Month: January 2025

Looking Back at 2024 & New Challenges for 2025

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Look at us go, we’re officially in the mid-2020s. Just like that, we’re in the middle of a decade that sometimes feels like it started last year, as time marches forever forward. I’m sorry if people are sick of these clichés, by they are clichés for a reason, after all, and like anybody else I must reckon with the passage of time as I get older.

It’s been a couple of years now since my reading challenges became altogether more relaxed, and I must say that it’s been a net positive. I do feel that I’m a lot happier and more easygoing about these things than I used to be. Let’s have a look at what I accomplished in 2024Read More »

WWW Wednesday – January 22, 2025

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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

Moby-DickLast week I hadn’t made enough progress for a good update, but in the two weeks since my last WWW post I’ve managed to read quite a lot more of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. At writing, I sit at 367 pages in, or a little over half way. I’ve certainly been having mixed feelings about starting the year with this book, as for a good while I found it frightfully dull reading. It wasn’t until about the 300-page mark that I started to feel a growing appreciation for it. I suppose I just had to adjust to its voice, and staying committed has paid off. The plot is surprisingly scant, as this really is mostly about whaling; I’d been told this, but I sorely underestimated how much this was about whaling and cetology of the time, as well as talking trash about poor depictions of whales in art. Highlights from recent chapters include an encounter with a giant squid, which was surprisingly naturalistic, and the haunting description of sailors who have fallen overboard in the Arctic being found later frozen in ice flows “as a fly is found glued in amber.”

Recently Finished

Yesterday, I decided to set Moby-Dick aside briefly and finally read through Teeth by Dallas Hunt, a Canadian book of poetry. I’ve said it many times before, but I always have a bit of trouble with poetry, especially in retaining what I’ve read. I really don’t know what my issue is, but I try to read some when a book catches my eye anyway to keep my horizons broadened. This book is mostly written in a free verse style, which I appreciate a lot as I find it to be accessible. One that I especially enjoyed had Hunt venting frustration with the expectations of poetry and literature written by Indigenous authors and the cliches therein. It reminded me of how, even when trying to be supportive of a marginalized group, it is important not to forget they deal with the same mundane tribulations as anybody else.

Reading Next

I finally got 2120 by George Wylesol from the library after it being on order since September, so I’m likely going to be reading that soon. I’m really intrigued by it, but part of me is a little apprehensive about the choose-your-own-adventure aspects of it, as I’m a little worried it will feel more like a gimmick.

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

Top 5 Books I Read in 2024

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I’m getting to this a little late this year, but nevertheless it is time once again to look back on the year just finished and determine which books were my top five favourite. As usual, this isn’t listing books that came out last year, just the five books I read last year that I enjoyed the most, in no particular order.

I think this may be the most difficult time I’ve had making this list; I enjoyed most everything I read last year, but a good number of them don’t really feel worthy of this distinction to me. It seems I had a similar problem last year, but I feel more pointedly dispassionate this time. At any rate, let’s see what made the cut.Read More »

New Books & Novel Discoveries (December 2024)

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December was a weird month because once again I feel like I’m forgetting something, and I feel as if I did a lot more shopping for myself than was actually the case, so I keep thinking the stock I’ve taken of my books is wrong. This isn’t helped by the fact that I actually did forget a book in November, busy month that that one was. All I can say for sure is, I didn’t get any books for Christmas, so I’m not carelessly forgetting a gift.

Enough waffling, let’s see these books.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – January 8, 2025

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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

Moby-DickMaking good on my word last Wednesday, I started reading Moby-Dick by Herman Melville on Thursday. Progress was a little slow at first, as this book is hard to get into, but I’m now sitting at page 132, so I’d say I’m getting through it at a decent pace. Goodness, is this book ever challenging, though. Part of me wants to blame its age, but it’s actually a younger novel than Frankenstein, which has a far more accessible writing style, so I’m going to chalk it up to the dialect it was written in. Still, I’ve been able to get into it fairly well, when Ishmael is focused more on what is happening around him and sermons aren’t going on for pages and pages. The Pequod has left Nantucket and it seems we’re finally about to meet Ahab. I found it surprisingly raw that Ishmael’s reason for working at sea is that this is essentially his self-treatment for depression.

Recently Finished

Nothing yet, as I’ve still got much of this daunting novel to read.

Reading Next

TeethI haven’t settled upon the next novel I want to read to keep my focus on Melville, but I am certainly thinking longingly about some novels I would rather be reading. I’ll be moving on soon, if I can stay disciplined. Meanwhile, I have picked up my first library book for the year, as a book of poetry caught my eye at the bookstore, and as luck would have it the book was available at the library too. This book is Teeth by Dallas Hunt. It looks like it is more free verse poetry, which works for me, as I find this style to be the most accessible; it may not be the most elaborate structurally, but it helps me to read poetry when I otherwise wouldn’t, so I consider that a net positive. I’m sure I just need to set aside some time on a single day here or there to get through it.

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

WWW Wednesday – January 1, 2025

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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

Nothing, as I write this. Happy New Year! 🎉

Recently Finished

A Guest in the HouseI took a break for Christmas last week, so I’ve got a lot more than normal to write about here this week. First up, we have A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll, which I read on Christmas Eve. Though it is not my favourite of Carroll’s work, I nonetheless really enjoyed this graphic novel, which turned out to be a rather unique spin on a ghost story, especially thanks to the sapphic elements playing a crucial role in the story. The only thing I feel mixed about with it is that I can’t really say that what’s going on is ambiguous; aspects of it are, but the character is so prone to flights of fancy and has such an overactive imagination that you can’t say that none of it was just in her head. I choose to believe the supernatural elements are real, at least partly, but it could’ve been a little more definitive.

Thief of TimeNext, I managed to finish Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett, the 26th Discworld novel and the 5th Death novel. Overall, I quite liked this book. Despite supposedly being a book about Death, it was really about Lu-Tze and his apprentice Lobsang Ludd of the History Monks, who can control the flow of time and oversee history. I would have preferred the book be more about Death and his granddaughter Susan, who really only play supporting roles here, a problem I actually find I have with a lot of the Death books, but I was so endeared to this book’s two leads that I didn’t really care. I only wish this wasn’t Death’s final outing, but at least I know he’ll still show up whenever somebody kicks the bucket. I do wonder if I’ll see Susan again, though.

This is Where We Talk Things OutWith only a couple of days until the new year, I endeavoured to read only short things after finishing the last book, because I don’t want things to cross over into the new year, for the sake of reading challenges. So, on Monday I read the novella This is Where We Talk Things Out by Caitlin Marceau, a horror story about a woman spending a weekend at a remote cabin with her mother in an attempt to reconnect and mend their relationship. At times, it was a little-on-the-nose with the parental issues (though still very believable) and predictable, as it bears a lot of similarities to Misery by Stephen King, but I found the reading experience so profoundly stressful that I ultimately regard it quite highly. Once again, I regret that I didn’t stick to Halloween reads like this one instead of the duds I picked up from the library.

Slaughterhousse-Five GNFinally, to close out the year and leave me at 42 books read in 2024, yesterday I read the graphic novel adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children’s Crusade by Ryan North and Albert Monteys. Slaughterhouse-Five is one of my favourite classics, and after coming across a copy of this adaptation at the library, it was an easy choice for a final quick read to close out the year. I’d actually consider owning this graphic novel at some point too, as the visual aspects of the new medium were utilized in exceptional ways to depict Billy Pilgrim’s experiences with being unstuck in time. The form was used in other great ways to tell the story as well, really making the adaptation feel worthwhile and unique while still staying true to the source material.

Reading Next

Moby-DickThanks to my new work schedule, which has allowed for a greater amount of reading time, I have decided to embark upon what I expect to be a more challenging read: I am finally going to read Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I’ve owned a copy of this book for well over 10 years now, originally purchased out of a feeling of obligation to read the classics, perchance, rather than actual interest in this story, and it has languished on my shelf long enough. I may start it today, but with it being a holiday I may hold off until tomorrow. We shall see. Either way, I’m sure we can all look forward to the next several of these post being mostly about Moby Dick. I hope y’all like whaling.

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