Wednesday Reading Meme - January 3 2024
Jan. 3rd, 2024 01:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitewithfishHappy New Year!
I have a vague intention of doing a proper “This Year in Reading” reflection post for 2023, but I got back from my holidays and work as begun to kick my butt, so I don’t think it’s going up today. If you have any thoughts about interesting forms of reflection to spur a conversation, I would be happy to look at them! I found the “AO3 Wrapped” questions from tumblr very helpful for thinking about the stuff I have read!
What I’ve Read:
Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti – Gayer than expected! I like to start the year off reading something short that I can finish in a day, and this was a very quick one indeed. But it was a book on Storygraph, so it counts!
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York– Robert Caro – 4% This book is enormous and quite engaging. I fell for the 99% Invisible Podcast’s book club idea, so I’m going to try to read parts 1 and 2 before January like…. 19Th, I think?
Guards! Guards! By Terry Pratchett – I loved this! Which not surprising, since I generally have loved the Discworld that I have read. I think I mentioned some months back that I had read things wildly out of order – and yes, I know, it’s Discworld, don’t start with Colour of Magic. But the internal track of particular characters is fun to follow, and this is the start of Sam Vimes and of Carrot, and it was a real pleasure.
The Pack Survives by Astolat – Astolat dropped this massive Game of Thrones fixit fic focus on Robb Stark just before the New Year and, well, I read every word and really loved it. Multiple happy endings! A version of Robb who isn’t an idiot! Talisa is actually cool!
What I’m Reading:
Ninefox Gambit – Xing Book Club – got to the mandated 50% mark and I’m actually quite engaged! No one who talked about this book mentioned the body sharing. I *love* body sharing – it’s one of my favorite tropes.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – Mo Xiang Tong Xiu – vol 1 of 5. This is a re-read, sort of. I had actually finished vol 1 in December 2021 when it was first officially translated into English, but I hadn’t really clued into the fact that the story was so long it really had to get broken up. I also hadn’t actually finished the show, so I was quite clueless about some elements of the story. So I decided to wait until the whole thing was available to read so I could get the whole story, and actually get a handle on the story.
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections in Horror - Joe Vallese (Editor) – SPN Seminar – 38%
-Short essays where queer authors talk about horror cinema’s impact on them, with a focus on particular movies.
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson – read a few more short stories – I’m now into section 2 of the book. 29% I feel like I should write about these short stories – they are really damned good at capturing a particular feeling very concisely.
What I’ll Read Next:
When Women Were Dragons - Xing Book Club
Owned and need to read: Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Tom Stoppard, Invention of love, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon
I have a vague intention of doing a proper “This Year in Reading” reflection post for 2023, but I got back from my holidays and work as begun to kick my butt, so I don’t think it’s going up today. If you have any thoughts about interesting forms of reflection to spur a conversation, I would be happy to look at them! I found the “AO3 Wrapped” questions from tumblr very helpful for thinking about the stuff I have read!
What I’ve Read:
Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti – Gayer than expected! I like to start the year off reading something short that I can finish in a day, and this was a very quick one indeed. But it was a book on Storygraph, so it counts!
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York– Robert Caro – 4% This book is enormous and quite engaging. I fell for the 99% Invisible Podcast’s book club idea, so I’m going to try to read parts 1 and 2 before January like…. 19Th, I think?
Guards! Guards! By Terry Pratchett – I loved this! Which not surprising, since I generally have loved the Discworld that I have read. I think I mentioned some months back that I had read things wildly out of order – and yes, I know, it’s Discworld, don’t start with Colour of Magic. But the internal track of particular characters is fun to follow, and this is the start of Sam Vimes and of Carrot, and it was a real pleasure.
The Pack Survives by Astolat – Astolat dropped this massive Game of Thrones fixit fic focus on Robb Stark just before the New Year and, well, I read every word and really loved it. Multiple happy endings! A version of Robb who isn’t an idiot! Talisa is actually cool!
What I’m Reading:
Ninefox Gambit – Xing Book Club – got to the mandated 50% mark and I’m actually quite engaged! No one who talked about this book mentioned the body sharing. I *love* body sharing – it’s one of my favorite tropes.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – Mo Xiang Tong Xiu – vol 1 of 5. This is a re-read, sort of. I had actually finished vol 1 in December 2021 when it was first officially translated into English, but I hadn’t really clued into the fact that the story was so long it really had to get broken up. I also hadn’t actually finished the show, so I was quite clueless about some elements of the story. So I decided to wait until the whole thing was available to read so I could get the whole story, and actually get a handle on the story.
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections in Horror - Joe Vallese (Editor) – SPN Seminar – 38%
-Short essays where queer authors talk about horror cinema’s impact on them, with a focus on particular movies.
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson – read a few more short stories – I’m now into section 2 of the book. 29% I feel like I should write about these short stories – they are really damned good at capturing a particular feeling very concisely.
What I’ll Read Next:
When Women Were Dragons - Xing Book Club
Owned and need to read: Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Tom Stoppard, Invention of love, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon
