Reading Log

- 3 minutes read - 599 words

Ever since I added the “currently reading” section to my front page, I figured I should probably start actually writing down the books I’ve read. At times I miss having Goodreads and such, but it’s also just a lot of work and too fancy for me. I am happy with just a plain list. I’ll try to remember to enter books chronologically by year, but it’ll be a very loose chronology. I should’ve been doing this all year, but oh well. More to come.

2024

Finished

  • Heather Radke, Butts: a Backstory (2022): What an absolute joy to read! All you ever wanted to know about butts throughout history!
  • Kathleen Riley, Imagining Ithaca: nostos and nostalgia since the Great War (2021): An interesting book on the theme of nostos (“homecoming”) in literature since World War I, and more modern media’s engagement with the classics.
  • J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales (1980): A deep dive into paths not taken in Tolkien’s sprawling legendarium. It’s not a quick read, and is very dense, but is very good.
  • Michel Chion, David Lynch (2005): An interesting look at David Lynch’s films (and of course, TV, including Twin Peaks and On the Air).
  • Homer, Emily Wilson (trans.), The Iliad (2023): A heartbreakingly lovely translation of a brutal, grueling, intense epic, and the first translation (AFAIK) by a woman. Wilson’s earlier translation of The Odyssey is also amazing.
  • C.M. Mayo (ed.), Tameme: New Writing from North America (“Sun and Moon”) 1.2 (2001): This is an issue of a bilingual literary magazine with contributions from the USA, Canada, and Mexico. It was an interesting read, but I’m going to donate it for someone else to enjoy.
  • L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Overcaptain (2024): I’ve read all of the other Saga of Recluce books and they’re great. I’m excited for the next one to come out in August 2025!

Did Not Finish (DNF)

  • Jack London, White Fang and Call of the Wild: Literary classics about the frozen North.
    • I tried but really did not love this. Nope.

2025

Finished

  • L. M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle (1926): A woman is stuck in a mansion with her stuffy, terrible family, but eventually finds a way out. And it’s a really interesting ride. Made me think of mistaken-identity stories like Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe and such. It was really good, and had a happy ending.
    • I found out that Montgomery also wrote Anne of Green Gables and now I want to read it too!
  • Sarah Archer, Midcentury Christmas (2016): This was a delightful little book, all about ’50s and ’60s (and modern, ish) aesthetics of Christmas. I heard about it on a You’re Wrong About episode recently. I apparently got the “stocking stuffer” edition from the library, which hopefully didn’t abridge it too much!
  • Mahmoud Darwish, Memory for Forgetfulness (1995): a collection of prose poems about the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Sadly, extremely topical. It was a puzzling, confusing, terrifying, challenging, but also beautiful read. Highly recommend it. I don’t know if it’ll help make sense of what’s gone on or what is happening now, but it’s well worth a read.
  • Kate Chopin, The Awakening and other stories (2000): A collection of the writer Kate Chopin’s short stories, as well as the full-length novel The Awakening. It was an interesting read, the short stories were kinda cool, and even some of the short story characters come up in the novel!

Did Not Finish

  • Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island (1876): This one just didn’t grab me, unfortunately.
  • John Steinbeck, East of Eden (1952): I stalled out. It was just too much.