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.

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.

WWW Wednesday – August 30, 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! As of this evening, I am between books.


Recently Finished

This is How You Lose the Time WarI had an anticipated amount of time to get a lot of reading done this week and got nearly to the end of This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone; I took some time this evening to finish up the last 20 pages or so before writing this post so that I could have it all finished up. I’m finding that finishing up books this much faster requires some adjustment for me, as my slower pace would give me more time to ruminate over a longer period. This novel felt like something of a whirlwind with how much I got through this week, but I really enjoyed it. I didn’t become quite as enamoured with it as I was hoping, it seems, but it did get me to tear up at some moments, which is an excellent mark in its favour. I’m still working on my Carpe Jugulum review, but I’ll try to have a review of this up soon.


Reading Next

I Wear the Black HatI’m feeling pretty committed to starting I Wear the Black Hat by Chuck Klosterman next; an essay collection will be a nice change of pace. Afterwards, I think I will read The Lost World by Michael Crichton, assuming Klosterman’s book doesn’t take me too long. I wanted to read the two Jurassic Park books this year, and there’s been enough of a buffer since the first book now, but I don’t want it to cut into Halloween reading, so it depends on how efficiently I get things done.

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

WWW Wednesday – August 23, 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’ve been feeling a bit off this past week and have had to get back into the groove a bit with work, so I haven’t made any new progress on This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal Eh-Mohtar & Max Gladstone.


Recently Finished

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 6I did however find some time to read through the sixth manga volume of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa. The story has taken a somewhat interesting departure from the game’s story here, shortly after Link deals with finding the mirror shard at Snowpeak Ruins. Unlike the game, Link has quite a lot more personality in this series, and since he’s retrieved the Master Sword he has gotten a bit of a big head about his role as the Hero. In this volume this culminated into an encounter with Dark Link, a recurring adversary type in the games but one that was absent from Twilight Princess. In the end, the spirit of the Hero of Time as a wolf seems to intercede, but I can’t tell if that wolf is supposed to be him in this adaptation, so I’m curious to see where this all goes; I hope we get even more insight into the older hero and the nature of his more spectral existence.


Reading Next

I Wear the Black HatI’m still not really sure what I want to be reading next, but I feel like I need to make up my mind soon because once I get some momentum going with This is How You Lose the Time War I feel like I’m going to finish it fairly quickly. There are many books I’ve mentioned already over the past few weeks that are likely candidates, but I’ve also been thinking a lot about a new book I just bought called I Wear the Black Hat by Chuck Klosterman. It’s a collection of essays about our cultural fixations on villains and anti-hero-type characters/figures, from what I can gather, and I’m thinking an essay collection might be a nice change of pace. I really enjoyed Eating the Dinosaur, and this book feels like the topic range will be even more focused in a way that I’ll like.

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

WWW Wednesday – August 16, 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

This is How You Lose the Time WarI’m back after a week away! I spent a week in Mexico for my brother’s wedding, and while I was there I started reading This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal Eh-Mohtar & Max Gladstone. It was incredibly hot and spending time with people kept me quite busy, so I only set aside a little bit of time to get any reading done. Still, I was able to get almost 50 pages into this book, which is pretty good for me considering my track record with reading at travel destinations. So far, I’ve just been getting to know Red and Blue more and more as they continue to correspond; I really like how dizzying yet captivating their journeys through time are, with some of their missions lasting for decades before they receive another letter. There are a lot of wonderfully imaginative depictions of periods of the distant past and future that are not over-explained yet are described enough to leave a good impression.


Recently Finished

Carpe JugulumBefore I left last week, I managed to finish reading Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett, the 23rd novel in the series and the sixth book about the Witches. Though I’ve said as much already, I really enjoyed this novel. Since I was so close to finishing it in my last post, I’m not sure what I can say here that hasn’t been said already, except that a nice touch was how it felt like a proper passing of the torch between Magrat and Agnes as the new “maiden” of the coven. Magrat’s absence from Maskerade felt a little too conspicuous for me from what I remember, so getting to see a more mature version of her fully realized and having (presumably) one last adventure with the other witches felt really good. I’m going to try to have a review of this up soon.

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 5I also managed to finish reading the fifth volume of the manga adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa before leaving, which gave us an even greater shift in the relationship between Link and Midna. What I especially loved in this volume though were the references to the Hero of Time; there is a flash of imagery when Zelda learns Link’s name, hinting at her knowledge of the events of Ocarina of Time, and later on while on their way to retrieve the Master Sword it is more directly confirmed that the Skull Kid who guards the way is the very same that knew the old hero. I really do wish all of the games greater emphasized their connections like this.


Reading Next

I’ve no concrete plans on what I want to read next, as there are a few candidates now that I didn’t read as much as I might have while on vacation. Stay tuned!

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

WWW Wednesday – August 2, 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?

Much to my irritation, for reasons unknown to me WordPress is not allowing me to resize images as needed in a post, so I’m not including any covers today, even though that bothers me to my very core.


Currently Reading

I’ve been able to make yet more substantial progress in Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett since my last post; I’m just under 70 pages away from completing it. I typically enjoy the novels about the witches a lot simply for the love of the characters, even if the plot lines leave a little something to be desired at times (at least as far as I remember, I’ve read so many Discworld novels now), but I am really loving this one. Nanny Ogg, Magrat, and Agnes are all being given a lot of time to shine as characters, in some cases showing how much they’ve grown, and this is the most vulnerable we’ve ever seen Granny Weatherwax, though her gravitas is still maintained. The vampires continue to be an excellent force to be reckoned with, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they are thwarted.


Recently Finished

Last week didn’t have much to show for it and my family suffered a sudden loss, so I didn’t bother posting anything. As a tiny turn of fortune though, the fourth volume of the manga adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa turned up at my library after seemingly being MIA, so we’re back in business as far as making progress on that series goes. I’m surprised with how much this volume sped through certain story beats of the game; by the end, two dungeons are cleared and the subplot with Ilia losing her memory have been resolved. I don’t really mind it, and it does have me curious what the rest of the series will entail, as there are 11 before it wraps up. I like how much more the secondary characters are being fleshed out, so perhaps some of it will have to do with that.


Reading Next

Next week I will be away on vacation, so I won’t be able to post. Still, I have a lot of reading plans between now and when I post again. First and foremost, I plan to read volumes five and six of the Twilight Princess manga so that I can return them to the library before I leave. On my trip I intend to bring This is How You Lose the Time War by by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, which I’m hoping I’ll be able to finish while I’m gone. If I do end up reading through it quickly enough, I will then start Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. I doubt I will finish both books (there’s a good chance I won’t finish one), but they’re fairly short, so getting through at least one and starting another at least feels doable.

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

WWW Wednesday – July 19, 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

Carpe JugulumI managed to make a lot of great progress on Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett with the newly found reading time I’ve acquired, though it’s only on alternating Mondays. I managed to read well over 150 pages, which is really good for me, so I’ve gone from barely starting the book to getting right in the thick of it. Though I’ve enjoyed many of the others before, this may be shaping up to be one of my favourite novels about the witches, which is surprising considering how relatively little Granny Weatherwax is featured in the story thus far, though she was given one of the best scenes that now stands as one of the most moving in the whole series for me. Nanny Ogg and newcomver Agnes Nitt are getting a lot more of the spotlight, though, and I’m really enjoying their perspectives. The vampires taking over the kingdom of Lancre are also some of the more compelling villains the series has had.


Recently Finished

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess 3Over the weekend I read through the third volume of the manga adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa, which I was finally able to borrow from the library after requesting that they obtain a new copy. It was a good continuation of the story, though it felt a little less eventful. A lot of it had to do with Link being trained by the Hero’s Shade, and I’m curious if he will be given the same origin as he has in the game. In the game it’s implied he is the Hero of Time, a previous incarnation of Link, and Hyrule Historia confirms this, but I’m not sure if the manga is going in that direction. At any rate, it seems the golden wolf that takes Link to the Shade’s realm may not be one and the same as the Shade, which is not the case in the games, so I have to wonder. I want to read volume 4 asap, but it has been due back at the library since June 3, so I’m wondering if that one too is now MIA.


Reading Next

The Yellow Wallpaper 2I’d really like to read the next Twilight Princess volume, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen as soon as I’d like. Maybe I will finally read my little pamphlet of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, though I’ve grown to resent it a little as I’ve remembered a rather inexpensive copy that includes other stories that I would have preferred. I was a tad too impulsive with picking that up, but I ought to read it anyway. I will maybe try to finally read Tombs by Junji Ito before next week as well, though we will see; I just haven’t been all that excited about checking that out.

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

WWW Wednesday – July 12, 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

Carpe JugulumThe other night I started reading Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett, the 23rd Discworld novel. This book sees the return of Granny Weatherwax and the other witches of the Ramtop Mountains, their last novel appearance having been in book 18. I’m excited to read about these characters again, they’re among my favourites in the series, though for some reason I had trouble getting into it during my first reading session, though I’m chocking that up more to me feeling tired than I am anything to do with the book. I’m not very far into it right now, only about 30 pages give or take, but their little kingdom being invaded by a family of vampires and (apparently) little blue men from outer space has me invested.


Recently Finished

The Sea and Little FishesThis was an odd week, because what I did read through I don’t even feel really counts as a book for Goodreads (hence me not adding it there), but I still want to talk about it here anyway, even if I read through it in a notepad file. What I read was “The Sea and Little Fishes” by Terry Pratchett, a short story set between Discworld books 22 and 23. It involved Granny Weatherwax and the Ramtop witches, which made it great for whetting my appetite for Carpe Jugulum. In it, witches are gathering from far and wide to participate in the Witch Trials, which takes on a humorously altered meaning here. It didn’t take me very long to get through, but it was a lot of fun, further emphasizing Weatherwax’s notorious status as a force to be reckoned with, even among other witches.


Reading Next

I’ve got a good idea of a handful of things I want to read next, as per usual, but I haven’t really settled on anything definitively yet. This is mainly because I ought to be able to finish each of them by the following week, so it often comes down to mentally committing to one. As it seems to turn out, however, I leave myself so undecided that I end up choosing none, and then on we move to another week. Stay tuned, I suppose.

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