All right, got quite a list going now. I have a couple things on the nightstand I have to get through first but I will be revisiting this soon. Very much appreciated!
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Finished Jane Eyre and reading this as a palate cleanser.
I think my time reading current superhero comics is drawing to a close. The X-Men books desperately needed a major reboot, and they certainly got one with Jonathan Hickman, but at the moment I just can’t get excited about much of it. I have boxes of ‘70s & ‘80s (and even ‘90s - blech) stuff I’ve been intending to read for years; I think I’ll focus on some of that for a while.
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@katajak: because we talked about short fiction the other day and I recommended this particular anthology I thought of you when I opened my copy earlier.
I’ve started reading again (I’ve missed it dearly. I feel like I’ve come home), and I picked up my copy of Palm of the Hand Stories by Yasunari Kawabata for a little variation from Darkdawn (Book 3 in the Nevernight Chronicle, which I am enjoying a great deal, and as always am grateful to @Tokesy97 for the recommendation and @Curmudge0n for the bump in my to-read list). Just read 3 stories from the collection; The Wife’s Search, Her Mother’s Eye, and Thunder in Autumn. None of the them more than 3 or 4 pages long, all incredibly potent distillations of narrative and emotion that feel much more substantial than their page count would lead you to expect. Paper thin slices of life illuminated by gentle flickers of metaphor. Almost mundane, but painted with a loving respect that scores the soul with the crosshatch shading of a quill and ink iillustration. Delicate yet firm, they cradle the mind and heart as a mother does her baby.
In light of this little essay they inspired, I believe I need to emphasize my recommendation of this volume. To see such depth achieved with such spare and elegant language is a truly sublime experience.
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It’s great to hear your recommendation got you back into reading, and you’ll be happy to hear that there’s a copy of Palm of the Hand Stories (along with a few other goodies) en route to me as we speak. I’ll post a pic once the order arrives. I also purchased the digital book of Normal by Warren Ellis that you and @Curmudge0n talked up. I hope to get a start on that soon.
Have to say I’m thus far impressed with the regime change on the X-Men. An entire issue was devoted to a tense, dialogue-driven exchange between members of the mutant nation ruling council and a cadre of world leaders. Chris Claremont’s ambitious run will always be the zenith of the books for me but Hickman is giving Grant Morrison a run for his money on innovation.
But enough about that. Bring on the Kawabata! 
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It was less the recommendation than me trying to force myself into something resembling normalcy. Though the recommendation did have me pick up that specific book last night.
My first Kawabata was Beauty and Sadness, which was assigned to me in an intro to lit class around 2011 or so when I went back to school. The short stories came to my attention when that teacher told me that I wrote very well, but often too much and I turned my keyboard and energies to short fiction. It may not be exactly to your liking, many of my classmates were unhappy with that assignment, though I hope it is because I’ve loved every word. Likely the least odd/quirky writer I will ever recommend to anyone, but absolutely worthy of my praise.
Kawabata actually inspired me to write the short story I got published in the school literary magazine a couple of semesters later, and I think made me a better writer overall.
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Shredded rather quickly through Ben Aaronovitch’s The Hanging Tree. While I do like the Peter Grant series, the finale was somewhat disappointing. It’s okay that the author wants to save the big bad for another novel, but one should handle the escape scene more clever and not in just three lines, leaving the usually clever protagonist looking like a bumbling fool.
Next up: Factfulness by Hans Rosling.
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I haven’t posted here for a while… am still reading through the Wheel of Time series. I think I’m on book 5? I got all 14 as a giant eBook, and just read from one straight into the next.
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I recently picked up the Malice in Wonderland books in a similar manner. 3 collections, something like 12 or 13 books. I grabbed them for a) price point (I think the whole thing cost $10, and b) I’m a sucker for anything Alice in Wonderland inspired (American McGee, the Looking Glass Wars, etc…). After buying I did a little research, and it looks like I’ll enjoy them when I get there, though buyer’s remorse is always possible.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/101433-malice-in-wonderland
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Im still reading The Phantom of the Opera. Havent had a chance to continue reading though.
Been focusing on some personal projects and generally not feeling particularly chatty, but here is a pic of my recent book haul (not including Normal by Warren Ellis which I purchased as an e-book). I hope to start on it soon as well as a story or two each day from the Kawabata book. Maybe Vonnegut after that? Many thanks again to @paulothead and @Curmudge0n for the recommendations.
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Having just finished Darkdawn, and by extension the Nevernight Chronicle (which I can now join the chorus of recommendations in praising), I picked up Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Murakami for a quick short story. The Year of Spaghetti was the story next in line, and it was a delicate picture of loneliness and isolation framed in al dente pasta and through a lens of sauce.
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Just finished this one, recommended by @paulothead:
Up next: Ben Aaronovitch’s Lies Sleeping. I am looking to forget the unsatisfying end of the last novel I read from his series (and I had it on the shelf anyway).
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Just finished this 
A psychedelically tinted bleak futurescape that dabbles in epistemology, spirituality, and the Notorious GOD. I enjoyed it, but I’m weird.
Also, it was nice to hold paper in my hand for longer than a short story, even if it was just 228 pages. Definitely pulling paper for my next novel.
I’ve also been dipping my toe into the Gateless Gate. I understand why it’s formatted the way it is, but I think I would prefer to read it without all of the explanations, only the cases and their associated verses. I think I’d rather think on the koans without guidance and then refer back to correlating discussion later.
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Finished Invisible Cities and Lies Sleeping. The first one was fantastic.
Reading now:
A series of short and interesting interviews with a former chancellor. Though I guess only @VaultHunter101 may remember his time in office?
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I just finished the Walking Dead. I had been pretty convinced from the first compendium of how I thought it would end, and it turned out I was right. I’m not upset or disappointed, because it was really handled quite well. It would be an investment in time, but I think it would be worth it for anyone to spend that time.
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Regarding the last book I read, I would be sooo curious about what Schmidt, a very hanseatic sober type of statesman, would have said about today’s politics, but he was already 90 when the last interviews were conducted and died in 2015.
Reading now:
I posted this on the pics thread before, but it fits here too good to not post again:
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Normal was a great read and gave me a couple new reasons to lie awake at night, so kudos to you, Warren Ellis. The below quote is from a series of short interviews that was included in the e-version. Made me laugh and also want to punch him in the face.
As previously stated I’m reading this a couple stories at a time in an attempt to savor them as much as possible. Beautiful writing.
This one received a lot of attention during quarantine and I eventually bit. I may end up regretting it but the humor is pretty dark so that’s been the saving grace thus far. Not far enough in to recommend it yet and I kinda hate the cover.
Sample lines:
“I wanted to be an artist, but I had no talent,” I told her.
“Do you really need talent?”
That might have been the smartest thing Reva ever said to me.
“You’ll be fine,” I told Reva when she said her mother was starting a third round of chemo.
“Don’t be a spaz,” I said when her mother’s cancer spread to her brain.
Trevor probably masturbated to Britney Spears. Or to Janis Joplin. I never understood his duplicity.
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