It’s Wednesday, so as ever, it’s time to answer the three Ws:

• What are you currently reading?
• What have you recently finished reading?
• What are you reading next?

And linking up with Taking on a World of Words.

What are you currently reading?

Actually, nothing very actively, after I finished a book last night. I’m partway through a few books at once, but paused due to them not fitting the mood. I’m most likely to get back to The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, by Bettany Hughes, but that’s quite a slow read and one that I’m taking in bits.

The other thing I’ll probably get back to sooner rather than later is Juliet E. McKenna’s The Cleaving, an Arthurian retelling from the point of view of Nimue. I’m very interested in what it’ll do with that, since I studied Arthurian literature back at Cardiff University (and wrote my MA dissertation on it as well as numerous assignments).

What have you recently finished reading?

Last night I finished up reading Margot Bennett’s Someone from the Past which… I really didn’t like. The main character makes the most absurd decisions, and the author spends a lot of time lingering on wannabe-witty dialogue. It’s snappy enough up to a point, but then you realise they’re getting absolutely nowhere and you’ve read three pages of little substance. The main character thinks she’s clever and she really, really isn’t.

Plus, it ends with two characters getting together in a way that just feels as disastrous as everything else the main character has done. I’ll save the in-depth analysis for my review, I guess, but ugh.

What are you reading next?

Excellent question! I’m honestly really tempted to do some rereading — and not even of something I read a while ago, but of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System. I feel like there’s a lot that I missed, and having finished all four volumes (and watched the donghua, via a fan translation) I’d have a better appreciation of some of the stuff that was bewildering at first.

But I’ve only just finished those, so probably I’ll stick to the reading list I set myself at the start of the week. Most likely I’ll read Lost in the Moment and Found (Seanan McGuire), or System Collapse (Martha Wells). I’ve been meaning to catch up with both of those for a while now!

What about you? What are you currently reading? Anything exciting on your upcoming TBR?