Good afternoon, folks! I hoped to do this yesterday, but I had work and other stuff that needed to be done, boo. So it’s been a quiet week around here, with a lot less reading.
Thank you to my wife for two of these, and to Moon Dreams for Empire of Sand in her cool giveaway on Twitter! <3
I’m looking forward to a few different book orders (two indie bookshops, one second-hand bookshop) to come in, with great impatience. Feeling the need for some bookish comforts, at the moment!
–NEAT science: ‘Soap versus virus.‘ Been wondering why soap is the #1 recommendation to avoid catching SARS-CoV-2? A quick explanation of why soap is ideal.
There we go; that’s it for this week! How’s everyone doing?
It’s time for Wyrd and Wonder! I’ve taken a while to firm up my plans for it… and honestly, they’re still not very firm. I’m still firmly in the school of “as my whimsy takes me” with reading (and if you get that reference and you’re into fantasy, we should be friends), but sometimes it’s nice to have some ideas. So… here are some ideas!
Rereads
I really love rereading books. First off, it’s usually something that you know you’re going to enjoy, or at least get something out of. It can be such a great comfort, too. And for me, I think I get something slightly different out of it each time. Here’s what I’m hoping to reread this month!
The Books of Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin. It’ll be my first time reading the illustrated edition!
The Midnight Queen, by Sylvia Izzo Hunter. I meant to reread it last month, but so much stuff happened and I didn’t feel much like reading.
The Lost Plot, by Genevieve Cogman. I’m actually partway through this already!
The Copper Promise, by Jen Williams. I don’t remember that much about this one, and clearly I need to in order to read the whole trilogy!
New-to-me reads
These can be divided into two groups: books I’ve already started and stalled with for whatever reason, and books I’ve never even started. Of the first group, I definitely want to tackle these:
A Conspiracy of Truths, by Alexandra Rowland. I suspect it’s at least six months, maybe nine, since I actually picked this up. Whooops.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow. This has not been stalled for nearly as long, thankfully!
The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon. I’m actually working through this at an average speed of 5 pages per day, due to reading it with my coworkers. I won’t finish it this month unless I sprint away from them, but it’ll be on my mind!
The Library of the Unwritten, by A.J. Hackwith. I’m sorrrryyyyy. I’m slow.
And the ones which are wholly new to me:
The Tethered Mage, by Melissa Caruso. I hear so many good things!
Hexbreaker, by Jordan L. Hawk. Or maybe the start of the Whyborne & Griffin series. I’ve been meaning to read Hawk’s work for a while, anyway!
The Ninth House, by Leigh Bardugo. I’m late to the party, I know.
The Mortal Word, by Genevieve Cogman. Also late to the party! I want to catch up with this series.
The Secret Chapter, by Genevieve Cogman. These books are like candy for me, after all.
Brightfall, by Jaime Lee Moyer. I don’t know how I’m going to feel about this from the sound of it, given my Medieval Lit background, but I’m ready to give it a try!
Hallowdene, by George Mann. I need to return this to the library once it opens again, so I figured I might as well include it!
Aaaaand I think that’s more than enough, and I’m unlikely to finish this many! But who knows.
What will you be reading for Wyrd and Wonder, if you’re taking part?
It’s that time again! Check out Taking On A World Of Words to chat with everyone else who has posted what they’re reading right now!
What are you currently reading?
Non-fiction: No progress since last week!
Fiction: I’m 60% of the way through Grave Importance (Vivian Shaw), and honestly, I’m mad every time I have to put it down and double mad I didn’t get to read it at all today. Maybe a liiiittle before bed? Anyway, this series is solid comfort for me: despite everything bad that goes on, Greta does her best to be a doctor, to take care of people whether she likes them or not, whether they’re even good people or not. And she has such a good found family around her, though I’m afraid Ruthven is my favourite forever and ever. And I love the little details like the baby screaming skulls and 3D printed replacement bones for mummies.
I’m also 30% of the way through Network Effect (Martha Wells). Obviously I couldn’t just say no to my wife reading it too, so I’m waiting for her to catch up. All I have to say so far is oh nooooo.
What have you recently finished?
Er. I’m not sure. It was during the readathon on the weekend, probably, so… A Treacherous Curse (Deanna Raybourn)? Always solid fun, though I can’t quite view them as proper historical fiction with everything Veronica gets up to (without even the good taste to have more money than God in order to excuse her peccadilloes).
What will you read next?
Who knooooows? I probably want to finish up Goldilocks (Laura Lam) and The Ten Thousand Doors of January (Alix E. Harrow). I’m annoyed I stopped reading The Ten Thousand Doors of January, because I was inhaling it, and it’s not even that I’m not in the mood — I just got distracted.
Good evening, folks! It’s been a busy reading week around here, with the readathon today boosting my read count a little (okay, and short books helped there too). And I haven’t bought any books this week, though I’ve been putting together a preorder or so!
–WWW Wednesday.Chatting about Digging Up Armageddon and my Narnia reread!
–24-Hour Readathon. I decided to take part again on a whim. I’ve read 3.3 books so far and there’s a bunny pic at that post… *tempts*
Impulsive decision! I will take part in the 24-Hour Readathon tomorrow! I will not in fact be reading for 24 hours, alas: one, I’ve learnt that my sleep is too important to lose, so that’s 7-8 hours gone already, and two, I have work. But when I’m not doing other pre-scheduled things, I will try to read.
A speculative reading pile:
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (C.S. Lewis) [reread]
The Silver Chair (C.S. Lewis) [reread]
The Last Battle (C.S. Lewis) [reread]
The Steerswoman (Rosemary Kirstein) [reread]
Network Effect (Martha Wells)
Digging Up Armageddon (Eric Cline)
A Treacherous Curse (Deanna Raybourn)
Think of England (K.J. Charles)
That’s probably enough to be going on with… and goodness knows I’m likely to pick whatever I feel like in the moment, which means I could end up reading almost anything.
Anyone else taking part?
Aaand it’s time:
13:37: I’m starting off with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, with the help of one very cuddly bunny…
Biscuit Bun always likes a good book!
And here’s the opening survey:
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? I’m in sunny(!?) South Yorkshire, UK. 2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Actually, it might be The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, because it’s so cosy and familiar. But Network Effect is pretty exciting too! 3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? I don’t particularly have snacks lined up, but dinner will be pasta carbonara and that will be tasty. 4) Tell us a little something about yourself! My hair is supposed to be bright turquoise but it always fades to this green. If anyone’s a hairdresser or very experienced with dyeing hair, feel free to advise me on how to dye over it with my natural darkish brown! (I love my turquoise hair, but I leave it to hairdressers. And I have plans for my post-lockdown hair that mean going back to my natural colour anyway.) 5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? I’ve participated before but not for a while, because I don’t do well without sleep or with feeling obligated to sit down and read specific books. So I’m gonna be super flexible, and sleep plenty.
15:01: There, finished my first book. Not sure what next… but probably The Steerswoman, as long as Lisa doesn’t mind me getting on and finishing it without her!
16:15: I ended up reading The Silver Chair, and I’m finished with that. Now it’s work time, for around an hour!
18:07: I did an hour’s work and then I finished up The Steerswoman! I put A Treacherous Curse on today’s to-do list for the next book, so… maaaaybe that next? 2h35m reading, so far.
19:25: I’m about 30% of the way through A Treacherous Curse! Then I stopped for a stretch to admire my wife’s tidying efforts. It’s time for me to do some blog stuff now, and then probably dinner, and then back to reading as long as I still feel like it.
21:46: I’m now about 60% of the way through A Treacherous Curse, and I’ve read 3h49m in total.
22:53: It’s bedtime soon, but I did finish A Treacherous Curse! 4h35m reading in total, and four books read. Not bad, though two were short and I was already 60% of the way through The Steerswoman!
10:26: Well, I’ve slept and done my morning’s work, and now I’m going to start on Martha Wells’ Network Effect.
11:27: I read for half an hour and then got a bit fidgety — I’m only 14% of the way through the book, and I’m being so fidgety about books lately that “long” books daunt me… even when I love them. I’m going to see if I can settle for another reading stint, though!
Compared to prior readathons, this one has been really quiet in terms of interaction for me, though. It doesn’t really feel like as much of a community event. I miss that.
12:04: I got more into that reading session! 29% of the way through Network Effect now. I think I’m going to take a short break to do some of my to-do list for the day, and then rejoin for the last half hour.
12:47: I didn’t get back to it, so that leaves me at a total of four books finished, and 5h25m of reading. That’s a lot more than I’ve been managing lately, so yay!
It’s that time again! How is it Wednesday already? Check out Taking On A World Of Words to chat with everyone else who has posted what they’re reading right now!
What are you currently reading?
Fiction: I’m rereading the Narnia books. They’re just such a warm childhood thing, I couldn’t resist. I’m onto Prince Caspian at the moment, and a little annoyed I don’t think I can finish it up before bed. Then it’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which in memory is my absolute favourite forever. I wonder if it still holds up! I’m also still reading Laura Lam’s Goldilocks, and currently going “yessss science” about Naomi figuring out what’s up with her algae.
Non-fiction: I’m still reading Digging up Armageddon. It’s still doing waaaay too much gossiping about the archaeologists, and not talking enough about the archaeology, which is sad.
What have you recently finished reading?
Other than the Narnia books before this in the series, I read Love Around the Corner by Sally Malcolm. Cute, though the misunderstanding stuff is normally a turn-off for me. Another book in the series is actually also on Kindle Unlimited, so I might give that a whirl!
What will you be reading next?
Once I’ve finished rereading the Narnia books, I’m pretty much planning on plunging into a reread of the Earthsea books, in the lovely collected and illustrated version. Other than that, it’s anybody’s guess as always. I feel like I should be reading books that people have gifted me… but I’m trying very hard to ignore feeling like I “should” read this, that, or any other thing. I think most people who’ve gifted me books understand that I’m also getting happiness from having them in my TBR waiting for me!
Fiction: I’m still in the midst of rereading The Steerswoman (Rosemary Kirstein) for Wife Book Club. (Which is literally just me and my wife, but Wife Book Club sounds cute and funny.) I’ve also recently started The Ten Thousand Doors of January (Alix E. Harrow), which so far is lovely and keeping my attention quite well for something that I know will take me time.
I’m also partway through Laura Lam’s Goldilocks, which I should pick up for a few more chapters today. It’s on my Kindle, though, so I mostly read it on bath days.
Non-fiction: I’ve started reading Digging up Armageddon (Eric H. Cline), which is about archaeological work at the site of Megiddo. So far he’s going into all the drama about the dig headed by James Henry Breasted. It’s not uninteresting, but… I want the archaeology, not the drama about the archaeology.
What have you recently finished reading?
Fiction: Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You (Scotto Moore), which had a concept that interested me and just didn’t really reach me. It felt like it went all-out too soon and I didn’t get the tasty build-up I’d got on board for. I know it’s a novella, but still. The full review is on my blog already!
Non-fiction: The Rules of Contagion (Adam Kucharski), which was written at a rather opportune moment but is not really all about diseases — more about how disease-modelling can be used to shed light on other things that spread, like behaviours and computer viruses. Again, full review already up!
What will you be reading next?
I really don’t know. I’m really picky at the moment, even though I’m overall feeling better. As ever, I follow the Wimsey family motto: As my Whimsy takes me. I might even finish my reread of The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, the better to reach Strong Poison et al.
Well folks, it’s the weekend again! How’s everyone doing? I’ve had a few more review copies (are publicists going mad with power, just giving everyone books to make them stay home?!) and I’ve done a bit of reading, but not much. Still, feels like I’m getting back to normal a bit.
I got some book vouchers to help cheer me up, which both did the trick and flooded my shelves! This is just a selection — I might share the others next week!
Aaaand it’s Wednesday again, for a little while longer. Here’s the usual check-in!
What are you currently reading?
Non-fiction: I’ve circled back to The Rules of Contagion, by Adam Kurcharski. For a few weeks, it was too topical for me. Right now it’s just about topical enough to engage my brain with being curious instead of anxious. (As ever, all hail whoever once told me that curiosity is the opposite of anxiety; it often works, for me. If you think about it, anxiety is a protective thing that is keeping you from new/dangerous experiences, but on overdrive. Curiosity is all about finding out new things. Not very compatible!)
Fiction: I don’t appear to have much truly active right now. I’m still reading The Steerswoman with my wife (Wife Book Club!) but I haven’t really been making much progress. I’m holding her back! It’s a reread for me, but I really should try to catch up.
What have you recently finished reading?
I finally polished off Castle Skull last night, and I probably should have just DNFed it. I’m just not a John Dickson Carr fan, and his solutions tend to annoy me more than they satisfy. I really do not love his detectives one bit.
What will you be reading next?
Who knows? I did get my last book order from Portal Bookshop through, though: I now have Red, White and Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston, and that sounds really, really fun right now. (Concept: the son of a fictional female US president falls in love with a fictional British prince. Shenanigans ensue as they try not to sabotage anyone’s presidential campaign. Sign me up for this reality.)
