Month: August 2026

WWW Wednesday – August 26, 2026

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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

I’m still plucking away at The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, but I’ve carved out some time for it so I’m actually making progress a little more consistently. This progress is slow, but hey, it’s better than a week or more passing with hardly any time made for it. I’m sitting at page 456 now, which isn’t crazy progress (about 156 pages), but it’s a lot better than only 80 after a couple weeks last time I wrote. The story hit a bit of a speed bump for me over the last few chapters, as focus shifted to two young French aristocrats palling around in Rome. I can appreciate how this shift is used to craft a mystique around a more worldly Edmond, now styling himself almost exclusively and enigmatically as the Count of Monte Cristo, but it took a little while for me to care about these new characters and their points of view. I came around on it all eventually, however, and it’s becoming clearer how his revenge plot may be in motion.

A couple weekends ago I went to the beach with some friends, where I actually managed to start reading something (I’m terrible at actually making myself read when I travel anywhere). The book I started is Calypso by David Sedaris. It’s been a long time since I’ve read one of his essay collections, and while some other books of his have appeared on my radar lately, I bought this copy all the way back during the pandemic (to help keep a local bookshop in business), so I really need to read this one before I think about picking up any others. I keep thinking this is one of his newer ones, which is technically true and was true when I bought it, but it’s 8 years old now. What is it with time?

Recently Finished

Nothing this week!

Reading Next

Though I’m still committed to focusing much of my energy on Monte Cristo, the copy of the first volume of Absolute Martian Manhunter by Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez that I reserved at the library came in, so I’m going to make myself read that fairly soon. Though I don’t have much of any history reading this character, I’ve gotten the impression that it’s Weird in a way that I’m going to like a lot more than some of the other Absolute books. Hopefully I can write an update on how that reading goes next week.

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

WWW Wednesday – August 12, 2026

RyanLeave a comment
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

I’m still reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and progress continues to be rather slow. I’m at 300 pages now, which is about 80 pages of progress, but over two weeks that’s not great, even for me. Over the last few chapters, Edmond has covertly reconnected with old friends, using his newfound wealth to assist those who were truly faithful to him while imprisoned. It was a little indulgent and melodramatic at points, but I found myself very compelled by it despite myself. Sometimes, those tropes just hit right, and it was very satisfying. With so much novel left, it’s fun to realize that, despite feeling like I know more or less what this book is about, I actually have no idea what the next 900 pages will entail. I look forward to slowly finding out.

Recently Finished

Against my better judgment, last week I took out another graphic novel from the library, which I promised not to do so I could focus on Monte Cristo. The book in question was Nowhere by Jon Claytor, a Canadian graphic novel about growing up in small towns, struggling to fit in and make friends as you move from place to place, and navigating streets populated by giant rats, vampires, and zombies. I enjoyed it as something weird and surreal, with enough coherent going on that it didn’t feel too abstract, but I do wish there had been something a little more concrete in the narrative to anchor myself to. Overall, I’m happy I checked it out, and I liked it more than I expected to.

Reading Next

I’m really going to try to not pick up anything else so I can focus on Monte Cristo, hoping that a book I have on hold at the library takes yet longer to come in.

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

New Books & Novel Discoveries (July 2026)

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July felt really long yet not nearly long enough. There’s stuff I remember doing this past month that feels like happened many more weeks ago, yet I still can’t believe we’ve reached the Sunday of summer already. I hope everybody else has been enjoying their summer, wildfire smoke and heat waves notwithstanding. I showed a fair amount of restraint this month, grabbing only a couple books early on and then another pair right at the eleventh hour.

Let’s see what I picked up.Read More »