Reading Log

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!
• Alexandre Dumas, The Wolf-Leader (1857): This was a trippy Gothic horror novel, with Satanism, lycanthropy, and all sorts of weirdness!
• Mike Diver, Retro Gaming: A Byte-Sized History of Videogames (2022): This was a fun little read on the history of video games!

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.