Happy midweek everyone! As it is midweek, it is also time for my first WWW Wednesday update for the year! WWW Wednesday is a bookish meme originally hosted by SAM@TAKING ON A WORLD OF WORDS. The mechanics for WWW Wednesday is quite simple, you just have to answer three questions:

  1. What are you currently reading?
  2. What have you finished reading?
  3. What will you read next?
www-wednesdays
What are you currently reading?

I am currently reading Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow. I have been hearing positive feedback on the book which made me eager in delving in the narrative even though I just bought it late in 2019. Set in post-Romanov Russia, it relates the story of Count Alexander Rostov. In 1922, he was found unrepentant by a Bolshevik tribunal and was thus confined to house arrest in Moscow’s Metropol hotel. I did like Towles’s nostalgic prose but, contrary to my expectations, my start was a little rough. I found the earlier parts a bit of a drag. Nothing much of consequence happened. The narrative turned around with the entry of the six-year old (or perhaps five-year old) Sofia. With this, the story started to flourish. I hope that the Count’s growing relationship with Sofia would be sustained until the novel’s conclusion.

What have you finished reading?

Unfortunately, I only managed to complete one novel in the past week. David Mitchell’s Utopia Avenue was my current read during last week’s WWW Wednesday update and is also my third Mitchell novel. The novel revolves around the band Utopia Avenue which found its niche in London’s 1960s psychedelic music scene. Whilst it is the story of a band making it way towards global recognition in a period of enlightenment, it is also the story of five unique individuals, their struggles, and their dreams. Unlike the first two Mitchell novels I have read, Utopia Avenue is not as “magical”. With the differing dispositions of the characters, the novel is still as chaotic as Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks.

What will you read next?

I have decided to next immerse in Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles and Antonio Iturbe’s The Librarian of Auschwitz. These are two titles I have been meaning to dip my fingers into. I was highly impressed by Miller’s Circe which I read in late 2018. Because of this amazing reading journey, I listed Song of Achilles as a title I am looking forward to. To be honest, I have been encountering the book during my visits to the bookstore but I was reluctant to buy or read it. Everything changed after I read Circe. The Librarian of Auschwitz piqued my curiosity about a year ago. It seemed promising but I am hoping that it would be a better experience than The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Thus concludes another WWW Wednesday update! I hope everyone is having a great midweek! Do keep safe and as always, enjoy reading!