#my dad was obsessed w the book because it introduced to him the death rides a pale horse archetype and he was like this RULES

[cidnangarlond]

thinking now about a book I haven't read in over decade that I only know because my dad was Obsessed with it and the premise was "what if a dude was about to shoot himself and Death stood there waiting to collect his soul but scared the guy so much he shoots and kills Death and now has to take over his office. also Satan is trying to take over the world and kill a magician's daughter" they should not have let me read that book I had to ask my parents what a succubus was because I didn't know since I'm like mmm 9-ish. it was a mess

[dillydedalus]

what i read in july

THAT’S MORE LIKE IT aka i’m finally out of the (relative) reading slump for good & my bro james joyce was there

men explain things to me, rebecca solnit the original mansplaining essay is great, and still scarily relevant; the others in this collection (most on feminist issues) are also quite good; some aspects are a bit dated & problematic so be aware of that. 2.5/5

erschlagt die armen!, shumona sinha (tr. from french, not available in english) short but very impactful novella about a young french woman, originally from india, who works as an interpreter in the asylum system and becomes more & more broken by this system of inhumane bureaucracy and suffering, until she snaps and hits a migrant over the head with a wine bottle. full of alienation and misery and beautiful but disturbing language - the title translates to ‘beat the poor to death’ so like. yeah. 3.5/5

fire & blood: a history of the targaryen family I, george r r martin look, it’s a 700-page-long fake history book about a fictional ruling dynasty in a fictional world, and i’m just That Obsessed & Desperate about asoiaf (and i don’t even care about the targs That Much). anyway, now i know more about the targs than any ruling family from, you know, real history, which is like, whatever. this is pretty enjoyable if you are That Obsessed, although i will say that some bits are much better than others (there are some dry dull years even in everyone’s fav overly dramatic dragon-riding incest-loving family) and the misogyny really is. a lot. too much. way too much. BUT i did really like Good Best Queen Alysanne (her husband king joe harris is alright too i guess) and i found my new westerosi otp, cregan stark/aly blackwood, who both have Big Dick Energy off the fucking charts. 3.5/5 (+0.5 points for cregan and aly’s combined BDE)

the old drift, namwali serpell hugely ambitious sprawling postcolonial nation-building novel about zambia, told thru three generations of three families, as well as a chorus of mosquitoes (consistently the best & smartest parts). there is A LOT going on, in terms of characters, of plot points, of references to history (the zambian space programme) and literature (finally my knowledge of heart of darkness paid off) and thematically, and honestly it was a bit too much, a bit too tangled & fragmented & drifty, and in the end i probably admire this book more than i liked it, but serpell’s writing is incredibly smart and funny and full of electrical sparks 3.5/5

a severed head, iris murdoch the original love dodecahedron (not that i counted). iris murdoch is fucking WILD and i love her for it. this is a strange darkly funny little farce about some rich well-educated londoners and their bizarre & rather convoluted love lives. not as grandiosely wild as the sea the sea, but fun nevertheless. 3/5

midnight in chernobyl, adam higginbotham jumping on the hype bandwagon caused by the hbo series (very weird to call the current fascination with chernobyl a hype bandwagon but you know). interesting & well-written & accessible (tho the science is still totally beyond me) & gets you to care about the people involved. lots of human failure, lots of human greatness, set against the background of the almost eldritch threat of radioactivity (look up the elephant foot & see if you don’t get chills), and acute radiation syndrome which is THE MOST TERRIFYING THING ON EARTH . 3.5/5

normal people, sally rooney honestly this is incredibly engrossing & absorbing once you get used to how rooney completely ignores ‘show don’t tell’ (it works!), i pretty much read the whole thing in one slow workday (boss makes a dollar, i make a dime so i read books on my phone on company time, also i genuinely had nothing to do). i also think rooney is really good at precisely capturing the ~millenial experience in a way that feels very true, especially the transition from school to uni. BUT i really disliked the ending, the book never engages with the political themes it introduces (esp. class and gender) as deeply as it could and the bdsm stuff never really gets TIED UP LOL. so overall idk: 3.5/5

störfall: nachrichten eines tages, christa wolf quiet reflective undramatic little book narrated by a woman waiting to hear about the outcome of her brother’s brain surgery on the day of the catastrophe at chernobyl - throughout the day she puts down her thoughts about her brother and the events unfolding at chernobyl, as well as the double uncertainty she is trying to cope with. really interesting to read such an immediate reaction to chernobyl (the book came out less than a year after chernobyl). 2.5/5

the man in the high castle, philip k dick it was fine? quick & entertaining alternative history where the axis powers win the war, some interesting bits of worldbuilding (like the draining of the mediterranean which was apparently a real idea in the early 20th century?) but overall it’s just felt a bit disjointed & unsatisfying to me. 2.5/5

fugitive pieces, anne michaels very poetic & thoughtful novel about the holocaust, grief, remembrance & the difference between history and memory, intergenerational trauma, love, geology and the weather. i’m not sure how much this comes together as a novel, but it is absolutely beautifully written (the author is a poet as well) and very affective. 3.5/5

american innovations, rivka galchen short collection of bizarre & often funny short stories about neurotic women whose furniture flies away, or who grow an extra breast, or who are maybe too occupied with financial details. very vague & very precise at once, which seems to be the thing with these sort of collections. 3/5

fool’s assassin (fitz & the fool #1), robin hobb YAASS i’m back in the realm of the elderlings!!! i thought this was one of the weaker installments in the series - i still enjoyed it a lot, and Feelings were had, but it just doesn’t quite fit together pacing-wise & some of the characterisation struck me as off (can i get some nuance for shun & lant please?) and tbh fitz is at peak Selfcentred Dumbass Levels & it drove me up the fucking wall. molly, nettle & bee deserve better. still, completely HYPE for the rest of the trilogy. 3.5/5

JAMES JOYCE JULY

note: i decided not to read dubliners bc it’s my least fav of joyce’s major works & too bleak & repetitive for my mood right now AND while i planned not to reread finnegans wake bc……. it’s finnegans wake…. i kinda do want to read it now (but i also. really don’t.) so idk yet.

a portrait of the artist as a young man, james joyce y’all. i read this book at least once a year between the ages of 15 and 19, it’s beyond formative, it is burnt into my brain, and reading it now several years later it is still everything, soaring and searing (that searing clarity of truth, thanks burgess) and poetic and dirty, and stephen is baby, and a pretentious self-important little prick and i love him & i am him (or was him as only a pretentious self-important teenage girl reading joyce can be him - because this truly is a book that should be read in your late teens when you feel everything as intensely and world-endingly and severely as my boy stephen does and every new experience feels like the world changing). anyway i love this book & i love stephen dedalus, bird-like, hawk-like, knife-blade, aloof, alienated, severe and stern, a poet-priest-prophet if he could ever get over himself, baby baby baby. 5/5

exiles, james joyce well. there’s a reason joyce is known as a novelist. this is….. a failed experiment, maybe. a fairly boring play about an adulterous love-square and uh… love beyond morality and possession maybe??? about how much it would suck for joyce to return to ireland??? and tbh it’s not terribly interesting. 2/5

travesties, tom stoppard a wild funny irreverent & smart antic comedy inspired by the fact that during ww1, james joyce, lenin, and dadaist tristan tzara were all in neutral zurich, more or less simultaneously; they probably never met, but in this play they do, as dadaist poetry, socialist art critique, and a james joyce high on his own genius & in desperate need of some cash while writing ulysses, AND the importance of being earnest (joyce is putting on a production of it) all collide in the memories of henry carr, who played algernon & later sued joyce over money (tru facts). not my fav stoppard (that’s arcadia) but it’s funny & fizzy & smart & combines many many things that i love. 4/5 

ulysses, james joyce look i’m not really going to tell y’all anything new about ulysses, but it really has everything, it’s warm & human(e) & cerebral & difficult & funny & sad & healing & i always get a lot out of it even tho there’s bits (a lot of them) i’ll never wrap my head around. ultimate affirmation of humanity or whatever. also stephen dedalus is baby. 5/5

dedalus, chris mccabe the fact that this book (sequel to ulysses about what stephen dedalus might have done the next day) exists and was published ON MY BIRTHDAY is proof that the universe loves me. 

anyway this is very very good, very very clever, extremely good at stephen (less good at bloom but his parts are still good), engages w/ ulysses, portrait & hamlet (& others) very cleverly & does some cool meta and experimental shit. y’all it has stephen talking to a contemporary therapist about how he’s stuck in joyce’s text which is all about joyce & very little about whoever stephen is when he’s not joyce’s alter ego/affectionate but slightly amused look at younger self and ithaca is an interview w/ the author about how his relationship to his dad influenced his response to ulysses and I’M INTO IT. the oxen of the sun chapter replaces the whole ‘gestation of english prose’ w/ just slightly rewriting the first pages of about 10 novels published between ulysses and now & it does lolita w/ “bloom, thorn of stephen’s sleep, light in his eyes. his sire, his son’ and i lit. screamed. anyway i don’t want to give this 5 stars (yet) bc i think some of the experimental stuff ended up a bit gimmicky & didn’t add that much to the text but fuck. that’s my boy & i want to reread it right now. 4.5/5 ALSO it’s a crime no literary weirdo woman has written ‘a portrait of the artist’s sister’ about delia ‘dilly’ dedalus, shadow of stephen’s mind, quick far & daring, teaching herself french from a 3rd hand primer while her father drinks the nonexistent family fortune away and her older brother is getting drunk on a beach & starting fights w/ soldiers bc he’s a smartarse

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #110

“there ain’t nothing in my hourglass, just sand from a dead sea, and i made it my weapon.”

How would you spend a day at the beach?  In the water, or taking pictures if I see a good reason to.  I don't like most beach pictures with people everywhere. For you, what is the hardest thing about writing?  Not using the same word fifty times.  My vocabulary is smaller than it once was tbh. If you’ve stayed overnight in a hospital, how did you entertain yourself?  There's no such thing as entertaining yourself in the hospital.  Unless you wanna watch TV, you sleep.  At least in the ER, I don't think I was ever allowed to have even a book.  Maybe different in a non-ER setting, idk. What does it feel like to fall asleep in someone’s arms?  Depends on if you're sitting up or lying down.  Sitting up is just plain uncomfortable if you're trying to sleep.  Lying down, it's comforting if it's not hot. How do you hold/position your pillow while you sleep?  It sits up at a very slight angle.  I'll hug like the corner sometimes. What is a common sleeping position for you?  I essentially always sleep with my lower body almost on my stomach and my upper body mostly on its side. Where was the very first kiss you had with the last person you kissed?  Never initiated a kiss with him nor did I kiss him back (my lips were pursed affff), but w/e.  In my living room and it was fucking awkward. Has anyone seen you kiss the last person you kissed?  Pretty sure no. When is the next time you will kiss someone?  Not at least until March, but I’m not kissing her unless she verbally says she’s fine with it. Has anyone ever been more important to you than a family member?  A family member?  Definitely. Who would you say is your best friend at the moment?  Sara. How long have you two been best friends?  I've referred to her as a best friend since like... the middle of the year? Who are your eight closest friends?  I don't have eight people I'd consider close friends.  I have like four or five. Who is your best friend of the same sex?  Sara. Your best friend of the opposite sex?  Don. Who was your first best friend?  Brianna. Is that person still your best friend?  I haven't talked to her since middle school. Who was the last person you slow danced with at a school dance?  We didn't slow dance because the music was fucking awful lmao. Have you ever been caught texting during class?  I never texted during class. What is the first thing you do when you get on the computer?  I check the RP site I’m the admin of the make sure it hasn’t burned to the ground. What do you mainly watch on YouTube?  Markiplier, Good Mythical Morning, Game Grumps, 8-BitRyan, Timmy Timato (his DIYs are p cool, even for someone who doesn't cook), and while I haven't watched Pewds much lately, still consider myself a fan. Do you sing in the shower?  No. McDonald’s, Burger King, In-n-Out?  I hate Burger King and we don't have In-n-Out here, so McD's. Where’s the best place to eat a romantic dinner? I'm biased towards Olive Garden. Are you a jealous person?  If I am extremely attached to someone, I can be, but I'm definitely not horrible. What’s your state’s weather usually like this time of year?  Incredibly unpredictable. Music artists you listen to: Are they a little or a lot older than you?  Usually, a lot. What’s your mom’s mom’s name?  Cecelia. Have you ever encountered a creepy neighbor?  Oh my god, there was this REALLY creepy old man in my old, tiny neighborhood that legit made me so uncomfortable I wouldn't ride my bike past his house lol. Do you like the foam soap or the liquidy soap?  Liquid. What day did/does your birthday fall on this year?  It was a Sunday. Do you tend to lean towards bright colors or more subtle colors?  Bright. Are you due for a haircut?  No, I got a pretty drastic haircut not even a week ago. Do you know anyone who’s racist?  Finally no longer associate myself with the biggest racist I've ever met.  I know others, though. What about a homophobe?  I know a lot, living where I do. What about a pedophile?  I pray to God Himself I don't know a pedophile because I'd personally wring their neck if I found out. How long ago did you make your current screen name?  WOW.  It's been years.  I'm going to estimate... 2008? What “older” bands do you listen to?  A whoooole lot. Do you like older or newer music better?  I'd say I lean more towards older.  Definitely older bands. Have you ever done “naughty things” in a movie theater?  No, I'm not paying for an expensive ticket to not watch the damn movie. Have you ever had pink eye?  No. How many different bands/artists have you seen live?  One. :< Have you ever had anything pierced that you don’t have now?  Nose, cartilage, tragus, and anti-tragus.  I want them all repierced. Do you have any twins/multiples in your family? Are they identical or fraternal?  I feel like there's one... but idk. Who is the youngest person in your family that you know of?  My one-year-old nephew. Is your mom a good mom?  There is a 0% chance I'd still be alive it it wasn't for her.  And I don't mean that as in the "no shit, she gave birth to me" way. How many houses have you lived in?  Four. Have you ever broken up with someone for someone else? It was one of the many reasons, yes. Have you ever taken a shower with anyone before? Not since I was young with my little sister.  I never plan to as an adult, that'd just be claustrophobic and take longer. Have you ever told someone of the opposite sex “fuck you”? I'm sure I did playfully to Jason at some point once we were at that point in our relationship where I could mean that in a non-serious way, and I've probably done the same to Sam, but otherwise I think I might've seriously to my dad after the divorce. Do you wear your seatbelt in the car? Always. Can you honestly say that you love yourself? Finally. Who was the last person you threw out of your life? My former best friend.  I couldn't tolerate some of her ludicrous beliefs and rude behavior anymore. What kind of things do you post on Tumblr?  My main blog is a Markiplier + R&L t r a s h c a n What is something that a ton of people are obsessed with but you just don’t get the point of?  Game of Thrones.  I watched like two episodes and noped out. How do you typically introduce yourself in online settings? Usually let the person know my name's Brittany but they can call me Ozz. Do you believe in the death penalty? In extreme cases, yes.  Committing certain things, like rape and torture, remove the person's right to live imo. Would you ever get gauged ears? Omg no.  Would look awful on me. Who was or will be the maid of honor/best man in your wedding?  My mom. What dog breed is the cutest ever?  Pugs, probably. Is your current hair color your natural hair color? No. Have you gained more than 5 lbs within the past year?  No, I've actually lost an incredible amount of weight. Have you ever taken a train? Hopefully will in March. Does any accent annoy you?  It's not annoying, but a very heavy southern accent is tough to understand. Do you have a favorite piece of jewelry?  This meerkat necklace my sister got me that I forgot I had!  Plan on wearing it daily now though.