I don’t know what happened this month, but somehow I ended up buying a stupid amount of books. To be fair, most of them were from second-hand stores, but still, this is so much more than what I normally buy lately that I’ve actually divided them into multiple images.
Without further ado, on to the books!Read More »
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?
Over the weekend I started reading Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis. I’ve been slacking on reading quotas once again, so unfortunately I’m only 76 pages in right now. It’s not a pitiful amount of progress, but I could’ve gotten further. Nevertheless, I’m enjoying this book a lot. The protagonist is a young woman named Cora, whose father runs a website that notoriously leaks government documents, particularly related to aliens. He’s an absentee father, but the spotlight shines on Cora and her family nonetheless. Ellis has done a great job of making the anxiety of Cora’s life palpable, almost making me feel it second-hand. The escalating extraterrestrial events on top of that have been exciting too, so I’m eager to see what happens next.
No progress made on Hope is the Thing with Feathers: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Whoops 👻
Over the weekend I read through Sensor by Junji Ito, which I also managed to post a review of on Monday. Unfortunately, I didn’t like this book very much. It wasn’t without its interesting ideas, and the art was great as always, but the story just lacked a solid direction. It was also constantly repeating itself, since each chapter was originally published serially. For what it’s worth, though, the first chapter functions as a pretty good little cosmic horror story. It could almost work as a short in a collection. While he may not have lost his touch as an illustrator, it seems to me that his more recent stuff just isn’t as good as what he used to produce, which is too bad, because I know how brilliant of a horror author he can be.
I’m not really sure what I’ll read next. No comics come to mind and I’ve only just gotten started with Axiom’s End. In the next week or so I’ll hopefully have a better idea of what future reading will look like.
Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book meme run by That Artsy Reader Girl. The theme for this week is books I wish I could read for the first time again, but I’ve modified it a little to include some book series as well. I love them as a whole, but wouldn’t choose just one of them to read like new again.
I’ve tried to pick from books I’ve read less recently, but it’s really hard when fresher books are competing in your mind, isn’t it?Read More »
Sensor by Junji Ito is the latest horror manga by the author to be published in English by VIZ media. A young woman named Kyoko Byakuya hikes at the foot of Mount Sengoku, unsure as to why she is there. Despite the mountain’s volcano being inactive, she stumbles across an area covered in strange volcanic glass fibres that look uncannily like golden hairs. Soon after she is met by a man who says he’s been waiting for her, leading her to a village covered in these golden fibres. Referred to as “the amagami”, these gold strands allow the people of the village to psychically communicate with each other and commune with the far reaches of outer space. Despite this oddity, the people seem harmless enough, inviting her to star-gaze with them before she departs. If only the appearance of mysterious lights in the sky weren’t a portents of things to come.Read More »
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?
I’ve not made any progress on Hope is the Thing with Feathers: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson since last week. I’m also between books at the moment. Things have been a bit busy. Essentially, I’ve started training for a freelance remote job, on top of my full time one, which has and (hopefully) will be taking up more of my time, so my reading progress will likely slow as I rearrange my priorities.
Over the weekend I finished reading Hellboy: The God Machine by Thomas Sniegoski, and even managed a pretty quick turn-around on the review and got it up on Monday afternoon. Go me! This book has wound up being my favourite among the Hellboy spin-off, mostly non-canon novels, though ultimately I only rated it a little higher than average. The book’s focus on the villainous characters really helped it to stand out among the pack, making them both monstrous and sympathetic. A few of them were a little too one-dimensional for me by the end, but their leader and a couple others stood out well. The climactic showdown was conceptually fairly rote, but in the execution managed to be something quite memorable and exciting too.
I meant to have started reading Sensor by Junji Ito already, but like I said I’ve been busy, so I haven’t had a chance to just yet. It isn’t very long, so hopefully I can have it read and reviewed by next week. I also plan to start reading Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis. I’ve followed the author’s video work on and off for years now and even preordered this book for its release last year, but sadly I let it languish instead of reading it. Now, the sequel is coming out soon, so I’d better actually read this. Getting this done will keep me on top of the reading challenge books I put together for a Summer TBR too.
Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.
Hellboy: The God Machine by Thomas Sniegoski is the fifth Hellboy novel, based on the comic book series created by Mike Mignola. Religious artifacts and other random objects of worship have started disappearing without a trace, the identity of the perpetrator a complete mystery and their motives unclear. Following a tip from an unlikely source, Hellboy and Liz Sherman foil a museum heist attempted by crude, undead cyborgs, fashioned together with scrap technology and powered by the souls of the dead. These creatures were created by a small order of fanatical psychics, who plan to use esoteric technology to bring a new messiah into the world. If they succeed, it could bring about the complete annihilation of humanity.Read More »
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?
I really wanted to have finished Hellboy: The God Machine by Thomas Sniegoski by now, but you know how inconsistent I can be with those goals. I’ve wavered a little on the reading quotas this past week, so I’m blaming it on that. I should reassert those to get back on track. Regardless, I’m happy to report that there really is something to this Hellboy novel, compared to the others. The villains are really intriguing, and it’s made the wise choice of giving our titular, big red hero a more diminished role. It’s also taking a lot of inspiration from the real-world story of John Murray Spear and the Association of Electricizers, which involved the construction of “The New Motor,” a supposed mechanical messiah. It’s a wild story and it’s been fun to see how that idea has been morphed into something more unnerving and apocalyptic.
I also made a little progress on Hope is the Thing with Feathers: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson last night, reading through the first section of her second series of poems. Sometimes I absorb very little while reading, it varies from poem to poem. Some of it is lovely, but it also makes me feel dumb. I’m thinking poetry like this may not be for me.
Over the weekend I read through The Immortal Hulk: The Keeper of the Door by Al Ewing et al, the eighth volume in the series. Once again I am reminded of how much I love this series, and I can’t believe I haven’t cracked open a volume since 2020. One of these days I’m going to have to read through them all over a shorter period of time. There was a great blend of physical and psychological horror in this book, as The Leader actively puts his plans in motion. A lot is taking place within mindscapes, not reality, but I really have to wonder about the fate of some of the characters. I’m surprised by how graphic some of the visuals were in this volume too. I hope the next volume comes out soon, if it hasn’t already.
In a surprise twist, as I forgot that it was coming out soon, I received my copy of Sensor by Junji Ito last week, the newest translated book by the horror manga author. So I’m definitely going to start reading this really soon. My expectations have been tempered the more of his stories I’ve read, but I’m nevertheless excited by the fact that I know very little about this book. It seems to be a singular story too, which I typically prefer. He does better work when he gives an idea room to grow.
Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch is a 1990 comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, working together early in their careers, long before they became as celebrated as they are now. The apocalypse is upon the world, and according to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (recorded in 1655), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday. This doesn’t sit well with Aziraphale and Crowley, an angel and demon respectively, who have lived among humanity for millennia and have really come to enjoy the lifestyle. So, they’ve decided to cancel Armageddon by killing the Antichrist. Problem is, they’ve somehow misplaced him. As they scramble to locate him, armies amass, the four Bikers of the Apocalypse are riding out together, and a rather nice young lad is learning he has the power to remake the entire world as he sees fit.Read More »
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?
I’m happy to report that I’m between books. More on that in a moment. I’ve once again left Hope is the Thing with Feathers: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson to languish for another week. I guess that reading surge was a lot shorter than I was hoping. I’ll pick it back up again soon, maybe. There’s always hope.
It almost didn’t happen, but last night I managed to power through and finish Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I did want it finished before the end of July, but that become a physical impossibility over the weekend. Oh well, I’m at least happy I have it done for today’s post. I’m in a weird spot with this book, because it really does feel like I’ve read a slightly abridged version of the story I beheld in the miniseries. Since it came after, of course, the miniseries is really more of an expanded version of events, but I’m working backwards here. So, as I said last week, it didn’t have much in the way of surprises in store for me. My only real gripe, though, is that I like Aziraphale and Crowley the best and they are featured noticeably less in the book. Otherwise, as expected, I thought the book was fantastic.
What is this, three weeks in a row I’ve talked about reading Hellboy: The God Machine by Thomas Sniegoski next? Well, I still intend to do it. There’s not much more I can say about that. Honestly, I’m mostly wracking my brain about what comics I want to read next. I suppose the easiest option, it has just now occurred to me as I write this, is to read the next volume of The Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing et al, which I bought a couple of months ago. So there, the next book I finish will likely be The Keeper of the Door. It has been too long since I continued that series.
Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book meme run by That Artsy Reader Girl. This is my first time participating two weeks in a row; as a sucker for a good cover, I just couldn’t resist taking part.
For this list, I’ve tried to supply a balance of books I’ve already bought because of the title/cover, and books that caught my eye but I don’t have yet.
I’m sure there’s a book or two that I’m forgetting that would be perfect for this list, but putting myself on the spot to remember specific books has me struggling. No big deal, though, it’ll just bother me forever.Read More »
Muse with Me 