Topic: Nintendo Life Book Club

Also picked up (and finished) a ‘literary classic’ for the first time in a while: The Remains of the Day.

It’s been around long enough that I’d already absorbed the general thrust of the story, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that — despite being defined by tragedy and remorse — the book stops short of being outright bleak in its closing statements. There’s an element of catharsis mixed in with the heartbreak and regret.

It’s far from a happy ending, but it’s certainly more than ‘just sad’, which is sort of what I was expecting.

My dad finally felt guilty enough to read a book I gave him for his birthday, and I'm really proud of him for finishing it. That might sound condescending but he feels bad for watching so much television so it's nice he's taking steps to be a little more 'aware', as it were.

Right now I'm finishing up Libra and probably moving on to Satantango since I love Laszlo (insert long Hungarian last name here)

Just finished Eliezer Wiesel’s Night. Great book, horrible story. Anyone who’s read it or knows what it’s about gets exactly what I mean by that.

About to finish "The Short Happy Life of Brown Oxford by Dick", luckily I came over my phobia of well reviewed books I had gotten after reading the horrible "The Hate U Give",

Also started "Meddling Kids" by Edgar Cantero, really enjoying it so far

Welp, I started reading the Harry Potter series, I’m currently on the third book, but my brother already gifted me the kindle versions of the remaining books. So that’s quite a backlog.

But of course, on top of that I’ve added Howl’s Moving Castle, The Wind in the Willows, and Rosemary’s Baby to the list, to break the Harries into smaller Potters, just in case I lose steam in the second half of that…. I think I might be set for the entire year. I also need to finish reading Dragon Teeth…

The Wind in the Willows in particular is the only physical book of the bunch, and it’s an adorable little hard cover copy, I really like how it looks and feels.

Also I finished reading The Office BBFs last month, it was a really nice look into the production of The Office and the lives of Angela and Jenna (Pam), I enjoyed it.

@Eel good to know Howl's Moving Castle has a book, but I'm scared to invest time in something that might be as bad as the movie

@Princess_Lilly I don’t remember a lot about the movie, other than it being confusing, but I expect the book to make more sense.

It’s apparently a series too, there’s more chapters to the story.

About my Harry Progress, I’ve finished reading Prisoner of Azkaban, and began reading Goblet of Fire.

@Eel yeah it's not as bad as the Tales of the Earthsea but it's still very... mixed up.

Good luck with the Goblet, do tell your opinion!

just started reading Winds of Dune paperback an hour ago. so far i like it. i did enjoy Paul of Dune like 2 or 3 times anyway

@moomin Don't know if you have heard about him already, but Günther Anders (German/Austrian philosopher from the last century with (as far as I know) a main focus on technology and anthropology) has an interesting phenomenological take on the television as the "nucleus of the household" - just popped up in my mind when reading your comment and maybe you will find it interesting? (I have no access to the article or book myself right now, so I unfortunately can't give you the title as of now...). But I am glad to hear your dad finally took the "leap of faith": (mine is still mostly glued to the television...).

Also curious if you were able to start reading Lacan already? I think his seminars are quite difficult to read, but from time to time some parts click really well with me and give a lot of food for thought when it comes to the human psyche and/or what makes us human. Oohw and I don't know if you know it already but "some" understanding of Freud and Jung does help a lot.

On topic: just finished "The Star Diaries" by Stanislaw Lem (just go in blind, haha) and right now reading René Descartes "Letter on Love".

just started reading Hunters of Dune the other day. so far its decent. kind of better than Heretics and Chapterhouse but not totally better.

still cant tell who's the good guys and who the bad guys are supposed to be

Have been making more of an effort to read the past 2-3 years, try to read 12 in a year varying between fiction and non-fiction so might start lurking here looking for recommendations!

Recently I generally veer towards fantasy and my main series has been Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive which I'm now up-to-date with so exploring a few others. Read some Gabrielle Zevin, Fonda Lee, Joe Abercrombie and a couple of Yahtzee Croshaw's in the past year or so. I was also a fan of Scott Lynch's Gentleman B*stard books but I've kinda lost hope of the next one coming since it's been over 10 years...

I've got some on my Kindle app on the phone (usually non-fiction/self-help stuff) but I generally prefer physical books and visiting small bookstores. What are folks' preferences? Physical or eBooks?

Ah right. I finished The Goblet of Fire and started The Order of the Phoenix. Globlet of Fire was still nice and fun for the most part.

I believe this is the point in the story where things get somewhat heavier. Beginning with the fact Harry is a bit of an angsty brat right off the start and the ministry just went full-on muggle levels of corrupt.

It’s also the longest book in the series by a long shot. Welp.

———————

Edit: I’m now done with Order of the Phoenix, and Half Blood Prince as well. These are going by fast- which surprises me since they’re not that short.

Order of the Phoenix remains the heaviest one so far… with the unmeasured teen angst, feelings of injustice, and overall sadness.

Half Blood Prince was somewhat of a return to the feeling of the previous entries… Harry is less of a brat and most of the miasma of dread is put in the background to make room for some extra funny moments, teenage romance plot lines, and private exposition sessions with Dumbledore.

Of course I know the major plot points, so the big plot twist wasn’t quite as impactful as I’m sure it would, had I read it before watching the movies, but still… even with that, the sixth book is a breezier read nonetheless (compared to book five).

Now I’ll probably slow down and pace myself to read Deathly Hallows without binge reading it.

———————

Welp I went and binge read the final book as well. Now I’m a little sad because these were supposed to last me a good portion of the year… but hey I suppose that means I liked them.

i just started gravity's rainbow

i read the first 250-something pages a few years back but got to a point where i paused mid-sentence realizing 'i havent absorbed anything in like ten chapters' and put it down. pynchon's flow is immaculate though. the first 50 pages go by like a breeze

I'm revisiting the Amulet graphic novels by Kazu Kibuishi right now. I haven't been able to get my hands on book 9 yet because it just came out, but I am super excited to read it!

@Mallow9623 WAIT BOOK NINE IS OUT IVE BEEN WAITING FOR YEARS YASSSSSSS

Yessir! It's called Waverider

In honor of the late Akira Toriyama, I picked up a three-in-one of the first three volumes of the original "Dragon Ball" at Barnes & Noble.

Just started Finnegan’s Wake. I don’t know why, I hate stream of consciousness as a narrative device (seriously william faulkner scarred me for life) but whew this is horrible.