Reading Wednesday

[yuuago]

Last Finished: My Brother's Husband by Gengoroh Tagame. Absolutely lovely manga. The library only has the first volume right now, but hopefully they'll get the rest as it becomes available - I really want to read more of it.

Currently Reading: Forge by Jan Zwicky. Poetry collection, Canadian author. Lots of inspiration taken from classical music here. Also little sprinklings of winter imagery here and there, which is nice. Definitely one that I'll keep and read again.

Also currently reading: Still picking my way through With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz. I wish this came divided into two books; I'd probably be finished it by now if it were more portable.

Reading Next: I took Trans/Portraits by Jackson Wright Shultz out from the library, but... it seems a bit heavy for bus-reading. Might pick up something else first, depending on when I'm done with the poetry.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Just feel like saying I read and appreciate your book reviews, except most of these are books I've never read and would probably not find locally so I don't let myself get too caught up in feelings like "oh this sounds amazing I'd really love to read it!". Though it's come up. You've made me want to give poetry another chance, at least.

LK

[yuuago]

:D I'm glad to hear that. Yeah, a lot of the stuff I read probably isn't easy to find where you are (or, well, isn't easy to find outside of Canada, period).

It's nice to hear that you're thinking about giving poetry another chance... I guess because for a long time I really hated it, myself. All the stuff that was shoved down my throat at school was utterly boring and it took a really long time to find some poetry that I actually enjoy.

[(Anonymous)]

Hehe yeah, you're all like "Read ALL the Canadian/Nordic books about Northerness" - and I want me some of that but... logistics. Maybe I can get some stuff on my kindle. Would you ever consider doing a list of top favorite books on this topic, so I know where to direct my efforts?

"All the stuff that was shoved down my throat at school was utterly boring and it took a really long time to find some poetry that I actually enjoy." - yeah, same. I guess I was lucky because there was exactly one (1) poet I liked among those we studied at school, so I didn't write off the whole genre forever. It's still discouraging when I realize I'd probably not like 9/10 of poets out there. With prose, I seem more able to get some enjoyment or... something out of books even if they don't turn out to be to my taste.

LK

[yuuago]

Sure, I can try to do that. Might take a while - going to have to think about it - but yeah. More broadly, stuff in a northern setting, that's definitely manageable (and usually ends up incorporating mood/atmosphere of northernness even when it isn't specifically about that as such).

I don't think I ended up appreciating poetry until grad school. And that was after I started reading more of it so I could write it better, and eventually found something I didn't hate. :|a That's partly why I read so much of it now - because even if I don't like what I'm reading, usually I can find something useful in it from a writing point of view; things to do with my own work (or... not do, as the case may be).