shark vs the universe
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Love Begins
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Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
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"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
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One Nice Bug Per Day
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@cometomyhouseihavegreatbooks
Iām gonna make a tag system :)
Finished - #fin
To track what Iām currently reading - #reading
Did not finish - #dnf
other peopleās recs - #recs
my recs - #my recs
I WONT star books. Just too much pressure and frankly who cares. But if I ever share my thoughts about a book - #review
if someone else shares a review of their book and I think itās cool as fuck - #other peopleās reviews
I take the Neapolitan novels as existentialist ones which capture the horror of being unable to escape oneself. this isn't just a matter of introspection, it's a matter of experience. as in, you can analyze how both Lila and Lenu are trapped by how they grew up, by personal characteristics they can't expunge from themselves, but as a reader, you are also forced to confront their lived experience. so instead of just seeing the novels as a fun intellectual challenge as a critic, I also have to deal with how they reflect on my own life.
technically we never get Lila's perspective, but I feel the sketch we get of her, plus such a detailed look into Lenu's interiority, allows the reader to reconstruct it fairly well. that's subjective, but so is everything, even our own perceptions of our past; the only certain thing is experience-as-it-occurs.
I experience Lenu's memory of her experience as I read about it, and often, it's unpleasant. her low self-esteem largely stems from her dislike of what she feels to be her innate characteristics. her dissatisfaction with herself originates in her comparing herself to Lila. I think Lila feels the same about her, but for different reasons. imagine, if you will, being Lila. imagine that you can't stop yourself from constantly making trouble and saying mean things even to people you care about. imagine being impulsive and regretting it later. imagine being able to get yourself into such extreme mental states that you do things you barely even remember afterwards.
wikipedia says that Ferrante intended the Neapolitan novels to be one long coming-of-age story. I haven't seen her say that anywhere. instead I've seen her claim in Frantumaglia that she resists genre classification. however, I did read the series with bildungsroman in mind. in the Story of the Lost Child, Lenu notes that Lila truly stops being a child when the article they wrote together fails to take down the Solaras. then the story keeps going, not towards self-acceptance and transcendence, but towards "bad blood." this sets the series apart from almost every other coming-of-age story I've read. the reward for growing up is supposed to be things getting better, not worse.
while I like coming-of-age stories that offer more hope, I didn't ultimately find the Neapolitan novels hopeless. they were something else. they speak to the part of me that's afraid the world can't change. I think that it's worth exploring. returning to my original point, I can relate to both Lila and Lenu in how they feel trapped. even as they seem to have traits which separate them from the neighborhood, they are only able to exist in relationship to it--even Lenu, who leaves. ultimately Lila can only find her way out by ceasing to exist herself. it's really heavy, it doesn't fill me with inspiration, but precisely because of that, I feel that the Neapolitan novels are staying with me for life.
tagged by @paandaan (Ė¶įµ įµ įµĖ¶) ā¹š¹
the last book i read: chorus of mushrooms, hiromi goto
a book i'd recommend: on the origin of species and other stories, kim bo-young
a book i couldn't put down: love, toni morrison. i think itās her most underrated from the series.
a book i've read twice or more: not without laughter, langston hughes
a book on my tbr: the language of trees: a rewilding of literature and landscape, katie holten
a book i've put down: labyrinths: selected tories & other writings, jorge luis borges. i got around to 15-20 pages and couldnāt get over the blatant racism towards black people and his very openly zoinist views.
a book on my wish list: on the postcolony, achille mbembe. i want it so bad put itās so expensiveā¦
a favourite book from childhood: anything robert munsch but some favourites were love you forever, the paper bag princess and 50 below zero.
a book i'd give to a friend: confessions, kanae minato
a book of poetry or lyrics that i own: the essential june jordan, june jordan. since itās the goatās birthdayšļø
a non-fiction book that i own: ontological terror: blackness, nihilism, and emancipation, calvin l. warren
what I'm currently reading: at night all blood is black, david diop's
what I'm planning on reading next: how to write about africa: collected works, binyavanga wainaina
tagging @librarycards @romancenjoyer @srdcovka @7bitter @watermotif @varenikiy @oaluz @boozytiramisu @orchidreign hiiiā¦
Starting the day w the book on my nightstand makes me feel sooo alive.
Running to the library to get some schoolwork done, but wanted to share todayās morning reading beforehand š¤š¤ minimum daily reading Iāve set for myself is 30 mins, but itās so easy to enter flow state once u actually pick up the book :-)
while weāre on this topic is it a safe space to share that I dnfed on earth weāre briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong
Guys taking recommendations for a beautiful, colorful literary fiction book thatās a joy to read but also challenging in its own right!! Iām ready to start a new book but my current tbr feels bereft of this vibe, and I think thatās what I need for Julyā¦ open to any recs but would like to emphasize that I want a challenging, acclaimed book :-)
hello
Anyone read Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan?? Thoughts?? Iām thinking of starting it next but want to sus if itās well written šļø
For anyone wondering, the PhD student's name is Myra Cheng.
Here's a link to an article about the study from the Stanford Report: link.
Across three preregistered studies, participants interacting with sycophantic AI became more convinced of their own rightness and less willing to repair relationships. Yet at the same time, participants rated sycophantic AI models as higher quality, more trustworthy, and more desirable for future use, which may explain why this behavior has persisted despite its harmful impacts.
Myra Cheng et al. "Sycophantic AI decreases prosocial intentions and promotes dependence." Science 391, eaec8352 (2026).
The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante is good but the Neapolitan series is amazing. Iām wanting to read Beloved but I worry it will devastate me in my already fragile state lol. Also, I actually think Haunting on Hill House by Shirley Jackson is a great summer read because it is set during the summer
All great recs! Might start on the Shirley Jackson one first bc ur right that sounds like prime summer reading material
Hello Iām reading 30 pages of my reread book today bc I slacked the last few days . Medical apartheid !
Ok this is a REALISTIC reading blog so my update is I literally read public health papers and study a ton of material just for research so I think having to recreationally read about it too is burning me out. This is my reread of this book so technically I can dnf the reread, but I donāt feel comfortable doing that so instead Iām forcing myself to finish it š (not great). I have a lot of fascination for this topic but I think Iām just so ready to delve into some really good fiction. Anyway Iām trudging through those 30 pages today u guys stay posted.
Hello Iām reading 30 pages of my reread book today bc I slacked the last few days . Medical apartheid !
I've got a tradition going on since 2024 where every august I read one work of virginia woolf. So far I've read mrs dalloway and a room of one's own, and this year I plan on reading to the lighthouse š
SO COOOOL can I steal this from you?? I donāt read nearly enough Virginia Woolf!
have u read anything
Yes Iām wrapping up my reread of Medical Apartheid! Super cool book but my conclusion is Iām kind of burned out on nonfiction lol, I look forward to picking up The Left Hand of Darkness and delving into a story for a bit!
I saw you ask how to best approach Toni Morrison's work! My best advice is to go in understanding that you will not understand everything on the first read and that it's perfectly fine and normal. I just finished reading Jazz by her and there were some passages that were drenched in metaphors/symbolism/so much more but as I reread it I began to understand it a bit more. That and the deeper you get into her books the more things become clear. Don't be ashamed to search up some parts as so many other people possibly had the same questions and there are answers galore out there! I hope you have fun reading her works and I highly suggest Song of Solomon
This is perfect advice!! Thank you so much!
Also for anyone whoās getting themselves back in the groove with reading like me, just wanted to share my strategy with you guys š¤ the reason I burned out out of reading so long ago was that I put a lot of pressure on ācorrectly understandingā challenging books. That caused me to obsessively reread and annotate, and I felt like shit every time I got āsomething wrongā (we wonāt unpack why thatās toxic to begin with - books are so versatile regardless of an authorās intended meaning). To start, for the first few weeks/maybe even month, I have a strict minimal annotation policy. Iāll share my thoughts about challenging books on here, and Iām excited to bounce my thoughts off other peopleās thoughts because I think itāll help me look at other perspectives + even fill any gaps I mightāve missed! So Iām really looking forward to that. Once Iām more in the groove, I may start annotating challenging books + I may even get a commonplace notebooks for books that are particularly dense :) so thatās the plan!!
