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 Gertrude Perkins posted:Since we're coming up to the last quarter of the year, I'm putting out a call for a NEW BOOKLORD! If you think you want to take up the mantle, especially if you think you can do it better than I have, then shoot me a PM here! Thank you so much to those of you who got in touch about succeeding me. I got a small but powerful set of applicants, and have whittled it down to a final decision. After much deliberation, I would like to name ectoplasm the new Booklord! They will be taking over for 2022 and carrying on the legacy that I and my predecssors have honed for year after year. As these last few weeks march toward conclusion, and we finish the last of our challenges, we look ahead to a glorious new tomorrow under your literate stewardship!
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Nov 9, 2021 22:53
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Gertrude Perkins posted:
Thanks so much! Looking forward to making reading a signpost in even more homes this coming year. Can't wait.
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Nov 10, 2021 15:30
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im permabanned user ectoplasm. i first started reading books when i was about 12. by 14 i got really obsessed with the concept of "reading challenges" and tried to channel it constantly until my thought process got really bizarre and i would repeat things like "here are my updates for the month" and "i could use a wildcard" in my head for hours
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Nov 10, 2021 15:57
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Guy A. Person posted:im permabanned user ectoplasm. i first started reading books when i was about 12. by 14 i got really obsessed with the concept of "reading challenges" and tried to channel it constantly until my thought process got really bizarre and i would repeat things like "here are my updates for the month" and "i could use a wildcard" in my head for hours You don't look permabanned, dude!
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Nov 11, 2021 02:39
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I fell way behind in documenting and logging things when I moved, and in fact my trusty spreadsheet dating all the way back to 2008 is in shambles. It's a dirty disgrace. But I will try to catch up and post some of the things I read between April and now that stuck with me! APRIL 57. My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Emil Ferris. A really lovely and strange graphic novel about racial and sexual difference. Really looking forward to the follow-up. 58. Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia, Thom Nickels. Really invaluable trove of information and rare photos of Philly's queer history. I loved reading this and getting to share the stuff in it with my students. 59. The Queer and Transgender Resilience Notebook, Anneliese Singh. I was thinking about dipping a toe into queer youth outreach and counseling after moving, so I did a little bit of reading on resources-- well, I wound up just sticking with teaching more easily than I expected, but I did finish this book. I could see it being extremely generative for a person just sort of starting out on grappling with queer identity and would definitely recommend it for people in that position or people working with people in that position! 60. Vermont Notebook, John Ashbery & Joe Brainard. What do you know, this is both a collaboration AND out of print. Ashbery and Brainard's witty, impressionistic, and very gay collage of poetry and drawings about Vermont. Always a treat to revisit. 61. The Last Interview and Other Conversations, James Baldwin. Tons of great stuff in here if you enjoy... interviews with James Baldwin. Which I do! 62. Cables to Rage, Audre Lorde. Early Lorde, and new to me! I read this to help a former student hammer out a conference paper. 63. How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective , edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. Invaluable! I was teaching the Combahee River Collective Statement and decided to grab this-- the contextual information as well as the information with surviving CRC members is AMAZING to have and the statement itself is as powerful as ever. 64. Black Blizzard, Yoshihiro Tatsumi. A few years ago a mentor got me on a Japanese crime fiction kick, and since I was briefly curious to read more manga I decided to give this mid-century book a shot. It was moody and very compellingly drawn, but it didn't really stick with me, half a year later. 65. Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters. The then-hot-new-thing in trans literature. I didn't love it-- very hip young New Yorker-y. 66. Movement in Black, Pat Parker. A milestone collection of black feminist poetry-- I wanted to teach one poem out of this but wound up inevitably sitting down with the whole thing. 67. Dunce, Mary Ruefle. A recentish Ruefle collection I picked up a little while ago and was saving for a rainy day. Dry, odd, remarkable, it's weird that at this point I can say "the usual Ruefle thing" but it rules that I can? 68. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Cartoonist, Adrian Tomine. I have always been fond of Tomine but periodically forget to keep up with him. This felt like putting on an old warm sock. That is-- it felt really good but I didn't feel the need to go telling the world about it. 69. The Six-Gun Mystique, John Cawelti. I used to have a habit of just grabbing things that caught my eye if I happened to pass by a free book table or somebody cleaning out their office, which I guess is how I wound up with this ancient book about Westerns. It wasn't that compelling although it was kind of cool to see a lot of now familiar theses about the genre in a very germinal form. 70. Closer, Dennis Cooper. I'd never read Cooper before-- I was kind of shocked at how legitimately transgressive he still feels. This led me to-- 71. Frisk, Dennis Cooper. --which was maybe a little TOO transgressive in the sense that I was very nervous reading it on the subway and didn't read any more Cooper this year. So, 15 books for April: 7/15 were by POC authors at least 11/15 were by queer authors 7/15 were by authors who do not identify as men. I also knocked out: -an out of print book -a book written by two or more authors in collaboration MAY 72. Man in Furs, Catherine Sauvat & Anne Simon. A graphic biography of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, surprisingly wry and playful. I meant to track down more stuff by the creators but.. forgot! 73. Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe. I taught a summer class on Elizabethan/Jacobean theater and the occult. It was a real delight. Do plays count as books for the purposes of this thread? I hope so. Comics seem to count. 74. A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare. People love studying this play, it's a hit every time. 75. The Honorable Historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay, Robert Greene. This is one of my favorite Elizabethan plays-- it's just beautiful and profane and I was SO stoked to teach it. But then at the last second I wound up dropping it from the syllabus. Oh well! 76. Macbeth, William Shakespeare. 77. The Witch of Edmonton, William Rowley, Thomas Dekker, & John Ford. I dropped Bacon & Bungay for this, which I also adore, and I thought the very down to earth, proletarian nature of the drama would appeal to kids. They really found it dark, which is odd because I've always found it unusually FUNNY for the genre of domestic tragedy. 78. The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster. If domestic tragedy hosed them up, Jacobean revenge tragedy knocked them down. I put this on here since it arguably has a werewolf in it-- I loved studying this in grad school and it turns out I ADORED teaching it. 79. Newes from Scotland-- Declaring the Damnable Life and Death of Dr. Fian, a Noted Sorcerer, James Carmichael. A 1591 witch trial pamphlet-- I assigned this as a source document. 80. Daemonologie, James I. This was also fun to teach-- King James' big chunky anti-witchcraft and demons book. A lot to dig into here-- I did not assign the whole thing but I did read it all for my own elucidation. 81. We Both Laughed in Pleasure, Lou Sullivan. A collection of Lou Sullivan's diary entries from the 60s to his death in the early 90s. He was a hugely influential figure in trans activism as well as AIDS activism, and his diaries are funny, moving, and heartbreaking. 82. Religious Refugees in the Early Modern World: An Alternative Reformation, Nicholas Terpstra. A very intriguing approach to Reformation studies that brings it in line with contemporary discourses about migration and refugee politics. Did not use a WORD OF IT for the class but I'm still very happy I read it. 83. The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages, Geraldine Heng. I have this genius cousin in their early 20s who is taking some time off before college but was just independently diving into a bunch of medieval lit. We wound up exchanging a lot of notes and I recommended them Heng's wonderful book, which blows the lid off of the image of medievalism as a hidebound, white dominated field. at this point I went on a tangent and did a ton of research that wound up not really being relevant to the class 84. Visions of Deliverance: Moriscos and the Politics of Prophecy in the Early Modern Mediterranean, Mayte Green-Mercado. A really engaging book about Muslim apocalyptic literature in the cosmopolitan Mediterranean. 85. The Strange and Terrible Visions of Wilhelm Freiss: The Paths of Prophecy in Reformation Europe, Jonathan Green. 86. Printing and Prophecy: Prognostication and Media Change 1450-1550, Jonathan Greene. 87. Children of Wrath: Possession, Prophecy and the Young in Early Modern England, Anna French. 88. John Owen and the Civil War Apocalypse: Preaching, Prophecy and Politics. Mary Calvin Cowan. anyway I got all of that out of my system! 89. Cymbeline, William Shakespeare. I chose an underdog since I feel like everybody has already read Macbeth, the Tempest, etc... this was a swing for the fences and sadly a miss. Students, understandably, latched onto the quite astonishing misogyny of this play rather than the ghosts and gods. We got a lot of great conversation out of it but definitely strayed from the core themes of the course. 90. The Secret of Superhuman Strength, Alison Bechdel. Bechdel's new memoir about her relationship with the body and the cultures of fitness and exercise over the decades. This was waiting on my doorstep, signed, the day we moved into our house-- a minor miracle I still can't explain. Anyway I adored it, and she talks about biking and skiing on mountains just a short drive away from my new home, so it felt like the universe doing me a solid. So-- 19 for May. Since so much of this was for a course on early modern British theater-- we have a lot of white men. But still, let's crunch the numbers. 2 books by POC authors. Oof. For the queer question I... am gonna count Shakespeare. I'm a Shakespeare professor and you know, that's my prerogative. So: at least 6/19 by queer authors. Could be higher! I do not know the personal lives of early modern historians. But let's run with six. And finally, 7/19 by non-male authors. I guess don't agree to teach this kind of course if you know you are doing a booklord challenge. And that brings me up to June! How Wonderful! fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Dec 1, 2021 |
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Dec 1, 2021 03:50
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JUNE 91. Are You My Mother?, Alison Bechdel. Bechdel's second big memoir, this one is about her mom and her experiences with analysis. My wife says this is Bechdel's best of the three long memoirs-- I disagree but I still love it a lot. 92. One Hundred Demons, Lynda Barry. Another great psychoanalytical feminist memoir, Barry's form here is borrowed from a 16th century Zen exercise and is funny and harrowing. 93. McGlue, Otessa Moshfegh. In my new home I decided to catch up on Moshfegh, whose short stories I'd admired but whose novels I'd never made time for. I started with a novella and really liked it. The tone surprised me-- it was like if Don Carpenter was a gay sailor. 94. Why Comics?, Hilary Chute. A study about comics as a form-- I found it pretty introductory, a little over-eager for respectability, and just not that compelling. It seemed like a solid book, just maybe meant for somebody who needed a little more persuading that comics are an art and not somebody who is already invested. 95. The Tempest, William Shakespeare. My favorite!!!! 96. Une Tempete, Aime Cesaire. I think that in 2021 if you are teaching The Tempest without Cesaire's blistering rebuttal you are doing yourself and your students a disservice. 97. Discourse on Colonialism, Aime Cesaire. I also have a skinny little paperback on this, so I reread it real quick so I could give a better Cesaire intro. 98. They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, Hanif Abdurraqib. I loving love Abdurraqib so much. This is his loosest prose collection imo-- just a bunch of pieces on music, race, and culture-- but they're all beautiful. 99. Far Sector, N.K. Jemisin. My wife read a lot of fantasy in the Spring and got me to read Jemisin's Green Lantern story. I liked it quite a bit but did not follow up with any prose. 100. Papaya Salad, Elisa Macellari. I found this, a story about Macellari's grandfather, to be beautiful but kind of slight. Totally hypnotic, visually, though. 101. The Baron and Clarissa, Paul Scheerbart. My favorite German proto-modernist had another thing get translated. I adored it. A lot of weird ideas about Australia and the metaphysical efficacy of their elevators. 102. Bread & Wine, Samuel Delany. A lovely little graphic novel about how Delany met his partner, Dennis. I've spent a good bit of time hanging out with both of them so this felt like a really tender anecdote and made me feel really warm and fuzzy inside. 103. Eileen, Otessa Moshfegh. Moshfegh gets visceral!!! THis one is like if Troma adapted a Patricia Highsmith novel. 104. Darryl, Jackie Ess. The hot new trans novel after Detransition, Baby! I liked this one a lot better-- funnier, weirder, more open. 105. The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions, Larry Mitchell. Mitchell's revolutionary fable of 1977, back in print again! Honestly it kind of drags-- I skimmed-- and its politics are very much of that pre-AIDS moment. But I was happy to get a chance to hold it in my hands and read it and I very much admire the ludic utopianism of the whole thing. 106. Disneyland of the Gods, John Keel. I found a John Keel book on the sidewalk and snatched it up-- read about UFOs and such on a rainy afternoon. 107. Conundrum, Jan Morris. Morris wrote one of the earliest and best trans memoirs-- it really does hold up super well, and I think without the relentless emphasis on sexuality that I think makes me feel a little alienated from a lot of trans lit. I cried a lot reading this and would definitely pass it on to others! 108. Before Trans: Three Gender Stories From Nineteenth Century France, Rachel Mesch. Mesch details the lives of three 19th c. French authors with complicated ideas about gender and self-fashioning. I would hesitate to call all of them trans men but they each did fascinating stuff with the idea of gender as a mutable field of performance and queerness as a germinal position to burrow into and dig from. She writes about the travel writer Jane Dieulafoy, the experimental novelist Rachilde, and the provocateur Marc de Montifaud, each of whom I'd love to read more by. This was compelling and convincing-- a great book. So 18 books this month. 10 by POC at least 9 by queer authors 10 by non-men JULY 109. Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA, R.C. Lewontin I was recommended this book in BYOB so can I count it as a wildcard? It covered a lot of like... Bruno Latour, Lorraine Daston type ground but from a different angle. A lot of it clicked with me. A short but solid read. 110. Pizza Girl, Jean Kyoung Frazier. A short novel-- maybe a YA novel--? That my wife picked up on the recommendation of a friend. Not bad at all, but extraordinarily depressing. 111. My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Otessa Moshfegh. This was Moshfegh's big breakout novel and honestly I think it's her best. This takes place in 2000 and 2001 so I'm counting it as my book about recent history! 112. Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, Rick Perlstein. I felt like reading Nixonland but felt like I should read this first. I suppose if one must read a single very long book about Barry Goldwater... why not make it this one. So, a short month. Busy too. Just four books! 2 were by POC. only 1 was by a queer author, to my knowledge. 2 by non-men AUGUST this was a busy month with a lot of travel and a lot of pre-semester planning. I spent most of it rereading a bunch of Proust. 113. Crisis Zone, SImon Hanselmann. 114. Animal Crackers, George Kaufman. I bought a book of old Broadway plays and read a Marx brothers script in the bathtub. Not as funny on the page. 115. Swann's Way, Marcel Proust 116. In the Shadows of Young Girls in Flower, Marcel Proust 117. Guermantes Way, Marcel Proust 118. Sodom & Gomorrah, Marcel Proust 119. The Captive, Marcel Proust why did I not seal the deal and finish? I don't know. I burnt out I guess. 120. Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude, Ross Gay. And then I rounded things out by reading a book by a poet I love. 1 book of 8 by a POC author 7 by queer authors 1 by a non-man, I guess, I think Hanselmann is NB? SEPTEMBER 121. Book of Delights, Ross Gay. 122. Be Holding, Ross Gay. 123. Against Which, Ross Gay. 124. Bringing the Shovel Down, Ross Gay. I continued my Ross Gay marathon into early September. 125. Death in Her Hands, Otessa Moshfegh. I hated this because Moshfegh does a great job making a dog loveable throughout the novel and then has it die in a horrible way. Boo, hiss! 126. After Lorca, Jack Spicer. 127. Army of Lovers, Juliana Spahr & Daniel Buuck. I reread a book I disliked in 2013 to see if my mind had changed. it had not. 128. Nest of Ninnies, John Ashbery & James Schuyler. One of the funniest books of the 20th century!! 129. Come on Come Back, Stevie Smith 130. A Good Time Was Had By All, Stevie Smith. I love Smith but I honestly do not remember reading these two very short poetry collections whatsoever. I unpacked and organized my library in September so maybe I just read them on the floor of my office. 131. Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture, Emily Contois. A very fun and enlightening book about how food marketing plays on and produces tropes surrounding masculinity and how those techniques have evolved over the past few decades. This was such a fascinating book. 132. The True Deceiver, Tove Jansson. Definitely Jansson's darkest and most ambivalent novel-- about a morally cold young woman who kind of insinuates herself into the life of a depressed old children's book author. Like all of Jansson's adult novels, there's a deep vein of homoeroticism under many layers of insulation, but here it's much more sinister than in her other, cozier works. 133. Minor Detail, Adania Shibli. This short novel, about a Palestinian woman idly investigating the gang-rape and murder of another woman decades before, really hosed me up. An astonishing book but definitely a rough read. 13 this month: 6 by POC authors at least 12 queer authors 7 by women (no NB or genderqueer folks this month I don't think) OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 134. Is This Guy For Real?, Box Brown. I somehow wound up following that up with a graphic biography of Andy Kaufman. It was good-- I really didn't know poo poo about him beforehand aside from that he had an REM song about him. Brown is a really efficient and charismatic storyteller. I'll read anything he does. 135. The Seeds, Anne Nocenti & David Aja. A moody and cryptic cli-fi story by two absolute masters. I don't know if I UNDERSTOOD this but I liked it a lot. 136. Your Black Friend, Ben Passmore. A collection of a bunch of Passmore's short comics, with a wide range of generally politically minded stuff. I liked a lot of it! 137. The Contradictions, Sophie Yanow. Another comic-- this is an austere travelogue about a naive woman hitchhiking around Europe on a long weekend. Not much happens, but it excels at atmosphere and silence. I think Yanow is a goon? 138. Universal Casket, Alice Hall. An incredible new poetry chapbook about grief and commodification. 139. wifthing, Pattie McCarthy. Another new poetry book, by one of my grad school mentors and favorite people. She's still mining the rich and weird lexography of the early modern and medieval, still funny, still bracing.. at this point in the month I entered a long health scare. i'm probably ok. but it made me very disorganized and distracted so the rest of my notes are scattered and undated. I was reading kind of a lot, out of nervousness, and also to keep up with a pretty heavy teaching load, but I wasn't retaining much and was definitely not documenting stuff very well at all. 140. Transgender Marxism, ed. Jules Joanne Gleeson & Elle O'Rourke 141. Whose Middle Ages?: Teachable Moments For an Ill-Used Past, ed. Andrew Albin, Mary Erler, Thomas O'Donnell, Nicholas Pope & Nina Rowe 142. Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, Alex Ross. 143. Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, Jeremy Atherton Lin 144. Revolution of Everyday Life, Raoul Vaneigem 145. Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault 146. Capitalist Realism, Mark Fisher 147. The Devil's Historians: How Modern Extremists Abuse the Medieval Past, Amy Kaufman & Paul Sturtevant 148. Magic in the Middle Ages, Richard Kieckhefer. 149. The Lais of Marie de France, Marie de France. 150. Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals, Alexis Pauline Gumbs 151. The Shape of Sex: Nonbinary Gender from Genesis to the Renaissance, Leah DeVun. And there I am, having just finished that last one earlier tonight. I also read a ton of superhero comic books and cook books and a smattering of books about bike repair and yoga and gardening and stuff. But I had to draw the line somewhere. I'll be honest-- I was really out of it for much of October and November. 18 books-- I know so little about most of the authors I hesitate to even speculate about their sexuality or race. But if I had to make an educated guess based on WHAT I KNOW FOR SURE: at least 4 by POC at least 10 by queer authors at least 9 by non-male authors So what challenges do I have left for December? 1. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are not written by men. 74/151 (49%) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 20% of them are written by writers of colour. 53/151 (35%) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 5% of them are written by LGBT writers. 93/151 (61%) 4. Read books whose titles include all the colours of the rainbow. (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Indigo, Violet) 5. Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard, and read it. 6. Read something about games. 7. Read a bestseller from the week/month you were born. I suppose it's time to ask for a wildcard, and to really get serious about those colors. How Wonderful! fucked around with this message at 09:32 on Dec 1, 2021 |
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Dec 1, 2021 05:06
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Guy A. Person posted:im permabanned user ectoplasm. i first started reading books when i was about 12. by 14 i got really obsessed with the concept of "reading challenges" and tried to channel it constantly until my thought process got really bizarre and i would repeat things like "here are my updates for the month" and "i could use a wildcard" in my head for hours lol
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Dec 1, 2021 06:11
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How Wonderful! posted:
That's one hell of a year of reading, including some absolutely brilliant titles and a good number I've added to my own to-read list! For a wildcard about games, how about Merritt Kopas (ed), Videogames For Humans?
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Dec 1, 2021 21:30
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Gertrude Perkins posted:That's one hell of a year of reading, including some absolutely brilliant titles and a good number I've added to my own to-read list! I absolutely did not know about this book but I love her-- I will gladly bump this to the top of the queue, thank you!
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Dec 2, 2021 01:13
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No problem! As for my penultimate update:quote:1 - The Mark Of Zorro, by Johnston McCulley I finished eight books in November! And I've almost finished my full Booklord challenge! Golly gee! 66 - Queens Of Noise, by Leigh Harlen. Fun queer novella about a band of were-coyotes saving their local punk venue from evil forces. It's got romance, were-critters, and wall to wall moody musicians. Also action and a lot of butts. It's a feel-good time! 67 - $hitcoin, by Hadyn Wilks. I received a free copy of this ebook in exchange for a review. This book is an awful lot. A brutal comedy of hope, loss and betrayal set amongst the ridiculous excess, vicious ambition and desperate victims of the cryptocurrency world. With a dozen protagonists whose lives all intersect around the schemes and empty promises of the titular shitcoin, Wilks portrays a rapid, quick-cut and gruesome set of stories. Small family betrayals are set against high-profile atrocities. The cast is populated by victims and victimisers, driven by greed and terror as incalculable wealth strips away layers of humanity from the biggest "winner". 68 - Bug Voyage!, by John Harris. A short book about some infamous computer game bugs, that goes in detail into the computer science underpinning them. A breezy read, Harris's passion for the subject comes through and saves what could have been an extremely dry book. It feels like the kind of text that could be set to entry-level computer science or game design students. 69 - Low Kill Shelter, by Porpentine Charity Heartscape. Gruesome horror novella about caregiving, autism, intimacy, and a deadly new strain of rabies. Friendship(s) that compromise everything, and how easy that choice can be to make. Porpentine twists the physical into uncanny new configurations and embeds them in the mundane horror of everyday life. The most intense and resonant prose I've read about the hellscape under the shadow of modern pandemic. One to lose sleep over. 70 - Star-Crossed, by Rosalind Ashe. Rosalind Ashe was the pen name of my late grandmother. This is the second of her books I've read, and it's a lot to process. It's a beautifully-written, emotionally complex exploration of young love, the kind of carefree university romance that blossoms quickly and with all kinds of soppy clichés. But also it's a grim tragedy, as the reader watches proceedings waiting for the other shoe to finally drop. The twist is well-telegraphed from the beginning, so there isn't much shock to be had, but the awful inevitability of the Reveal creeps into the background of every scene, from the happiest moments to the darkest. 71 - Abolishing The Police, ed. by Koshka Duff. A good, comperehensive introduction to the discussions and theories behind the growing police abolition movement. Drawing on a number of activists and thinkers from different experiences, the essays deal with topics as multifaceted as structural oppression, self-policing, and the tension between "punishment" and "accountability". With a full glossary available, this works well as an entry point into the topic; other writers have delved into the praxis with more depth. 72 - September, by Rosamunde Pilcher. If it weren't for the challenge I never would have touched this, and I'm so glad I did. This is a sweeping, beautiful novel of family ties, memories, gossip, love and loss, set in the desolate beauty of the Scottish highlands. Multiple generations of a prestigious family, scattered by time and circumstance, all return to converge for a grand party. Pilcher writes her cast with a real warmth and humanity, and as the book is written from several different perspectives the reader gets an insight into many of the characters' inner lives. Some scenes are hilarious, others heartbreaking. What ties it all together is the tensions between past and future: long-buried secrets and gossip threatening new ambitions and burgeoning relationships. I imagine every reader comes away with their own favourite characters, as Pilcher lets us get to know all of them intimately. I'm really happy I gave this book a chance, as I ended up completely engrossed. Good poo poo. 73 - Domestic Violets, by Matthew Norman. A thirtysomething copywriter living in the shadow of his wildly successful father and the rumblings of the Great Recession rages against the stagnant rut his life has become. Erectile dysfunction, squandered ambitions and grimace-inducing office politics give way to a charming, if predictable, romp. A few fun twists, as well as a nice upbeat conclusion, help smooth over the rougher parts. All that's left for me challenge-wise are the colours GREEN and YELLOW.
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Dec 2, 2021 01:21
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October and November... 86. Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota #1) - Ada Palmer 87. The Night Manager - John LeCarre 88. The Lincoln Highway - Amor Towles (L) 89. Harlem Shuffle - Colson Whitehead (L) 90. Matrix - Lauren Groff (L) 91. The Only Good Indians - Stephen Graham Jones 92. Beautiful World, Where Are You - Sally Rooney (L) 93. Inherent Vice - Thomas Pynchon 94. Seven Surrenders (Terra Ignota #2) - Ada Palmer 95. The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix (L) 96. Clap When You Land - Elizabeth Acevedo 97. The Last Graduate (Scholomance #2) - Naomi Novik (L) 98. Night Boat to Tangier - Kevin Barry 99. Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr (L) 100. Brothers of the Wind (Last King of Osten Ard 2.5) - Tad Williams 101. The Will to Battle (Terra Ignota #3) - Ada Palmer 102. Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen 103. Future Home of the Living God - Louise Erdrich 104. The Final Revival of Opal and Nev - Dawnie Wilson (L) 105. Perhaps the Stars (Terra Ignota #4) - Ada Palmer 106. Outlawed - Anna North (L) 107. The Truth (Discworld) - Terry Pratchett 108. When the Tiger Comes Down the Mountain - Nghi Vo Got enough read, of course - standouts include the new Franzen, the rest of the Terra Ignota series, the Groff, and the Kevin Barry. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. (108/100) 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are not written by men. 39% (Palmer, Groff, Acevedo, Erdrich, Wilson, Novik, North, Vo) 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 20% of them are written by writers of colour. 25% (Whitehead, Lewis) 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 5% of them are written by LGBT writers. 5% (Erdrich, Vo, Jones) 5. Read books whose titles include all the colours of the rainbow. (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) ...nope, this ain't happening. 6. 7. Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard, and read it. 8. Read something that's out of print. 9. 10. Read some poetry. 11. Read some short stories. 12. 13. Read an essay collection. 14. 15. 16. 17. Read something about the ocean. 18. 19. 20. Read a bestseller from the week/month you were born. 21.
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Dec 4, 2021 02:04
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I read 6 books in November. I've already decided that I'm definitely going to set a lower bar for myself next year. The 100 book goal I set is definitely within reach, but I'm also starting to feel a bit fatigued by the pace I've had to go at. I also want to give myself time to read some longer books next year since I've got more and more of those sitting on the back burner now. 87. The White Road by Sarah Lotz A British kid with a Cracked-esque website goes into a forbidden, horribly dangerous cave with a conspiracy theorist to get some of that sweet sweet content. Things go poorly! There are ghosts (or are there?), a trip to Mount Everest that also goes poorly and even more ghosts! There's also a parallel narrative that took me a little while to piece together but when I did it was pretty satisfying. Really neat if you like cave/and or mountain based horror. 88. Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand This is set up like a documentary interview with a 70s folk rock band, focusing on their most famous album and the strange circumstances under which it was written and released. There's a fun slow burn here as you figure out what the big event everyone was alluding to might have been. It's spooky without ever really nailing down exactly what the supernatural stuff happening is (I think this is a good thing here). I'm also a sucker for horror that's laid out like a non-fiction account like this, so I found it very enjoyable. 89. Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman A historical fantasy horror novel set during the Black Death in France. A disgraced knight meets a strange little girl, begrudgingly becomes her guardian along with and an alcoholic priest as they follow the divine instruction she's been receiving, slowly leading them to the Papal court in Avignon. Also, there's demons! Lots of demons! A really neat approach to, I guess you'd call it a sort of Christian folk horror? Definitely a stand-out favorite for me this year. 90. Abolition Democracy: Beyond Prisons, Torture, and Empire by Angela Y. Davis A follow up to Davis' 'Are Prisons Obsolete?' that's taken from a series of interviews done by some of Davis' students (I think?). A really quick but still pretty dense and informative review of how much the U.S. prison system sucks. Also sobering in that this was published shortly after Abu Ghraib (it's a major topic of discussion through the interviews) but so much of what she talks about was sadly prescient and is still relevant. 91. The Laws of Brainjo: The Art & Science of Molding a Musical Mind by Josh Turknett So, I decided to finally start learning to play the banjo (I grew up in Appalachia, it was bound to happen eventually). This book is written by a neuroscientist who also plays the banjo. While the book doesn't really talk much about the specifics of learning music, it does focus a lot on the theory of practicing and how to make the most of musical practice from a neuroplasticity standpoint. If nothing else, I definitely picked up some tips that I think have been helping me learn banjo! 92. Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson A generation ship has finally reached its destination planet and... things go poorly! The AI has gotten all screwy, some people might have died (or been murdered?!) and the destination planet has sent an investigator and his synthetic/robot partner to check things out. This was quick and popcorny (you will NOT be able to predict What Happened though until you get to the chapter where it's finally revealed, I guarantee that). I could see it making a decent film adaptation, but at the same time I can already tell that it might not stick with me in the long term. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 92/100 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are not written by men. >73/92 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 20% of them are written by writers of colour. >31/92 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 5% of them are written by LGBT writers. >49/92 5. Read books whose titles include all the colours of the rainbow. (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) (Red, White and Royal Blue) (Yellow Jessamine) (Across the Green Grass Fields) (Tale of Indigo and Cloud) (Titanic Survivor:...Violet Jessop...) 6. Read something recommended to you by a friend or loved one. (The Seventh Perfection) 7. Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard, and read it. (All the Names They Used for God) 8. Read something that's out of print. 9. Read something in translation. (Hex) 10. Read some poetry. 11. Read some short stories. (All the Names They Used for God) 12. Read something about a monster. (Frankenstein) 13. Read an essay collection. 14. Read something historical about a place you've never visited. (Cesare Borgia) 15. Read something set in the recent past. (Red, White and Royal Blue) 16. Read something from a non-human perspective. (The Galaxy, and the Ground Within) 17. Read something about the ocean. (Heart of the Sea) 18. Read a collaboration between two or more authors. (This Is How You Lose the Time War) 19. Read something about games. (Wanderhome) 20. Read a bestseller from the week/month you were born. (The Temple of My Familiar) 21. Read something by a writer who spent time incarcerated. (Abolition Democracy) Personal Nonfiction Goal:  12/10
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Dec 7, 2021 02:30
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Phew, November is goneand I'm finishing this all off. The base challenge is done. And I think I've made numbers. Just gotta maintain percentages. Can't be too bad a month when you have Stephen Graham Jones on the list. 65. My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones - A big one by SGJ. A small town girl, Jade is horror fanatic from an abusive home. As her hometown faces gentrification she becomes convinced that a classic slasher is about to unfold. Very much a paean to the 80s slashers, and in his typical fashion Jones looks at at the trials of poverty and other social issues surrounding Native Americans. I really enjoyed this one, though I'm not sure it's up to Only Good Indians. 66. In the Watchful City by S Qiouyi Lu - A novella set in a panopticon, with the focus on one of the watchers. Ae meets a psychopomp who travels with a case of stories. To look through the stories, ae has to add one of aer own. This results in a bit of a reckoning with aerself. This was solid, a lot of the stories within were interesting. You'd not be surprised to find questions of gender throughout. 67. Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers - BOTM. A mystery, and the main draw is the characters themselves. Ulitmately, more of a howdunnit than a who. Good fun all through, I'd read more of the series. 68. The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison - Nominally set in the same world as Goblin Emperor, it's more of a spinoff than anything like a sequel. A sort of priest witnesses for the dead, sort of gets their last thoughts and may help resolve any ambiguities around their death. Sort of a slice of life, though obviously this is going to involve some hairy issues and mysteries for our main character. I enjoyed it, it looks like it'll be the first of a series, and I'd read them. 69. One Fat Englishman by Kingsley Amis - Grabbed on a whim from the library. This is about Roger Micheldene, a fat drunken letch. He's visiting America and trying to score with his friend's wife. A comedy of sorts, I suppose, though fairly mean spirited. Ben Nevis posted:1. The Factory Witches of Lowell by CS Malerich
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Dec 8, 2021 21:35
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HEAR YE, HEAR YE! Due to circumstances, another set of dark and secretive rites have been performed, and so the title of Booklord will pass to another: arise, DurianGray!
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Dec 13, 2021 23:52
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Gertrude Perkins posted:HEAR YE, HEAR YE! Wind howls, lighting strikes in the distance and a horse whinnies in fright. A foreboding door creaks open... Oh, hi! Looking forward to doing books with y'all in just a few short weeks!
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Dec 14, 2021 00:23
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It's the end of the year, and the end of my current tenure as Booklord. Here's my final roster:quote:1 - The Mark Of Zorro, by Johnston McCulley With a tumultuous December, I only finished three books, but they were good ones: 74 - Popular Hits Of The Showa Era, by Ryu Murakami. An act of brutal violence sends a group of outcast young men into a bitter rivalry with a club of divorced women that escalates far out of control. Murakami blends nihilism and absurd humour and sets it to a soundtrack of classic fifties music for extra irony. This probably functions as a pretty good commentary on the psychological effects of Japan's post-bubble "lost generation" and the clash of violent fantasy with bloody reality. Murakami populates his story of gang warfare with unextraordinary characters, who have three things in common: a need for companionship, sexual frustration, and a brutal sense of vengeance. Far from generic "battle of the sexes" sparring, the rival gangs make no attempt to understand the opposite sex as human beings, only as targets. Homosociality is a bubble that encourages and reinforces violence, even while it offers comfort and understanding. The action is wince-inducingly grisly, and the comedy is strange but likeable. It's good stuff! 75 - The Green Kangaroos, by Jessica McHugh. Grotesque cyberpunk junkie fiction about a VR treatment programme for extreme future-heroin addicts. McHugh's future dystopian Baltimore is a grisly hellscape of mutilation and desperate misery, seen through the eyes of an addict who may be beyond help. There are some pulpy extremes and clichés that she plays around with, which can be fun or tiresome depending on the scenes built around them, but I was thoroughly entertained throughout. The ending, and the "bonus" epilogue, did a lot to endear me to this book despite its flaws, as I was genuinely surprised by some of the conclusions. Not for the faint of heart, but if you can stomach it, worth reading for sure. 76 - Yellow Jessamine, by Caitlin Starling. drat, this was a surprise. A beautiful, heartbreaking dark fantasy tinged with political intrigue and desperation. A powerful woman with a dark past tries to stop the walls from closing in around her, as her city holds out against inevitable destruction. Poison, plague, and sapphic devotion. Good as hell. BOOKLORD CHALLENGE COMPLETE: Total books: 76 Total: approx. 21,097 pages Average pages/book: 278 Average pages/day: 58 The most reading I've done in my adult life. drat. Thank you all for your patience and thank you for participating in my bullshit for the last couple of years. I trust DurianGray will be making a new thread soon! Onwards and upwards.
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Dec 31, 2021 15:46
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Gertrude Perkins posted:Thank you all for your patience and thank you for participating in my bullshit for the last couple of years. I trust DurianGray will be making a new thread soon! Onwards and upwards. Thanks for running this. It's been a good couple years in Booklord.
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Dec 31, 2021 19:23
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I finished my last book this morning to get to my 52 book challenge, but I didn't really follow along with the Booklord challenges so might carry some of those into next year as I am planning to ramp up my reading next year to get to 1000 total logged books on Goodreads
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Dec 31, 2021 19:38
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Gertrude Perkins posted:It's the end of the year, and the end of my current tenure as Booklord. Here's my final roster: Yes, I am/have been spending yesterday and today trying to crush my last two books for this year's challenge, but expect the new 2022 thread to go up sometime tomorrow! Thank you, Gertrude Perkins, for your work the past few years (I know I branched out a lot this year in my reading in ways I probably wouldn't have otherwise, and were incredibly rewarding!), and also thank you for trusting me with next year's thread. I hope you all find the new one enjoyable and horizon-expanding!
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Jan 1, 2022 00:00
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OK, here's my last update post of the year! I finished 8 books in December, bringing my overall total to 101 and  93. Second Rebel by Linden A. Lewis The sequel to First Sister, which I found enjoyable but I was pleasantly surprised to see this sophomore effort blows it out of the water. While the first book has a couple of big twists/reveals at the end, this one keeps a steady rhythm of political and military scheming going and it felt more even and tighter overall. Quite a feat considering the half-dozen or so point of view characters. I'll definitely be picking up the third book once it comes out to see how the series wraps up. 94. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson The last color I needed for the rainbow prompt! I've read some of Winterson's books before, so I had some idea of her style going in. I was surprised to see that this was a lot more... 'normal'?... than The Passion or Written on the Body. Or at least less fantastical in subject and format. But this was her first published book, so that does make sense! Still a good read though, and I can see why a lot of people hold it dear. 96. Ornithologies by Joshua Poteat This is by a poet local to my city (I know more than one person who knows him personally either as a student of his or fellow poet), and a collection I'd read before but not for a LONG time. Every poem features birds in some way (as fits the title) and they're often grotesque or melancholy. Very rich imagery that will leave you feeling like you've been cleaning out a musty old attic for the better part of a day. 97. You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo Imagine a Becky Chambers book, with its ragtag crew of people/aliens trying to do their best. Now make it much more violent with a higher body count and add in some space pirates and gourmet cooking. If that sounds like a good time, you'll probably enjoy this (I did!)! Yes, the title is bizarre, but I'll go ahead and let you know it's the name of the sentient bioship where a lot of the plot takes place so it's not as weird in context. 98. In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu This was a fantastically rich little novella. A sort of fantasy/biopunk-ish meditation on meaning and death. I found the abundance of different neopronouns delightful, and the stories-within-the-story ranged from joyful to heartbreaking. It's a conceptually dense 200~ pages, both ideas and imagery wise, and I'm sure I'll be recommending it in the future. 99. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story by John Berendt I picked this up on audible a WHILE ago when I realized I was banking too many credits and had to use 'em or loose 'em. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this is definitely a weird little nonfiction book. There's a very scattershot approach to the whole thing, swinging between spotlights on, usually eccentric, Savannah citizens and the true-crime murder trial portions. It was definitely interesting overall but not something I can see myself going back to. 100. Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer This book gets rec'd in the Sci-fi/Fantasy thread a lot and I picked it up on a sale and finally sat down with it. Chewy is the first word I can think of! A really interesting look at how a future society might be structured down to some really interesting minutiae, like abolishment of social gender considerations and making religion essentially illegal. But that's all just backdrop for the main plot which I can't even begin to start summarizing (I can't see this ever being adapted for screen in any way that would be true to the book and also watchable -- but that's not a bad thing at all! It really takes advantage of the medium). If you like philosophical, slow-paced sci-fi with buckets of politicking and conspiracy (and... uh, horny politicians?) you might like this. 101. The Politics and Poetics of Transgression by Peter Stallybrass & Allon White So, when I am able to go on vacation, I love finding the local used bookstores and getting books for souvenirs. This one comes from a 2015 trip to Philly according to the receipt I was using as a bookmark. I almost did my thesis on the grotesque back when I was in grad school so this title seemed appealing. Sadly, for a book about Transgression, this was kinda dull! Granted, this was written in the mid-80s, but the back cover copy made it sound like it would be about more than the controversies around fairs in 1700s England (there was a little more, but that made up about 80+% of the book). Ah well! At least this one isn't mouldering unread on my shelf anymore. 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 100/100 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are not written by men. >79/100 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 20% of them are written by writers of colour. >32/100 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 5% of them are written by LGBT writers. >52/100 5. Read books whose titles include all the colours of the rainbow. (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) (Red, White and Royal Blue) (Yellow Jessamine) (Across the Green Grass Fields) (Tale of Indigo and Cloud) (Titanic Survivor:...Violet Jessop...) (Oranges are not the Only Fruit) 6. Read something recommended to you by a friend or loved one. (The Seventh Perfection) 7. Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard, and read it. (All the Names They Used for God) 8. Read something that's out of print. (The Politics and Poetics of Transgression) 9. Read something in translation. (Hex) 10. Read some poetry. (Ornithologies) 11. Read some short stories. (All the Names They Used for God) 12. Read something about a monster. (Frankenstein) 13. Read an essay collection. (The Politics and Poetics of Transgression) 14. Read something historical about a place you've never visited. (Cesare Borgia) 15. Read something set in the recent past. (Red, White and Royal Blue) 16. Read something from a non-human perspective. (The Galaxy, and the Ground Within) 17. Read something about the ocean. (Heart of the Sea) 18. Read a collaboration between two or more authors. (This Is How You Lose the Time War) 19. Read something about games. (Wanderhome) 20. Read a bestseller from the week/month you were born. (The Temple of My Familiar) 21. Read something by a writer who spent time incarcerated. (Abolition Democracy) Personal Nonfiction Goal: 14/10 I'm amazed I read so many books (seriously from graduating college until 2020, I think I was only reading about five books a year, at best). Looking back on what I read last January, it's hard to believe I read some of these in just the last year. It feels like it was a lot longer ago, and I think something about reading this much stuff has distorted my sense of time somehow. hah. That said, I'm going to be setting my own goal a lot lower for next year so I can focus on some of the longer works I've been wanting to read and don't feel the need to rush as much. I'm glad I've proved to myself that I can do something that, just a few years ago, seemed like it'd be impossible for me to do. Now I want to focus on quality and savoring the good books.
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Jan 1, 2022 01:40
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Forgive the triple post, but here's your heads-up that THE NEW THREAD IS NOW UP! Feel free to join in the 2022 challenge! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3989496
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Jan 1, 2022 23:12
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Finally the end of 2021. The last couple of books, somewhere I'm missing something. Goodreads says 74 and here I've got 73. I dunno: 70. Flowers for the Sea by Zin Rocklyn- I guess this is maybe fantasy or maybe postapocalyptic sci-fi. After a climate disaster drivers a people to sea, they stop having kids. Until suddenly our narrator is pregnant. This short novella focuses on the end of her pregnancy and the birth of a child that may be something else entirely. Decent read, I enjoyed it but probably won't remember it much into the new year. 71. Hogfather by Terry Pratchett - Great. BOTM 72. Four Lost Cities by Annalee Newitz - Someone else's wildcard, Newitz does a quick overview of 4 different ancient cities that were abandoned. They look at how life was in the cities, what people did, why they were there in first place, and finally why it was abandoned. A really interesting book, I quite enjoyed it. 73. Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner - book two of the queen's thief series, I read book one for the challenge last year. This was good. I'm going to keep reading the series. I feel like doing any sort of best of, I'd inevitably miss something. But a quick list of some favorites and those I've recommended elsewhere, two were on here due to the Booklord Challenge, so that's pretty nice: Mexican Gothic, The Death of Vivek Oji, Farewell my Orange, Outlawed, Third Policeman, Green and Ancient Light, Book of Eels, Piranesi, The Animators, Galaxy and the Ground Within, and My Heart is a Chainsaw. And for the opposite here's books about which I remember very little from this year without reading goodreads synopses: The Factory Witches of Lowell, Talking Animals, Crome Yellow, Book of Malachi, Life and Limb, Bacchanal, Monster of Elendhaven, Zero G Green Space, Memory Theatre, Cat in Indigo mood, For the several short story collections I read the winner is probably That Old Country Music. See y'all in the next thread. [quote="Ben Nevis" post="519828861"] 1. The Factory Witches of Lowell by CS Malerich 2. Talking Animals by Joni Murphy 3. A Grave is Given Supper by Mike Soto 4. Red Ants by Pergentino Jose 5. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Garcia-Moreno 6. Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson 7. The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi 8. American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson 9. The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma 10. The Little Yellow Dog by Walter Mosely 11. Farewell, My Orange by Kei Iwake 12. The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia McKillip 13. Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley 14. The Book of Malachi by TC Farren 15. Tindalos Asset by Caitlin Kiernan 16. Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor 17. Outlawed by Anna North 18. Bring me the Head of Quentin Tarantino by Julian Herbert 19. In Search of a Name by Marjolijn van Heemstra 20. The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien 21. When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo 22. The Fairy Ring by Mary Losure 23. The Sudden Traveler by Sarah Hall 24. That Old Country Music by Kevin Barry 25. Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine 26. At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop 27. White Trash Warlock by David R Slayton 28. The Hot Rock by Donald E Westlake 29. A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic Durbin 30. Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky 31. The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Geisbrecht 32. The Library of the Unwritten by AJ Hackwith 33. The Book of Eels by Patrick Svensson 34. Zero-G Green Space by William Shatner and someone who ought to be ashamed of themself 35. American Delirium by Betina Gonzalez 36. Woman of the Aeroplanes by Kojo Laing 37. Spellbreaker by Charlie Holmberg 38. The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson 39. Memory Theater by Karin Tidbeck 40. Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman 41. The Incendiaries by RO Kwon 42. Unity by Elly Bangs 43. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng 44. Antiquities by Cynthia Ozick 45. The Lights of Prague by Nicole Jarvis 46. A Master of Djinn by P Djeli Clark 47. The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau 48. The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers 49. Cat in an Indigo Mood by Carol Nelson Douglas 50. Bachannal by Veronica Henry 51. The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker 52. Defekt by Nino Cipri 53. Twilight Zone by Nona Fernandez 54. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 55. Life and Limb by Jennifer Roberson 56. How I Learned to Hate in Ohio by David Stuart MacLean 57. The Angel of Crows by Katherine Addison 58. The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison 59. The Past is Red by Catherynne Valente 60. Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury 61. The Odor of Violets by Baynard Kendrick 62. The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde 63. The Book of Merlin by TH White 64. Compulsory Games by Robert Aickman 65. My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones 66. In the Watchful City by S Qiouyi Lu 67. Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers 68. The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison 69. One Fat Englishman by Kingsley Amis THE CHALLENGE: 1. Set a goal for number of books or another personal challenge. 73/70 2. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are not written by men. 46/73 3. Of the books you read this year, make sure a least 20% of them are written by writers of colour. 23/73 4. Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 5% of them are written by LGBT writers. 8/73 5. Read books whose titles include all the colours of the rainbow. (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) - Red Ants, Farewell My Orange, Crome Yellow, Green and Ancient Light, Blue, Cat in an Indigo Mood, Odor of Violets. 6. Read something recommended to you by a friend or loved one. - Little Fires Everywhere 7. Ask someone in this thread for a Wildcard, and read it. - The Animators 8. Read something that's out of print. - Woman of the Aeroplanes 9. Read something in translation. - Bring Me the Head of Quentin Tarantino 10. Read some poetry. - A Grave is Given Supper 11. Read some short stories. - That Old Country Music 12. Read something about a monster. - Tindalos Asset 13. Read an essay collection. - Empathy Exams 14. Read something historical about a place you've never visited. - In Search of a Name 15. Read something set in the recent past. - American Spy 16. Read something from a non-human perspective. - Talking Animals 17. Read something about the ocean. - The Seas Around Us 18. Read a collaboration between two or more authors. - Roadside Picnic 19. Read something about games. - Compulsory Games 20. Read a bestseller from the week/month you were born. - Book of Merlin 21. Read something by a writer who spent time incarcerated. - Canterville Ghost
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Jan 3, 2022 18:13
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