existentialism – Cannonball Read 17

“Reading is a pact of generosity between author and reader.”

Literature & Existentialism by Jean-Paul Sartre

January 30, 2025 by Halbs Leave a Comment

I picked up this little curiosity at a bookstore featured in Texas Monthly magazine. You know how people say you eat with your eyes first? The meal starts before you eat? I wonder if you sometimes start engaging with a book in a bookstore before opening the cover. In this case, I felt a little more adventurous while roaming the stacks. My TBR list was nowhere in sight. I was having fun making small talk, eavesdropping on the locals’ coffee circle, and just existing in […]

I Only Understood a Third of this Book but I Still Liked It

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus

January 11, 2025 by esmemoria 2 Comments

Everything I’ve read by Albert Camus I have loved, and it is the same for The Myth of Sisyphus, only a portion of which I probably understood. From the back of the book: “[T]he essay presents a meditation on suicide–the question of living or not living in a universe devoid of order or meaning.” As I understand it, in this book/essay, Camus uses the term “absurd” to mean the meaninglessness of the universe. It is through the acknowledgement of this absurdity that the limits of […]

August 2022 Leftovers

Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood by Jane Leavy

Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner

The Stranger by Albert Camus

The Man Who Liked to Look at Himself by K.C. Constantine

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris

Inside the Empire: The True Power Behind the New York Yankees by Bob Klapisch and Pete Solotaroff

Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child

Finley Ball: How Two Outsiders Turned the Oakland As into a Dynasty and Changed Baseball Forever by Nancy Finley

Sea Change by Robert B. Parker

The Hunting Wives by May Cobb

The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay

Ms. Tree, Volume 1 by Max Alan Collins

September 3, 2022 by Jake Leave a Comment

Some extra books I read in August. What a miserably hot month… Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood**** Less a conventional biopic on The Mick and more a look at his life vis-a-vis his legend and the backdrop of postwar America. Not as thorough as I would’ve liked but still riveting given how Jane Leavy presents her subject. Greenwich Park*** Again glad I slept on my review. I really liked how this started but after a while, it morphed into […]

“Of course it doesn’t make sense—what business do you have expecting things to make sense?”

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

October 29, 2020 by narfna Leave a Comment

She has leaned into it. All of it. I have been on an existential journey. I read this whole thing last night after I got home from work. My one complaint about it that I have right now is that hardcover is the wrong format for this book. My wrists hurt! It’s so heavy! I mean, it’s a beautiful book, but at points genuinely physically hard to read. I imagine if I had some sort of tablet or color Kindle that would be ideal. If […]

A cavalcade of finery, from existential nihilism to haunted funeral attire.

May 22, 2016 by ingres77 7 Comments

I’ve fallen further behind in my reviews than I ever have. So, I’ve decided to do what I did for The Dresden Files: combine my reviews into one giant post. Is that cheating? I feel like that’s cheating. The longer I drag this out, though, the more I’m likely to fall behind. The Stranger, by Albert Camus (5 stars) Firstly, I read this because it’s one of the most frequently cited great novels from French literature. In my quest to read more classic novels this […]

in search of the celestial drug

December 5, 2015 by Halbs Leave a Comment

In my mind exists a temple; a museum of the works of art that helped shape my inner world. Some works are on loan and some are part of the permanent collection. The permanent works that name and sustain me are existentialist: Solomon’s Ecclesiastes, Aurelius’ Meditations, Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, Hendrix’ Axis: Bold as Love, Dylan’s electric Manchester performance, Rippel-Ronai’s Park at Night, the Bhagavad Gita. These are useful for determining how to live authentically and courageously in an unknowable universe. A less obvious […]

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Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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