I've decided to start using my blog to keep a record of what I read. Not to review the books--though I'll probably make comments and leave notes--but just to keep track of them.
Why?
Well, because? I guess?
See, I recently joined a book club on Discord. (Uh...depending on your definition of "recently"...the meeting we just had this weekend was the third monthly meeting...) I seem to recall that one of the reasons behind it was that the person organizing it wanted to ensure that they actually managed to read twelve books a year. I've seen people in other Discord servers say that they had aimed for that number and failed.
My mind frankly boggled at the idea of reading so few books in the space of an entire year. I am, in fact, fairly certain that I've read more than that already this year. (Depending on how you define "a book," something I'll get into in a minute.) But I also find myself somewhat challenged in terms of perception of time. I have trouble pinning down exactly when I read something.
In fact, that time perception issue is the larger part of why I decided to start writing things down. See, I skipped the second month of the book club because it was a horror book and I am easily frightened. Before this weekend's meeting, I was wondering if I would have people asking me if/what I read in that interim. (No one asked, as it turned out.) But as I tried to go over what books I had definitely read in the last two months...I wasn't sure which books I had read recently were before those two months and which were during it.
Thus, I thought a reading journal, as it were, was a good idea. Nothing elaborate, of course, just a light aid to my inability to parse time properly. Starting on January 1st would make more sense, but if I waited that long, I might forget all about it!
So, starting now. At least it's a book I started reading on May 1st, so it's a clean monthly start...? (Though I only read one chapter on May 1st, then realized I didn't remember what was going on, and the next day I spent a while rereading the last three or four chapters of the previous volume.) I haven't had a lot of time for reading over the last few days, hence the absurdly slow reading speed on this book that I should have finished in two days, three max.
Anyway.
The book I finished reading today was The Legend of Exorcism, volume 5, by Fei Tian Ye Xiang.
Now, this of course brings up the question of "how do we define 'a book'?" Because this is only volume five out of eight. The eight volumes together comprise the full text of the novel. That being said, this volume is a full 413 pages long (admittedly, in a moderately large font). And Chinese Web novels are rather (in)famous for their great length, so...
I dunno. Is it wrong to consider it a "book" I have read when it's only 1/8th of the full work? Or is it right to do so, when it's fully as long as a regular novel?
Fortunately, this isn't something that requires a definite answer, since I'm not doing this for any reason but to bolster my weakening memory, but it's still sort of gnh that I don't know how I personally take this.
Anyway, I don't have much to say about the book itself (since the story is far from over!) except that I kinda feel like I peeked at the ending: in between the previous volume and this one, I read (most of) a book on Chinese history that told me what was about to happen to the historical characters (of which there are many, including the emperor). On the one hand, that told me before I resumed reading a certain amount of what was going to happen...on the other hand, the author expected his readers to have that knowledge going into the novel in the first place! (Having knowledge of the history involved is why I opted not to read his non-fantasy, purely historical romance set during the early days of the Three Kingdoms period, because of what I know about the two leads (and how that guarantees a tragic ending to the novel) ...) There was a special author's note at the start of the first volume (that was specifically added for the English translation) to give at least an indication that the empire was about to be thrust into turmoil, but it wasn't as fully detailed as what I read in the history book. (Reading an historical account involving people whose names I'm used to seeing attached to fictional(ized) characters was pretty surreal, though! 🤣)
Anyway, that's about all I have to say, I guess. I'm not sure what to start reading next. I picked up a sapphic romance sequel (or sorts?) to Pride and Prejudice at the same time that I bought this, but maybe I ought to save it for June? Ditto the new Eternal Library book, which has been waiting for me to read it for a while now... (I suppose I could reread Pride and Prejudice, if I wanted to pick which copy to read...)
Welp, I'll worry about all that later.
Right now, I need to make my lunch. 😅
