Well, it’s finally happened. Though I actually wound up buying a fair number of books this month, what I’m stuck on is the fact that I actually forgot to include a few new books last month, one of which having been a rather big deal for me. Goodness knows how I forgot about it. I almost forgot another book today too; I think I really ought to cool down on the book purchases next month. We’ll see if I actually do that.
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?
Progress with American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis continues to be slow but steady; the story has reached a specific murder victim that I distinctly recall seeing clips of from the film, so I believe this one will have consequences for Patrick finally. I’m most curious about it because his motivations seem to be different than his typical victims, but they have been elusive to me. Perhaps I missed something, but I’m hoping it’s just something that gets revealed more later on. My feelings are becoming quite pointedly mixed while reading this. There’s no denying Ellis’s skill as an author, and I don’t hate reading it necessarily, but I feel like this book is really hard to recommend, and sometimes I feel like I’m tolerating it more than anything else. I suppose my interest was always more academic anyway, but I do wish there was something that I could say I actually love about this book.
Nothing this week!
This week I received a copy of a self-published book by Joshua Barkman, a web comic artist I follow, called Spores, so there’s a good chance I’ll be reading that soon. I’ve read it before, as these were published first on Instagram last October, but I enjoyed the little story so much at the time that I’m happy to read it again as a book. I’m still feeling pretty committed to rereading Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton next, though I’ve still got a lot of American Psycho ahead of me. I’m quite ready to move on from it though, so I should perhaps refocus my efforts.
Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.
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 made only a small amount of progress on American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis since last week, and it honestly felt like not a lot remarkable has happened, except for an attempt on taking the life of an associate whose girlfriend he’d been sleeping with, which ended up taking a homoerotic turn that left Bateman bewildered and pathetically seething and his would-be victim not murdered. It seems to me that a lot of this is establishing how he does pretty much whatever he likes in life without consequences, which is not really surprising, but I’m hoping the emphasis means I get to see some good squirming on his part as they start to catch up with him. It’s hard not to assume snippets of the film that I’ve come across won’t come into play, which is fueling some of this speculation.
Last night I decided to read through Twistwood Tales by A.C. MacDonald, which is a recently released book of comic strips. I first came across the author/illustrator online, as these were originally web comics, and I’ve been following them for a while now. This collection appears to include original work as well, though the book only collecting work that already exists online would not have deterred me from picking it up. I’ve got a soft spot for creepy yet endearing in worlds that follow weird fairy tale logic, and this world appeals to that perfectly. Though many are short strips, included is a fairly lengthy story as well, which has me hopeful that perhaps we can expect to see more longer tales set in this world in the future.
The other day I picked up a new Junji Ito story collection that I had pre-ordered called Tombs, so I’ll probably be reading that soon. Collections of this binding style have appealed to me more often than others, so I’m hopeful that I’ll like this one. My fervor for Ito’s work has diminished a lot as I’ve read more and more, so I’m honestly not nearly as excited to read this one as I would have been in the past. Though I maintain that some of his work is legitimately brilliant, it bums me out a little that my enthusiasm has become so subdued. I can’t help but wonder if it would be different if I had moderated myself more.
Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.
Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons by Mike Reiss with Mathew Klickstein is a 2018 nonfiction comedy memoir detailing the author’s lifetime of experiences as the longest-serving writer and producer on the iconic American cartoon series The Simpsons. Written in a fun, irreverent style, Reiss shares background on the show’s conception and the writers behind the groundbreaking first season and beyond, as well as many other amusing anecdotes about the cast and crew that helped make it all possible. He also shares some of the finer details of the creative process, offering a glimpse into just how much work goes into making a single episode. Also included are pieces of interviews conducted for this book with legends of the series including Al Jean, Conan O’Brien, and more.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 still chipping away at American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis; I haven’t made crazy progress, but it feels surprisingly steady considering the content of the novel thus far. I really am surprised with how much I have managed to enjoy reading through the book up to this point, as a lot of the prose is dedicated to his pathological fixation on superficial qualities and status. I read every word, but having no frame of reference for brand names and designs of suits, my brain kind of glosses over it. Never has the mundane been so alienating, yet I am actually paying attention to the story and I’m not bored. It’s very strange. He has also performed some heinous acts of violence since my last update, which were quite upsetting but not surprising considering Bateman’s character. Seems he’s been active from the start.
The other night I finished reading through Adventure Time: Finn by various authors, which I’m technically borrowing from a friend. I’m in the middle of rewatching the series and decided I’d like to check this graphic novel out after we found it at a thrift store. This book is a selection of issues from the Adventure Time comic book series focused on the title character, so a best-of collection of sorts, including some authors I’m familiar with such as Noelle Stevenson. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped I would, though one of the bigger stories was pretty interesting. I’m not sure what it is, but it feels to me like something is lost without this world being animated and voice acted, so other than another volume I’m particularly keen on reading, I don’t think reading from these comics will be a regular thing for me.
No real plans for what I’m reading next this week. Kind of just want to focus on what I’ve already got going on.
Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.
I don’t know what happened this month, but I went absolutely nuts with buying books. At least, that’s how it feels; maybe it’s not all that much compared to some other months, but it’s certainly a lot more than normal. For the most part, these were thrift store purchases, so at least I didn’t go over the top with buying books at full price. I just happened to find myself at thrift stores with my friends a lot this month, and for some reason each time there was one or several books worth picking up. It was a little uncanny.
Enough prattling, 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?
I’ve made a small amount of progress in American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis since last week, and I’m happy to report that most of what I have read since my last update has not resembled that one chapter that spent a little too much time on products for my liking. I’m curious in what way Bateman’s murderous tendencies will come into play. Is he already committing murders or is something going to set him off? For now, all I know is that he and his friends are pathetically superficial, so I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if his reasons for killing people follow those lines. It’s also kind of fun to realize that I don’t actually know what the meat of the plot is for this story, despite it having a significant enough cultural presence that I feel like I should. I look forward to figuring out what’s at stake, beyond being a killer and not wanting to get caught.
Nothing this week.
This is talking about something further down the line, but I have been thinking a lot lately about rereading Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. I’ve committed to this so much, in fact, that I’ve already bought myself a copy. I haven’t read it since middle school or high school, so it’s been quite some time, and as corners of the Internet and emerging fan-made lo-fi horror content remind me how much darker the books were than the films, I feel like perhaps I didn’t fully appreciate what I was reading back then. So, I think there’s a good chance this will be the novel I read next, though I don’t expect I’ll be done American Psycho any time soon. I won’t be posting about it again here until I’m actually about to read it, but I figured with things being lighter this week, this would be a good time to talk about this.
Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.
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 finally started reading American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, though I’ve only gotten about 30 pages in so far, covering two chapters, which is at least enough to make a distinct impression. So far, I’m a little worried that this will be a bit of slog. The first chapter was definitely more interesting, as we are introduced to some of the insufferable people Patrick Bateman keeps as company, himself included, to a lesser extent. A bunch of superficial jerks being superficial jerks, though I’m interested in how Patrick himself seems disillusioned by it while still being completely embroiled in it. The second chapter was so much about Patrick’s morning routine and all of the products he uses to maintain his looks, with which he’s obsessed. I’ve been told a lot of the book is focused on details like this, though I’m hoping it’s more tolerable as a whole throughout than it was in this chapter.
Unlike last week, where I did not post because I had no real updates to share, I’ve engaged in veritable blitz of volumes of Berserk by Kentaro Miura. I read four of them in total—38, 39, 40, and 41—which has caught me up completely with the volumes currently published in English. It’s a bittersweet completion, however, as volume 41 marked the last manuscript penned by Miura himself before his untimely passing. This volume was especially enjoyable, full of touching moments and heartache, as the characters are finally at a perfect place for quiet introspection and more restful growth. Volumes had been consistently good up until this point, but a little unremarkable; 41 had exceptional payoff to the characters’ hard-fought journey, with substantial emotional stakes added to keep things compelling. It also included a bombshell of an ending that has me eager for more, if we do indeed get a continuation of this story in some way.
I also finished reading Springfield Confidential by Mike Reiss over the weekend, and my enthusiasm for it kind of tapered off by the ending. I think this was due to the fact that at a certain point, I’m not sure when, the focus seemed to shift away from The Simpsons too much. Especially in the final chapters, this book became about Mike Reiss’s career, and we get quite a lot of information on his work after departing from the show for a while. It still managed to hold more interest for the most part, but I did not pick up this book to read about Mike Reiss. I picked up this book to read about production on The Simpsons. When it’s talking about that, it’s quite good. A lot of it doesn’t talk about that, and it ultimately suffers a little as a result. Reiss’s writing style came off as increasingly hacky the further I got too, which hurt it more so.
Right now, I don’t have especially concrete plans on what I want to read next. Finishing Berserk was a big deal for me, and I think I want a little breather from comics after pushing through those last four volumes. I do have some ideas about what book I want to pick up next, but I need to properly get into a groove with American Psycho first before I can look that far ahead.
Until next time, 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 week’s theme is a TTT rewind, where we can pick a previous topic that we missed, so I decided I’d like to put together a list of books that fit all three of the criteria in the title. I imagine I could have picked one of the three, but I’d rather take advantage of the more broad approach. I’m not sure how to feel about how many series I’ve actually got lined up, but it’ll be nice to put them all together in one place.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 really happy with the progress I’ve made with Springfield Confidential by Mike Reiss since last week. I’m quite close to finishing it and might possibly be done with it by next week. We shall see, I have a history of such things not following through and I don’t really want to fully commit, especially since I’m hoping some more work will come in. At any rate, I’m enjoying this work quite a lot and you can definitely see Reiss’s imprint on The Simpsons through his style of writing (and honestly, probably its imprint on him in turn). It does come off a little corny sometimes in writing, however, I must admit. I wonder if I’d enjoy some of the quips better in an audio book. Also, the way he characterizes executives and their meddling really has me curious about how the sausage is made with a lot of the movies/series I love.
The other night I decided to read Galatea by Madeline Miller, which is definitely a book, though specifically a specially bound short story. I really loved Miller’s novels The Song of Achilles and Circe, so I knew I had to read this one of these days. I’ve actually owned it digitally for a while, but I’m happy I waited until I had a physical book in my hand, especially with the added context by the author in the new afterword. It was a rather brisk read and quite enjoyable, authentically adding onto a classical source of Greek myth while also being critical of it by offering a new point of view that challenges Pygmalion and the so-called happy ending he has with the ideal woman he crafts for himself.
I still have plans to continue with Berserk, but I think I’m finally starting to commit to something else that has been a long time coming, a book that I have literally owned since I was 19 years old: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I’ve been putting off reading this for so long that I’m pretty sure I know what the eventual twist is, though it’s quite surprising how much the twist isn’t brought up considering the meme culture that has popped up around the film adaptation. Nevertheless, I want to finally read this; I’ve owned for too long without doing so. Honestly, if I didn’t own it I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to read it at all, but my uncle recommended it to me among a number of other books when I was more seriously getting into reading, which is why I bought it, so I really want to cap those off finally.
Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.
Muse with Me 