This is my first time blogging on a Saturday. Go me. This day has consistently been my streak breaker, so baby steps all the way through the front door. Welcome to the Battle Blog Book Brigade BB. Just kidding, but on Saturdays, I’ll talk about what I’ve been reading, or books I just really want to talk about. Maybe sometimes I’ll even just talk about my reading habits since the pandemic.

I only came back into reading really after college, which is a funny thing for someone who is a writer. But I’m a person who struggles greatly with screen addiction (David Foster Wallace style bb), so I let a lot of time go to video games and television. And this isn’t knocking anyone who loves games, movies, and shows, because I’m right there with you. I just have a hard time only playing little bits here and there, instead playing hours on end, game after game, show after show.

So, when the pandemic hit, I challenged myself to read fifty-two books — a book a week — over the course of 2020. I ended 2020 having read fifty-four books. I noticed definite changes in my mental habits and my thoughts and language felt exponentially more articulate. I read across the spectrum of genres, but I favored self-help, fantasy, and literary fiction. I read my favorite book, The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, for the first time, then turned around and immediately read it again.

In 2021, I upped the ante, reading not only more, but adding challenges. Every third book had to be a “Classic” in some regard or another. I read sixty-two books that year.

I’m off to a slower start this year, but I’m still reading about a book a week, maybe every ten days. The key for me is including audiobooks, which have totally changed the way I read. Once you learn to read by listening, you can add an hour or more of your day in chores, cooking, and commuting as reading time. And once you get used to it, it really is a similar experience to reading on the page. I find that I can recall story beats and points just as well either listening or reading, though I do prefer to read fantasy books the old-fashioned way.

I just finished Marlon James’ fantastic Moon Witch, Spider King, which is the second installment in his Darkstar Trilogy. Like the first book, it took me a solid 100 pages before becoming invested in the main character, Sogolon, but then I couldn’t put it down. It is a tough sell for some to hear that, I’m sure, but the terrifying mythology and visceral combat and magic make the whole series worth it. People with powers unlike any you’ve ever read or seen on the screen, portrayed in brutal honesty and honest brutality. If you are squeamish, this is not for you, as the book deals with torture, war, rape, terrible bigotry, and incalculable violence.

And it’s awesome. Marlon James certainly has a way with action set pieces, even if sometimes the magic is inconsistent. It doesn’t feel inconsistent, and the magic fits into the story incredibly, but don’t expect thorough explanations for everything. Some magic is certainly explained, given a special language or ritual, but much of it is answered by spirits or the will of the gods. And it works fine, but like Sogolon and Tracker often say, Fuck the Gods, some of us like crunchy magic systems and are curious as to the mythos of the world!

That being said, I do have a signed edition of this work, if it shows you how much I did enjoy this read. A better read than the first of the series, and certainly a story that will have you flipping through it, especially once the story gets cooking.

Funny story: my dog, who is a well-behaved angel usually, decided to maul the corner of this book. Turns out she wanted to dig her teeth into this thing as much as I did.

Happy Saturday, and don’t forget to read a book sometime! It makes your brain smarter, even if it is a spicy romance with aliens from a different solar system.