Finished this week:

• The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan. Finished on Wednesday, as predicted, though I had to hold myself back finishing it on Tuesday instead of getting other things done. I know lots of people didn't enjoy this one, critics included, but fuck me. Yes, there were some cheesy turns of phrase, a bit too much trying to be artistic in places, but overall I thought the general feel and aesthetics of the writing were spot on. It was moving, interesting (I had no idea of these atrocities previous to reading), and compelling. I particularly enjoyed it when in Darky Gardiner's POV, and I'll remember him and Tiny for a while. I feel like he didn't give much space for the Japanese to be sympathetic, and the end went on a little too long, like the ending of the LOTR films. Yeah. But still good stuff, cried a little, shush.

Currently reading:

• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. 18 minutes left. Audiobook narrated by Kenneth Branagh. Nearly done, just haven't found the time for audio at the moment. The narration is excellent, but I don't feel much submerged into the story - I think I've let my mind wander too often while listening.

• Hotel World by Ali Smith. Read 50%. This is for class. Enjoying this so far - the prose style is odd and doesn't seem to change much for each character…I don't know if that'll change. I'm hoping so, I feel like it might start to grate soon! Very different from what I imagined, and I'm liking the theme of memory.

• Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes. 29 pages read. Making my way slowly through this as I make notes on each poem. The lecture for it was Thursday gone, which I missed, but I reckoned it was worth following through with anyway.

I'm also thinking of starting Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci Fi & Fantasy Culture by Ytasha L. Womack, my first non-fiction of the year, once I'm done with Heart of Darkness, which I expect to finish this week, as well as Birthday Letters. I feel like reading critical work outside of class would be beneficial to me, and "afrofuturism" is something I'm interested in.