grindy

One of the main reasons why I decided to cut back on internetting was to read more books. I was quite successful in that regard. I had way more time and my attention span is a lot better lately. Today I realized that I read so much that I couldn’t even remember some of the books I read quite recently so I’m gonna use this thread as a kind of memory aid from time to time but of course I also just wanna share some recs with y'all.
The reviews are short, badly written and overall haphazard. Sorry.

Actual Air (David Berman)
I’m kinda conservative about poetry, I prefer rhymes and all that but I really enjoyed this. I love Berman’s music and song lyrics so it wasn’t that surprising. Not every poem is great but a lot are. Clever and beautiful.
An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge (Ambrose Bierce)
Didn’t leave much of an impression, well written though. I guess the twist was very effective when it was written but nowadays we are all used to it.
Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love: A Journey To The End Of Taste (Carl Wilson)
Fantastic book. Thanks Frown for the rec. Great analysis of music and taste. Well written, informative, enjoyable.
Collection of poems (Joseph Brodsky)
Brodsky is one of my favourite poets and my grandma gave me this amazing collection. I don’t really sit down and read poetry books from cover to cover, I just browse from time to time and I’m really loving this.
Complete Poems and Plays (T. S. Eliot)
Another one I haven’t fully read yet. Haven’t read any play yet but have enjoyed quite a few poems so far. Eliot is another old favourite.
Dragon's Egg (Robert L. Forward)
Hard Sci-fi as it should be. Lots of physics and diagrams and ****. A bit of nerd clumsiness here and there when it comes to plot and characterisation but overall massively enjoyable and amazing worldbuilding.
Earthly Powers (Anthony Burgess)
Book about an eightysomething author looking back at his life and a lot of the 20th century history of Europe and the US. Well written, witty, enjoyed the gay themes, a bit too much about Catholicism but overall a great book.
Middlemarch (George Eliot)
Thanks Marie for the rec. I loved it. Brilliant characters and the psychological detail is downright riveting. Yeah it’s kinda long and it might have been tightened and shortened a bit but what the hell. Masterpiece right there.
Miles: The Autobiography (Miles Davis)
If you’re interested in Miles or even Jazz in general you should read this. This is a mother****er of a book.
My Year Of Rest And Relaxation (Ottessa Moshfegh)
I love ******* protagonists and this one is one of the best. I was surprised how fun and easy to read this book was, even if it isn’t always pleasant.
Other Minds (Peter Godfrey-Smith)
This is supposed to be about octopus consciousness and the evolution of consciousness in general. It starts interestingly, there are lots of cool anecdotes and sightings and some theory and then it just stops. The book is over. No interesting thoughts and ideas building upon the foundation that was laid, no scientific analyses. Pretty disappointing, although parts are still enjoyable.
Star Maker (Olaf Stapledon)
Pretty mindblowing sci-fi, a history of the galaxy, actually the universe, no actually all universes. Absolutely incredible that it was written in the 30s. The science holds up surprisingly well as well. The author’s imagination is overflowing, sometimes a bit much and then it gets tedious. The socialist slant, while admirable, sometimes feels out of place in such a grand scope. Still an absolute must read for sci-fi fans.
Straight Life (Art & Laurie Pepper)
Badass jazz biography. I have listened to very little of his music before I read it but he was an amazing sax player and I’ve been listening to him a lot ever since. The book is hardcore, lots of drug abuse and and other dark ****. Often moving though and full of love for music.
Stranger In A Strange Land (Robert A. Heinlein)
I love sci-fi and I remember loving his short stories so what could go wrong with one of his most famous and celebrated books? Well, as it turns out, a lot. It started out interesting enough. The appearance of the annoying af author avatar was a first red flag. And at some point it just went downhill into new age sex cult nonsense, with a kind of Christian heaven being real and whatnot. I stopped reading at this point. This book sucks. I’m also not some libtard who gets all riled up if an older book isn’t up to modern standards but this often felt so slimy and creepy and misogynistic.
The Collector (John Fowles)
Currently reading this. My third book by Fowles in the last few months. It’s very well written and also very unpleasant to read. I’m surprised how heavy it hits even though I was expecting to be overall desensitised due to horror movies and whatnot and was aware of most of the plot through cultural osmosis.
The Color Of Distance (Amy Thomson)
Not sure why this is often called hard sci-fi. I thought this was pretty soft. The alien planet is also way too similar to earth but somehow this doesn’t bother one that much. Still a good book about a human adapting on an alien planet and into alien society. Sometimes kinda corny and way too much talk about food but overall enjoyable.
The French Lieutenant's Woman (John Fowles)
Great post-modern take on a victorian love story. Fowles does it again.
The Golem (Gustav Meyrink)
This is like a cross between Kafka and a gothic novel. Atmospheric af. Read it for the first time about ten years ago and immediately listed it among my favourite books of all time. The second reading only conformed this evaluation. Just like Kafka it might be almost impossible to translate though.
The Importance Of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde)
It was entertaining enough. Not a fan of this kind of humour that seems to keep winking at you and repeating: I’m so clever, aren’t I?
The Magus (John Fowles)
Another one by Fowles and the first one I read. Absolutely riveting and fascinating. Weird mind games on an idyllic Greek island. Kept me on the edge of my seat, guessing, wondering. Loved the psychological themes.
The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break (Steven Sherrill)
What if the Minotaur was living in the US of today? Well, you’d have a very boring book that I stopped reading midway through because nothing really happened and the characters were lame.
The Moving Toyshop (Edmund Crispin)
Read this one in one day when I was sick and needed something light and cosy. Classic whodunit. Not bad, not great. Did what I needed it to.
The Private Memoirs And Confessions Of A Justified Sinner (James Hogg)
Weird gothic novel, at times strangely modern. It’s also a sharp satirical attack on Calvinist morality. At times a bit difficult to read but overall quite interesting.
The Third Policeman (Flann O'Brien)
Fantastic. Weird, surrealistic story, quite humorous. Never read anything quite like it. Like the baby of Franz Kafka and David Lynch. Fascinating book about a fascinating world.

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