WWW Wednesday – November 8, 2023

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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

ScornI’m not sure if I alluded to it another week, but I started casually reading Scorn: The Art of the Game by Matthew Pellett. I don’t read art books too often, but I really loved the visual style of this game, which I recently played through for Halloween, and I’m hoping it will provide further insight into some of the ideas behind the game’s world. So far, I’ve loved the deeper dive into what the artists’ inspirations were when designing the world, especially the emphasis on the Space Jockey from the film Alien rather than the titular monster itself. It clicked in my mind and made immediate sense to me, as that aspect of the movie is especially obscure and unclear; you know you’re looking at the body of an alien being, but it’s hard to fully make out what it is. This feeling was captured in the game’s art really well.

The Lost WorldI also started reading The Lost World by Michael Crichton; so far, I’ve put a lot of mileage into it from one sitting, close to 150 pages. Right of the bat, this book is definitely weaker than the previous book, though I am enjoying it. I’m like the idea that “Site B” is a well-kept secret by the now bankrupt InGen, so characters have to spend some time figuring out where it even is, but the way they start their expedition half-cocked with very little manpower feels too much like characters being uncharacteristically dumb. The children in the story are not insufferable, but their presence feels more forced than the first book. As it is, Crichton’s strengths haven’t been in his character work, in my opinion, so I’m not sure why he mixes things up so much by adding kids. He writes them fine, but I don’t think the nature of their perspectives gels well with his writing style, so I kept hoping their involvement would be more limited.


Recently Finished

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 9Over the weekend I finally continued The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa with volume 9. This volume sees Link and Midna venturing into the Twilight realm to finally face off against the usurper Zant. This part of the volume I enjoyed rather well, especially as it did more to flesh out the Twili people and more of what life was like for Midna at court. The latter part of the book involves the subplot with Link’s hometown that disappeared when he pulled a strange sword from a stone as a youth, all elements that were not part of the original game. I liked that this made the Twilight realm feel bigger, but it was wrapped up a little too neatly for me by the end of this volume. I get that you want to give Link more of a backstory without derailing the original story, but this didn’t walk that line well.


Reading Next

Nothing cemented right now, as I’ve got a lot in progress.

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

WWW Wednesday – November 1, 2023

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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 technically between books at the moment, but I believe I forgot to say anything about On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden; I decided to shelve it for the time being, since it’s not really a Halloween read, which means I’ve been holding onto this copy from the library for quite a bit now. I should make short work of it soon enough, though.


Recently Finished

Alien 3 First-DraftI’m happy to report that I was able to finish all the novels I wanted to for the Halloween season (it was only three, but my goals are usually modest), the last one being Alien 3 by Pat Cadigan. My feelings for this story didn’t drop any further since last week, which is good, though they didn’t pick back up again either. It seems like everything interesting was front-loaded into the novel and then it just devolved into a typical Aliens story. It does have me curious about what the graphic novel that adapted Gibson’s second draft is like though. It’s a shame that Alien novels disappoint me more often than not. There’s one more I’m willing to give a chance; if it doesn’t work out, I think that’s it for me and any more novels in this franchise.


Reading Next

The Lost WorldWith spooky season behind us, I want to be moving onto some other reading goals to close out the year. To polish off the small Jurassic Park kick I’m on at the moment, I’m going to start reading The Lost World by Michael Crichton soon. If my new reading regimen keeps up, I’m hoping I can fit another book into November alongside it. Otherwise, I’ve still got plenty of comic book volumes I need to be getting to, between Paper Girls and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, so this might be shaping up to be a more accomplished reading month than normal.

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

WWW Wednesday – October 25, 2023

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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

Alien 3 First-DraftI’ve made some pretty good progress in Alien 3 by Pat Cadigan; I only have a little over 100 pages left to read, so I’m really hopeful that I will have it done by Halloween. I must say, my enthusiasm for this book has mellowed the further I’ve gotten into it. I don’t actually think that I like the changes they’ve made to how the Xenomorph works, as its ability to infect others seems so effective that it feels arbitrary who does and who does not become infected. I was hoping it was more of an on-the-fly adaptation than such a dramatic change. It’s making me think this story had a huge influence on future projects like the film Prometheus too. I’ve also learned that this book is based on the first draft, which had more of an action tone, while the second draft felt more like Alien with only a few creatures; I really wish the novel followed the latter.


Recently Finished

WitchavenAs per my plans, I managed to read through the entirety of The Haar by David Sodergren on Monday. Unlike my last, fairly recent read-through of a book in one sitting, I liked this book a lot, though it didn’t end up being what I expected at all. This will perhaps sound cornier than the execution, but it was infinitely more of a “my monster boyfriend” type of story than I was expecting, though it includes some exceptionally grotesque descriptions of gore and takes itself appropriately seriously. It really resonated with me as a “folk” horror novel, and I really loved Muriel as a protagonist. Though it wasn’t as scary as I was hoping, if you look below the surface of the story as it unfolds it is potentially a lot darker than it lets on, making for something perhaps more ambiguous than you might at first realize. This book has passed as a test reading, at any rate, and I now plan to buy more of Sodergren’s books in the future.


Reading Next

For now, I don’t have many concrete plans. I’m strongly considering reading through a digital copy of the art book for the video game Scorn that came with my copy, since I’ve recently beaten the game, and I still want to read “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman before Halloween too, but I haven’t decided on a full novel yet.

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

WWW Wednesday – October 18, 2023

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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

Alien 3 First-DraftI’m still in the middle of reading Alien 3 by Pat Cadigan; though I’m only about halfway through, I feel I’ve made decent progress over the last couple of weeks, all things considered. I didn’t get much reading done last week though, hence the absence of a post, due in large part to me going out of town to visit family and friends for my birthday and Thanksgiving. At any rate, I’m enjoying this book quite a lot, as I feel it follows up on the lore really well, expanding on it in some ways better than the film we got. There is one caveat that makes me happy this screenplay didn’t end up getting made, however, as for some reason Gibson’s creative choice with Ripley has been to stick her in a coma; nobody puts Ripley in the corner. Besides that, I’m enjoying its focus on Bishop and Hicks, who otherwise meet an abrupt end in the films, making the focus on them a nice AU treat.


Recently Finished

TombsI postponed getting this post written today because I was determined to finish reading Tombs by Junji Ito. I was hoping to do so this morning, but sleepiness got the better of me (I work nights, so it was bedtime). It does not come as much of a surprise that I quite liked this collection; the VIZ collections with the tag “Junji Ito Story Collection” on the spine have tended to be my favourite, and this one was actually better as a whole than the last couple. This collection had some stories I’d actually gone out of my way to read before, but I did so for a reason, as they’re quite good ones, like “Washed Ashore”. What I found best about this collection was how much its weirder stories were left unexplained, as explaining too much has been a problem with a lot of his other (I believe more recent) stories.


Reading Next

My Halloween reading plans are progressing nicely, though I’m a little worried about getting Alien 3 done on time. I’m also hoping I can get through all or most of The Haar by David Sodergren on Monday when I have a longer stretch of reading time. Even though we’re getting into late October, I still have plenty of time overall, so I’m optimistic.

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

WWW Wednesday – October 4, 2023

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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

Alien 3 First-DraftSince last week, I’ve started to read a couple of new books. First is Alien³ by Pat Cadigan (I don’t want to use the longer title that specifies what it is every time), one of the books I’ve chosen to read for the Halloween season. Right off the bat, I’m enjoying this a lot as an alternative third installment in the Alien film series, most especially because of a scene where a character behaves more sensibly in response to somebody getting a facehugger on their head than anybody else in the franchise; she essentially says “Damn, an alien ate Boris’s face,” and then shoots the facehugger and disposes of the man’s body through the airlock. I’m looking forward to seeing how this story develops.

on-a-sunbeamI also started reading On a Sunbeam, a graphic novel by Tillie Walden. I’ve had this book on my to-read list for a while now, though my interest hadn’t been piqued quite enough to actually pick up a copy. While I was picking something else up at the library a few weeks ago, I noticed they had a copy, so I decided this was the perfect opportunity to make myself read it. So far it’s been an interesting enough coming-of-age story, telling two plot lines about a young woman’s present working with a restoration crew and past at a boarding school. I really like the stylistic depiction of space structures and vehicles, such as many ships resembling large goldfish.


Recently Finished

Nothing this week.


Reading Next

WitchavenI actually have a lot of more immediate reading plans on the go right now for October. The next book I want to make sure I read is The Haar by David Sodergren; I’m really curious about this author and it’s short enough that I think I can squeeze it into my reading schedule this month if I spend my time right. I really love the cover too, so part of me weirdly needs it to be good to coincide with that. I also intend to finally read Tombs by Junji Ito, a story collection that I’ve owned for many months now. I’ve been tentatively planning to read it for a while now but haven’t felt motivated. Now, it is at least on theme with the season.

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

New Books & Novel Discoveries (September 2023)

It was with uncanny speed that September seemed to pass us by, though I’m not really complaining since it means that October and the Halloween season are now in full swing (today’s unseasonable warmth here notwithstanding). I allowed myself to indulge a little last month, in large part because I decided to browse some stores I hadn’t been to in a long while. I’m actually feeling especially good about all the books I picked up this month, such that I feel they’re all books I’ll read pretty soon.

Enough delay, on to the books!Read More »

WWW Wednesday – September 27, 2023

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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 at the moment, I am between books.


Recently Finished

I Wear the Black HatI’ve had a rather productive couple of weeks. Though I didn’t feel I had read enough to warrant a post last week, I have finished reading I Wear the Black Hat by Chuck Klosterman, which I ended up liking a little more than I was feeling when I last posted about it, as some of the essays started to cover subjects I was a little more familiar with. I especially liked the essay “This Zeitgeist is Making Me Thirsty”, which is an examination of the worldview of the sitcom Seinfeld, something that Klosterman lays out as a lot more bleak than I ever realized. I knew the characters and tone could be rather mean-spirited, but I hadn’t considered the depths of it before.

Man, Fuck This HouseOn Monday, I managed to read the entirety of the horror novella Man, Fuck This House by Brian Asman, a story about a family that moves into a house that is already inhabited by an inhuman presence. I’m really happy I was successfully able to read this in a sitting to kick of the spooky season, and I’m hoping it bodes well for getting some other books done during the Halloween season too. Though this book captured my attention thanks in large part to its title, I didn’t think it was very good. Even as something deliberately pulpy and without pretensions, I couldn’t help finding a lot of it pretty stupid. It was still fun, but the horror, such as it was, didn’t really work for me, so it mostly amounted to something audacious and silly with one character getting on my nerves on top of it all.


Reading Next

Alien 3 First-DraftWith horror books being my primary concern now, I think I’m going to start Alien³: The Unproduced First-Draft Screenplay by William Gibson by Pat Cadigan, as I’ve been really curious about this book since I first learned about it and have been sitting on a copy for a little while now. Though I have no experience with Gibson or Cadigan, I’m really intrigued with the story behind this novel. Though I do have some love for Alien³ despite it faltering compared to its predecessor films, I love the idea that a celebrated author in the cyberpunk genre had an idea for what that film should be. I really want to know his vision, especially as it is being realized by another celebrated cyberpunk author.

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

WWW Wednesday – September 13, 2023

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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 Wear the Black HatThis past week I managed to read a lot of I Wear the Black Hat by Chuck Klosterman; I was hoping I’d be able to finish it, but I didn’t quite make that much progress. At the moment, I’m only a little over halfway. I’m sure I’ve felt this way before, but reading through a lot of an essay book in one sitting was a bit of a slog for me. This wasn’t helped by the fact that this isn’t quite hitting my interests in the ways that I was hoping. Don’t get me wrong, Klosterman has some great writing in this book, such as exploring why some people are remembered heroically despite a lot of bad behaviour and the ways that certain people cultivate villainous personas, but this has been a lot more about musicians and athletes than I was expecting, which are spheres that don’t appeal to me very much.


Recently Finished

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 8Over the weekend I read through the eighth volume of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa. After some training from the Hero of Time, the story picked up a lot of momentum here, rocketing Link through two of the game’s dungeons after spending a couple of volumes going off script. Through I feel like these moments have been few and far between, for the most part, I can’t help but notice weakness in the dialogue from time to time. Most notably in this volume was when Midna realizes that the Hero’s Shade is the Hero of Time, which is something she ought to have learned alongside Link in the previous volume. Most often I’m really wondering if the translation job is weak here, but I’ll likely never know for sure. Regardless, with three volumes left I’m excited to see this series through.


Reading Next

Still no new plans are on the table for what I’m reading next. I’m still working on my Carpe Jugulum review, which I lament falling behind on posting, but hopefully I will have it done soon.

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

WWW Wednesday – September 6, 2023

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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 Wear the Black HatI managed to start reading I Wear the Black Hat by Chuck Klosterman since last week, though I’ve only managed the preface and the first essay. Still, it has made for interesting reading so far, with the preface asking a lot of questions about the nature of goodness and how good or bad everyday people may or may not be, turned on the self as well. By the end of the preface, he makes a point about young male fans of Star Wars, as they get older, gravitating away from Luke Skywalker toward Han Solo and then eventually Darth Vader as characters that capture their interest the most. Though the thought is left at the surface level for the most part, it’s an interesting thing to note, as there’s a truth to the observation that’s easy to recognize in my experience that raises questions about why we feel the ways that we do about villains.


Recently Finished

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 7Over the weekend, I managed to read through the seventh volume of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa, which saw Link recovering from his near-fatal encounter with Dark Link and Zant. This volume was quite an interesting departure from the narrative of the game, as none of this happens there at all. Most captivating about it were the further connections made with the game Ocarina of Time, which I wish the Twilight Princess game had put more effort into. The Hero of Time takes up the mantle as a mentor much more firmly in this book, explaining who he is and his past more explicitly, and we see dialogue between Zelda and Ganondorf that explains the connections between the two eras more clearly.


Reading Next

At the moment, I have no new plans on what to read next, other than a tenuous commitment to reading The Lost World by Michael Crichton, if I can do so before October starts.

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