Tag: reading

WWW Wednesday – October 15, 2025

Ryan1 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

Since last week I started reading The Thief of Always by Clive Barker as part of my to-read list for Halloween this year. I’d never read any Clive Barker before, despite him being a big name in the horror genre, and it was high time I changed that. I’d always imagined his work as more hardcore, so I was surprised to find this novel is actually more of an all-ages read akin to something like Coraline. The story is about a boy named Harvey who is led away to the Holiday House, a magical manor behind a dense wall of fog where all your needs are met and any desire you may have is but a whim away. But something sinister lurks behind this veneer of perfection, and if Harvey isn’t careful he may never see home again. Despite being suitable for younger readers, it’s really dark and has had some genuinely harrowing moments. Illustrations done by Barker himself are included throughout. I’m really enjoying it and expect I’ll finish it today or tomorrow.

Recently Finished

Nothing this week!

Reading Next

The next book I’m going to read for the Halloween season this year is Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. I’ve been wanting to read more classic literature this year, though I’ve only made good in a couple instances, so I decided one of my reads for this month ought to be one. I’ve only heard about this book in passing and don’t believe I’ve ever read anything else by the author, but I’m hopeful it will make for an enriching reading experience. Once I’ve read this book, I believe I will have read all the classic, seminal vampire books (at least that I’m aware of). I’m a little worried that this being an older book will slow down my reading pace, but the page count should hopefully make up for that.

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

WWW Wednesday – October 8, 2025

Ryan4 Comments
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 between books at the moment!

Recently Finished

Last week I finished up reading Strange Pictures by Uketsu, which I’m happy to report I continued to find a lot better than the author’s previous book that I read a month or so ago, so I will likely pick up more of Uketsu’s work in the future after all. I was hoping going into this book that it would be more of a horror story, as advertised, with altogether creepier elements at play, but this is really more of a mystery novel, especially in how each chapter at first seems isolated, but close connections are slowly revealed. The overall mystery at the heart of the book plays out really well, however, and the motif of strange pictures with hidden meanings was used pretty creatively throughout and never felt contrived or forced. Something I find strange about the discourse I’ve seen around these books is the insistence that you will be compelled to pore over the images and uncover their meaning for yourself, but based on my experience that wouldn’t be a fruitful use of your time.

I also spent the last couple of days reading through Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum, a rather short horror novella and another one of my Halloween reads for this year. I was originally going to borrow this digitally from the library, but I picked up a copy at a horror bookstore in Toronto the other weekend, where the shopkeeper spoke very highly of it. I was going to read it anyway, but this really encouraged picking it up. The book didn’t blow me away, but it was a very effective tale of medical body horror with unexpected eldritch elements. This went in directions I really wasn’t expecting and was exceptionally well told, but I’m a little disappointed that it didn’t successfully creep me out or scare me in any noteworthy ways. I suppose it’s rare that a book actually does, I guess this one just became a little too over-hyped in the lead up to me reading it.

Reading Next

Continuing with my Halloween reading plans, the next book I’m going to start reading is The Thief of Always by Clive Barker. Barker is one of those authors I’ve heard of all my life but never actually read, and as a fan of horror I’d been thinking it’s high time I actually read one. I picked this up earlier this year and am doing a good job for once and making myself read it soon after. This is a longer novel among the books I picked to read for this October so I want to make sure I get through it quicker, but with the progress I’ve made already thanks to reading Helpmeet so quickly, I’m starting to think I may be able to squeeze in another, larger novel before the month is out. Time will tell.

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

New Books & Novel Discoveries (September 2025)

RyanLeave a comment

I thought September was going to be another low-key month for a while there, but I wound up having a surprise opportunity to hit up some bookstores I don’t normally get to, and that led me to get a little carried away with picking up some new ones. It made for a great outing, however, and I picked up some books I’ve been trying to hunt down for a while.

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

WWW Wednesday – October 1, 2025

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

Since last week I’ve been reading Strange Pictures by Uketsu, a standalone novel written in a similar vein to the author’s previous novel Strange Houses. So far, I’m a couple of chapters in at just over 100 pages, and I’m liking it considerably more than the last book. Strange Houses had a problem of detachment, with the bulk of the narrative taking place as a conversation between characters, either speculating over floor plans or divulging secrets to each other. This time around, chapters are more couched in direct experiences, occasionally reviewing media, and it’s working out a lot better so far. I thought the chapters were their own self-contained stories with the motif of digging into the meaning behind seemingly mundane images, but the second chapter revealed they are in fact connected. I hope it pays off well by the end.

Recently Finished

Last week I finished reading The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett, the 28th Discworld novel. Though I wrote last week that I felt the book had oddly already reached its end despite nearly 50 pages reamining, I’m happy to report that it stills ends strong and did not feel disjointed with the rest of the book. In fact, throughout my reading I had felt that the community of Bad Blinitz was unusually absent for much of it, so it did a great job of taking that loose end and tying things back together. I’m curious if these characters will make any more appearances throughout the remainder of the series; I was already surprised to learn that they were first referenced all the way back in Reaper Man in 1991.

Reading Next

As today kicks off the Halloween season, I shall soon be starting my Halloween reads for this year (Strange Pictures still serving as the primer, which I’ll hopefully be finishing this week). First off, I will be reading Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum, a novella I’ve been meaning to read for a while. Originally, my plan was to borrow a digital copy of this book from my library, but I ended up making an unplanned visit to Little Ghosts Books, a horror bookshop in Toronto, where I was able to buy myself a copy. I’m eager to find out what all the fuss is about with this book; according to the worker at the bookstore, it’s body horror, which I wasn’t expecting.

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

WWW Wednesday – September 24, 2025

Ryan1 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’ve got a little bit left, but I’m almost finished reading The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett. I started out enjoying this book quite well, but I really didn’t expect to end up loving it as much as I do. Despite the “children’s book” label, it feels as deep as any other novel in the series, just a little more streamlined and shorter, and I’ve been really enjoying how richly it has been exploring the rats’ emergence into sapience and how they must navigate thinking of themselves and others as people and what that means for who they are collectively going forward. The only thing I feel a little stuck on is it felt like the story had its climax and was ready to wrap up, but there were still 40 pages left. I’m hoping it still ends on a strong note and doesn’t feel disjointed.

Recently Finished

Nothing new this week.

Reading Next

Very soon, I’m going to start reading a selection of books I’ve chosen for the Halloween season, but as a primer this week and perhaps into next week, depending on how long it takes me, I’m going to start reading Strange Pictures by Uketsu. Unfortunately, I didn’t find Strange Houses to be all that great, though it wasn’t without its intrigue, so I’m trying to remain optimistic that I’ll like this one. Strange Pictures was the first of his books to catch my eye, and I’m more drawn in by the idea of unusual pictures being the focal point rather than rampant speculation over bizarre floor plans, so maybe it will work out. If I find this one to be lackluster as well, I probably won’t pick up anymore of Uketsu’s work in the future.

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

WWW Wednesday – September 17, 2025

Ryan2 Comments
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

This week I started reading The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett, the 28th novel in the Discworld series. As a series first, if memory serves, this book is apparently more of a children’s novel. So far, it reads more or less like any other book in the series, except it is perhaps more straightforward in its approach and more concretely divides things up into chapters (a change I really welcome). I’m just in the early phases so far, but I’m enjoying its take on the Pied Piper folk tale by shifting the focus to sentient talking rats and a cat. Already I’m especially enjoying Pratchett’s exploration of beings that previously couldn’t think like people suddenly being able to and how they come to grips with that.

Recently Finished

Over the last week I read through The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, a book containing the author’s essay on absurdist philosophy. I’ve got to say, this book was a real struggle for me. Part of it was the writing style, which had syntax I found awkward (no doubt due to it being a translation), and a lot of it was just fully trying to process the ideas he was laying out. I used a number of tricks to help keep myself focused on the text, including reading along to an audiobook until that became annoying, as well as watching videos breaking down what certain chapters are getting at and then rereading them. I’m glad I put the effort into really understanding what this philosophy was all about rather than letting the words wash over my brain and fall away like droplets off a duck’s back. I believe I left with a decent grasp of the core ideas, but this was an unfortunately arduous reading experience.

Reading Next

I’ve started to compile books that I want to read for the Halloween season next month, though I haven’t decided on which will start things off.

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

WWW Wednesday – September 10, 2025

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

This week I started reading The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, and despite its short length, I’m definitely in for a challenge. It’s not often that I read philosophy as it is, and so far I have found this a little difficult to digest, with me currently at about 30 pages in. After finishing one of the early chapters, in fact, I looked up something explaining it more plainly and then reread the entire thing; if I’m really going to do this, I ought to be as steadfast about understanding it as I can. Despite my issues, I am finding it legitimately fascinating, and I’m hoping that I will have to seek secondary sources for clarity on meaning less and less as I get further into it. I’m especially intrigued by the notion, as I understand it, that the absurdity in absurdism is not the inherent nature of the universe but an experience human beings have when their need for unified meaning from the universe clashes with its uncaring inhumanity.

Recently Finished

Last week I finally finished reading A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. I really liked this book, but I feel like Pepper’s upbringing kind of stole the spotlight away from Sidra and her experiences coming to terms with living in a humanoid body. It still made for a really interesting book, and the two plot lines ended up coming together really well, but the more interesting aspect was Sidra figuring out how to be a person with bodily autonomy, not the story of a discarded waif living in a junkyard being raised by a ship’s AI and wanting to get off-world. Despite this, I have a much greater impression of the latter situation and all that she went through than the former, which is a shame. They never cleared the air on holding the crew from the first book accountable in some way either, which is a pity. There’s just so much untapped potential over what to explore with Sidra as a character.

Reading Next

I’m not sure what I’m going to read next, as The Myth of Sisyphus is commanding all of my attention.

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

New Books & Novel Discoveries (August 2025)

RyanLeave a comment

August was almost a month of significant note, as it was very close to becoming the first month since January 2018 that I hadn’t bought a single new book. This is on the heals of having gone to Fan Expo again this year, a destination that used to be a guarantee of buying new comics but sadly is hardly worth it for that anymore. However, at a moment of feeling low, late into the month, I found myself browsing a bookstore. During my browse, I found something I’d been looking for, and me with a bit of Expo spending money left over. So, the streak continues.

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

WWW Wednesday – September 3, 2025

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 in the middle of reading A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers, though I’m within the final 100 pages, so I’m hoping I can get it done this week. It’s a solid novel so far, I am really liking it, though it’s still hard not to compare it to the first one and how much I liked it. However, this novel has given me a bone to pick with the crew of the first novel, though I’m inclined to hold back a little because the totality of their rationale is not fresh in my mind. Nevertheless, I really think the crew of the Wayfarer did Sidra dirty by sending her off in the kit. I get that they were grieving the loss of Lovey, but couldn’t they have modded Lovelace (Sidra) to have a difference voice? She’s ostensibly a new person and the ship is going to need a new AI anyway, surely, so why did they send this poor being off in a body she didn’t want, that she struggles to feel comfortable in on a daily basis? I’m really hoping this novel addresses this problem eventually, because it’s honestly an elephant in the room and they need to be held accountable at least a little.

Recently Finished

Nothing this week. Work has been rather busy and I’ve been singularly focused on what I’m still currently reading.

Reading Next

No new plans this week, and I’m still planning to start The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus next. This is normally a week I would perhaps skip, but I had a lot to say about what I’m currently reading.

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

WWW Wednesday – August 27, 2025

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

Finally, after half a decade and goodness knows how many to-read lists including this book, I have finally started reading A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers, the second novel in the Wayfarers series. I actually could’ve posted about this last week, but I had so much going on that I entirely forgot about posting that Wednesday. Whoops! I’m about 150 pages or so in and I’m enjoying it quite a lot. I don’t find myself quite as endeared to the characters as I did the crew in the first book, but it is making for fascinating science fiction to witness an AI meant to be housed in a ship, with all the sensors and viewpoints at its disposal there, try to exist limited to a humanoid body. An especially interesting consideration is how memory would actually work, as there’s only so much space for data storage that is limited to technology rather than a brain when it doesn’t have network access. So far it’s a going concern for Sidra, our protagonist, and I’m curious to see if and how it is resolved. Also, I’m convinced Blue wants to get freaky with Sidra but I can’t prove it.

Recently Finished

The very week I started it I finished reading Strange Houses by Uketsu, and I must say I was kind of let down by it by the end. The integration of floor plans was certainly interesting, especially as it has you follow the characters’ back and forth speculation about what such design choices could indicate and why, but in the end I just found it to be too bland. I thought the author and his friend’s predictions were entirely too accurate to what was really happening, and the revelatory breakdown of what was truly going on was such a formal and straightforward explanation that it was hard to really feel swept up by any of it. It’s just a bunch of names and being told who, what, and where outside any traditional narrative style; it was almost like reading a report of events. I will say, I like that certain things remained obscure and don’t quite add up if you tally it all together, but my intrigue isn’t strong enough to keep me thinking about it either. I hope I enjoy Strange Pictures more.

Reading Next

I’ve been meaning to get to some nonfiction books for a while now, so tentatively I think I will read The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus next, especially since the Halloween season is right around the corner, at which point it will be all about the spooky.

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