WWW Wednesday – October 14th 2020

The Home Office telegraphy department always smelled of tea.

First line in The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

Hi, guys. I hope you’re all doing great. Today I’m using WWW Wednesday to give you a reading update. WWW Wednesday a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words, and it’s meant to give you all a little insight into my reading this week. I’ll answer the 3 questions:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish?
• What do you think you’ll read next

What did you recently finish?

My first read of October turned out to be a contender for best book I’ve read in 2020. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley turned out to be a book that just worked for me on so many levels, so I naturally rated it 5 stars. It takes place in the same literary universe as her other novel, The Bedlam Stacks, which I also recently read. In Watchmaker, we’re following characters in a Victorian London, but it’s mixed with quite a lot Japanese culture with some flashbacks even taking place in Japan. It felt quite unique to me and added a lot of color to the story. However, my favorite thing about the book is the writing style. Pulley counts on her reader to catch onto hints and figure stuff out on their own. Characters “say” a lot outside of dialogue, and I love interpreting these little signs along the way.

It’s funnily enough also a book I could find quite a few flaws in if I decided to be really critical, which I can only assume is the reason behind its preposterously low rating on Goodreads (3.73). What can I say? I loved reading it and have been thinking about it every day for the past week.

What are you currently reading?

My commute book is The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, book 2 in the Kingkiller Chronicle. I feel like I’ve been reading a lot, but I’m only 17% in. It’s such a big book! So far it’s fine. It’s incredibly meandering and I think it’s only getting worse. It’s interesting enough, but it’s all going in circles, so I’m really hoping for a change of scenery soon.

I’m also still working on my reread of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and I’m currently at 43%. In case you noticed then, yes, the two books I’m reading are both over 900 pages, and yes, I’ve made a mistake.

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What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m paying for that previously mentioned mistake, so I doubt I’ll be starting anything new within the next week. I do plan on taking a break from The Wise Man’s Fear at some point, but I really want to get a good chunk of it done first. It shouldn’t be a secret, though, that I’ve been eyeing the sequel to The Watchmaker of Filigree Street for a few days now… but I should wait. Probably.