Tag: Sappho

WWW Wednesday – September 18, 2024

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

The TruthI’m still making my way through The Truth by Terry Pratchett, though I haven’t made especially good progress this past week. With the story presenting newspapers as a novelty in the city, I can’t help  but feel oddly compelled to read a newspaper myself. It’s something that’s never been a habit for me, but the way it’s being presented is hearkening back to a time before widespread online media, and it’s making me feel that reading a paper for precisely local news, where I live, would hold much more appeal. This is probably a fleeting whim, but it’s amusing to be so self-aware of fiction’s influence. The mounting conflict seems to be about the Patrician of the city being replaced by an imposter, with the end goal of usurping him, but with the shadowy group’s insistence he not be killed, I wonder what more they have planned.

Recently Finished

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The HorseI ended up coming across another shelf of graphic novels at my local library, so I brought a number of them home, relishing the opportunity for more brisk reads that I wouldn’t pick up under other circumstances. One was Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Andersen, a “Sarah’s Scribbles” collection of comic strips. It was an amusing outing, but I’m glad I didn’t buy this book when it came out, as I think I’ve outgrown the style a little; it’s millennial humour that was better suited to me when I was in my 20s. I also read The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy, which caught my eye because of its lovely ink art. Essentially an all-ages picture book, it was full of nice, thoughtful sentiments, though at times they felt more like saccharine platitudes. Still, it was a moving work that made for a nice, relaxing read. Lastly, I finished reading Stung with Love: Fragments and Poems by Sappho. I haven’t got much more to say on it, other than I’m happy that it was more enriching for me than other ventures into reading poetry, which I struggle with sometimes.

Reading Next

Suddenly, the end of September feels like it is coming up really fast, so I’m starting to shift into thinking about October reads. I haven’t fully settled on what horror book I want to start with just yet, but I’ll be taking part in Frighteningly Good Reads again this year, so I’ll have a post at the start of next month detailing a selection of books I want to get through.

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

WWW Wednesday – September 11, 2024

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

The TruthI made some decent progress on The Truth by Terry Pratchett this past week, sitting at well over 120 pages in now. It’s still in what feels like the “ramping up” phase of the story, but I’m enjoying it well enough so far. In the past, I found this formula a little played out, but it receded into the background as his books started to focus more on building on the characters from their respective subseries. Now, he’s come back around to it in what feels like a more refined way so far. I really liked how the story itself does a little nod to these older stories, like Moving Pictures, with the Patrician grilling the dwarf who runs the printing press about the likelihood of this new innovation wreaking similar havoc on the city/reality, bringing up several other incidents from across the series’s many books. Moving Pictures was well over ten books ago now, so it was sobering to be reminded that it really wasn’t that long ago for the people of this world. They really do deal with a lot of crazy crap.

I also made some decent headway reading Stung with Love: Poems and Fragments by Sappho. I should have it done soon, I just want to take my time a little instead of plowing through so I can appreciate it better. The translator’s notes alongside the fragments are very helpful, especially the one about a fragment that has acquired “cult status” in academic circles, simply reading “A handkerchief; Dripping with…”

Recently Finished

Batman Hellboy StarmanSometime over the past week I decided to finally read Batman/Hellboy/Starman by James Robinson and Mike Mignola, a two-issue crossover comic featuring the two iconic characters and some guy I’ve never heard of before. The story is non-canonical, so it just has fun with the idea of Batman and Hellboy meeting up. This crossover is from 1999, so it felt especially informed by the TAS version of Batman, but I could have just been projecting. It was a fun little outing involving them trying to thwart Nazis from reviving an elder god. It wasn’t especially deep as a story, but it didn’t have to be; while the Hellboy novels have their problems with that, these more basic plots thrive better as comics. Interestingly, I think the Kindle version I bought for about $4 was technically a scam? It’s not listed anymore, and there are banner ads within about it coming from a free comic book site. I think somebody made a quick buck listing somebody else’s work.

Reading Next

Once again, I’m not really sure what I’ll be reading next, but I do have a bunch of books in mind, so it’ll just be a matter of settling on one.

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

WWW Wednesday – September 4, 2024

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

The TruthIt’s feeling rather late in the year for this considering I used to try to read one every quarter, but I’ve finally started the next Discworld novel I need to get to: The Truth. I’m expecting this one to feel a little refreshing because it’s been a long time since I’ve read one that wasn’t a part of a subseries like the Witches or the City Watch. This follows a similar yet more open-ended structure to some of the previous ones, about the world being effected by the arrival of a new innovation in some way. This book sees a machine printing press coming to the city of Ankh-Morpork and with it widespread print media. This would have a profound effect anywhere, so I’m really curious about what will unfold in this unique setting. I’m only 30 pages or so in so far, but I’m hoping I can get a lot more done soon.

Stung with Love Poems and FragmentsI also started reading Stung with Love: Poems and Fragments by Sappho, a book collecting all of the surviving poems and fragments by the well-known Greek poet. I’ve only read a section on poems about Goddesses so far, as there was actually a good deal of front matter to this book giving more context to what we know about Sappho as a figure. I found this most interesting as a look into just how fragmentary surviving art and history can be. There are plenty of references to her work and skill as a great poet throughout histoyr, but comparatively little of her actual work has survived up to now. It’s surreal to see ancient Roman sources cited, who would’ve had direct access to her work, and having to base our understanding of it off of theirs. I don’t know how quickly I’ll finish this, it’s not very long, but I likely won’t give full updates like this each week if my progress is slow.

Recently Finished

AuthorityLast week I finally finished reading Authority by Jeff VanderMeer, the second book in the Southern Reach trilogy. Things finally came to a head in the story in the final chapters, and in true Southern Reach fashion I had only a vague understanding of what was really going on, except for a few certainties that were quite apparent. I really liked that a prevailing feeling I had throughout the book without a single explicit indicator to it was made to be right. I know it’s a 10-year-old book, but I don’t want to ruin it for anybody who may be interested, so I’m being vague myself. Despite the fact that I had trouble finding good momentum with reading this book, I did really enjoy it, and I’m happy with how it concluded. I’m wondering if Acceptance will hold any real, concrete answers or if I should resign myself to being in the dark about a lot of it, even at the very end.

Reading Next

I’ve not decided anything that I want to read next with certainty, but with October just around the corner I am starting to consider what horror books I think I can get through. My reading speed has been a little stunted this year, which is really bothering me, so I’m worried I won’t be able to do more than one average-sized novel. We shall see.

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

WWW Wednesday – August 21, 2024

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

AuthorityEnded up taking a weird hiatus these past few weeks, as I’ve ended up not posting a single thing since July 31st. Initially, I just skipped the first Wednesday of August because I wanted more to show for it, but now I’ve nearly missed three in a row. In this time I’ve read a fair amount, though regrettably I’m still making my way through Authority by Jeff VanderMeer. Partly, this is because I decided to shift my focus other places; I still think I can get this book done before the end of the month. However, I am finding the book a little too slow, despite the fact that I do in fact like it a lot. Some things are unraveling and being revealed at the point in the story I’m at, but I still feel a little at a loss as to what it’s all building toward and what’s at stake. There are also some narrative devices that I’m not 100% sold on, but I think I can come around on them. We’ll see. I’m being vague because I don’t want to spoil things too much, even though this book is 10 years old now.

Recently Finished

Jim Henson Storyteller FairiesI’ve actually finished quite a lot in the intervening time, which I’m happy about, most of them being comics. They’re library books rather than from my personal backlog, so I’m sorry to say I still haven’t gotten to some of those, but I’m still pleased with the results anyway. Over the past few weeks I’ve read two more volumes from the Jim Henson’s The Storyteller series of anthologies: Fairies and Sirens. I really liked the Fairies volume, the writers have a greater wealth of folklore from around the world to pull from, as you can be very broad when considering something as related to fairies. Sirens, on the other hand, was a bit weaker. The stories were just not as interesting, though not poorly illustrated or written, and as a theme it just felt a little more tenuous. One of them is about a goddess from China that’s half snake, which barely counts, while none of them include sirens from actual Greek mythology.

Dead MountainWhat I mainly shifted my focus toward was getting Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichar done in time to get it back to the library, as somebody else had put a hold on it. I don’t know if I’ll be reviewing this one, but I will say here that I really loved this book. I have trouble with nonfiction sometimes, but Eichar did a really great job presenting this story and tying it together with his own experiences before bringing it all together with a satisfying theory about what actually happened on that mountain that fateful night that resulted in nine hikers fleeing the safety of their tent into the freezing dead of night, leading to their deaths from exposure. Where before my familiarity with this mystery was based on a lot of hearsay and sensationalism, I’ve come away from this book with a much deeper understanding of what took place leading up to the incident, the aftermath, and a likely explanation of what could actually have happened. Highly recommend this one to lovers of nonfiction.

Reading Next

Stung with Love Poems and FragmentsI’m still going to be working away at Authority for the next couple of weeks, but I’ve also taken a new book out of the library: Stung with Love: Poems and Fragments by Sappho. As I understand it, the book collects translations of all the surviving work of the Greek poet Sappho. I try to push myself to read poetry from time to time, and while I’ve bristled a little with modern stuff, I’ve always wanted to give her work a closer look, so I was happy to discover that the library has a volume that can satisfy that curiosity. I’ve got a number of novels in mind that I want to read next, but I haven’t settled on one yet. There’s a number I still want to read this year that I’m realizing I likely won’t get to, which is disappointing. So it goes.

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