Went to a small, underfunded private HS, so the only Greek Mythology brought up when I was in school was the Apostle Paul in Athens.

Walked into this movie blind just knowing the director and the cast. Very easy to knitpick Christopher Nolan’s decisions for the movie but great adaptation and even better book.

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo: Mexican magic surrealism. One of the most unique reading experiences ever. I managed to get a coffee table book edition where each page had original photography by Josephine Sacabo.

The Tunnel by William Gass: 26 years in the making. Perhaps one of the greatest displays of English prose of the last 35 years. 650 pages of suffocation, it’s a relentless excavation of one man’s resentment, guilt, and self-loathing. Unfiltered darkness, yet somehow, amid all that moral decay, Gass produces some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read - his similes, metaphors and experimentation with design and typography were so inventive it became apart of the story.

Just picked up The Tunnel a few weeks ago on a whim, both excited by it and dreading opening it. Thanks for the review!

His short story collection was solid too, the man knew how to use words

Great pickup! They just reprinted it after years, previous copies were going for $100+

Damn that's wild, I got it at half price books for under $10. Love that place

thats hot

𝕁𝕌𝕃𝕐

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (2022) 560 pages

A coming of age novel inspired by David Copperfield that tells the story of a young boy in rural Tennessee who grows up in poverty in a world ravaged by d*** addiction. I liked Kingsolver’s writing, the character development was strong, and I was engaged throughout the story, but there was something about this that underwhelmed me that I'm having trouble identifying. at times the tragedies the main character faced seemed manipulative but I think it was the handling of addiction and the opioid crisis that came across as more of a reporting on a hot topic than an authentic experience understood by the author. still liked this but just felt like something was missing

7.6/10

Passing by Nella Larsen (1929) 141 pages

short novel based in 1920’s Chicago and New York about a black woman who is reunited with a childhood friend who is passing for white. heard great things about this book, even that it was one of the best novels ever written, so maybe I had my expectations too high but I was let down by this one. I think mainly because of the length, it just felt like the relationships and characters weren’t fleshed out enough to really tackle such complex topics

7.0/10

Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix (2023) 122 pages

novella based on the true story of the drowning of 27 migrants that occurred between France and the UK after their dinghy capsized in 2021. told mostly from the perspective of the French coastguard who received the desperate telephone calls for help from the migrants, this book depicted the tragic event in the same cold and emotionless tone that the responder had in dealing with the victims. made for an interesting narrative choice that highlighted the bystander effect and level of detachment with which people view the migrant crisis. quick read that I had heard great things about but wasn't all that impressed with until the last ten pages or so, where the book ended with a strong message

7.3/10

Contrapposto by Dave Eggers (2026) 432 pages

well written Bildungsroman that goes on to tell almost the entire life of a young boy from the Midwest who turns to art and friendship to escape his childhood traumas. this genre of books that chronicle a whole life always seem to resonate with me and this one was no exception as I tore through it in just a few days. the story was peppered with art references and it was inspiring to see a passion awake and develop in the main character, while he also at times became disillusioned and frustrated with the art world. a complex yet relatable friendship between the main character and a girl two years older than him was what brought the whole story together. highly recommend for art lovers or those who like novels that cover decades of a life

8.5/10

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955) 376 pages

finally got around to what is probably the most controversial novel of all time. story about a European pedophile who travels to the U.S. and falls in love with a 12 year old girl. although less graphic than I expected, this was still hard to read at times and I wouldn't say I enjoyed the reading experience. that said, the prose was very poetic and having an intellectual as the unreliable narrator committing abhorrent acts was an interesting choice and the depravity and paranoia the main character felt throughout was palpable. it's interesting to read afterwards people's different reactions and interpretations, and though I didn't really like this one, I respect it for its writing which is even more impressive knowing Nabokov was not a native English speaker

7.2/10

definitely not a good novel for a fashion accessory

I stumbled upon passages from this book years ago and they perfectly described how I was feeling, it was like Cioran had plucked the thoughts directly from my head and put them into words better than I ever could. However, after finally taking the time to read this book in its entirety, I don't find his writing to be nearly as hard hitting as I hoped. Maybe that's a testament to my improved mental state or maybe those few passages were all I needed but I just didn't end up enjoying the majority of his writing here. There are some beautiful and profound snippets to be found and undoubtedly a lot of it is going over my head but even the stuff that I fully grasped didn't resonate with me.

2.5/5

It was actually really easy to make something closer to Letterboxd/RYM search using an old Goodreads scrape from 2017

the misspelling here made me think about how much sense “knitpick” makes sense given the motion of knitting. turns out the word comes from Lice being called Nits back in the day. language is so crazy

Man has not caught fish in long time. Man goes out to see, catches big fish. Takes days to reel fish in. Reels fish in, it is a big fish, ties it to side of boat, fish gets eaten by sharks on way home. The end.

You have now read it, I am not exaggerating, it is that f***ing boring.

This might be one of the worst books I have ever read. It's not even written well in a beautiful prose or anything.

last two, both amazing

lol

How’s man and his symbols, isn’t most of that s*** not even written by Jung?

only the first chapter is, but regardless of it it is pretty great.
I didn’t like chapter 4 that much personally, but otherwise it was s fantastic book and a great foundation on Jung, I plan on reading more of his work next

is it okay to leave a book halfway read and start another instead

Just started this after finishing Play It As It Lays, sounds like I’m in for a treat

copped a xteink x3 and I been reading a lot more since. it clears any ereader I've had.

6/10 A bit over my head with this one, but sections absolutely rocked me.

8/10 Not over my head with this one. Decked me. Want to read more in this vein.

8/10 very quick read, very good. Not much to say!

7/10 enjoyable, especially the way I read where I do not tend to a***yze the plot and think about who did what and deduce things made it all the more enjoyable. after finished I read some other people's thoughts and wow, many modern readers seem to take deeeeep offence at a writer who depicts anything outside of their moral boundaries. like, it's a f***ing murder crime thriller book, and you're offended about ways in which the writer wrote the characters? get real

20/10 loved every minute of it. toni morrison is unlike any other. truly in a league of her own. can't wait to keep going through her bibliography. I wrote a lot about this book. Too much to post here but just know it's elite.

Recitaf is next and then finally Beloved!

Here' how I'd rank her books so far

Song of Solomon / Tar Baby (recency bias)
Sula
The Bluest Eye

each book is better than the last.

loved A Short Stay in Hell. impressive storytelling for such a short book

been thinking about getting an xteink myself

impressive is a great word to describe the book. and yeah I say give it a shot! even with how small a kindle and most ereaders are, I would often not bring it with me places, with this one it's on me 24/7 and so I read way more

Hopeful Sadness/10

“I don’t feel it’s ok if nobody understands me. I’ve got people I want to understand and be understood by.”

Death is real. It walks beside Toru Watanabe at every living moment. But when it steps in front of the lives of his two best friends there is no level of understanding that cures the pain of such losses. His best hope is to recognize that the price for the innocence of his childhood is now paid with a new normal, where trauma is the common denominator between people. And to recover means recognizing the need for help, the desire to help others, and the remaining necessity for connection with them. A bond that can only form if all parties involved lower their guards enough to fill each other’s emptiness. Even so it’s impossible to save everyone because not everyone’s happiness can prevail. Especially when it is their time to experience pain. Still, it is critical to give in to whatever happiness he can find and gather strength from the love left by those lost to death and from the love that wakes alongside him in life. The sincerity in that mission may bring joy or pain but it moves him forward until it's his turn to leave.

Read a novel after a long long time.
Finished 'Mother Night' by Kurt Vonnegut in like 2 sittings.
Very gripping and quick read, even for someone like me who doesn't like WW2 stuff at all.

august reads

Absolutely incredible. I'll be telling every other One Piece fan I meet that this is a must read. It's beautifully written, provides great insight into Ace's character and it's also really fun to experience One Piece in a new format. This would make a fantastic OVA, or potentially even a movie if things were expanded on just a bit. Loved it!

5/5

(audio book)
I've listened to Jason on podcasts and read his articles but this is the first book of his I've dived into. It's full of great insights but I came away with a mostly "meh" feeling. I found the writing to be pretty bland. It's clearly written to be approachable for people who have zero knowledge about gaming or the industry and that means at times it ends up sounding like a very long and detailed wikipedia article. It also leads to this odd juxtaposition where things like call of duty or a third person shooter have to be described in detail for a non gamer to understand but then references to smash bros or starcraft characters are made without the same context being provided. Those moments stick out real bad, like if you think the reader needs call of duty explained to them, don't use starcraft characters and strategy as part of an a***ogy.

There's also a ton of timeline hopping and it can be very easy to get lost in what year the current story is taking place. Jason will cover the development and release of a game from 2009-2013 and then the next section jumps back to 2008 to tell the story of something that was happening concurrently but then new people are being introduced so the story takes another jump back to 1985 so Jason can tell you where the person grew up, what their interests were as a kid, where they went to college, etc, then to 2010, and so on. It does get better towards the end of the book but the early sections are filled with constant jumping around.

It's a great cataloging of information and there was a lot of stuff I didn't know, especially about the early days of Blizzard. I think with some streamlining it could've came together much better.

3/5

As someone who is generally pretty indifferent and who has a willingness to just go with the flow, this was like looking in the mirror and hating the reflection staring back at me. It was very much an eye opening experience but also an enjoyable read.

The simple prose in the first part felt a bit clunky and sorta "stop and go" but once I got the hang of it I actually found it to be fairly vivid and to have a nice, gentle flow. The second part, specifically the court room scenes were fantastic.

Absurdism and existentialism were both intriguing philosophies when I first learned about them (really just reading a broad overview of their general concepts) but as I've grown I'm not really sure how to feel about them anymore. On one hand I think there's a freedom and weightlessness that comes from accepting the indifference of the world and time, but on the other, I think they can be breeding grounds for selfishness and a general disregard for society. I haven't read many works for either field so I'm still learning about both.

4/5

Awful. I haven't read any of Mishima's other books so I'm not sure if this is one of those "bad on purpose" things, if it's supposed to be a joke on the reader, if it's a translation issue, or if this is just the way Mishima wrote but either way this has some of the worst dialogue I've ever encountered. Half the "conversations" are just exposition and the other half are unbelievably robotic. It's like none of the characters are actually talking to each other and they're just waiting for the other person to stop speaking so they can repeat a canned response back, regardless of the context.

Hanio is also a flat out terrible character. Not as in he does bad things or is morally corrupt, he's just written inexplicably. He's not particularly smart, charismatic, creative, compassionate, humble or anything, yet every single woman in the story is throwing themselves at him for no reason other than they happen to be in the same place and no matter the situation he's in, he's able to deduce the perfect solution within seconds. Somehow the most average man in existence has the entire world wrapped around his finger.

It's like a 14 year old wrote what he thought would be the coolest guy ever, except Mishima was 43 and killed himself 2 years later.

1/5