Tag: Yusuke Murata

WWW Wednesday – April 22, 2026

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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 still plucking away at the Dictionary of Fine Distinctions by Eli Burnstein. I don’t have much more to say on it, as it doesn’t exactly change as you get through it. I’m simply continuing to have dorky fun learning the distinctions between similar things and ideas.

Recently Finished

Late last week I finished reading The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Shin’Ichirō Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta. Really I had already finished the story, as it was only about 45 pages long, but the remainder was a lengthy essay about the background of the story and cultural/literary inspirations for it, which helped to put it into a lot better context for me, especially in how it describes the sociopolitical climate in Japan at the time and how that worked its way into the story. It also goes into depth about how, of all things, the original Doctor Dolittle stories by Hugh Lofting had a huge influence on the story and Mothra in particular. One of Lofting’s stories features a gargantuan moth that flies Dr. Dolittle to the Moon to treat the animals that live there, and translations of his books had made their way to Japan some decades prior, to great success. Angles (the translator of this book) drew such clear connections that the influence is undeniable. It’s always fun to see how ideas are birthed from each other.

I also finished a couple volumes of One-Punch Man, but I haven’t got much to say on them. It’s a fun series, but each volume flows into the next in such a way that I don’t really have much of note to say about them.

Reading Next

I’m likely going to read Vermis III: Old Curses & Buried Horrors by Plastiboo soon, and I’ve also got a few more graphic novels from the library that I want to get through so I don’t hang on to them too long. Besides those, I’m not sure what novel I might start next.

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

WWW Wednesday – March 18, 2026

RyanLeave a 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

Right now, I’m reading Night Watch by Terry Pratchett, the 29th Discworld novel and the 6th book in the sub-series about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. Though this book was on the to-read list for this year anyway, as I’ve been reading at least a book or two from this series for literally a decade now, I picked this book right now because I’ve felt I’m in a bit of a rut with reading lately. That may be surprising considering the volume of finished books I’m about to mention, but I just haven’t felt as enthusiastic as I’d like. I figured this book would be a fairly safe bet, and for the most part that’s proven true. I’m only about 100 pages in right now, but already it’s thrown a curve ball at me, as I was not expecting Vimes to get thrown back in time. Already seeing what the city used to be like contrasted with how he has turned the Watch into a somewhat reputable police force has been good fun.

Recently Finished

In the intervening two weeks I’ve actually read six different graphic novels, as I made an effort get through the pile I’d accrued from the library. The reason I didn’t post last week was because the first three I read were volumes six to eight of One-Punch Man by ONE and Yusuke Murata. Though I’m enjoying the series well, I really feel like I’m retreading story I already know, and I don’t have any notable commentary to give you here. After those, I read Goliath by Tom Gauld, a graphic novel adapting the story of David and Goliath from the Bible, told from the latter’s perspective. I really enjoyed the books quiet, minimalist approach to subverting the story and painting Goliath in a different light.

I also read Chivalry by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran, another graphic novel adapting a short story of Gaiman’s. I was compelled to borrow this book because of how much I enjoyed Doran’s illustrations in Snow, Glass, Apples, another such adaptation. I didn’t like the story of this one quite as much, but she once again created absolutely beautiful illustrations, this time going more for illuminated manuscripts.  I hope there are more graphic novels like this. I also read Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës by Isabel Greenberg, a historical fiction graphic novel about the Brontë sisters (and their brother) and the semi-fantastical worlds they created together and the stories therein. It’s a fascinating thing to think about, as this really was just a bunch of siblings writing down their make-believe stories only for themselves, contrasted with the fact that three out of four of them are famous, enduring novelists today. It’s poignant in a way that I find difficult to put into more concrete words.

Reading Next

I’ve no idea what I want to read next. We’ll see where my mood takes me once I’m done with Night Watch.

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

WWW Wednesday – January 14, 2026

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

I’m currently in the middle of reading One-Punch Man Vol. 5 by ONE and Yusuke Murata. I’ve been on something of a reading break this past week or so, as I often do at the start of the year, though strictly from novels and the like, just to give myself a bit of a refresh. Comics, especially a parody action series like this, make for lighter, fun reading, so I don’t feel like I’m cheating myself out of my break. I’ve watched the first two seasons of the anime before, so this is really just a refresher on a story I already know. The third season recently released and is apparently rather subpar, so I decided I’m not waiting on that anymore and will just borrow the manga from the library.

Recently Finished

Like I said, I’ve been reading One-Punch Man, so I have four other volumes under my belt. Other than that, I started the year reading Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green. Despite my desire for a break, my reservation for this book at the library came in and I didn’t want to keep a high-demand book away from the other people waiting for it, so I made sure to quickly read through it. This was an excellent nonfiction book that is wonderfully accessible to outsiders to the topic while also being very informative. As the title suggests, the book is about humanity’s history with tuberculosis, the impact it has had on society, and our ever-changing cultural attitudes toward it. Intertwined with this history is the story of Henry, a young man Green met in Sierra Leone, whose story helped influence the writing of this book. I highly recommend reading it.

Reading Next

What I decide to read next may change on a whim, but right now I’m inclined to start Ice by Anna Kavan once I’m finished with my break, a novel about a man pursuing a mysterious white-haired girl across a frozen, post-apocalyptic landscape.

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