Here we are, first Wednesday of 2025! I’ll admit, it’s not going great for me so far, but maybe talking about books a bit will help.

What have you recently finished reading?

My last book of 2024 was Joseph Jefferson Farjeon’s No. 17, which I read via Serial Reader. I think that the daily bitesize installments were the only reason I stuck with it, because the main character (Ben) really didn’t click with me — cowardly, ineffectual, and talking absolutely constantly in near-impenetrable phonetically rendered dialect. Gaaah.

As a mystery, it was needlessly complicated by Ben’s cowardice, evasion, and repeated interruptions. Like a bad comedy.

What are you currently reading?

Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey’s Conspiracy Theory: The Story of an Idea, which is pretty much what it says on the tin. It purports to dissect the origin of conspiracy theories, both history and psychology, and discuss how we can reduce their impact on modern life and politics. I’m sceptical that it can do all that in 150ish pages, but it’s been interesting so far. I only vaguely knew about the origins of the Illuminati (which was a real organisation that briefly existed).

I’m also partway through Look Up, Handsome, by Jack Strange. It’s a romance set in a queer bookshop in Hay-on-Wye, at Christmas. I need to finish it quickly before the Christmas season is fully over — it already feels a bit late, heh, but I got started, so I want to finish.

What will you read next?

Possibly I’ll tackle Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency, by Josie Lloyd — it’s a seasonal mystery, but set seemingly more around New Year than Christmas per se. If I can get started on it in the next day or so, I might. Otherwise, I’ll probably save it for next year and go for something else, possibly the first light novel in The Apothecary Diaries series (I read the first manga previously and had fun).

How about you?