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 made some decent progress in Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones this past week, though it had to share attention with a few other things. I’m still really enjoying the story; managing these tours has become a proper nightmare for Derk’s family and they haven’t even had to deal with any pilgrims yet. Factors are being introduced that complicate things further, and I’m still wondering if this will turn into a phenomenal blunder or if this is a villain’s origin story. It’s exciting not to know, though I would like a bit more momentum in the story soon. I’ve continued to be surprised by of the ideas this book is exploring too, such as the fact that the world where the tourists come from frequently sends its prisoners to play soldiers in the Dark Lord’s evil army as a means to deal with its “violent criminals”, which carries with it a lot of unsettling implications considering how many tours this fantasy land seems to host on a regular basis.

Recently Finished

Over the weekend I pushed myself to finish reading The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, which I enjoyed quite a lot. In typical fashion with my “supplemental reads”, I had to just blitz the rest of it to finally be done with it. So it goes. Reading so much of it at once actually made me a little melancholic, which I probably could have expected. It’s not about obscure delights, after all. I’m happy I was able to post a review of this book so quickly afterwards, albeit more of an informal one since it’s the sort of book that feels less my forte. In my review, I shared some words that stuck out to me, as I’ve been doing on these posts. I’ve liked doing that, and since this is the last one, I thought I’d share just one more.

This week’s word is vellichor, “the strange wistfulness of used bookstores, which are somehow infused with the passage of time—filled with thousands of old books you’ll never have time to read, each of which is itself locked in its own era, bound and dated and papered over like an old room the author abandoned years ago, a hidden annex littered with thoughts left just as they were on the day they were captured. From vellum, parchment + ichor, the fluid that flows in the veins of gods in Ancient Greek mythology. Pronounced ‘vel-uh-kawr.'”

Reading Next

I’ve not really cemented any further plans about what I’ll be reading next as of yet, other than getting a start on Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn et al., which I still plan on doing.

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

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

Here I am again after a week off! Getting this up pretty late again, though, but still happy to be here. I went on a camping trip last week, so I wasn’t able to post. I tried to get some reading done, but as is common for me on trips I did not manage to read all that much. I did make a little bit of progress in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, but only about 10 or so pages. This week’s word is allope, “a mysterious aura of loneliness you feel in certain places; the palpable weight of all the lonely people secretly holed up in their houses and apartments, with a flickering blue glow cast up on their walls—so many of whom might just want someone to talk to, or just want to feel needed, and could be that for each other if only they could somehow connect.” Short for “All the lonely people,” from the song “Eleanor Rigby” by the Beatles. Pronounced “al-uh-pee.”

I’ve also made some progress in Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones. This book really does continue to throw me for a loop, as yet another thing has happened that I really wasn’t expecting, dealing potentially permanent physical harm to Derk, who will be playing the Dark Lord of their world soon. It seems to be taking things in a direction I was speculating on though, as pain and disfigurement may very well put him on that path of becoming an actual Dark Lord, rather than just playing one for tourists. Whenever I happen to have the time, I really need to dig into this book properly and get a proper long reading session in. The tone surprisingly fluctuates in this book too, as part of me feels like it’s written for a younger audience, yet at times Jones doesn’t really restrain herself with some of the grisly details, while still refraining from being too graphic. Perhaps she just gives her audience a lot of credit.

Recently Finished

Nothing in the past two weeks, regrettably.

Reading Next

I’ve still not fully made up my mind on what novel/book I’ll want to start up next, but I have decided what comic books I’d like to start cracking open. I’ve had several volumes of Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn for a while now, and the release of the TV series adaptation has oddly spurred me into wanting to start reading them finally.  I don’t actually remember a lot of what this series is supposed to be about, other than the 1980s and time travel, but I hear so many good things about Vaughn’s work that I’m confident I will be more into it than I was with Animosity.

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