WWW Wednesday is a book meme run by Taking on a World of Words.

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

Though I have yet to finish Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, I made a lot more progress on it since last week. I finished reading the entire first section “Experiences in a Concentration Camp,” which was fascinating as a personal account by a victim of those circumstances. More than that, however, it is an examination of the psychology of such a prisoner, how they react to these harsh conditions, and what they cling to in order to persevere (when they can). I should have this finished any day now, it’s just by chance I didn’t wrap up reading it before today.

I’ve also been reading a fair amount of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I’m nearly 100 pages into it now, and while that feels like a lot to me without thinking about it, it’s a little scary how much that isn’t. Frodo has yet to even leave the Shire yet (though he, Sam, and Pippin are on their way to Buckland) and it looks like there are some more encounters in store before he finally does. Despite my apprehensions I’m pleased to find I’m liking it so far. The Prologue dragged in some unfortunate ways, but once I got to the story itself I’ve actively enjoyed it. It’s certainly slow paced, but not in a way that I’m having a problem with.

Recently Finished

I finally finished reading 45 Master Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt, which you can check out my review for here. It’s given me a lot more focus when it comes to plotting a particular story of mine, as well as a better understanding who my characters are. I haven’t worked out all the kinks yet, but it’s noteworthy that just by reading through it I’ve been able to better form things in my mind. The frameworks for different heroic journeys were a lot more detailed than I expected, but I feel that ultimately the archetypes will be the most valuable. I don’t want to refer back to a laid out structure too much for fear I will adhere to it rigidly.

I also finished reading Godzilla in Hell by James Stokoe et al. It was possessed of some surprisingly beautiful and effective visual storytelling, the opening and closing stories especially. The art varied between chapters, but was pretty fantastic throughout as well. The only thing that disappointed me is that the chapters were far too disjointed. It seemed to be different artists/writers interpreting a theme (see title) rather than a collaborative effort to tell a more connected, episodic story.

Reading Next

It’s hard to say what book I’ll read next, since I’m aiming to really buckle down soon to at the very least finish The Fellowship of the Ring in a timely manner. If I can do that fast enough I’m going to try to finish all three volumes of LOTR without any breaks. I’m definitely going to be reading more comic book volumes as I go along though. I’m thinking I will either finally get through The Visitor by Mike Mignola (I think I’ve listed it here once before), or continue along with some of the new Star Wars volumes that I’ve been neglecting. I haven’t really decided yet.