people like books commented on The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk
In September 1913, a young Pole suffering from tuberculosis arrives at Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse for …
Recommended creepy/unsettling October reading, if you're into that
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people like books rated The Empusium: 5 stars
The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones
In September 1913, a young Pole suffering from tuberculosis arrives at Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse for Gentlemen, a health resort in …
people like books reviewed What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
2014: A great poem is read aloud and never heard again. For generations, people speculate …
Interesting premise but just ok
3 stars
It was just really bland. Kind of poppy and readable in the way I needed to get out of a slump, and there were some elements of post-climate-disaster worldbuilding that were kinda cool. But I don't think I'd recommended it unless you enjoy British writers with their head up their own ass.
people like books finished reading Flesh: A Novel by David Szalay
Teenaged István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. Shy and …
Meh
people like books rated Stolen: 3 stars
Stolen by Rachel Willson-Broyles, Ann-Helén Laestadius
Louise Erdrich meets Jo Nesbø in this spellbinding Swedish novel that follows a young indigenous woman as she struggles to …
people like books rated Zufall.: 3 stars
Zufall.
Ces pages sont à voir comme un petit récit d'une courte zingue de fin février à début mars 2023 autour …
Tara Selter, the heroine of On the Calculation of Volume, has involuntarily stepped off the …
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5 stars
This is maybe one of the best and weirdest books I've ever read? Or maybe it just hit me right today because I feel kinda nuts and just crushed most of it in one day and it covers a lot of emotional ground. Either way I can't believe my luck that there's 6 more volumes (although I have to wait for them all to come out and be translated)
people like books reviewed Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
Vineland, a zone of blessed anarchy in northern California, is the last refuge of hippiedom, …
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3 stars
I was really into the setup and worldbuilding and then it kinda became a slog about halfway through. Still happy I read it though.
people like books reviewed Reservoir bitches by Dahlia De La Cerda
In the linked stories of Reservoir Bitches, thirteen Mexican women prod the bitch that is …
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4 stars
Read the whole book on half a plane ride. It was really easy to get into and the payoff of the connections between the stories happens pretty fast. Its like, so so violent but I think if you read the summary you know what youre getting into. This is maybe the 3 or 4th book I've read that Julia Sanches has translated and I've really liked all of them.
In the distant future, humans are on the verge of extinction and have settled in …
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4 stars
This was kinda vague and difficult to follow until basically the last 50 pages where some stuff coalesced and I ended up reeeeally liking it. FFO vibey Japanese fiction and impressionistic ruminations on the future of humanity (or lack thereof)
people like books rated Erasure: 5 stars
Erasure by Percival L. Everett (duplicate), Percival Everett
Thelonius "Monk" Ellison is an erudite, accomplished but seldom-read author who insists on writing obscure literary papers rather than the …
people like books commented on Middlemarch by George Elliot
Eliot’s epic of 19th century provincial social life, set in a fictitious Midlands town in …
Its about halfway through March and I am not halfway through Middlemarch :/ I got rage distracted by the Spotify book for a few days. Back on Middlemarch though. I march on. #middlemarchMarch
people like books reviewed Mood Machine by Liz Pelly
An unsparing investigation into Spotify’s origins and influence on music, weaving unprecedented reporting with incisive …
I really hated Spotify before but wow do I hate it more now
4 stars
The stuff about musician nonpayment/payola is interesting and well-documented here (including efforts to unionize/resist/subvert it by musicians). Getting paid for music isn't something i personally care about, but the book does a good job and tying it to broader problems that exist right now wrt labour and the gig work economy, which is very relevant to the types of work I do (and as a participant in all this). HOWEVER, as a punk the real brain-breaker was solidifying my understanding of the tech end of how big data analysis and playlist curation shape broad understandings of genre and shape how people make (and consume) music. The example explored in the book was hyperpop but I can see exactly how hardcore and punk slot in. All the evils of the regular ol music industry plus unhinged levels of digital surveillance and squeezing every possible drop of money and attention out of …
The stuff about musician nonpayment/payola is interesting and well-documented here (including efforts to unionize/resist/subvert it by musicians). Getting paid for music isn't something i personally care about, but the book does a good job and tying it to broader problems that exist right now wrt labour and the gig work economy, which is very relevant to the types of work I do (and as a participant in all this). HOWEVER, as a punk the real brain-breaker was solidifying my understanding of the tech end of how big data analysis and playlist curation shape broad understandings of genre and shape how people make (and consume) music. The example explored in the book was hyperpop but I can see exactly how hardcore and punk slot in. All the evils of the regular ol music industry plus unhinged levels of digital surveillance and squeezing every possible drop of money and attention out of both consumers and artists (who, spoiler alert, are also considered as consumers). Evil genocide-mongering billionaires. Everything is bad about Spotify. I knew it was bad bad but actually learning how the sausage gets made is truly horrifying. I am so upset. Preemptive apologies to everyone I will punish about this topic in the near future. I hope people who use the platform (in both senses) will read this.
people like books commented on Mood Machine by Liz Pelly
An unsparing investigation into Spotify’s origins and influence on music, weaving unprecedented reporting with incisive …
I liked the podcast interview I heard with the author. I kind of knew it was gonna be the kind of book where you could mostly listen to an interview and get all the highlights. This book is moderately interesting and very very depressing. techwontsave.us/episode/262_how_spotify_remade_the_music_industry_w_liz_pelly
people like books commented on Middlemarch by George Elliot
Eliot’s epic of 19th century provincial social life, set in a fictitious Midlands town in …
#Middlemarch March is off to a strong start. Yesterday I read the first few chapters on my kobo, realized the file I had was kind of busted (no paragraph breaks) so I got another one. And then I decided that I actually wanted to read it on paper so I popped out to Encore and easily found a used copy for $8. The copy I got is not the nicest edition but it'll do. The first 13 pages have kind of absurd amounts of underlining and notes and then nothing... did the previous owner give up? It took me a few pages to get used to the antiquated writing style but honestly its really engrossing so far.