What have you recently finished reading?

Dinosaur Sanctuary vol 8, which has a cruel, cruel cliffhanger! I can’t believe the next volume isn’t slated to come out until March, arrghhh.

Before that, it was volume one of Liu Gou Hua’s After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine, which I had quite a bit of fun with. It’s a slower burn than the other danmei I’ve been reading recently, but the feelings are starting to develop and I’m very curious about where it will go exactly.

What are you currently reading?

The only book I am currently actively reading is Natasha Tidd’s A Short History of the World in 50 Lies. I’m finding it kind of suspect due to a couple of basic/silly errors, like referring to Geoffrey of Monmouth as “Monmouth”. The fact that he’s called Geoffrey of Monmouth is like literally saying “Geoffrey from Monmouth”, as opposed to “Geoffrey from Caerphilly”. In most contexts you’re not going to then refer to them as “Monmouth” and “Caerphilly”, and indeed, scholars just say “Geoffrey” after the first time they’ve specified “Geoffrey of Monmouth” (unless it’s unclear due to multiple Geoffreys, in which case they say, you guessed it, “Geoffrey of Monmouth”).

Anyway it’s something that I was taught in undergraduate English literature would be a terribly silly mistake to make, and would have my examiners carefully looking to see what else I goofed up or didn’t understand, and thus it has been with me and this book. My grasp on most of this history is thin, so I haven’t caught any other errors, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there. I’m probably being a bit too generous in finishing it, but I love this non-fic format and am always so susceptible…

What will you be reading next?

I have, for once, very firm plans! I want to finish up reading Emma Southon’s Servus and Gareth Russell’s Queen James, which are both chunky non-fiction, while also rereading Jordan L. Hawk’s Widdershins (much lighter) and getting started on Becky Chambers‘ As You Wake, Break the Shell.

On a separate note, because I’ve tweaked something, I want to warn that tomorrow I’ll probably do a test post. I’m sorry if that ends up spamming anyone’s email! Honestly most likely you won’t get an email at all, because this thing’s been broken for ages and this isn’t a very likely fix, but it’s worth trying.