WWW Wednesday is a weekly reading update hosted by Taking on a World of Words.
The Three Ws are:
- What are you currently reading?
- What did you recently finish reading?
- What do you think you’ll read next?
Anyone who knows me knows that I read multiple books and multiple magazines at once every month. It’s no different as we enter September, other than I’m more focused coming out of summer. Probably since the temperatures are lowering. After all, I don’t do well with high temperatures, much like print books.
This month I am hoping to finish some research I’ve been doing in National Geographic Magazine on the city of the future, as well as combining it with some previous research on the home of the future. Both have been great reading and fascinating. Both looking at the infrastructural of the future and seeing how Japan has embraced it a bit already. Along with how the Japanese culture embraces getting older.
Before you start thinking I have gotten all boring, I am working on catching up on my Science Fiction Magazine reading with back issues of Lightspeed magazine at the same time. Mainly since I am stuck on a serial story in the current year’s pages. There have also been stories from authors such as Carrie Vaugh in there as well. Speaking of which, I am reading her story tonight.
I’m also keeping an eye on Horror with Nightmare magazine, the sister publication of Lightspeed magazine. Both of which are the size of anthology books. I have found stories in the pages of Nightmare magazine in the past that creeped me out better than some of the horror movies in theaters currently. One of which was by Stephen King’s son.
I am also putting both my minors in Literature and Sociology to use in reviewing The Bedwetter by Lee Allen Howard, which I should finish this month and have the review planned for next month. I’m still not sure how to characterize the book, but it is not a badly written book by any means.
I finished up The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison right at the end of August and as September was beginning. It is one of the first fantasy novels I have read with no humans in it. It was more in the spirit of Game of Thrones or Wheel of Time, so I will hold off on that review for now. It will allow me to digest the book a bit more that way.
I’ve also made plans to read Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology once I finish American Gods. I started reading American Gods out of impatience with waiting for future seasons of the show, but that will be discussed in a future article.
Sword & Laser has me reading Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse this month, and it is interesting to see a Fantasy/Science Fiction novel in the perspective of Native Americans. So far it is pretty good.
Over in the seldom-visited-by-me genre of literary literature is They Could Have Named Her Anything: A Novel by Stephanie Jimenez, which unlike my last visit there seems to have more of a plot from the summary on the jacket cover or whatever you call the area of summary for a kindle book.
In a mix of Science Fiction and Nonfiction, there is Isle of Woman by Piers Anthony, which combines actual research and storytelling. Though it can be read without the research notes as you follow a group from Prehistoric Times to the near future. It is part of his Geodyssey series, which thankfully is like his Xanth series in that you can read it out of order and not be hopelessly lost.
I’m also tackling the last issue of Apex Magazine, which sadly has not been in publication since May of this year. It is also impressive that they chose to focus on Afrofuturism in their last issue. I’ll cover more on this in a future article though.
I’m also planning to dig into First Lord’s Fury by Jim Butcher as he concludes his Codex Alera series in it. I am looking forward to it I will admit. Both because Butcher is one of my favorite authors and because he left me on a cliffhanger with the previous book in the series.
Other than that, I just have some catching up to do with Writer’s Digest and keeping up to date with current events with the newspaper and Time magazine. I know I probably read too much in some people’s eyes, but it is how I keep gaining new insights on the world around me, on top of talking to people. And you’d be surprised who you know that likes to talk about books. Your boss might surprise you one day by jumping into a book conversation you are having.
*Tips his hat and walks out the door heading for the library.*
Functionally Fictional 
What a great list of books! I’m keen to try Neil Gaiman’s books. Which would you recommend I start with first? 🙂
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