Books That I’m Currently Reading

Over the past few months, I’ve been in this weird place where I keep starting books and then not finishing them and starting new ones. And it’s not that I’m not enjoying the books that I’m reading, it’s just that I can’t focus. I have started so many books these past few months, I am now running out of bookmarks because they’re all trapped in some book. So I’ve decided to put together a list of the books that I’m ‘currently reading’ in the hopes that it’ll motivate me to actually finish them.

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Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas

I started this book way back in September or early October, whenever it came out. I had pre-ordered it and I started reading it as soon as I got it. I got to page 93 before stopping and I just want to finish it. Even though Chaol isn’t really my favourite character, I want to learn more about the Southern Continent and all the stuff going on there.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catheynne M. Valente

I heard so many great things about this book and I was so excited to read it. And I think I started it one evening right after finishing another book, but I was tired, so I only got a couple chapters in before going to sleep and then I just never continued. I’m currently on page 28 of this one.

Classical Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum by Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky

I’m on page 29 of this one, but I’m not super bothered about this one, since it is a pretty heavy book and it requires a lot of concentration. You sort of need to study and understand what you’re reading, because it’s ultimately trying to teach you physics. The 28 pages that I have read are full of notes and stuff like that, so I’m quite pleased with this and I always anticipated it would take a long time to finish because I don’t have that much time to dedicate to teaching myself physics. But I do want to continue reading.

The Physics of Christianity by Frank J. Tipler

I started reading this book years ago. And I mean… years. Maybe 5-6 years ago, but I’m including it because I do want to move on with this book. I haven’t made it very far. I am currently 77 pages in, but as with the previous book, this is a pretty dense read, you really need to understand what he’s talking about and that can take a lot of trying to visualise and sometimes make diagrams, take notes and so on. And I don’t have a ton of time and when I do have time for reading, I’m usually too tired to be able to concentrate as much as I need to. So again, not too bothered, but I do want to keep chipping at this book.

Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey

I started reading this book back in September I think and I flew through the first half or so of it. I really enjoyed it, it’s really well written and poignant and sensible and full of compassion. I’m currently on page 105 of it and I don’t know why I stopped. I just got distracted. I feel like that’s what I’ve been trying to do lately, distract myself. And once I got ‘used’ to a book, its setting or tone or rhythm, it would somehow engage less of my mind. Kind of like when you first learn how to drive or ride a bike or something, you’re very conscious of what you’re doing and you’re very focused, but once you learn it, you don’t think about it as much and your mind is free for other things. It’s been kind of like that, where if I didn’t finish a book quickly enough for that novelty to still hold my mind focused, I would start craving something that would engage my mind fully.

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

This is probably the one that I want to finish most, or that I want to get to first because I’m farthest into it. I’m currently on page 370 and I flew through those nearly 400 pages in like 2 days and then it just got to a point where… I don’t want to say I didn’t like what was happening, because that’s not it. It just didn’t resonate well with the mood and place I was at mentally, so I stopped. But I loved the first book and I really enjoyed this one so far, so I want to finish it.

The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis

I’ve actually been reading this today, I’m currently on page 48, it’s quite a short book though, it only has about 160 pages. I love C.S. Lewis and I’m loving this book so far, it’s as lucid and poignant and well constructed, thought provoking as ever and I’m having such a good time reading it.

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

I’ve been reading this over the past couple of days. So far, I’ve read 3 of the stories, I’m on page 117 and I really enjoyed them. The art in it is so beautiful, I cannot get enough of it. I want to get to the other stories soon.

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

I started this I think last week and I’ve been wanting to read this book ever since I read the first one last spring. I only got to page 28 though (I have something about stopping at page 28), because I’m just too tired to read it. It’s quite political, even more so than the first book and by the time I get home from work, I’m too tired to keep up with that. But hopefully over the holidays, I’ll be rested enough to read it because I’ve only read 28 pages and already there was a fight scene. So it promises to be pretty action packed and epic.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

This is another one that I started reading one evening and then stopped because I was too tired and never continued. I loved what I read of it so far, I’m on page 30 of this one. And I really want to continue with it, especially that this was lent to me by a friend a couple months ago, so I should probably return it soon.

All Fall Down by Ally Carter

I won a whole bundle of Ally Carter books in a giveaway, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m on page 26 at the moment and already, the MC is kind of getting on my nerves, so I’m not sure about this one. But I think I would like to at least read this first book in the series and then decide whether I want to keep them or not. I might end up actually enjoying it once the story gets going because it’s a mystery novel, so we’ll see.

The Bat by Jo Nesbo

I started reading this book quite a while ago, but I still haven’t finished it. I want to though because it was recommended to me by a friend and I want to be able to tell him what I thought about it, since he really likes this series. I am enjoying it, but there is something that doesn’t agree with me about it and I think it’s the translation. The original is in Norwegian and the translation just fells a bit… awkward to me. Anyway, I’m on page 157 of this one. Hopefully I’ll get to it soon.

So, those are the many books that I’m currently reading. You can imagine what my night stand looks like. Hopefully, I’ll be finishing some of these in the following days and weeks and not adding to the pile. This post was very long and a bit rambly, but writing it has been pretty cathartic, so whatever.