Happy Wednesday everyone! Wednesdays also mean WWW Wednesday updates. WWW Wednesday is a bookish meme hosted originally by SAM@TAKING ON A WORLD OF WORDS. 

The mechanics for WWW Wednesday are 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?

January is nearly done. How time flies! Interestingly, January moved at a quicker pace than it did in the previous years. I am no longer seeing memes about how January is roughly 60 days long. Regardless, I hope that your is going the right way. I hope that 2025 will be a year of prayers answered and goals achieved. I hope it will usher in good news, healing, and prosperity. For most, the year’s start has become synonymous with crafting goals and targets for the rest of the year. I fervently wish that everyone achieves their goals and even dreams this year. I want to achieve several goals this year in all facets of life. In reading and writing alone, I have several goals lined up. For one, I already set my Goodreads goal to 100 books, the first time I am doing so from the onset. It is my goal to end the year with more translated books than books originally written in English.

With this in mind, I commenced my reading year by immersing myself in the works of East Asian writers. My failure to a Japanese literature month last year, the first time in a while I was unable to do so, was a main driver. Speaking of Japanese literature, I am currently reading Otohiko Kaga’s Marshland, my eleventh book this year. I have also listed the book as part of my 2025 Top 25 Reading List. I am essentially hitting two birds with one stone. Set in 1960s Japan, the central figure of Marshland is Atsuo Yukimori, a former soldier and convict now working as an auto mechanic. In his late forties, he has become a humble and law-abiding man who tried to avoid getting involved with mischief as much as possible. The renewed harmony of his life was disrupted by his acquaintance with Wakako Ikéhata, a university student in her mid-twenties. After crossing paths at the skating rink, they forged a friendship. Wakako was the daughter of a university professor. She was brilliant but was mentally unstable.

Their budding friendship, however, was merely a subplot in this hefty text. Their story was juxtaposed to the tumultuous Japanese society of the 1960s. Things were bound to get complicated. Social upheaval led to the rise of activism which, in turn, trickled into universities, sowing discord. When a Shinkansen bombing incident on February 11, 1969, resulted in casualties, the authorities were quick to pin the accusation to Atsuo. Wakako and several members of the Q Sect were also indicted on the charges. The story then transforms into a police procedural with time of the essence; Atsuo and some of the suspects were sentenced to death. The case was built on Atsuo’s confession. However, the truth is more sinister. The book was originally published in 1985 and was translated into English only in 2024, underscoring the growing interest in translated literature sweeping the contemporary. As to the book, Marshland has me at the edge of my seat. I have still about three hundred pages but I can’t wait to see how everything pans out.

What have you finished reading?

Compared to the previous two weeks, the past week was a less productive reading week. I guess this is also due to the heftiness of Marshland. Nevertheless, I am glad to tick off some of the books that have been gathering dust on my bookshelf. Among these books is Shūsaku Endō’s Wonderful Fool. Interestingly, before the pandemic, I have not read any of the Japanese writer’s works before although I kept on encountering Silence in must-read lists; before I read it, it was high on my most anticipated reads. I have since read Silence and was a little underwhelmed. However, I ended reading three more of his works. The fourth of these books is Wonderful Fool.

As per the book’s introduction, Wonderful Fool is the third novel by Endō to be translated to English. It charts the fortunes of Gaston Bonaparte, a Frenchman descended from Napoleon Bonaparte. The crux of his story was when he decided to visit – or perhaps stay – in Japan. He first went to his pen friend Takamori; they never met and only corresponded through mail about seven years ago. He was learning Japanese but after staying with Takamori’s family for a couple of days, he decided to move and not take advantage of the family’s hospitality; he also didn’t have much money with him. He thought that their hospitality is ubiquitous in Japan. He was in for a ride. Gaston, or Gas, is incredibly naïve and innocent and in a foreign territory this can both be a blessing and a curse. He easily trusted people he encountered and tried to always see the good in their actions despite being presented with a glaringly different dimension of their personality. He encountered prostitutes, lowlifes, and even criminals. However, he always try to see their better qualities. The proverbial wonderful fool, his enthusiasm makes him an interesting character study. Compared to Endō’s other works, Wonderful Fool is lighter – this is a different dimension of Endō’s oeuvre – although it also subtly paints an interesting portrait of Tokyo.

From Japan, my next read took me to the Korean Peninsula. Well, at least the book I read was written by a Korean born American writer. Before the pandemic, I had not encountered Nami Mun before nor had I read any of her works. Through an online bookseller, I came across her novel Miles from Nowhere. Curious about what it has in store, I obtained a copy of the book and, out of whim, made it part of my ongoing reading journey. Interestingly, Miles from Nowhere is just the second book originally written in English that I read this year; the first one is Richard Powers’ Playground.

Originally published in 2008, Mun’s debut novel transports the readers to the 1980s Bronx. At the heart of the novel – and its primary narrator – is Joon. We first meet her in a shelter. She was born in Korea but her parents migrated to the United States. Due to her father’s infidelity, their family was broken. With her mother falling into a near-catatonic state, Joon was left to fend for herself. Basically abandoned by the very people who were supposed to look after her, she decided to seize her own destiny. She left home and found herself in a shelter where she met Knowledge, a street-smart and tough lesbian. One winter day, Knowledge managed to convince Joon to escape from the shelter. The duo was joined by Wink, a boy interested in Joon. Soon enough, their friendship started to fall apart. Joon had to learn how to navigate a world that was quite dangerous, especially for a young vulnerable Asian girl like her. First, Joon worked as an escort which turned into prostitution. She became addicted. These all happened before Joon turned twenty; the novel spans six years of her life. Despite the darkness that hovered above the story, hope beaconed. Joon’s zest for life was unimpaired by the hardships she had to go through. This coming-of-age story commanded my attention although some sections can be discomfiting for some readers.

What will you read next?