| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Title | Author | Genre | Date Finished (yyyy-mm-dd) | Recommended By | Notes | Quotes |
2 | Sin City | Frank Miller | Noir | Edgardo Hernandez | |||
3 | Dark Academia: How Universities Die | Peter Fleming | Nonfiction | ||||
4 | Finnegan's Wake | James Joyce | Fiction, poetry | For more than a decade, my ultimate literary goal has been to read Finnegan's Wake. | |||
5 | The Sound and the Fury | William Faulkner | Fiction | 2025-12-10 | Daniel Brignac | I struggle to believe this was published in 1929. The stream-of-consciousness approach to writing feels so modern, and Faulkner's vocabulary is varied and grand. But although this story is impressive, it is also depressing. The characters suffer horrible circumstances, and they treat each other even worse. All I can do is strive to live unlike they do. | It’s always the idle habits you acquire which you will regret. I seed de first en de last |
6 | The Colour Out of Space | H.P Lovecraft, Gou Tanabe | Horror | 2025-11-02 | I have not yet read the original story. This illustrated adaptation makes it easier for me to see Lovecraft's influence on modern horror authors, especially Junji Ito (or perhaps I have it reversed, and Tanabe was influenced by Ito when drawing this adaptation?). | ||
7 | The Call of Cthulhu | H.P Lovecraft, Gou Tanabe | Horror | 2025-11-01 | I mostly stopped enjoying Lovecraft after attempting to read all his works in middle school, but I actually found Tanabe's adaption fairly compelling. His depictions of characters' faces helps convey the attention, confusion, and horror they feel at various moments throughout the story. Additionally, by drawing elements of the story that were originally rather vaguely depicted (such as the architecture of R'lyeh and the appearance of Cthulhu), Tanabe makes the story more concrete and approachable. While some fans of Lovecraft may scoff at this and claim that the whole point of cosmic horror is that it is incomprehensible, I for one appreciate the pictures. | ...we're not here to arrest fairy tales. | |
8 | Wolves of the Calla | Stephen King | Dark fantasy | 2025-10-30 | The most exciting entry in the series yet. I could definitely sense how Seven Samurai influenced this work. Although the book's final revelation could have come off as immature if it had been poorly executed, Stephen King foreshadowed it well enough that I think it was deserved. I now have some theories about the Dark Tower's true identity, am looking forward to reading the next book (probably next year) so that I can confirm or refute them. | Mister, we deal in lead. ...first the smiles, then the lies. Last comes gunfire. "I've believe I've seen all I need to..." | |
9 | GodHusk - REbirth | Plastiboo | Fiction | 2025-10-04 | Quite unlike anything I have read before, and very fitting for the spooky season. The writing quality on average only fair, but the book makes up for this with sheer creativity and impressive artwork. | ||
10 | The Death of Ivan Ilyich | Leo Tolstoy | Fiction | 2025-09-24 | In The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy asks what it means to live well, and what it means to die well. In Three Deaths, the short story which my Penguin Classics copy of the book includes, Tolstoy seems to offer an answer to the latter question. I recommend this book to both experienced and new readers of literature because it is easily readable (I read it in three 3 hours while flying between Ottawa, Toronto, and Orlando) and its characters relatable. It shares themes with Williams's Stoner, with a message profound enough to be life-changing. | It is only a bruise. 'Death. Yes, it's death. And not one of them knows, or wants to know. They have no pity for me. Too busy playing.' | |
11 | Infinite Jest | David Foster Wallace | Fiction, maximalist | 2025-08-10 | It took me almost the entire summer of 2025 to read Infinite Jest. The setting and plot were interesting; the characters were pitiful and largely ridiculous, but also relatable; and the book's themes and messages were both serious and depressing and simple and inspiring. The book is set in a dystopian future that is much closer to reality than most dystopian future novels are. The U.S., Canada, and Mexico have merged into a single country where entertainment dominates culture. A celebrity with no serious political agenda wins the election for the U.S. presidency simply because he is well-liked. Almost everyone everywhere escapes reality by watching cartridge videos on these television-computer devices called teleputers. Society is largely divided into two classes - an uneducated, blue-collar-working, and often drug-addicted low class, and an educated, creative, drug-dabbling high class. The book is structured largely as a series of vignettes, with the first story taking place last chronologically. The books two main characters are Hal (Harold) Incandenza, a young tennis star with a budding marijuana addiction, and Don (Donald) Gately, a staff member at a halfway house for alcoholics and drug addicts. Hal attends a tennis academy at the top of a hill in Boston, whereas the halfway house Don works at lies at the bottom of the hill. This serves to rather overtly symbolize the fact that these two characters belong to different ends of the social spectrum in Infinite Jest (similar to how Bong Joon Ho uses elevation to symbolize social status in Parasite). While the two characters live vastly different lives, their success trajectories go in broady opposite directions: Hal becomes increasingly apathetic to tennis and life in general as the novel goes on, while Don strengthens his resolve to remain sober and drug-free, and to never return to a life of crime. Only a fraction of Infinite Jest is about Hal and Don though. Much of the book deals with Hal's dsynfunctional family: his disabled but happy older brother Mario, his sex-addicted oldest brother Orin, his highly eccentric, grammatically punctilious (and also sex-addicted, though more discreetly) mother Avril, and his late father James, an extremely tall alcoholic and lens-crafter who kills himself before the novel begins by putting his head in a microwave. Another good portion of the book is devoted to the various residents at the halfway house Don lives and works at: the suicidal Kate Gompert, the extremely talkative Tiny Ewell, the crazy evil Randy Lenz, the tragically beautiful (but possibly deformed) Joelle Van Dyne, the pensive (in a slow sort of way) Bruce Green, and more. There is a group of wheelchair-bound Québécois assassins seeking a fatally addictive entertainment cartridge, the eponymous Infinite Jest (created by James before his death), in order to disseminate it across the U.S. as an act of terrorism. There are several stories about some of the low-life addicts that roam the streets of Boston at night, who engage in all sorts of crime in order to make enough money to keep up with the dosage schedules their addictions demand. All these stories seem unrelated at first, but most of them end up connecting by the novel's conclusion, but not always in a seriously profound way. There are so many other reasons I find Infinite Jest impressive as well. The story is replete with subtle details that help shape the novel's reading experience, build its setting, or both. For instance, the subsidization of years in the novel by corporations helps establish just how much the government has sold-out to corporations, but also makes the novel's predictions about the future more believable, since it means that the years are not numbered and thus always somehow in the vague future, regardless of when one actually reads the novel. Another example of this is how Wallace perforates the story with notes which one has to flip to the back of the book to read. While somewhat annoying, these notes represent the information overload that we contend with daily in the digital age, while the act of flipping back and forth between the main text and the notes is supposed to mirror a tennis match (which itself is a metaphor for a dialogue between the reader and the author). Wallace also references numerous other works of literature, such as those by Homer, Shakespeare, and Kesey. The whole exchange between Hugh and Remy on the cliff in Tucson is a reference to Plato's allegory of the cave, and many parts of the book have direct parallels to Gravity's Rainbow. Finally, Wallace tells this story with such a broad array of English words that I think he must have actually studied an English dictionary in order to write this book. Despite Wallace's expansive vocabulary and ocassional references to other works of art, however, Infinite Jest is surprisingly easy to read. Wallace briefly explains most of his references in the text itself, and provides ample context clues to understand the sometimes obscure English words he uses. I could go on, but instead I'll end with a word of caution for those who may want to read this book. Be prepared not to enjoy it. Before finishing Infinite Jest, I found out that another friend of mine had actually finished the book a few years ago, and genuinely disliked it. I asked them why, and while they couldn't give me a direct answer, they said it had to do with the book's overall tone and unlikeable characters. Since finishing the book, I've reflected on their complaints, and I can empathize with them. The novel's often casually depressing tone, coupled with its prolixity and grandiose language, can come across as pretentious and wearisome after a while. None of the characters are entirely admirable, and are all a little sad. So if you want a more traditional story, maybe don't read this book. My friend and I both agreed on one thing though: the themes of Infinite Jest are deeply insightful. Where is the line between dedication and addiction? What does it mean to be happy? Is there a point at which the consumption or production of entertainment becomes immoral? If these questions intrigue you, then you may want to give Infinite Jest a try. | ...there are two ways to lower a flag to half-mast... One way to lower the flag to half-mast is just to lower the flag. There's another way though. You can always just raise the pole. Don't worry about getting in touch with your feelings, they'll get in touch with you. The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you. It now seemed like a kind of black miracle to me that people could actually care deeply about a subject or pursuit, and could go on caring this way for years on end. Could dedicate their entire lives to it. It seemed admirable and at the same time pathetic. We are all dying to give our lives away to something. God or Satan, politics or grammar, topology or philately - the object seemed incidental to this will to give oneself away, utterly. To games or needles, to some other person. Something pathetic about it. A flight-from in the form of a plunging-into. | |
12 | Dr. Pascarelli's Complete Guide to Repetitive Strain Injury: What You Need to Know About RSI & Carpal Tunnel Syndrome | Emil Pascarelli, M.D. | Nonfiction, medical science, ergonomics | 2025-04-28 | Dr. Paul Gazzillo | I purchased a split mechanical keyboard (the ZSA Voyager) bot because I was suffering from RSI problems, but because I wanted to learn a new, perhaps more efficient way to type. After about a month of intense practice with my new keyboard, however, I began to notice pain in my wrists. I mentioned this to my advisor, and he immediately lent me this book to read. Now I can definitively say that the way I used to type, with my wrists "resting" on the table at all times, was almost certainly going to cause RSI problems for me sooner or later. Now I'm following the advice in this book to prevent myself from being injured. Hopefully I won't have to see a physician; in the meantime learning how type again on a new keyboard (and a new layout; I've decided to use the Gallium layout and am enjoying so far though I do miss my speed with QWERTY) is a long and arduous process. | |
13 | Blood Meridian | Cormac McCarthy | Fiction, anti-western | 2025-04-13 | Jorge Toledo | Violent, poetic, austere, sophisticated, biblical, and nihilistic. Blood Meridian was honestly about as challenging and rewarding to read as Gravity's Rainbow, but is a totally different book. There are two main reasons why I think this book is a difficult read: obscure language and overwhelming amounts of symbolism. Most of the story focuses on the kid and his journeys with Glanton's gang of Apache scalp hunters, but the book is also full of vignettes and parables whose true meanings and morals I don't quite grasp. On top of this, McCarthy fills his story with an abundance of words and phrases specific to the book's setting. I know a decent number of English words, but I still often felt like I was relying on context clues to understand what McCarthy was saying. Perhaps the book's most famous symbol, however, is also its most obvious: the judge is a human representation of evil. The most frightening aspect of the judge is not his capacity for violence, however, but his intelligence: he can create gunpowder from natural resources, speak several different languages, and has the largest vocabulary of any character in the book by far. People who engage in lesser evils look to him for guidance, and he is happy to lead them all to greater misdeeds. Spoilers, but at the end of Blood Meridian, evil triumphs over good. Sort of, anyway. After finishing this book, I looked up some other interpretations of it. One interpretation that I really like says that, at the end of Blood Meridian, it's not simply that evil defeats good. The ending is instead a warning to not ignore evil when one sees it. Good and evil are in constant conflict, and if good people ever decide to stop contending with evil ones, then the evil ones will destroy them completely. | Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent. This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one's will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence.War is god. Men are born for games. Nothing else. The way of the world is to bloom and to flower and die but in the affairs of men there is no waning and the noon of his expression signals the onset of night. His spirit is exhausted at the peak of its achievement. His meridian is at once his darkening and the evening of his day. Moral law is an invention of mankind for the disenfranchisement of the powerful in favor of the weak. The bones of cholla that glowed there in their incandescent basketry pulsed like burning holothurians in the phosphorous dark of the sea's deeps. |
14 | The Aeneid | Virgil | Fiction, epic | 2025-04-07 | I listened to the David Collins narration of the Ceci-Day-Lewis, though I list quotations from arbitrarily-selected translations. While I didn't enjoy the Aeneid quite as much as the Illiad and the Oddyssey, I think it had better quotations. The one about the gates of Hell being open night and day, while the way back up to the earth being difficult, will always remain with me (though I was familiar with it before reading the Aeneid). I think one reason I did not like the Aeneid as much overall was because Aeneas just wasn't quite as likeable as Odyssyeus. He was a little "too" perfect in my opinion. I am glad to have read the Illiad and Odyssey before the Aeneid though, because I was able to notice all the ways in which Virgil riffs off of those older stories. That might also be another reason why I didn't like the Aeneid too much though; it felt too derivative at times. On the flip side, now that I've read the Aeneid I've gained a newfound appreciation for Inferno. Since it's been eight years since I read Inferno, maybe it's time I give it a re-read. I do enjoy how the Aeneid ends with a killing blow - just like Musashi, though even more abrupt. | The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way: But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this the task and mighty labor lies Fortune always fights for the bold. They could do it because they believed they could. If I cannot move heaven, I will raise hell. | |
15 | Electronic Life | Michael Crichton | Nonfiction, computing | 2025-03-19 | I stumbled upon this book at an antique book fair in St. Pete, Florida. I was familiar with Crichton beforehand, but had never read anything by him before, so decided to peruse a few pages. The book charmed me almost instantly with its humour and honesty in discussing computers, and even though it's from the 80s, I decided to give it a read. I skipped the appendix on programming in BASIC since I don't plan on ever doing that and that part of the book seemed rather dry, but on the other hand the glossary was one of my favorite parts of the book becuase many of the entries were rather funny. | I avoid this 1950s slang term [software], which should have been buried with Eisenhower. | |
16 | The Odyssey | Homer | Fiction, epic | 2025-02-07 | I listened to the Dan Stevens narration of the Robert Fitzgerald translation. I really enjoyed listening to the coming-of-age of Telemachus, the slyness of Penelope, and the craftiness of Odysseus. This story had everything: drama, comedy, action, horror, love, hate, sadness, and hope. Every time someone said, "I say to you, Odysseus will return", I felt a swell of excitement. Finally, despite all Odysseus's adventures, the scene with Argos the dog in Ithaca was my favorite. | Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this. | |
17 | The Iliad | Homer | Fiction, epic | 2025-01-18 | I listened to the Dan Stevens narration of the Robert Fitzgerald translation. At first I wasn't sure if listening to such an old story as an audiobook would be a good idea since I was worried I would need to repeatedly re-listen to sections to understand what was going on, but then I saw someone on Reddit mention that this story was originally passed down by spoken word and is thus well-suited to narration, so I decided to give it a listen. I ended up really enjoying this story. I did not expect a story told more than 2000 years ago story to be very compelling or engaging, but at times it was actually very exciting, dramatic, and even funny. All the men are macho and ruthless, and the gods cruelly toy with the lives of mortals. I was also surprised by how well the Iliad portrays different aspects of many characters' personalities. In one book, Hector is portrayed as a loving husband and father, in another book as a godlike warrior, in another book as a coward, and finally as an unfortunate man who the gods favored yet still deceived. Other characters such as Achilles and Odysseus receive the same treatment. Finally, I enjoyed the Iliad's frequent use of analogies. Now on to the Odyssey and the Aeneid! | And he called with a loud shout to Deiphobos of the white shield, and asked of him a long spear, but he was no wise nigh. Then Hector knew the truth in his heart, and spake and said: “Ay me, now verily the gods have summoned me to death..." | |
18 | Thus Spoke Zarathustra | Friedrich Nietzsche | Fiction, philosophy | 2025-01-03 | I read the Watler Kaufmann translation. I appreciated his notes and used them to help me understand the text, but I took my own copious notes as well (this may be the only time I read Nietzsche so I figure I should do him justice). This work gives me a new appreciation for postmodernism and satire. I like the idea that people should appreciate the earth for what it is, and live each day enjoying life's pleasures instead of abstaining from all joy for the sake of earning a better afterlife (and as an atheist, I don't believe there is such an afterlife). I like how Nietzsche extols the creators, and praises those who contend with chaos (but not those who generate chaos for the sake of it). Some parts of the work come off as a little elitist, but if there's one thing I've gleaned from this work its this: one should create their own set of values and goals, and pursue them in the way that best suits them, regardless of what others thinks of them. That all being said, I absolutely abhor Nietzche's opinions on women. The man's opinions on women sound like something an incel on the Internet would say; at the very least, Nietzsche talks about all women in terms of generally unflattering stereotypes. Truthfully it makes it harder for me to take anything he says seriously. | Blessed are the sleepy ones: for they shall soon drop off. I would believe only in a god who could dance. You should love peace as a means to new wars - and the short peace more than the long. Verily, whoever possesses little is possessed that much less: praise be a little poverty! It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters. In a friend one should have one's best enemy. One man goes to his neighbor because he seeks himself; another because he would lose himself. The dew falls on the grass when the night is most silent. He who cannot command himself should obey. But we have no wish whatever to enter into the kingdom of heaven: we have become men - so we want the earth. | |
19 | 3-Ingredient Cocktails: An Opinionated Guide to the Most Enduring Drinks in the Cocktail Canon | Robert Simonson | Mixology | 2025-01-01 | The recipes are simple yet elegant, and the pictures are tantalizing. Additionally, Simonson eloquently describes the history of some of the most famous cocktails. I had a fun time reading this at my leisure during the holiday season. I've only had time to make one cocktail in this book so far: the Gibson. Quite a unique drink that I am glad to have made. | ||
20 | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | Ken Kesey | Fiction | 2024-12-28 | I listened to the audiobook read by John C. Reilly and it was spectacular. He excellently at conveys the differences between each character. The story itself is amazing. I haven't deciphered all the symbolism yet, particularly that of the dog searching through all the holes on the field outside the mental institution, but I think I understood the main themes. I enjoyed how this story looks at how various people and institutions attack masculinity and weaponize it against itself (and these attacks are in some way all byproducts of the negatives aspects of masculinity as well). The ending left me feeling complete, though not quite happy nor sad. | Three geese in a flock. One flew east, one flew west, One flew over the cuckoo's nest. O-U-T spells OUT, Goose swoops down and plucks you out. | |
21 | The Deep | Nick Cutter | Horror | 2024-12-16 | Utterly revolting and horrifying. I enjoyed The Troop a little more though. I listened to the audiobook version read by Corey Brill. | ||
22 | Freedom Road | Howard Fast | Historical fiction | 2024-12-13 | Xian Ning Cechman | A story of learning, change, and hope for the future that is ultimately, completely, and tragically destroyed. The ending of this book brought me to tears because I've met people in my life who are similar to the villains of this book; these people who don't adhere to a rational set of values; people who are cold and calculating and only seek to remain on top in perpetuity. To be clear, people are not racist: they exploit the racism and prejudice of others to subdue others. I've met people like this, and I've always wished that they would change for the better, or at least remain a minority in society. This book horrifies me and causes me to despair, because it whispers, unhappily, that these evil people are the ones who rule the world. | "…Why they got such a hope, such a trust in the future?" Trooper shook his head miserably. "Let me tell you why. Future shapes up, slow, like tomorrow, like when that old sun goes down and a man can't sleep. Then he say to himself, never be tomorrow, never come another sunrise, going to be night forever and ever, just twisting and turning and counting all that long, lonesome time when he can't sleep. Well, that time's almost gone; tomorrow's going to be here real soon, sure enough. All the old, evil bad things, they fade out slowly, a man is lynched, a poor little girl is mistreated. But they fade out." |
23 | Blood on the Tracks | Shūzō Oshimi | Drama, psychological horror | 2024-11-29 | Jordan Chatmon | A suspenseful and frightening story about a mother passing her childhood trauma on to her son. The quality of the art is not the absolute best but it conveys the symbolism well. The ending is sad but ultimately hopeful. This story reminds me of a mix between LISA and Pun-Pun. | |
24 | Spelunky | Derek Yu | Nonfiction, video games | 2024-11-02 | My greatest accomplishment in playing video games is going to Hell and back in Spelunky. As such, I couldn't help but enjoy this wonderful retrospective from the developer of such a wonderful game. | They were phenomenal artists, designers, and programmers... but they never learned how to overcome... being too much of a perfectionist. As a result, they never learned that with each game you finish, it gets easier to finish the next one, because it feels so good to release something that it'll motivate you to do it again and again. | |
25 | Wizard and Glass | Stephen King | Dark fantasy | 2024-10-29 | I was surprised to find out that this book was mostly a flashback into Roland's past. It was nice but honestly I felt like the story dragged on for too long. Also the return of the Tick Tock man was anticlimactic; they killed him just about as soon as they discovered him. Flagg's appearance was cool and the frequent references to The Stand were fun for me to read since I had already read that book, but I also think if I hadn't read The Stand then the parts of this book that referenced it would feel like advertisements. I really enjoyed reading the parts about Rhea the witch; she really spurred my morbid curiosity. I'm curious to hear more about Roland's past final encounter with her. | ||
26 | Snowbirds | Cechman, Mark | Fiction, post-apocalyptic | 2024-10-15 | Mark Cechman | Full of typos and cliches, but a fun book to read with a good albeit simple morale to treat your enemies wth respect, lest you become like unto them. The female characters were horribly written though. | Now we're even, partner...Now we're even. My wife only dated football players. |
27 | Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde | Robert Louis Stevenson | Horror | 2024-09-11 | I listened to the audiobook by Steven "Red Fox" Garnett on YouTube. The story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is popular in Western culture, so I was already familiar with it before listening to it. By listening to the audiobook, however, I think I gained a deeper understanding of the story's message. The story is a commentary on how each person struggles to balance their good and evil inclinations, and how by trying to separate the two, the more evil nature will eventually take control. I think the author is suggesting that, instead of totally cutting out one's dark desires, they should find a healthy outlet for them and incorporate them into their normal life instead. This reminds of the psychologist Carl Jung's notion of the Shadow Self. Maybe if Dr. Jekyll had given small outlets for Mr. Hyde throughout his entire life, he wouldn't have succumbed to him later in the story. | He was the usual cut and dry apothecary… about as emotional as a bagpipe. | |
28 | Autonomous | Annalee Newitz | 2024-08-25 | Nick Johnson | Raises some interesting questions about what the society would look like if there were thousands of robots with human-level conciousness. I like how the protagonist, Jack, starts off appearing like a Mary Sue but gradually appears more and more flawed as the book progresses. By the end of the book I was almost wishing she would not have survived. Paladin was definitely my favorite character and I always enjoyed reading about them learning to understand their emotions. The contrast between Med and Threezed was very interesting - a robot who was born free and a human who was born slave. In terms of cons, the book had a bit too much sexual content for my tastes, but that's more of a personal thing. I didn't like the sexual relationship between Jack and Threezed since he was a slave forced into sex work, and she didn't seem to care too mucha about that. Also I would have preferred if Paladin and Eliasz's relationship was more gradual and their first sexual encounter was more subtle; in my opinion it was too direct and made the book felt more pulpy lower-culture because of it. Finally, I think Paladin and Eliasz sort of broke character when they murdered Broner and Krish, respectively. These murders seemed a little uncalled for and made me a little more conflicted about Paladin and Eliaszs' happy ending than perhaps the author intended. Or perhaps that was the point. | ||
29 | The Essential Scratch & Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert: Take a Whiff of That | Richard Betts, Wendy MacNaughton, Crystal English Sacca | Nonfiction, beer and wine | 2024-07-12 | A Trail of Bits employee who bought it for all the interns | I waited a year to read this book after receiving it and I think some of the smells may have faded because of it. Most of the smells were still strong enough to recognize though. The content itself is fine but not very insightful; a little too much "Wine is great! You can be a wine expert too, just use your nose!" It almost feels like Betts is trying to sell me something, which is silly because I already have the book. On the flipside, the book did teach me what terroir means, which I had previously been unfamiliar with, so that's cool. | |
30 | Gravity's Rainbow | Pynchon, Thomas | Fiction, maximalist | 2024-03-17 | Evan Sultanik | Gravity's Rainbow is by far the best-written story I've ever read, but after reading it I can't tell you what it's about. This is because the story is, by design, extremely abstruse. One of the reasons this book is so complex is because of its many plotlines. Pynchon weaves myriad plots and characters together in an onslaught of (mostly) unlabeled sections, separated into four parts. Most of the book's plotlines span several of these sections, which are often highly disjointed (e.g. the first section of the book focuses on Captain Pirate Prentice, and the next section to focus on Pirate comes several hundred pages later). Some sections are self-contained though, such as the story of the Byron the immortal light-bulb. A few sections start suddenly and end just as abruptly, such as the one about an American soldier who gives his captain a haircut, and is secretly plotting to kill him. Pynchon often also digresses into sub-plots and imaginary scenarios that may span several pages in length, making these sections even harder to follow. Pynchon will reference the plots, sub-plots, characters, and even literary devices he establishes in an earlier section in a later section, even if the two sections don't belong to the same plot line. Sometimes he will even do the reverse, and allude to the events in a later section from an earlier section. It's like Catch-22, but 10x more confusing. These cross-referenced plots make Gravity's Rainbow more difficult to read, but also much more rewarding. Another reason that the work is so difficult to follow is because of the wide range of topics it encompasses. If Pynchon were to have just written this story in plain English, it would have still been one of best-written books I've read (and maybe still the best), because of his exquisite mastery over the English language. However, Pynchon couples his superior writing with the knowledge of a variety of subjects such as math, music, psychology, and history. For example, the sections about the statistician Roger Mexico discuss Poisson distributions, and the sections about the Nobel-prize hungry psychologist Pointsman often feature Pavlovian conditioning. These aren't just superficial nods to these concepts either; for example there is one chapter where Pynchon spends several pages philosophizing about integrals. Finally, some may find Gravity's Rainbow difficult to read simply because it is too obscene or flat-out weird. Most of the characters spend a lot of time thinking about either their job or about sex, and many characters have strange, revolting fetishes. If you have a light stomach then you may not be able to read this book. On other hand, the book also features stories that are just gross or strange. These stories include one about a giant adenoid, one about cowboys that takes place in a toilet, and one about alien pinballs that are traumatized by a malfunctioning solenoid. To conclude: if you like literature and are looking for a challenge then I strongly recommend reading Gravity's Rainbow. | They'll always tell you fathers are "taken," but fathers only leave - that's what it really is. |
31 | The Republic | Plato | Philosophy | 2024-03-01 | An interesting look into the state of philosophy thousands of years ago. While I did not agree with all of Plato's ideas, I found myself agreeing with him more than not. For instance, since Plato does not generally treat men and women as equals, I was pleasantly surprised that he recommends that both men and women be soldiers. While I also agree that certain kinds of sensual pleasures (or just an overload of them) make a man weak, I'm not sure if I agree with Plato's assertions that cutting out certain kinds of music would make for an ideal state. Some of Plato's descriptions of this state came off as Machiavellian, and totally unrealistic (though since the state is supposed to be an ideal state I suppose it being realistic is not a concern). The society closest to Plato's ideal that I can think of is the fictional village in the 2019 movie Midsommar, which is rather humorous since thaf film is a horror movie and the point is that the village's lifestyle is horrifying. I find Plato's allegory of the cave a little myopic, since it assumes that there is only one cave, i.e., only one dividing line between those who see reality and those who only see the shadows of reality. I think of learning and enlightenment more like a Matryoshka doll: there are numerous layers one must proceed through in order to reach the core of understanding, and in some cases this "doll" may be infinitely large. I (think I) still understand the point of Plato's allegory though and appreciate it. It's interesting to hear Plato attack democracy, and compare his predictions as to its effects on society to the state of western society today. I would like to see a trace of how arguments and philosophical ideas have evolved since this work's inception. I listened to the Librivox audiobook on Spotify. | "...insolence they term breeding, and anarchy liberty, and waste magnificence, and impudence courage. And so the young man passes out of his original nature, which was trained in the school of necessity, into the freedom and libertinism of useless and unnecessary pleasures." "...Which has a more pure being–that which is concerned with the invariable, the immortal, and the true, and is of such a nature, and is found in such natures; or that which is concerned with and found in the variable and mortal, and is itself variable and mortal? Far purer, he replied, is the being of that which is concerned with the invariable." | |
32 | Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives | Kara, Siddharth | Nonfiction | 2023-12-17 | Collin Pappas | This book provides horrifying evidence that colonialism and slavery are alive and well in the modern age. In the western world we take electricity, running water, and education for granted; however the Congolese people have none of these things. Raeding a book like this makes me feel that most (if not all) of the first-world problems I deal with it are just fake, and nothing compared to the real issues that plague third-world countries. The fact that people like Elodie even exist leaves me speechless and feeling so undeservedly priviliged. The worst part is that since have bought and will likely continue to buy devices made using cobalt, I am complicit in the exploitation of the Congolese people; and I'm not sure what I can do to actually help them. | "We work in our graves." |
33 | Hate Inc. | Matt Taibbi | Nonfiction | 2023-12-04 | Dr. Paul Gazzillo | An informative read about how and why the media tries to be divise, especially in regards to how the U.S. media has lately become more of a propaganda machine for the U.S. government. While I find the content a little depressing, I don't think the author wants readers to lose total faith in the media. Rather, I think the point of this book is to shine a light on all the media's current flaws, so that a new wave of journalists can try and rectify these issues. | |
34 | The King in Yellow | Robert W. Chambers | Horror | 2023-11-05 | A collection of decent short stories. Not all of them are related to the eponymous monarch, or even horror stories for that matter. I didn't entirely mind this; in fact these exceptions were probably my favorite stories out of the whole collection. I especially liked Clifford, the introspective philanderer. Out of the whole batch, the scariest one to me was either The Yellow Sign, for its themes of corruption and tragic ending, or The Prophet's Paradise (although I am undecided as to whether or not the latter is actually an example of good writing or lazy writing). To be honest, this collection somehwat dissapointed me. It wasn't nearly as scary or insightful as some people online have made it out to be. My lackluster reception of the book is probably just because I'm not a fan of cosmic horror though (I often find the genre too prolix and prosaic for my tastes). | "Camilla: You, sir, should unmask. Stranger: Indeed? Cassilda: Indeed it's time. We all have laid aside disguise but you. Stranger: I wear no mask. Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask! The King in Yellow, Act I, Scene 2." | |
35 | The Mysteries | Bill Waterson | Fiction | 2023-10-21 | Illustrated by John Kascht. Sort of an impulse-buy for me. I liked it nonetheless. The illustrations are unique; I can't tell if they are edited photographs or entirely hand-drawn. The story begins innoncently enough, but then gradually darkens. The ending is rather light though I think. | "And the Mysteries lived happily ever after." | |
36 | Pale Fire | Vladimir Nabokov | Fiction | 2023-09-26 | Katherine de Kleer | What an odd book. Like a less "entertaining", but more sophisticated House of Leaves that all takes place in one person's mind. This book is neat because it's so open to interpretation. There are so many different ways to analyze it and many of them make sense. | "Help me, Will! Pale Fire" |
37 | The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up | Marie Kondo | Self-help | 2023-08-17 | Matt D'Avella | A neat little book on how to tidy up your home and unlock a new level of self-awareness. | "Start by discarding. Then organize your space, thoroughly, completely, in one go." "Being surrounded by things that spark joy makes you happy." |
38 | Hatchet | Gary Paulsen | Fiction | 2023-08-12 | I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. I enjoyed reading about Brian's struggle to survive in the Canadian wilderness. He matures and endures so much. Paulsen does an excellent job of telling a grim and gritty coming-of-age story for younger audiences. | "He went to sleep thinking a kind of reverse question. He did not know if he would ever get out of this, could not see how it might be, but if he did somehow get home and go back to living the way he had lived, would it be just the opposite? Would he be sitting watching television and suddenly think about the sunset up in back of the ridge and wonder how the color looked in the lake?" | |
39 | The Ocean at the End of the Lane | Gaiman, Neal | Fiction | 2023-08-08 | Dreamy and whimsical. | ||
40 | Understand | Chiang, Ted | Science-fiction | 2023-07-31 | Cool story on what it would be like to understand everything. | ||
41 | What White Parents Should Know about Transracial Adoption: An Adoptee's Perspective on Its History, Nuances, and Practices | Melissa Guida-Richards | Nonfiction | 2023-07-22 | Xian Ning Cechman | This enlightened me on many of the challenges that adoptees and adoptive parents face. If I one day adopt a transracial child, I hope I can into practice all the advice the author gives in this book. | |
42 | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Wilde, Oscar | Fiction, horror | 2023-07-05 | Subtly scary, and fairly deep. The book asks a few philosophical questions which would be fun to discuss with friends, e.g., why is it wrong to only like things for superficial reasons? Listened to the Librivox audio book. | ||
43 | The Stand | King, Stephen | Horror, suspense | 2023-07-01 | I liked this one. Nick and Tom were my favorite characters. It's like a twisted version of East of Eden. | "'You know, that's half of what scares me', he said. 'How wise we're all getting.'" "That was what was missing back there in Las Vegas, he decided - simple love. They were nice enough people and all, but there wasn’t much love in them." "I'm going to miss him awful. But I'm going to see him in heaven. Tom Cullen will see him there. And he'll be able to talk and I'll be able to think." "The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there... and still on your feet." | |
44 | The Waste Lands | King, Stephen | Dark fantasy | 2023-04-10 | I like where the story is going, and I look forward to the next book in the series. | "Blaine is a pain." | |
45 | Oryx and Crake | Atwood, Margaret | Nonfiction | 2023-03-19 | Really cool; like a cross between The Road and Brave New World. I would have preferred it didn't end in a cliffhanger though. | "'Oryx has told us that the ground is our friend.' 'It grows our food for us.' 'Yes,' said Snowman. 'But Crake made the ground hard. Otherwise we would not be able to walk on it.'" | |
46 | Hackers and Painters | Graham, Paul | Nonfiction | 2023-02-12 | I like Graham's ever-irreverent tone | ||
47 | The Troop | Cutter, Nick | Fiction, horror | 2023-01-31 | I had a hard time putting this down. Just as disgusting as something Junji Ito would write, but without the pictures. Perhaps that makes it worse since my mind is left to draw the images instead. In any case, an absolutely revolting and amazing read. | "Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me. Guess I'll go eat worms." | |
48 | Second Foundation | Asimov, Isaac | Science-fiction | 2023-01-17 | The first half of the book was a little boring, but it picked up a bit in the latter half. The ending was full of twists and actually not bad. I think I want to give the Foundation series a break now though. | "A circle has no end." | |
49 | Clown in a Cornfield | Cesare, Adam | Fiction, horror | 2022-12-29 | Probably my last book of 2022! Dark, thrilling, and violent. A fun ride, and I hope to eventually read part 2. | ||
50 | Stoner | Williams, John Edwards | Fiction | 2022-12-20 | Daniel Brignac | A sad but slightly inspiring book about despair, hope, aimlessness, and love. | "He had dreamed of a kind of integrity, of a kind of purity that was entire; he had found compromise and the assaulting diversion of triviality." |
51 | The Road | McCarthy, Cormac | Fiction, post-apocalyptic | 2022-12-06 | I greatly enjoyed reading this, despite it being so soul-crushing. Maybe that's because it's also so inspirational. In any case, this had my attention the whole way through. | "What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality, known or not." | |
52 | Long Live the Pumpkin Queen | Ernshaw, Shea | Fiction, young-adult | 2022-12-02 | Xian Ning Cechman | I read this with Xian Ning :) I imagined everyhing depicted in the same style as the original movie. Very cute. | |
53 | Foundation and Empire | Asmiov, Isaac | Science-fiction | 2022-11-22 | Nick Johnson | I don't think I like the focus on a single antagonist. The twist was pretty obvious. Other than those two gripes, this was a fun read. | |
54 | House of Leaves | Danielewski, Mark Z. | Horror | 2022-11-09 | Ben Goldstein, Austin Mordahl | Surreal. I'm not sure what to make of it. It kind of dragged on towards the end. | "...and now April's ruling April's looming April's fooling, around, in yet another round, for this year's ruling April fool." "Little solace comes // to those who grieve // when thoughts keep drifting // as walls keep shifting // and this great blue world of ours // seems a house of leaves // moments before the wind." |
55 | Foundation | Asimov, Isaac | Science-fiction | 2022-08-01 | Nick Johnson | This is the first book I've read that is mostly about political intrigue. I really enjoyed it. The characters are cunning and intelligent, and pull no punches. The dialogue isn't really believable - I doubt anyone in real life talks like the characters in this book do - but it fits the atmosphere of this story perfectly. | "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right." "A nuclear blaster is a good weapon, but it can point both ways." |
56 | Thief of Time | Pratchett, Terry | Fiction, fantasy, comedy | 2022-07-02 | Probably my favorite book in the Death cycle | "Yes, it had all been so clear in the dream. By daylight, it needed a bit more work" | |
57 | Good Omens | Gaiman, Neil and Pratchett, Terry | Fiction, comedy | 2022-06-10 | Very funny, and it's hard to tell who wrote what | ||
58 | Even a Geek can Speak | Asher, Joey | Self-help | 2022-05-01 | Dr. Paul Gazzillo | Combine what you do with what your audience wants Distill your message into 3 points Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them Conclude with a direct call to action Exude enthusiasm Remember names Ask questions and be open to questions | |
59 | Hygienic Macro Technology | Clinger, William D and Wand, Mitchell | Computer Science, reference | 2022-04-30 | Dr. Paul Gazzillo | Flatt's set of scopes algorithm is definitely the best solution to the hygienic macro problem IMO | |
60 | Untangle Your Anxiety | Fletcher, Joshua and Stott, Dean | Self-help | 2022-04-29 | Xian Ning Cechman | I have a better understanding of anxiety and how anxious people feel | |
61 | Things Fall Apart | Achebe, Chinua | Fiction, historical | 2022-03-11 | This is my first exposure to African literature, and I find not quite like anything I've read before. I don't think it's right that the Christians destroyed the cultures of so many African tribes, but I also think that some of the African customs were a bit unnecessarily violent. I may have more mixed feelings about Okonkwo than any other fictional character I've seen yet. | ||
62 | The Drawing of the Three | King, Stephen | Dark fantasy | 2022-03-07 | I wonder if Roland and the gang will all reach the Dark Tower alive? | ||
63 | Animal Farm | Orwell, George | Fiction | 2022-02-27 | Everything's fun and games until the pigs start walking on two legs. More seriously though, this is very scary to read with all that's going on in Russia and Ukraine right now | "Donkeys live a long time." | |
64 | Dominic | Steig, William | Fiction, adventure | 2022-02-13 | This used to be my favorite book when I was young. Now that I'm older, I interpret the ending in a different, sadder way. Did Dominic die? | ||
65 | Chasing China | Bratt, Kay | Fiction, drama | 2022-02-06 | Xian Ning Cechman | "Lou ye gui gen." Falling leaves return to the root. | |
66 | The Alchemist | Coelho, Paulo | Fiction, adventure | 2022-01-03 | Adrian Cintron | A masterpiece. Proof that a story need not be long to deliver a message that lasts a lifetime.) | “Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should live their lives, but none about his or her own.” “…at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.” “Because people become fascinated with pictures and words, and wind up forgetting the Language of the World.” |
67 | Paper Wife | Ibrahim, Laila | Fiction, drama | 2022-01-01 | Xian Ning Cechman | Heartwarming, although I'm not entirely certain that the protagonist deserves their happy ending… | |
68 | The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck | Manson, Mark | Self-help | 2021-12-30 | Xian Ning Cechman | Insightful, in an irreverent way | |
69 | The Hellbound Heart | Barker, Clive | Fiction, horror | 2021-11-26 | Collin | Scary and to the point; I like very much. | |
70 | Uzumaki | Ito, Junji | Manga, horror | 2021-11-02 | Bella Carter and Collin Pappas | This was a great read. Scary and gross; I genuinely couldn't put it down 🌀 | |
71 | Vagabond 1 | Inoue, Takehiko | Manga, adventure | 2021-10-21 | Collin Pappas and Edgardo Hernandez | So far this is a great adaptation of the story of Musashi, and I like how it diverges from Yoshikawa's novel. | |
72 | Hogfather | Pratchett, Terry | Fiction, fantasy, comedy | 2021-09-14 | "…YOU'VE GOT TO HAVE SOMETHING TO BE HAPPY ABOUT HAVING. THERE'S NO POINT IN BEING HAPPY ABOUT HAVING NOTHING." | ||
73 | A History of the World in 6 Glasses | Standage, Tom | History | 2021-07-11 | Xian Ning Cechman | A well-researched overview of the most popular drinks in history. In a word - refreshing 🍺🍷🥃☕️🍵🥤 | |
74 | Oyasumi Punpun | Asano, Inio | Manga, drama | 2021-06-14 | Collin Pappas | This is definitely the most emotionally compelling manga I've read, perhaps the most compelling comic as well. Asano's depictions of depression, infatuation, anger, frustration, and confusion are so spot-on that at times it's horrifying. The humor in the story only makes it possible for the despair to so be much deeper. Ultimately though, I think this is a story of hope. Chapters 49 and 103 stood out to me as some of the most disturbing. | "Dear God, dear God, tinkle hoy!" |
75 | Runaway | Van Draanen, Wendelin | Fiction, young-adult | 2021-06-07 | Xian Ning Cechman | I notice a marked similarity between this story and the Catcher in the Rye; even the protagonists' names are similar. The story of the Blue Lady on page 103 is jarring. It has to be a symbol, but for what I'm not sure. I think Draanen excels at conveying a sense of loneliness and frustration (i.e., teen-angst). Some of the entries in this book definitely resemble some of the entries in my own journal from darker times in my life (in tone at least). The scene with the pedophile on page 119 is horrifying and makes me sick. The poem on page 171 really hit me hard. The story about the van getting totaled and the perverse guy who gave Holly and her mom a lift, and then proceeded to beat Holly's mom in front of her, is difficult to read. Holly's mom's addiction to heroin reminds of the song Santeria by Sublime. | "Maybe your life is poetry, but mine's a pile of four-letter words." "It was a picture of you... with your arm around me." "There is no Blue Lady. There's only wishful dreaming." "You get greedy or start rationalizing why you're doing something and it'll come back and bite you." "Please, please, please God, oh please, she's all I got left." |
76 | Musashi | Yoshikawa, Eiji | Fiction | 2021-06-06 | Edgardo Hernandez | I ordered this book without knowing how long it was. I felt like EJ had tricked me, haha. It may just be the translation, but the prose in this book is so odd. It's usually so direct as to be almost childish, but occasionally Yoshikawa will make an extremely poignant statement that gives me chills. The scene with Akemi and Seijuro on page 276 was difficult to read, and left me feeling a little broken inside. The chapter "Too Many Kojiros" starting on page 395 made my skin crawl. I have yet to read a better depiction of a man unwittingly confronting a force of utter evil. The chapter "The Elegant People" starting on page 458 is hilarious, and this is compounded by the fact that it's a huge tonal shift from the last chapter. For some reason I really like Gonnosuke. Paragraph 5, page 881. The mental image this evokes is awesome and frightening. The surprise reunion on page 893 warms my heart. The description of Musashi's despondency on pages 896-897 reminds me of how I felt when I first started working at Bags. Page 904. Very surprised to read that Musashi feels envious of Matahachi. The reappearance of Jotaro as a young man on page 911 is epic. Page 925. Musashi's thoughts during this scene deal with some of the deepest questions I've faced in my life more directly than perhaps any other book I've read. Where does one draw the line between independence and community? How does one handle the threat of letting their supporters down? Page 928. Seeing Matahachi become the man he knows he should be brings me tears of joy. Page 930. It makes me so happy to see Osugi become a good person, especially since she reminds me of someone I know in real life. Page 938, last paragraph. Kojiro may have once been evil, but I realize now that I don't want him to die. Why can't people just get along? Towards the end many of the characters were able to find meaning in their lives and become better people. Was this only possible because Musashi and Kojiro fought to the death, or could there have been another way? Page 942. I'm reading Kojiro's final preparations and I can't stop crying. I know he is going to die. It's like watching a tragedy unfurl in slow motion. This may be the best book I've ever read. The ending didn't just have me in tears; it left me bawling. Update: It's been a few years since I read Musashi, and I no longer consider it the best book I've ever read. Gravity's Rainbow holds that honor (and it's not even close). However, Musashi stil holds a special place in my heart, and even though some books may technically be better (e.g., Gravity's Rainbow, Infinite Jest, Pale Fire), Musashi may still be my favorite book. | "He found he respected technique, art, even the ability to do a simple task well, particularly if it was a skill he himself had not mastered." "You'll find, my friend, that in the gutters of this floating world, much of the trash consists of fallen flowers." "Those who love seek a philosophy and, because of this, are fond of solitude." "Why can't I be thankful for independence and freedom to go where I choose? Why can't I hold on to my ideals and my pride?" "There are people who die by remaining alive and others who gain life by dying." "I'm torn between love and self-discipline." "It is easy to surpass a predecessor, but dificult to avoid being surpassed by a successor." "It's because I'm a man... that I'm crying." "There's nothing more frightening than a half-baked do-gooder who knows nothing of the world but takes it upon himself to tell the world what's good for it." "Laugh if you will... the conclusion I've come to is that life is enjoyment. Without enjoyment, what use if living?" "I don't care how badly off I am; I'd rather die than lose my pride." "If you were going to win, you wouldn't throw your scabbard away. You've cast away your future, your life." |
77 | Soul Music | Pratchett, Terry | Fiction, fantasy, comedy | 2021-05-31 | Not bad. My favorite parts were the rock concert in the cavern and Death riding the motorcycle. | “SOME SHADOWS ARE SO LONG THEY ARRIVE BEFORE THE LIGHT” | |
78 | Reaper Man | Pratchett, Terry | Fiction, fantasy, comedy | 2021-05-13 | This story really grew on me. It sort of spanned all genres and was surprisingly heartwarming while also being light-hearted and funny. The joke on page 216 made me laugh out loud. | "It was amazing how many friends you could make by being bad at things, provided you were bad enough to be funny." "IF PEOPLE KNEW WHEN THEY WERE GOING TO DIE, I THINK THEY PROBABLY WOULDN'T LIVE AT ALL." "Inside Every Living Person is a Dead Person Waiting to Get Out." | |
79 | Mort | Pratchett, Terry | Fiction, fantasy, comedy | 2021-05-06 | The joke on page 27 made me laugh louder than any other book that I've read. I can't wait to read the rest! | "A SPLASH OF TOILET WATER AND A POLISH, MY GOOD MAN" "THERE'S NO JUSTICE, said Mort. JUST US." | |
80 | The Turn of the Screw | James, Henry | Fiction, horror | 2021-05-01 | I sort of read this on a whim. I was initially ready to dismiss the story as just another prolix tale from the past. After doing more research on the story, however, I found that James intended readers to question the reliability of the narrator the whole way through. This completely recontextualizes the story for me, and I am impressed. | ||
81 | Neuromancer | Gibson, William | Fiction, science-fiction | 2021-04-21 | Peter Pappas and Nicholas Johnson | I'm not sure if this book has left a huge impact on me or not. The ending is certainly my favorite part. I can't decide if it's happy, sad, or creepy. | |
82 | The Power of Habit | Duhigg, Charles | Self-help | 2021-04-04 | Adam | This book's main points could be condensed down to a single page, however, I liked the variety of stories that Duhigg employs to illustrate his ideas. | |
83 | Think and Grow Rich | Hill, Napoleon | Business/Finance | 2021-03-22 | Hill writes with such authority. The latter half of this book gets a bit weird, but overall this book offers solid advice. | ||
84 | The Idea Factory | White, Pepper | Science, autobiography | 2021-03-08 | Dr. Paul Gazzillo | MIT sounds scary. | |
85 | The 5 A.M. Miracle: Dominate Your Day Before Breakfast | Sanders, Jeff | Self-help | 2021-02-22 | Patricia Hartley | Overall solid advice. The allusions to and section on inversion therapy was kinda weird though haha | |
86 | Autoportrait | Levé, Edouard | Autobiography | 2021-02-17 | Peter Pappas | What a read, quite unlike anything else I've seen. The afterword makes me sad 😢 I should go back and highlight/write down my favorite quotes from this book | |
87 | Platinum End | Ohba, Tsugumi and Obata Takeshi | Manga, action, drama | 2021-02-12 | Edgardo Hernandez | The ending got as metaphysical and weird as I was hoping it would | |
88 | Rhythm of War | Sanderson, Brandon | Fiction, fantasy | 2021-02-03 | Truthfully, I found some parts of this book to be a bit boring. Sanderson really pulled me back in for the ending though | ||
89 | Beating the Street | Lynch, Peter | Business/Finance | 2021-01-31 | Although many of the specific details in this book don't seem very useful to know, Lynch's general tips on stock picking sound solid. In any case, it's interesting to peer into the mind of someone capable of managing a multi-billion dollar mutual fund | ||
90 | The C Preprocessor | Stallman, Richard M. and Weinberg, Zachary | Programming langauges, reference | 2021-01-28 | Dr. Paul Gazzillo | Not the most exciting thing I've ever read... | |
91 | Oathbringer | Sanderson, Brandon | Fiction, fantasy | 2021-01-20 | I forgot to put write this down originally so I'm just guessing about the finish date. The start of this one felt a bit odd to me, but it really picked up in then middle. The ending was very dramatic/ | ||
92 | Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | Dick, Philip K. | Fiction | 2021-01-18 | Exceptional; Dick condenses so much philosophy into such a short novel. Also I find it serendipitous that I read this book in the same month in which its events take place (the future is now!) | ||
93 | Learn You a Haskell for Great Good! | Lipovača, Miran | Programming langauges, computer science | 2020-12-27 | Dr. Gary Leavens | I think I finally know what a monad is. | |
94 | The Mythical Man-Month | Brooks Jr., Frederick P. | Software engineering | 2020-12-16 | Jon Bentley | ||
95 | The Wyrm | Laws, Stephen | Fiction, horror | 2020-12-08 | Edward Lorn | A simple, fun to read horror novel | |
96 | Words of Radiance | Sanderson, Brandon | Fiction, fantasy | 2020-11-24 | Even better than the first | ||
97 | Tenth of December | Saunders, George | Fiction | 2020-11-06 | Peter Pappas | ||
98 | Programming Pearls | Bentley, Jon | Computer science, software engineering | 2020-11-01 | Second edition | ||
99 | Creepshow | King, Stephen | Fiction, horror | 2020-10-30 | |||
100 | The Way of Kings | Sanderson, Brandon | Fiction, fantasy | 2020-10-24 | Thomas Le | Epic! Listened to on Audible. Eager to continue |