It has been a few months since I last joined in with this weekly meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. It’s open for anyone to join in and is a great way to share what you’ve been reading! All you have to do is answer three questions and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
The three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
A similar meme is run by Lipsyy Lost and Found where bloggers share This Week in Books #TWiB.
Current:
Muriel Spark was born on the 1st of February 1918, so what better time to celebrate the #murielspark100 than this month? I have embarked the brief Symposium, one of her later novels – one that I hadn’t read before. It seems to be tour de force of characterisation through dialogue, something Spark does so well.
Just read:
The Asymptote Book Club’s January title Aranyak by the incredibly beautifully named writer Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, one of the greatest writers of modern Bengali literature. It is truly ahead of its time: a 1930s ecological novel, although it seems to stem from an older man’s regret for the events which he has witnessed and played a part in bringing about (the deforestation of Bihar to make way for agriculture and the disappearance of a traditional way of life).
To be read:
I will read two simultaneously, as is my wont. The two I’ve got my eyes on are from Croatia and Wales, respectively. Dubravka Ugresic’s Europe in Sepia is a collection of what one might call travel essays (not just about Europe), full of sharp observations about populism and the hunger for imagined past glories. Meanwhile, Stuart Evans’ The Caves of Alienation has been waiting for me since I reached Chapter 3 during my residence at Ty Newydd, but couldn’t find the book anywhere outside Wales. I’ve got a rather mangled former library copy at long last and will probably have to restart it.
So, what are you reading this week? Anything that might tempt me? (Luckily, you know I have a will of iron, don’t you?)
findingtimetowrite 
I’m most tempted by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s book, that is definitely some name and I could do with travelling further afield with my reading!
Well, at the risk of sounding like a broken record for advertising for the Asymptote Book Club, I’m finding it’s opening me up to countries I’d never read before!
I have Aranyak awaiting me. So glad to know it lives up to the premise of the blurb…its my first book from the Asymptote club. Hooray for your success in tracking down the book from Wales. I shall look forward to getting your thoughts on it. In face maybe you’d like to,do a guest post on my site in the Literature from Wales section?
I’m so glad the Asymptote Book Club has got going, Marina Sofia. I can tell already that there’s all sorts of good literature waiting… An you’ve got some good ones here on your list, too. Nicely varied!
I have just finished a collection of beautifully expressed, thought-provoking short stories by Judith Hermann, due in March.
I think BB wrote ‘Pather Panchali’ which Satyajit Ray filmed – I hope to read it this year.
I’m halfway through ‘The Ice Palace’ by Tarjei Vesaas. It’s only a short book so it shouldn’t take long.
some good choice here. I’m reading Go, upcoming translation of this book by Kazuki Kaneshiro. And a classic, The Bride on the Drina. And I’m listening to a thriller by Fred Vargas. So it’s actually international too, with Japan, Serbia, and France
Finished Flaneuse recently which started rather better than it ended! Then The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes which was magnificent. Now in the middle of a BLCC. What’s up next? Beverley Nichols and then maybe Ian Nairn on Paris – who knows!
I’m currently reading by Tania Crasnianski. I just finished The Good House by Ann Leary and that’s going to make my-best-of-year-list. Not sure after that.
i really enjoyed Symposium, hope you do too. The Bandyopadhyay sounds fascinating, I look forward to hearing your thoughts 🙂
Fascinating books here I finished reading, Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng, which was well-written and interesting. I am currently reading a few books, Force of Nature, by Jane Harper; Our Lady of the Prairie by Thisbe Nissen, Susie Essman’s memoir; and And Fire Came Down, by Emma Viskic. Lately, I juggle a few books at a time.