stargazer

WWW Wednesday, 24-06-2020

WWW Wednesday is a meme 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?

What are you currently reading?

On recommendation from Lashaan from Bookidote, I decided to start on the prize winning Murderbot series. The narrator of the story is Murderbot, who is part human part robot. It doesn’t do much killing and basically just wants to be left alone and watch television shows. Some of us can relate to that…

Dark Towers was recommended by whatsnonfiction. The book is about the financial world and has nothing to do with Sauron and Saruman (except for the two towers) nor is it connected to Stephen King. It does include both evil and horror, though, and reading it feels like watching car-crash television. I really don’t want to know what happened, but I just can’t help myself reading on.

What did you recently finish reading?

I have always been a fan of Oscar Wilde’s plays and when his first and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray was on sale as audiobook, I had to pick it up. Yup. Had to. No free will there, whatsoever. I meant to save it and listen later, but that didn’t work out either.

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When I first started blogging, I stumbled across John Scalzi’s blog Whatever, which is a great mix of bookish posts, comments on a variety of topics and random tidbits from the ongoings in the Scalzi household. This meant I got to know Scalzi’s cats including the charming Smudge, before I got to know any of his books. By reading The Dispatcher, I am starting to make up for that.

What do you think you’ll read next?

As a temperamental mood reader, I always find it difficult to predict my next read. But for a while, I’ve been warming up to the Russian classics and Crime and Punishment is first in line. Perhaps, mentioning it here will give me the push to finally get started?

In school I loved Greek mythology. We didn’t discuss Circe back then or perhaps I just forgot. In any case, I don’t recall anything about her. But I can’t wait to read her story in the form of Madeline Miller’s retelling.

This was my first WWW Wednesday post in a while. It feels good to be back. πŸ™‚ What are you reading at the moment?

34 comments

  2. Ah I liked Greek mythology in school too! Damn, I found a copy of Circe when I was on holiday last year in Turkey, it was a beautiful hardcopy but in German. Maybe I should have just tried to read it in German, it’s a bit (ahem) rusty but you make it sound so interesting! Happy reading!!

    • Haha, I like that! An American novel about a Greek goddess translated into German and found in Turkey? My German is rusty as well, but I have often considered to do a brush up course since I work with a lot of German speakers.

    • Well, I think the strength of the classics is they mostly stand the test of time and can be reread and still enjoyed. I really look forward to read it!

  4. I hope you love Circe!! I’m not much of a “mythology person,” but I really enjoyed that novel. And how did you like Picture of Dorian Gray? It has been on my TBR for a while but I’ve been a little intimidated to start it!

    • I’ve seen so many positive reviews of Circe and I feel relatively certain I’ll enjoy it. I thought The Picture of Dorian Gray was good and very interesting. Perhaps a bit too long, but then again, I say that about a lot of books, so perhaps it’s just me…

  5. Dark Towers looks like an interesting book and currently I am in the mood for more non-fiction. Any story about the trashing of a big bank sounds good to me lol I hope you get to Russian classics soon too! There are so many great books in that category and Crime & Punishment is one my favourites.

    • Like you I seem to get on well with nonfiction at the moment. Dark Towers is fascinating stuff, but it’s perhaps a somewhat specialised subject and it helps if you have some insight into the financial sector and know the people and products they are talking about. My expectations to Crime and Punishment are sky high! From what I’ve read, it may end up being one of my favourites as well.

  8. I’m quite glad to hear your interest in Murderbot and I hope you have fun with that character! Crime and Punishment is my all-time favourite book! Hope you love that one too. I want to read Circe soon too; I still need to find a copy hahah Happy reading! πŸ™‚

    • Definitely a great character, so funny to have an introvert bot. I am glad to hear that about Crime and Punishment! I believe it might end up being one of my favourites as well. Thanks πŸ˜€

  9. I always struggle with the Russians but would like to read Crime and Punishment one of these days. I look forward to seeing if you tempt me to make it sooner… or later!

    • I’m sorry, you struggle with the Russians (let me know if there is anything in particular you would advice me to avoid…). Based on the dramatisation, I’m not sure about Anna Karenina, but I think Crime and Punishment might just be my kind of books. Let’s see… I can’t guarantee either, whether I will get to it sooner – or later. πŸ˜‰

      • I sorta enjoyed Anna Karenina except for the length and the continual sobbing of whiny Anna. Doctor Zhivago was fine except for the continual narcissism of Zhivago! Hated Solzhenitsyn and struggled badly with War and Peace – I’d forgotten the beginning before I got to the end, But I agree Crime and Punishment sounds much better… good luck!

        • Haha, thanks! It doesn’t sound too promising, but perhaps some of the novels work better for me. I really hope Crime and Punishment will be the right start – I know myself well enough to see that a bad start can bring the whole Russian Classics project in danger.

  10. I’m another one who feels that I ought to read Crime & Punishment… one day! I also want to read Circe. It’s fallen into the black hole at the moment so maybe if you do read it and review it, I’ll be motivated to hook it out again!

    • It’s a good thing the books don’t go anywhere… Could you imagine, if there was a deadline and then the book would just disappear?! I love to think about all the books, I would like to read, but without committing myself. And I don’t even have a TBR.

        • Haha, let’s see for how long I can resist the pressure, I know a lot of book bloggers didn’t have TBRs to begin with.

  11. Oh, love your list, Stargazer. I have about 100 pages to go in Circe. My first introduction to her was in reading The Odyssey! It has been fun to read about her from her own perspective. Also, I finished a book recently called The First Actress about Sarah Bernhardt’s life, and she was good friends with Oscar Wilde. It definitely made me want to learn more about him and read his works. What a character he seemed to be! I hope you enjoy your upcoming books!

    • I am happy to hear you are reading Circe! So hopefully you will write a review as well? I didn’t read The Odyssey, only The Iliad, which I loved. And yes, Oscar Wilde is such an interesting person. I haven’t heard about The First Actress, but apparently the movie Wilde about his life should be interesting. Have you seen the play “The Importance of being Earnest“? If not, you definitely should, it’s probably the most witty play, I have ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot…). Thanks!

        • I don’t use Goodreads much, but I managed to find your lovely review. I chuckled at the fact that you bought two more editions even if you got a free copy. πŸ˜‰

    • Thanks, I hope so too. πŸ™‚ I look forward to your thoughts on American Dirt, I have seen somewhat mixed reviews.

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