What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished, approximately five minutes ago, was John William Polidori’s The Vampyre, which was mostly interesting because of its influence and because Lord Ruthven is a major character in the Greta Helsing books. It was interesting to finally read it, and to read it as a diss on Byron, but it is also mercifully short.

Last night I finished off the last of my planned September reads, my ARC of Georgia Summers’ The Bookshop Below, and a reread of volume nine of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, so that was nice. The magic in The Bookshop Below reminded me a lot of Ink Blood Sister Scribe, and it felt like it was never fully explained/delimited… but that didn’t bother me too much, I think? I need to sit down and put together my thoughts properly.

What are you currently reading?

Well, nothing, actually. Not even books on the backburner, really, except ones that have been backburnered so long I “paused” them on StoryGraph. I’m about to start my reread of volume four of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, to wrap that all up before reading some new-to-me danmei in October.

It feels weird not to have anything on the go; I’ll fix that posthaste.

What will you be reading next?

I’ll probably reread volume ten of A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, while volume nine is fresh in my mind — I wish I hadn’t left such a gap between volume eight and volume nine, honestly, since they contain one of the only true plot arcs in the manga so far, and one where all the pieces take time to come together.

Other than that, my Book Spin Bingo list for October is ready, although the numbers haven’t been announced yet, so maybe something from that. I want to reread Jordan L. Hawk’s The Forgotten Dead and Rattling Bone before I get onto the latest book in the series, Into the Dark, so perhaps I’ll start with those.

As ever, I’ll be mostly going by whim.