W... W... W... Wednesday 02/20/13

 To play along, just answer the following three questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?
Answers can go here, or on your own blog, but please leave me a link in comments so I can read them!

This is a meme I enjoy from my friend Pooks' blog, Planet Pooks. So here we go!

What are you currently reading?



The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome, 
by Susan Wise Bauer



Oops, it says on Goodreads that I started this one on January 26th. It's more of a reference book, so I skipped around to read the parts I'm mostly interested in, like ancient Rome. It should just go on my "Read" list now.

I'm also reading the 5th book in Jasper Fforde's  hilarious "Thursday Next" series, First Among Sequels. I especially recommend these for writers. The first was The Eyre Affair, in which Thursday Next, our heroine and soon-to-be famous Jurisfiction Detective, found herself inside the book, Jane Eyre, where she sort of accidentally changed the ending. Note: these books should be read on an e-reader or the printed page, if possible, not listened to on audio. That's because there are lots of visual “inside jokes” to be enjoyed, such as when the real character, Hamlet, visits our world but no one can understand him because he speaks in Courier Bold, when the footnoter phone goes a little wonky, or during those awful spilling vyrus attax. 

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I'm reading a PDF of Childhood's Rend,  a smart, witty memoir (the "fictionalized version") by my Facebook friend Cliff Jackson, writing under the name Jack Cliffords. Its subtitle is, get this, Childhood's Rend--Memories of the Dog Star--Fictionalized Version 6.66 An Alternate History Memoir By Bill Clinton’s “Nemesis” and “Arch-Enemy” Of What Was/Is/Will Be---Or Might Have Been---In The Tangled/Meshed Lives And Times Of Jack Clifford And "The Other" (Bill Clinton). Sounds like fun, especially if, like me, you enjoy mind-bending stories of multiverse and time-hopping.

 

What did you recently finish reading?

Third Shift is the 8th installment of Hugh Howey's brilliant Wool Omnibus series. The first five parts were combined into one volume, Wool Omnibus. Then he wrote three prequels, and this is the third and last one of those.  You will need to read Wool Omnibus BEFORE reading the prequels, or you won't understand what's going on. Howey's writing is quite good, and I've noticed a bit more polish in the prequels than in the original five installments. This writer isn't one to be so content with his success that he stops bothering to improve his craft. How successful is he? He published the first installments in ebook form. They became so popular and sold so many copies that both Simon & Schuster and Hollywood came calling, and deservedly so! He is in Germany now where the hardback edition of Wool Omnibus is being released, along with this fantastic trailer.  

 

What do you think you'll read next?

The Cole Trilogy: The Physician, The Shaman, and Matters of Choice, by Noah Gordon. This looks delicious! It spans "a thousand years in the lives of one uncommonly gifted family," a family of healers. Robert Cole is the first healer we meet, in 11th century London. His studies take him to Persia, where he discovers his uncommon power. The reviewers say this is a fascinating read that's impossible to put down. (How will I get any writing done?)