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What are you currently reading?

I have a couple of things that I’m partway through, but not much directly on the go. I did recently start Beneath the World, a Sea by Chris Beckett, which starts off satisfyingly weird with the main character coming back to consciousness after his time in an area of the world where no matter how long you stay or what you do there, you won’t ever remember what happened.

It’s feeling a bit less fresh now the main character, a policeman, is supposed to be investigating the deaths of creatures called “duendes”, which weirdly break down human inhibitions and make them think dark and awful thoughts. It’s feeling a bit like Vandermeer’s Southern Reach books for me. Which is not a bad thing, per se, and it really depends on where it goes with all these ideas. I’m not that far into it yet.

What have you recently finished yesterday?

I just finished reading How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi. I need to digest it a little, I think. It’s definitely a memoir, rather than a handbook: there’s a lot of personal reflection in there. There’s a lot that’s in direct opposition to the kind of discourse I’ve heard online; he doesn’t believe that racism is a question of power, for instance: he’s adamant that Black people can be racist against white people, and that that’s as much of a problem as any other kind of racism. I think it’s important to remember that all these books people are offering up in reading lists still come from just one perspective; you can’t just read one and be done.

What will you be reading next?

I’m pretty sure I’m going to read Pet by Akwaeke Emezi. It’s nice and short (~200 pages), and it’s YA, so it should be a quick read. I think I’ve mentioned before that that’s the kind of thing I’m really enjoying at the moment, and it feels like leaning into it is making me feel more enthused about reading in general.

I’m also going to start Afua Hirsh’s Brit(ish), though. It doesn’t look like there’s anyone currently waiting for it at the library after me, but I was in a bit of a queue to get it, so I’d like to get it back on their virtual shelves sooner rather than later.

What are you reading? Looking forward to anything new?

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What are you currently reading?

Fiction: currently still in the middle of The Priory of the Orange Tree, at the five-pages-a-day pace. I’m not sure if everyone else is still doing it, actually; I should drop a message in our group thread! It’s a very slow pace for me, but it’s something that’s doable even when my brain is rubbish, so actually it’s really nice.

I think it’s the only thing I currently have actively on the go, fiction-wise, though as usual there are a lot of books lying around at some stage of progress.

Non-fiction: I’m reading Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be An Antiracist. It’s been on my radar for a while, and then my library actually bought it (probably because of everything that’s going on at the moment). I think a lot of people think it’s a handbook, a list of steps about how you, the reader, should become an antiracist; my impression was that it’s more of a memoir about how Kendi became and experiences being an antiracist, and why he feels it’s important, and so far that’s being borne out.

What have you recently finished reading?

Fiction: I just read Burning Roses, by S.L. Huang. I didn’t know the Hou Yi legends before (or rather, I think I’ve read about the story somewhere, but it’s not part of my cultural consciousness), but I thought it was neat how the novella weaves that story in with Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, and even Beauty and the Beast. They’re all stories at different registers, for me, and yet Huang makes it work.

It’s also delightfully queer.

Non-fiction: I read the Secret Barrister’s Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken at a gallop because someone else had a hold on it, and finished that this weekend. Meep, I do not ever want to end up in the British court system for any reason. Yeeesh.

What will you be reading next?​

Good question! My library have just bought Empire of Light by Alex Harrow at my request, so that’s definitely high on the list; I’ve just got Pet by Akwaeke Emezi, so I want to read that soon. As always, what I’ll actually read is anyone’s guess — I also just got a review copy of Boyfriend Material, by Alexis Hall, and goodness only knows what non-fiction I’ll pick up next.

What are you currently reading?

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What are you currently reading?

In theory a whoooole bunch of things, but not many of them are giving me joy in this particular moment and there’s only one book on my mind, which is Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Someone sent me this via the LibraryThing/Litsy Secret Santa, and I wasn’t sure because I normally think of myself as a genre person… but on the other hand, I like so many different genres and… well, I gave it a try.

I blasted through 200 pages in an hour without really wanting to put it down; I’m a little annoyed that I have put it down. I’m not sure what I think of it, yet, but it’s fun and gossipy and I want to know Evelyn’s secrets, so it’s a success on that front.

What have you recently finished reading?​

Language Myths, ed. Laurie Bauer. I read it for the Dewey Decimal challenge. It was interesting, but I could tell it was very surface level and so some arguments just felt rather glib and like a straw man was installed just to be dismantled as quickly as possible. I didn’t disagree with any of it or think any of it sounded untrue to my experience or other reading, but… each linguist’s response was very brief.

What will you be reading next? ​

That all depends on whether either of my libraries purchases the books I’ve been recommending, I guess. In terms of what I’m going to focus on next, I have the Secret Barrister’s book due back in a couple of days, so I should finish reading that… and I also want to finish rereading Genevieve Cogman’s The Lost Plot finally. However, I’m hoping that the library orders copies of Felix Ever After and Black Girl Unlimited. (Or I might just pick them up myself come Saturday, which is my book ordering day.)

What about you?

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What are you currently reading?​

Fiction: I just started The Colour of Murder, by Julian Symons. It’s one of the British Library Crime Classics collection, one of the post-war ones; the first half at least consists of a sort of confessional meander to a psychologist about the events leading up to the murder. It’s interesting because it’s not a “whodunnit”, and you don’t even yet know who has been killed, though my two candidates are basically the female characters.

Non-fiction: I’m in the middle of How to Invent Everything, by Ryan North, and Around the World in 80 Words, by Paul Anthony Jones. The former is interesting, but the jocular tone and asides about pizza are starting to irritate. I don’t read non-fiction for the authorial voice to intrude quite so much, usually. Around the World in 80 Days is for the Dewey decimal challenge I think I’ve mentioned before, since How Language Began felt too heavy to finish in a week. It’s okay; a bit random, and sometimes really stretching. Some of these words are neither terribly interesting nor terribly relevant, whereas the author’s Twitter has a tendency to come out with a perfectly apposite word for the current political situation… which I like more.

What have you recently finished reading?​

I think it was K.J. Charles’ Unfit to Print, which is a lot of fun; I do enjoy righteous, caring Vikram, even if Gil is a bit of a hedgehog (prickly to stop you getting too close) and rather reluctant to do the right thing. Not my usual sort of character, but Vikram is more to my taste, so they balance one another out.

I feel like I haven’t really been reading much, and indeed, I finished Unfit to Print on Saturday. Yipes. My 500-books-a-year days are so far behind me, and I miss them rather.

What will you be reading next?​

Goodness knows, but the book I picked up this week was Kristin Lambert’s The Boy in the Red Dress, which sounds like a lot of fun. Someone called it a queerer Phryne Fisher, which sounds right up my street. I also intend to pick up the book I got last week as soon as I’m reading slightly fewer non-fiction books concurrently.

What are you currently reading?

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What are you currently reading?

Too much at once, in far too scatterbrained a fashion. Let me think…

Fiction: I have both Network Effect and Goldilocks on the go, and am really excited about both, but also a ball of anxiety. It’s making reading books where I care about what happens (and am not assured of a happy ending) quite the ride. The anxiety’s fading off a bit again, but I’m still in more of a non-fic or romance mood. I am very slowly working my way through The Priory of the Orange Tree with the other Beeminder workerbees; it’s actually quite nice reading it in little sips like this, though it’s not my usual style. I am enjoying how Sabran is being slowly developed and we’re seeing little glimpses of more. I wish there was more of Tané.

Non-fiction: Digging Up Armageddon is still around on a backburner, but I’ve also started How Language Works by Daniel Everett on the go, because it’s for a reading challenge. How To Invent Everything by Ryan North as well, as a matter of fact, also for a reading challenge; it’s interesting in parts but I am bogged down in a list of useful plants going “uhhh this is just a list with slightly amusing commentary”.

What have you recently finished reading?​

84 Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff, which is rather sweet and often funny. I just love Helene’s funny letters to Frank and how she huffed at him for being slow with her new books. It seems so weird that these were real people; it really does feel like something you’d read in a book that’s trying very hard to be quirky and cute.

What will you be reading next?

Well, on the one hand I just got Invasive Aliens by Dan Eatherley, which I’m intrigued by, particularly as it annoyed someone on Amazon by containing opinions on Brexit and Nazis with which it sounds like I may agree (though the detail was sparse). But no, in all honesty, I’m curious about the topic as well.

I did however also get in an order from Portal Bookshop, which means I now have Sarah Gailey’s When We Were Magic…

What about you?

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? ​

Fiction: Network Effect, by Martha Wells! I won’t say too much about it, given people may not even have their copies yet. I got the eARC and then didn’t read it because I was waiting for my wife to read it. Now she’s ahead of me. So it goes.

Non-fiction: I still have Digging Up Armageddon on the backburner, but I’ve started How to Invent Everything by Ryan North, as well, for a book club. It’s got a fun conceit, but once you’ve grasped that, the first few sections are mostly obvious. I suspect it’ll get better as it describes more complex concepts.

What have you recently finished reading?​

The Beautiful Librarians, by Sean O’Brien — it’s a poetry collection and I frankly did not get a single one of the poems on any kind of level.

Before that, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, which I did not love nearly as much as I was expecting.

What will you be reading next? ​

Well, How Language Began by Daniel Everett is high on the list, also for a book club — or technically, a Habitica challenge. (Side note: it’s a fun challenge, where each month a different Dewey decimal category is announced and you have to find and read a book that fits somewhere in that category. This one is the 400s, languages.)

Other than that, I’m not sure. I’m being bad at focus. I am really interested in Gina Perry’s The Lost Boys, which promises to pick apart Muzafer Sherif’s Robbers Cave experiment in much the same way Behind the Shock Machine picked apart Stanley Milgram’s most famous experiment.

How about you? What’re you reading?