Moby Dick by Herman Melville
I write as a hobby. Last month I finished my biggest milestone as a writer, completing my second novel length story. I hope it’ll get published but have no idea if it will, but either way having passed this, I’m taking a break from reading… fun things that I enjoy. Instead, I’m going to read through a huge collection of classic texts whose style I didn’t want polluting my writing. May god have mercy on my soul. Moby Dick is the first on my list […]
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allen Poe
After watching Mike Flanagan’s outstanding The Fall of the House of Usher, I felt compelled to revisit some Poe and look for references I’d missed on my watch through. I recognized the name Arthur Gordon Pym (the Usher attorney) but didn’t realize it was Poe’s only novel until looking deeper. With it being free on Audible I figured I had to give it a shot. It’s weird as hell, first of all. And gruesome. Some of the most horrific scenes in any Poe story happen here: […]
Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance
I am a big proponent of knowing what you criticize, and boy do I criticize JD Vance. Couch-fucking aside (no he didn’t really fuck a couch, yes it’s hilarious how believable it is that he sank hog into a sofa) he’s a creepy fascist with no morals apart from what gets him further up the ladder. It’s a little scary to criticize someone like that, especially on the internet when he’s so cozy with a handful of tech mogul creeps, but the ability to criticize […]
Stephen Fry's Favorite Ghost Stories by Various Authors
I have very little to write about this book. These are all classic ghost stories, but that means they are very staid and slow, focusing on dread (if you can keep from laughing at the antiquated language (eg. it’s not scary when someone sees a ghost and gets so scared they “leave incontinently”)). The asides from Stephen Fry are interesting, and the narration is solid, but I do not really recommend this, it took me a very long time to finish.
The Star Wars Question and Answer Book About Computers by Fred D'Ignazio
Similar to my review of Digital Life by Michael Crichton, I was attracted to this book because it’s old, and I love seeing old predictions of how computers would exist in our life that predate their modern ubiquity. The problem however is that this book doesn’t get very much wrong! That’s partially because it doesn’t say very much, it’s a 50 page long large-print book for children. I can imagine if you were between the ages of 5 and 10 in the mid-80s, this book could […]
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Good Omens is my favorite book, full stop. It’s got stakes; it’s about the end of the world! But it’s also got humor. Not just has humor, humor is woven into its DNA. Good Omens is the hardest I’ve laughed at a book pretty much ever (Boyfriend Material might be the exception to that). But it’s not just laugh out loud funny, it’s a charming, low-boil funny that just makes you smile and keeps a steady drip of serotonin flowing the entire time. From the very […]
