September Books

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Full disclosure, I have been reading a little less recently because I have been watching too many films (although the Swedish master director Ingmar Bergman would disagree, the man was known to watch three films a day when he was alive!) but nevertheless I did manage to read four books in September.

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

I really liked this novel and I feel like I am going to devour more of Flaubert’s prose ASAP as I really enjoyed his realism and wit. I also found Madame Bovary to be a bit alarming too as I found myself sympathising with Emma quite a bit even though she was ungrateful, adulterous and selfish. But I could understand her distaste for the banality of marriage and provincial life because of all the exciting and sweeping romantic novels she read in her youth.

Diary of an Oxygen Thief by Anonymous

This is quite a naked novel, in the sense of rawness that is. However, a review on the blurb does claim it to be a ‘kinky, artsy’ novel which I didn’t really see myself, but perhaps that’s because I’ve watched far too many European films for me to consider something like this ‘kinky’. Mostly, I am intrigued by the fact that this novel (and its sequels) was published anonymously, I wonder what possessed the author to detach themselves from the work.

All in all, Diary of an Oxygen Thief is not spectacular writing but it’s an interesting portrait of humiliation and human fragility and that was enough for me.

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Venus in Furs (Venus im Pelz) by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

Yes, the surname of this author is why Masochism is called Masochism. And while you might think Venus in Furs must be a rather depraved book as a result, you must remember that this was published in 1870, so by modern standards, it’s pretty tame. Go read Bataille if your looking for something more transgressive. Overall, I found this book rather dull, in some places the writing was beautiful but for the most part, it was too repetitive and I found myself willing the story to end.

Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年) by Haruki Murakami

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve read Murakami, which was completely intentional as I want to slowly plod through his work as he is one of my favourite authors. However, I found Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki to be quite a mediocre entry into the author’s oeuvre, sure I read it all and enjoyed it but it didn’t hit me with anything new or particularly profound (not that all literature needs to do that) which I guess I was expecting. I don’t know, there was a great passage towards the end but, the novel as a whole…it was fine, I guess.

June Books

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This month has basically been a marathon of short fiction, a final trudge through Dune and me discovering a new favourite book and a desire to read classics again. Oh and I read one of the most obscene books ever written!

Dune by Frank Herbert

I wrote a separate review for Dune as I felt like I had a lot to say, and I did. So TL;DR I liked it but I didn’t like it. It’s complicated and it depends on how you read it and from which POV. But if you fancy reading the full review then click here.

At The Sign Of The Cat And Racket (La maison du Chat-qui-pelote) by Honoré de Balzac

This month I decided to start tackling French author Balzac’s The Human Comedy (La Comédie Humaine) a collection of interlinked works which is made up of novels, novellas and essays set in during the Restoration period and July Monarchy. Balzac could be seen as a French Dickens, as both wrote about society and with a focus on realism. This novella follows a few characters who work at a small shop in Paris and the owner marries his daughters off to two very different men. The themes of money, happiness, status, faithfulness, art, and work run throughout. At some point when my French is up to scratch, I’ll probably try reading some of The Human Comedy in French so stay tuned for that (let’s hold me accountable please!)

Also, Balzac’s At The Sign Of The Cat And Racket has forced me to reconsider the genre of realism, and particularly whether I was wrong about Dickens! I have for many years refused to touch a Dickens novel after reading A Christmas Carol at school and finding it veritably boring. I even avoided reading Bleak House for my degree because I thought I knew that I would hate it (ended up reading Walden by Thoreau and despised that instead) but maybe I would have liked it! Maybe I need to reconsider Dickens, and that folks is something I never thought would happen!

Micromegas by Voltaire

More French lit, I think I often coincide my cinematic choices with my book choices as recently I started watching French films again and suddenly all I want to read is classic French Literature. It’s a bit strange but I’ll go with it (I’ll have to because I have ordered so many French Lit second-hand books recently). I read Candide for Uni last year and really enjoyed Voltaire’s wit and seeing that I was miles behind on my 75 books in a year challenge I thought to myself “why not read this tiny little book by a French author that you’ve read before”. So I did. Micromegas is a rather strange little thing, it is essentially Sci-Fi before Sci-Fi was a thing.

The short story follows a giant from a planet called Sirius as he journeys through the solar system, he meets another giant (though much smaller than Micromegas) on Saturn and they soon find themselves on Earth. For these giants, Human life is so small (literally) and they find our behaviour (waging wars) perplexing due to how insignificant we seem, as in comparison, humans are tiny, and live such short lives and have a much inferior intellect to them. Voltaire’s brand of satire is fantastic and I can’t wait to read more of his works.

Record of a Night Too Brief (蛇を踏む) by Hiromi Kawakami

I like abstract stories, I like bizarre and challenging stories. But I did not like any of the short stories in this volume. I also have in the past read Kawakami and enjoyed her prose, but this collection of three stories just didn’t do anything for me. I found them too strange and I was unable to connect with them on any level. All I can say is nevermind, you win some and you lose some. Will I continue to check out Kawakami’s work? Sure, I think she’s an interesting and talented writer, it’s just that these stories didn’t touch me.

A Spy in the House of Love by Anaïs Nin

I have found a new author to consume wholeheartedly. Her prose is deliciously poetic, and the way she writes Sabine is so vivid and relatable but alarming and deplorable at the same time. I loved this novel and I feel like I need to get a physical copy (I read it on Libby) to underline all the moments of poeticism and to read it over and over again.

Femme Fatale by Guy de Maupassant

This Penguin Little Black Classics book contains four short stories set in 19th Century France was nothing particularly fantastic, just ok in my opinion. But for 80p you can’t really go wrong and I might read Maupassant’s most famous work Bel-Ami as a result.

Story of the Eye (Histoire de l'œil) by Georges Bataille

This is a book that will leave an impression on you. It’s interesting to analyse from a psychological angle but my goodness it is utterly depraved and probably the most f***ked up book I have ever read. All I’m prepared to say is that I can probably never look at eyes and eggs the same way again.

October Books

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As You Like It - William Shakespeare

I have always been much more of a fan of Shakespeare’s tragedies (with the exception of Much ado about Nothing) and I have to say that I am just not a fan of this pastoral comedy, but watching the play performed made it a lot more bearable than reading it, which I guess is to be expected but I was expecting a little more. The jury is still out on whether I nailed the essay on it though…

Black and White Photographer - Han Yujoo

This short story by Han Yujoo is available to read via Issuu or Buk thanks to the LTI Korean Library (there are also so many more short stories from Korea available on there for free too!)

The Black and White Photographer follows a young boy who is kidnapped and held in a storage room for a week. In this 20 page short story, Yujoo explores how a young mind would try and grapple with such a traumatic and alien experience.

Tale of a Mad Painter - Kim Dong-in

Another Korean short story that I read on Buk, this one also is a little dark and reads kind of like a Grimms Fairytale. The story is a story within a story, a writer is hiking and he decides to make up a story as he admires the view. The story he makes up is about a painter who is unsightly, and as a result he becomes a recluse, one day he meets a blind girl. I won’t tell you the conclusion as it’s well worth a read.

Walden - Henry David Thoreau - Nearly finished/ might not get to the end because it is oh so dull!

Oh dear. I am most definitely not a fan of Walden, in fact I could indeed say that this may just be the most boring book I have ever had the displeasure of reading. Thoreau is a self-entitled twit, whose occasional moment of poetical flare or interesting philosophical musing is overshadowed by his irritating egocentric narration. Also not much even happens, a whole chapter is dedicated to the hoeing of a bean field! I had to read this for uni and it’s safe to say I will never read Thoreau ever again!

January & February Books

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This post is about all the books I’ve read in January and February, pretty standard really and the title already told you that so this section is obsolete really, so perhaps we’ll just get into the content then…

Oh and before you judge me for only reading six books these past two months I actually read a few more than what’s in the picture but seeing as they were either in uni reading materials or online they can’t be present in this cute little pile of physical books.

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Oh, how I really wanted to love this novel. I love the Gothic genre and the fact that this was a young female writer’s first novel, in a time where men prevailed and she had the “apparent audacity” to publish it under her own name! In places, there are intense moments of wonder (often when the wretched monster is speaking) and there are also dragging moments of boredom (do you really need to ramble on so much about mountains and nature – I get some of it and the symbolism, but just a little less would have been appreciated). Overall, Shelley’s work is a classic, a necessary read but I don’t think I’ll ever pick it up again.

The Sandman by E.T.A Hoffman

Weird, disturbing and has inspired so many people from authors such as Neil Gaiman to ‘evidence’ for a psychological theory by none other than Sigmund Freud! The Sandman is at its heart a Kunstmärchen, a Fairy Tale, and not the Disney kind folks, one of the traditional ones where people die and have to endure harrowing acts of violence and misfortune. The Sandman mixes so many different themes but at the heart is the effect of childhood nightmares on the adult psyche (and now you know why dear old Freud was interested).

The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How to Be Calm and Mindful in a Fast-Paced World by Haemin Sunim

This book is a nice relaxing massage for the mind. I read it one afternoon when it was all rain and wind outside and I have never felt so chilled out while reading. Haemin Sunim is a Buddhist monk, of the Zen/Seon sector which I’ve mentioned that I have a deep interest in in the past, so my reading of this book is perhaps to be expected. I feel like I will return to read this little book of wisdom time and time again and I can’t wait to read his newest release too.

I’ll Go On by Hwang Jungeun

The story of two sisters and their childhood friend as one of the sisters navigates pregnancy doesn’t really sound like riveting stuff, but let me tell you that this book is one the best books I’ve read for a very long time. It explores three very close but different lives and the effect of past actions and relationships on current thoughts and behaviours. I’ll Go On is also full of Korean cultural references that have allowed me to get a deeper understanding of society as a whole. Thoroughly enjoyable and really thought-provoking, I may have also shed a tear or two.

Winter Woods (Part 2) BY COSMOS & Vanji – Webcomic

Winter Woods is a webcomic inspired by Frankenstein, but instead of The Monster, an alchemist creates a sensitive young man who has lived for more than a thousand years when the story opens. He slowly finds himself falling in love with a woman called Jane who teaches him what it means to be truly alive.

The artwork in this webcomic is absolutely stunning and the story is so uplifting and cute, so you should definitely check it out on Naver Webtoon.

Mr Salary by Sally Rooney

Here starts my Sally Rooney binge, this is a short story and like Rooney’s other work it explores relationships and more specifically complicated and unlikely relationships. Fast and interesting I really enjoyed this introduction to Rooney who is fast becoming a literary sensation.

The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

Having read A Study in Scarlet many years ago (which I enjoyed…I think) I was relieved when this book was part of my uni course. However, I didn’t really think much of it. If anything I think The Sign of the Four was a little contrived, Conan Doyle was clearly writing about the British Empire and her pursuits in India to cash in on Victorian anxieties about The Indian Rebellion of 1857, which was finding itself as the subject of many literary works of the time. Published in cheap magazines and read by the masses, The Sign of the Four was predictable and romanticised a country (that Doyle never stepped foot on!) in turmoil for mass-market appeal. I don’t agree with that at all! What a load of rubbish!

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Normal People is a good book, I really enjoyed the experience of reading it but on retrospection, a few things stand out as problematic, and of course, no book can be perfect (except if your name is Haruki Murakami lol - ignore me!). But overall I can tell why everyone has been reading Normal People and I’m looking forward to what Rooney writes next.

The Beach of Falesá by Robert Louis Stevenson

Clearly a product of its time, this short story is laced with racism and ignorance despite the fact that Stevenson had immigrated to Samoa and wrote this short story to reflect the reality of life in the Pacific. I found it rather boring and cringe-worthy, the only redeeming factor was Uma’s defiance of her husband once in the whole story. I had to read this short story for a uni essay, so it’s safe to say I will never read it again.

3/4 of Conversations with Freinds by Sally Rooney

Due to a mass deadline at the end of the month, I didn’t get to finish the final book in my Sally Rooney binge! Never mind, I’ll finish it this month instead so you’ll be seeing this one properly in March and April’s book post.

Let me know what books you’ve been reading recently!