBR

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book meme run by That Artsy Reader Girl. I always love putting together a seasonal TBR list, even though I rarely complete it and a lot of books end up being repeats in the line-up. I just like to get a decent idea of what I might want to read in the near future. With that in mind, half of this list includes books that are neither novels nor nonfiction prose. With no plans to complete/read through any comic book series this year, there are some books I want to make sure I finally crack open and read.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – March 13, 2024

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www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Watership DownIn keeping with a trend lately toward starting books almost entirely on a whim, I decided to finally start reading Watership Down by Richard Adams, a book I’ve heard a lot about since childhood but have never taken the time to actually engage with; I’ve not even seen any of the adaptations. I only started it a couple of days ago, though, after finishing what I was previously reading, so I’m only about 25 pages in right now. So far, I’m surprised by how deeply Adams is building up rabbit social hierarchies, folklore, and even cultural terms, especially since it feels otherwise grounded in reality. It almost feels like a fantasy novel, but the only real fantasy is the notion of rabbits being able to think more like people. It’s feeling a little dry so far, but I’m hoping I’ll get more into it as I get further along.

Recently Finished

Death in Her HandsOn Monday I managed to finish reading Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh. Although the tone did indeed feel a little more humorous for much of this, as the protagonist seemed mostly swept away by her own wild imagination, this took a perhaps unsurprising dark turn towards the end considering Moshfegh’s inclination towards telling bleak stories. I’m typically expecting such things from her work, but I found the penultimate developments in this story before the ending to be especially depressing and anger-inducing. I’m not mad at the author, she’s excellent at her craft, just the character, though it did make the book fall in my esteem overall. With time, I will perhaps regard it differently, but for now I’ve got to say that I’m a little soured.

Reading Next

A Guest in the HouseI’m not sure what I’ll read next, since Watership Down is a bit longer than the books I’ve been reading lately so I’m not sure how long it’ll take me, but I would really like to read the graphic novel A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll sometime soon. I really enjoy her art style and one of her short stories from Through the Woods is one of my favourite horror stories ever, so I’m excited to read something longer in form from her.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – March 6, 2024

Ryan1 Comment
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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Death in Her HandsI’m still making my way through Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh. I think I’ve only managed another chapter or so since last week, but I’m continuing to enjoy it. However, I’m starting to feel like this experience is going to go one of two ways for me: either a shoe will drop that makes the story a lot more interesting or things will stay nebulous with the character ruminating on the ideas of her wild imagination. Though I don’t think I’ll hate the latter thanks to the strength of Moshfegh’s writing, I will be somewhat disappointed. On the one hand, the character does seem to be a really anxious person, more so than she realizes, and on the other hand she does seem sound enough of mind that I don’t think she’s imagining everything. Perhaps by next week we’ll see how things turn out for me.

Recently Finished

Shuna's JourneyOver the weekend I read through Shuna’s Journey by Hayao Miyazaki, an illustrated work by the author that was originally published in 1983, before he even founded Studio Ghibli. Though I referred to it as a manga last week, it actually reads a lot more like a picture book, though with greater visual and thematic depth than one made for children. This actually had some of the weirdest and most quietly disturbing ideas I think I’ve seen from a work of his, specifically in the otherworldly forces presented in the story. It was fun to see early iterations on ideas that would pop up in later works too like the films Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke. Though this was a library read, I enjoyed it so much that I will likely pick up a copy to own for myself someday.

Reading Next

I still don’t really know what I’m going to be reading next, but I’ll have to make up my mind soon since I will likely be wrapping up Death in Her Hands pretty soon. I just don’t know what I’m in the mood for, only that I don’t want to read more nonfiction right now.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.