WWW Wednesday – 2017/02/22

February 22, 2017 Ryan1 Comment

WWW Wednesday is a book meme run by Taking on a World of Words.

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 been aware of this for a while, and though I’m thinking I will post every other week rather than every week (I don’t feel I read fast enough for weekly), I thought it’d be fun to participate.

Currently Reading

I started reading Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King last week as a final side-story departure before finishing the Dark Tower series. I plan to read the entire thing, but my priority is getting through “Low Men in Yellow Coats”, since Ted Brautigan is apparently an important character related to the Tower. As a story that’s part of this collection I do find it a little strange just how tied to Dark Tower it is, since as I understand it this book is mainly about capturing the attitudes of 1960s America, especially in relation to the Vietnam War. The family drama is good nonetheless, and King does a fine job of telling the story believably from the perspective of a young boy.

I’m still in the middle of Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris, which I treat as something a little more supplementary to what I’m mainly focusing on reading. I’m enjoying it a lot so far, it’s quite funny, though I liked When You Are Engulfed in Flames more thus far. The essays are good, but the short monologues he was inspired to write by the “Forensics” that high school students dictate haven’t done much for me yet.

Recently Finished

The most recent book I finished reading was Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler, the second Philip Marlowe detective novel. The hardboiled attitudes and narrative style was fun, especially the period specific dialogue and exaggerated manner some characters are presented — the loudly-dressed ex-con Moose Malloy being my favourite. It was a strange odyssey through a criminal underworld that Marlowe, despite his intelligence and capabilities, seemed to stumble along through more than deduce and break down on his own. In this way it felt very anti-detective fiction, until the ending which wraps things up conveniently for the reader. The mystery kept me interested nonetheless, though it did drag a bit towards the end, where I started to feel a little tangled in all its threads.

Reading Next

I’ve got several books in mind for reading in the near future, some of them prose and others graphic novels. I want to finally start The Dark Tower (VII) so I can say I’ve finished the series. I’m dying to know how it all ends, especially with the cliffhanger Song of Susannah left me on. I also want to start reading more current books, so I picked up Homesick for Another World, a collection of short stories by Ottessa Moshfegh. I read a little bit of a preview before buying to see if I like her style, but otherwise I want to go in blind.

I’m waiting for a copy of Hellboy: The Crooked Man and Others to arrive so I can finish reading Hellboy. I have all 12 volumes except for the above one (Vol. 10) which has been harder to find, so it’s run my progress on the series into the ground. I’ve been loving it though and can’t wait to finally power through the rest. In the meantime, I’m going to start reading Sandman: Overture by Neil Gaiman and J. H. Williams III, which I’m disappointed I haven’t done already considering how much I love the original Sandman series.

Trying to get Refocused

January 18, 2017January 13, 2018 RyanLeave a comment

Lately I’ve been taking in just how much I still need to get through, not just in terms of books, but all forms of art and storytelling that have been backlogged for years now. I think part of this has to do with coming into my own both as a reader/viewer/etc. and as someone with critical aspirations. When I was in university, the material I had to learn and write about was provided for me and occupied a lot of my time. Now, I have to be the author of my own progress. The problem is, despite progress I feel I have made as a writer, I’m terrible at managing what content I get through.Read More »

What We Get To

November 8, 2016January 13, 2018 RyanLeave a comment

Recently I read Found, a book of poetry by Souvankham Thammavongsa. Not to disparage this book in the slightest, but the content of this book specifically isn’t important. What matters right now is what it is to me, what is has been. I read her first collection of poems, Small Arguments, in 2008 for Critical Thinking about Poetry, a first year course I took during my time at the University of Toronto at Scarborough (UTSC). I can’t precisely remember when, but I bought Found in the UTSC bookstore shortly afterwards because it was there. I recognized the similar binding, that I’d read the poet already, and picked it up. I wasn’t even particularly partial to Thammavongsa’s work. I was just starting to collect books and I jumped on it.Read More »

A Beginner’s Advice: Reading the Good and the Bad

June 28, 2016January 13, 2018 RyanLeave a comment

Today, I want to extend some advice I continually try to follow in my pursuit of writing fiction: that you should be reading as much as you can, as often as possible. This of course extends to other storytelling mediums as well, whichever you want to be writing in. While this is probably obvious, what I feel can be overlooked, however — which I too am guilty of — is that you should read, watch, play, etc. as much outside of the genre you’re interested in writing about as possible.Read More »

Book Review – The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

June 21, 2016January 13, 2018 RyanLeave a comment

Summary from Goodreads

Roland Deschain and his ka-tet—Jake, Susannah, Eddie, and Oy, the billy-bumbler—encounter a ferocious storm just after crossing the River Whye on their way to the Outer Baronies. As they shelter from the howling gale, Roland tells his friends not just one strange story but two…and in so doing, casts new light on his own troubled past.

Published in 2012, The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King is part of his popular and acclaimed Dark Tower series. Written after the series’ completion, this novel takes place between The Dark Tower IV: Wizard & Glass and The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla. The novel, apparently meant to fill in a noticeable gape between the two entries, explores some more of Roland’s personal history before embarking upon his quest, as well as expanding upon the lore of Mid-World.Read More »

When Classics Aren’t Enough

September 15, 2015January 13, 2018 RyanLeave a comment

Recently, while having a conversation with a friend about books, the subject turned to reading what is generally considered to be “classic” literature. These are the books that are taught in high schools, university courses, and other academic circles. While I personally appreciate the academic reasons and approach to examining this kind of literature (which most people characterize as Literature proper), my friend brought up a very valid point: they’re not only a major chore to get through at times, but contain narrative devices and plot points that would be heavily criticized if done today.Read More »

Hesitation Near The End

September 8, 2015January 13, 2018 RyanLeave a comment

There is a phenomenon I have experienced throughout much of my life that I haven’t been self-conscious of until very recently. It is an obscure sorrow that I have become increasingly aware of — credit to The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows for inspiring this kind of reflection — and I’ve begun to feel that there are probably a lot of other people who feel the same way.

There are people who love to marathon through shows, movies, speed-run games, or speed read. While they may share my experience, I feel it applies more specifically to the way I go through things. I read a lot, but I’m not particularly fast at it. My pace gets the job done, but I hardly read fast enough to finish even a short book in one sitting. I can spend even greater amounts of time on a game, or a series, where going back to the material becomes a regular routine in my life.Read More »

Life’s Little Stories & The Best One I was Told

July 28, 2015January 13, 2018 RyanLeave a comment

In my adult life I’ve strongly developed a reverence for the power that stories hold over us. They act as points of reference for us on morals and how to interact. They frighten us, give us hope, influence us to love, hate, laugh, and cry. While fiction in all its forms is the source of much of this, the idea of story here branches to experiences and ideas we share with one another, absorbed as we grow and mature. While there are many big stories that require a lot of thought and experience with, there are little stories too, which can be trickier. Maybe only a statement or idea expressed in a few words, little stories can expand in our minds. I’ve found that I fill in the gaps with all other narrative tropes I’m aware of that fit.Read More »

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