RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

[pauraque]

It's Wednesday! What are you reading?

Comments

[petrea_mitchell]

I finished Winters in the World, a very nice read.

Looked through a couple of very short tie-in gamebooks, one for Star Trek II and one for The Goonies.

Now reading Codes, Ciphers, and Secret Languages by Fred B. Wrixon; it covers some ground I've seen before, but the part about secret languages (which includes jargon etc.) is new to me.

[zenigotchas]

SOOOOOOO MUCH.

Finished
Buncha old books for the art (Dinky Ducks and Bill Nolan's guide to drawing rubberhose cartoons. Being from like. 100 years ago they didn't age very well but otherwise it was interesting.)

Many a Sonic comic. Mostly the Mega Drive miniseries which was great read and I'm usually lukewarm on Ian Flynn's stuff (he's not a bad writer, just never captured my attention when I've tried his other runs in other Sonic comics). But he has a good sense of comedic timing and Tyson Hesse's paneling style is extremely fluid and dynamic! Not to mention the characters are cute

In progress
Thus Spake Zarathustra which I will use as exhibit 1 for people who say what we make can't be a reflection of us. It feels like an emotional diary, philosophy essay and personal blog and creative outlet all in one for Nietzsche to talk abt his feewings. VERY interesting.

I downloaded some interesting and old obscure comics from the internet archive, some sci fi (particle dreams), some horror (but so far the horror hasn't impressed me tbqh)

[phyllite]

I'm currently reading Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata.

This is the first work of hers that I've read but I'm intrigued by her writing, both in terms of premise and prose. I like her approach to commentary on societal norms, as well as premises where it dips into absurdist perspectives. When I read or write, it can be difficult to slip into another's rationality, so I am impressed with her ability to make such cases feel immersive yet mundane. I originally wanted to read Vanishing World, but I wasn't able to find a copy since the translation is quite new. However, I can definitely tell where she was exploring and retreading concepts for that work in her shorter stories. In a way, I'm glad I picked up Life Ceremony first, because now I know for certain that I want to read her longer pieces. The translator did a wonderful job conveying the world that Murata crafted in each story.

[pauraque]

My partner read Life Ceremony and I've been interested in that one too. I loved Convenience Store Woman!

[phyllite]

I poked around your journal and saw your review for Convenience Store Woman, it definitely sounds like something I’d like to read, too. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on it!

[dirty_diana]

I just finished one of the Steve Berry thrillers, The Medici Return. Now reading the first book in Jilly Cooper's Rutshire Chronicles, which I somehow never read despite being a huge fan of the books following in the series.

[spiralsheep]

111. Sword, Stone, Table: Old Legends, New Voices, by Jenn Northington & Swapna Krishna (editors), 2021, short stories, 4/5.
Varied short stories of Arthurian fantasy set in the past, present and future: from a coffee shop au that is actually good, to Old West gunslinger erotica with the serial numbers barely filed off. My one complaint is that there were too many retellings without enough transformation of misogyny.

112. The Great British Bump-Off volume 2, Kill or be Quilt, by John Allison and Max Sarin, 2025, comic, 4/5.
Allison's established character Shauna Wickle, who debuted as a Mystery Solving (school) Kid and is now college age, has a not so relaxing canal holiday on a narrowboat, and falls amongst feuding quilters. Fun but not as good as volume 1, which was a murder mystery set during a televised baking competition.

113. a 1958 romance novel. No comment, lol.

114. No-Signal Area, by Robert Perišić, 2014 (translated from Croatian [aka Serbo-Croat] by Ellen Elias-Bursać), novel about post-socialist countries and the capitalists who exploit them. I've only read the first page so far but it's extremely quotable and I hope the whole book lives up to its promise:

The words were surfacing, crackling, like a person drowning in the waves. "Must be a no-signal area," he said... eep appearing and disapp...
He glanced at the phone. The only remaining signal bar blinked, then vanished.

[dark_phoenix54]

Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets, by Dorothy Armstrong. Just barely got started in it; I've been exhausted the last few evenings and fall asleep instead of reading.

[hexmix]

picked up Tom's Crossing again after a brief pause to read Alchemised (didn't know it was HP fanfic going in but figured it out very quickly; author did not do a good job of filing off those serial numbers). am enjoying Tom's Crossing at least, despite how dang long it is. i've gone back and forth on the stylistic choices but i think a lot of that was due to me initially picking it up right after i finished Demon Copperhead, which feels a bit like an unfair comparison lol.

[pedanther]

Leonard Nimoy's memoir, I Am Not Spock - which is actually less definite on the subject than I'd expected from the title; he says at the outset that the question of where he ends and Spock begins is a complicated one and that he set out to write the memoir at least partly in the hope that it would help him figure it out himself.

Also The Deeper Meaning of Liff, which is less funny and insightful than I'd hoped from a book co-written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd.

Around the World in Eighty Emails continues; Fogg and his retinue have made it as far as California.

[pauraque]

Didn't he also have a followup called I Am Spock? I'm not surprised it was complicated. I should read his memoirs sometime.

[vamp_ress]

I'm in the middle of Colson Whitehead's "Underground Railroad" - so far it's my least favourite novel from him, which comes quite unexpected.

[valoise]

I liked Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree more than his previous book. There just seemed to be more story here than the just the developing relationships & friendships of the characters. I do really like his characters, but I like fantasy with a good plot, too.

Finally got to John Scalzi's latest Old Man's War book, The Shattering Peace. I liked it a lot. Taking background characters and alien races from previous books and giving some narrative room seems to be the style of this series and it works really well here.

[xwyndx]

I've been reading a self-published work by a local author, so not in English this time.
It's a sweet Christmas story about a trans man who gets in touch with his childhood friend again and they get together. Very sweet.
(The book is La estrella de mi firmamento by Aline E. G., in case someone was wondering)