Top 5 Books I Read in 2024

I’m getting to this a little late this year, but nevertheless it is time once again to look back on the year just finished and determine which books were my top five favourite. As usual, this isn’t listing books that came out last year, just the five books I read last year that I enjoyed the most, in no particular order.

I think this may be the most difficult time I’ve had making this list; I enjoyed most everything I read last year, but a good number of them don’t really feel worthy of this distinction to me. It seems I had a similar problem last year, but I feel more pointedly dispassionate this time. At any rate, let’s see what made the cut.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – November 6, 2024

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! I regret not posting last week, but my work schedule is weird and I had people over to carve pumpkins last Wednesday, so I was unable to get a post up in time. As a result, I have a few finished books to get to.


Recently Finished

Vermis IIThe first book I finished since I last posted was Vermis II: Mist & Mirrors by Plastiboo, the second book in a series of art books structured as game guides for a dark fantasy video game that never existed. I really enjoyed the first volume, and I liked this second one even more. The first book felt a little open-ended, as if you’re following a quest line that the player could follow regardless of chosen character, but this time around it seemed to be a guide for a specific character’s journey, with more characters listed at the end, presumably with their own quests. I really liked the focus this gave to the book, keeping the game guide motif while allowing itself a more concrete narrative.

Sherlock Holmes and the NecronomiconNext, I read Sherlock Holmes and the Necronomicon by Sylvain Cordurié and Laci, another Halloween read that I borrowed from the library. This wasn’t terrible, but I don’t have a lot of nice things to say about this book either. It was competently written and drawn, but had very little going on that I found interesting. It being a Holmes story felt especially pointless, as he doesn’t do any detective work. The only real significance is that, somehow, Moriarty has returned, and he is going to use the Necronomicon to fully revive himself because of some nonsense about part of his soul being in Holmes. Actually, that was the most interesting element, as the idea is brought forth that positive changes in Holmes’s character are a direct result of Moriarty’s soul hiding in him, but this isn’t focused on enough. I likely won’t be checking out the second book.

Meddling KidsFinally, I finished Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero, my last spooky read for the Halloween season. Unfortunately, I didn’t actually finish it until November 4th, but the lion’s share of it was in October, so I’m counting it. I really like this book, I’d give it a solid four stars overall, though sometimes I want to say three and a half because the ending sections of this book became something of a struggle for me. There were some great twists and turns in the story that I enjoyed, but so much of it is this trio of burnouts fighting off a horde of amphibious monsters and it just wouldn’t stop; my eyes actually started glazing over and I had to snap myself back into focus during these continual, drawn out fight sequences. It was really good novel overall, but I can’t help but feel like Cantero wants it to be a movie, which can only really hurt a book if indeed the author doesn’t really want it to be a book.


Reading Next

Godzilla and Godzilla Raids AgainThe year is winding down, and I feel like I have to be realistic about what I’m going to be able to get to. Obviously, I can manage a good number of comics on short notice, but I have to be realistic about what novels I think I can read, especially since my work schedule may be dramatically changing soon. So, there are two books I definitely want to read before the end of the year: Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again by Shigeru Kayama and Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer. I’m going to start with the Godzilla book, as I’ve been excited to read that one, and I’ll round out the year finishing off the Southern Reach trilogy. Reading a whole trilogy in a year is rare for me; I think the only other time I’ve done it was when I read The Lord of the Rings.

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

WWW Wednesday – October 16, 2024

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

Meddling KidsJust this morning I started reading Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero, a horror novel that I did not realize until today is published by Blumhouse Books; I didn’t even know Blumhouse had an arm for book publishing. I’ve only gotten about 20 pages in, but I’m really enjoying the setup so far, especially in how it’s an obvious send up of Scooby-Doo, but the members of their little detective group so far feel unique enough that it doesn’t feel like shallow parody. The setup has revealed that while they did in fact get an old man in a costume arrested, something else, much more sinister, was really going on at that mansion on the lake. The writing style has some interesting flourishes too, the narrator often describing things as if the characters are on camera in a film, but I’m not sure how much I like this yet.


Recently Finished

FrankensteinIn a surprising show of determination from yours truly, I started and finished rereading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley over the last two weeks. I didn’t post last Wednesday because I wasn’t that far yet and it was my birthday, so I decided to take a day for myself as much as I could. At first, I was worried about how well I would fare with this novel because it has been a while since I read older literature. Once I got back into the swing of things, it made for a very enjoyable reread. This was actually my first time reading the 1831 text as well, as originally I’d only read the 1818 version. The absence of overt incest does make it better. Wrightson’s illustrations were also a great addition to this reading experience. Some of them felt a little superfluous, but it was a delight anytime he depicted the Creature. How anyone could not understand how the Creature is supposed to be a sympathetic figure is beyond me; what ended up surprising me, a detail I’d forgotten, is that Frankenstein actually does admit his shortcomings on his deathbed. He’d been such an intolerant heel the entire book I had convinced myself he dies without learning a damn thing.


Reading Next

Vermis III still have a number of books I plan to get to for Frighteningly Good Reads this year, and I think what I’ll try to get through next is Vermis II: Mist & Mirrors by Plastiboo, the second volume of an art book series that creates game guides for a dungeon-crawling dark fantasy video game that never existed. Though I’ve recently watched a video that summarized a lot of the elements this book will cover, the details are fortunately receding from my mind already; a video summary pales in comparison to actually reading a thing as well anyway, let alone appreciating all the art that is has to offer.

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