WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at 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
Over the weekend I started reading Smashed by Junji Ito, the newest English translation collection of some of the author’s horror manga stories. I’ve only read three of the stories so far, and I’m finding myself notably struck by how ridiculous Ito’s writing can be sometimes. I’ve sung his praises many times before, and I stand by all that I’ve said before, but it’s becoming increasingly apparent to me how hit-or-miss his short stories can be. The opener, which involves dieting and vampire bats, was more perplexing than it was horrific or creepy, and I hope the tone that it has set for the collection is not maintained.
Recently Finished
I finally finished Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman last night. Even though it’s only been a little over a month, I’m disappointed with how long this actually took me. I could have finished it in a much shorter amount of time had I put my mind to it. Oh well. The book closed with the story “The Monarch of the Glen,” which takes place after American Gods, catching up with Shadow Moon two years after the conclusion of that novel. I really enjoyed reading about that character and world again, especially with the surprise appearance by two other characters from another story in this collection. I went back and read the introduction after I’d finished too, which as I expected was a lot more meaningful that reading it as an actual introduction to the collection.
Reading Next
As I’ve been saying for a few weeks now I’m going to start reading Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett, since all the prose I’ve been reading has been finished up. I feel like I ought to pick something else up to read concurrently as well though. I’ve been a few books behind schedule for a while and would love to catch back up. With an apparently not-very-good Hellboy movie in theatres now, perhaps I will pick up On Earth as it is in Hell by Brian Hodge, the next of the Hellboy novels I need to read. We shall see.
Until next week, thank you for reading!
Muse with Me 
Woot, you’ve finished Fragile Things! To be honest, I tried reading some of Neil Gaiman’s anthology books before, and while I absolutely adore his novels, I find the anthologies take me forever to get through, too.
I hoped Smash picks up! Whenever I read any sort of collection, I always just assume there are going to be several misses and just hope there’s enough hits to balance it out.
Yeah, that’s usually a pretty safe assumption, I’m just a little miffed by it because I know the author is capable of brilliant horror comics. I can’t expect them all to knock my socks off though, it’s just funny how outlandish they are when the idea doesn’t really land for me.
I definitely prefer Gaiman’s novels and comic books too, but there have been some real gems among his short stories. Plus, even the least interesting ones are still really well written.
That’s how I feel with some authors, too. I know you can do wonderful work, so why is this so far out there?! But I’m sure there’s other people out there who love it, so … I guess it evens out?
That’s so true. Even at his worst, Gaiman is still such a pleasure to read. xD
Smashed sounds decidedly weird and I’m not sure in a good way. Hopefully it’ll get better for you. Congrats on finishing Fragile Things. I have to admit collections of short stories tend to take me longer than a full length novel. I always feel like I need to leave a little gap between each story.
Yeah, I have the same problem with collections, with the exception of <Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh. Somehow I was able to keep to a consistent schedule of two stories a day and got through it really quickly.
Ito’s often quite masterful with being disturbingly weird, especially paired with how good his art is. Being weird as a kind of trademark does have its drawbacks though, as sometimes the ideas don’t quite come together, which I’m seeing a little more often the more I read his shorter stuff.
Did you enjoy Fragile Things in the end? I’m reading my first Neil Gaiman in a couple months for an IRL book club. I’m excited to finally see what I’ve been missing.
I did enjoy Fragile Things quite a lot, yes. He rarely ever disappoints, though of all the mediums he writes in short fiction is definitely my least favourite, though only because of how much I especially enjoy his novels and graphic novels. Which book will you be starting with?
I’ll be reading Good Omens, so it isn’t solely his work alone, but if I can get into this one a little, I do own Neverwhere and American Gods.
I still need to get myself a copy of Good Omens. I love both authors so much, it’s kind of surprising I haven’t read it already. Neverwhere and American Gods are both excellent.
Ooh hope Hellboy is good!
My youngest son reads a lot of manga, but hasn’t read horror manga. That’s probably something I could get into.
If you do, try checking out his longer stuff like Uzumaki or Tomie, they’re definitely some of his best stuff. I think Shiver was a solid collection too, if you’d rather start with shorter stuff.
Neil Gaiman for the win!! I need to read American Gods first (well, I actually have FIVE of his books sitting on my shelf just waiting). Also, I hope you enjoy Hellboy. Have you seen the new film yet? I’ve been hearing the same negative reviews but I still want to see it.
I’ve not see the new Hellboy yet, but I likely will sometime next week. It’s a shame that it’s reviewing poorly, because I was hoping this film would be more faithful to the comics than del Toro’s were. His were great for what they were, but I’m not really a fan of how juvenile that interpretation of the character was. There’s always been a sense of humour about him, but in the comics the character never moped around about girls.
Yeah, that aspect was hard for me as well.