Of the three art consumption pursuits I post on here about this one is the least structured because it doesn't follow a list like the other two. That said it is the oldest pursuit in that I've loved reading my whole life and after a late teens reading slump I am now back like never before :)
2022 book count: 12
2023 book count: 24
2024 book count: 1 and counting
I've said before comics have a hard time being high art. V for Vendetta founds its way around that by veering away from usual comic book territory, and in the case of The Boys Garth Ennis chose subversion. Take every famed superhero trope and pair it with the grim realities of celebrity and a loooooot of unmarketable R-rated content. And I stand by unmarketable because early in its run the comic was dropped by DC due to issues with the content. While with V for Vendetta the main things were atmosphere and pacing, the name of the game in The Boys is characterization. This thing has a lot of characters and it ensures complex characterization for every single one, it's insane. Complex characterization inturns lead to a plot jam packed with character motivations that means just about everything that happens is high stakes. It's a thrilling read, no way around it. I would recommend it to anyone
02-03-2024 17:33I went through this book rather intensely. I read it on the 31st of December in a rush to meet my year reading goal while simultaneously listening to the audiobook so I didn't lose focus for one second. I'd also started on the Hitchiker's Guide series so long ago it really did feel like I was leaving something behind. The book made no effort to make that emotional sucker punch any easier on me either. Douglas Adams never went easy on his audience in terms of rough emotional climaxes but this was the most intense of all honestly. The whole Hitchiker's Guide series is a tour de force on the power of heavy emotionality wrapped in a coat of levity. It should be academic reading frankly. Truly one of the most memorable experiences of my life as a reader
11-01-2024 18:09I'm crediting it to the translator seen as everyone already knows the author, but it sure was a cool experience to broaden my knowledge of Latin with the Latin translation of my favorite book, The Little Prince. It adds to my perception of the depth of my connection with this book seen as there were bits where I didn't even need to look at the French version (which I was doing to make it easier to follow) because I just knew the whole bit by heart. Next to that the most memorable quotes had a new feel to them when I read them in the ever regal sounding lingua latina. Can't wait to do this again with The Hobbit
11-01-2024 18:00Now obviously I would have liked to have written this about a week ago but one does what one can. D'you know, I've never actually seen the Muppets version of A Christmas Carol, and I wouldn't call it that major a classic back where I grew up. Charles Dickens is probably one of the best writers who ever lived but he is also very distinctly British, so while I'm not saying he has no Brazilian fans he certainly doesn't have the same kind of cultural relevance he enjoys in this hemisphere. Because of that when after my Christmas Eve celebrations were done I read this whole story at once that was my first time going through it ever. I was honestly very impressed with what I got. Though brief, it's stunningly sharp, drags vevy complete characterization out of quick interactions and is, as one can expect from Dickens, extremely compelling. This story makes you fall in love with it in the most childish of ways. I loved it. Will return every year
01-01-2024 03:16I'm sure many out there end up mildly mementoing their mori on a day like New Year's, making this post a particularly appropriate one. Terry Pratchett's work is a clash of storylines the likes of which I hadn't seen since Phinneas and Ferb. Comedy permeates the book from start to finish, it never lets you forget that it's a comedy, and the consequence of that is that the moments of more sincere emotionality remain special and poignant regardless of how many there are. The Windle Poons plotline gets most of the momentum, and the Bill Door plotline gets most of the emotion, but the former still manages to be packed with earnestness while the latter is packed with tension. Terry Pratchett's writing style allows the reader to put their walls down, allowing them to fully experience the kind of cosmic sensibility the Discworld series brings out. Logical only within the norms of this fantasy universe, the phrase "What can the harvest hope for if not the care of the reaper man" still inavitably makes one sit and reflect on the fragility of their life for a moment. Yet pushing the reader to elevate their mind on such a morbid topic, Pratchett's writing still makes sure the book is a good time. It would be hard to make the case for the Discworld series as serious literature, but I will recommend it to anyone who wants to experience the broadest possible spectrum of the ways books can be enjoyed at once
01-01-2024 02:46Ooookay... I officially get why the Inferno is more popular. You can't get to the Paradiso without Purgatorio and Sancti Christi this shit is 10x more confusing than the Inferno. I was just running my eyes through the Inferno and following but for the Purgatorio I had to read each 3-line verse as one sentence and stop for a split second before continuing so this shit could hit my brain with some structure. Not to say it wasn't good though, it just wasn't an easy read. Watching Dante be a celebrity at the halfway house of the afterlife, his confusion, his constant seeking of confort in Dante, and particularly his joy mixed with struggle when he finally encounters Beatrix, it was all a delight. One day I'll have to read this again when I'm more prepared to digest it, but I'm still glad I'm giving myself this first go now.
25-11-2023 00:51And now for my latest forray into reading in French. While as far as I know all of Jules Verne's work is considered science fiction, this is the first time I could recognize the genre and understand the idea of a futuristic thrill in the late 19th century. Jules Verne was always a very talented narrator, so he fully conveyed the sense of wonder of a submarine. It's also interesting how much he devoted himself to describing the sea to his audience of people who would never see a nature documentary. My copy had drawings and they were comically off from reality. Helped to convey the sense of wonder that went into it though. It's also interesting how he used the setting. Both the expansiveness of the ocean and the claustrophobia of a submarine were very well conveyed. The contrast between the constantly moving world around them and the locations in the submarine that were described again and again made that very alive. The arc of Captain Nemo also made for a great ending, with him getting increasingly creepy and whatnot. It's weird. The story is really not character-driven. We don't explore the characters very deeply. Yet the tension of the story comes from the characters. Even when the Nautilus is stranded in antartica the choices of the characters make that ticking clock work. I guess that's the great thing about a Jules Verne book. They're so central. Nothing takes over the story, everything is an equally important piece of the canvas and the narrative's true center is your experience reading it. All the more appropriate for books whose purpose is taking you on trips. It'll be a while before I come back to his work, but I'm sure it'll be amazing when I do.
25-11-2023 00:43Comic books are silly. They are an absolute delight that has managed to capture a range of emotions but their over-stylized often reality-detached nature means there is a background noise of lameness to it all. Now mind you this has never been a deal breaker for me. I'm not exactly a cool person so I've been out here enjoying my Batman and my Avengers and whatnot. That said, I am an appreciator of art, and I could always tell there was something standing in the way of comic books becoming high art. Becoming literature. I have at last found the answer: They just needed the right story. V for Vendetta is a drama of the highest quality and no medium could capture it to its full extent the way comic books could, cinema be damned. Alan Moore is a known anarchist, and also crazy, and oh boy does he let it show. There is not one scene in this entire 10 issue miniseries that doesn't have you on the edge of your seat. To say it has expertedly composed and skilfully delivered worldbuilding paired with clever commentary and top notch characterization doesn't even begin to cover it. Screw Marvel, DC, and all manga known to men, if ever I need to recommend something to get someone into comic books it'll be this. I also absolutely love that it starts and ends, no prequels or sequels, open end and all. Not only is it a work of art, it's a work of art with self respect. Truly, thank you for this Alan Moore.
22-11-2023 22:11It really is a shame this is the first Hitchiker's Guide book I'm posting about, though truth be told I'm far too lazy to fix that. While the first three were jaw dropping standalones, this one felt particularly special because it fired a fuckton of emotional Chekhov's Guns planted in the stories before. Because the core of this series is bringing humour out of meaninglessness, this book giving so many things meaning subverts expectations in a way that allows the series' characteristic oh so affecting anti-climaxes to land as if you were experiencing them for the first time. It's a constant of things happening after the narrative had gone out of its way to convince you they wouldn't, leading to new expectations, and then it all happens in such an absurd way you just cannot protect your emotions from it. The endings in this series are always impressive, and this one is the best yet. The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy series' main quaility is their uniqueness. The things this series has made me feel are not something I expect to find anywhere else. I will recommend this series to people until my dying day. It's intimidating really because the writing is at a level of casual genius that makes you feel stupid. Admirable work. Douglas Adams was taken from us far too soon. If you haven't read his stuff please do it. You'll be glad you did.
31-08-2023 00:17In direct contrast to my recognizing of a serious classic in the last post, here's a classic presented so seriously while being so goofy it feels like false advertisement. Particularly the edition I got, what with the oil paintings on the cover, the golden letters, and the carefully chosen quote "The course of true love never did run smooth". You know what's also a quote from this play? "This is the silliest stuff that e'er I heard". That one feels a bit more apt. Yes, Shakespeare wrote grand dramas with heavy simbolism that still hold up to this day. He was a timeless genius whose work will endure forever. Screw the Sparknotes analysis this time though, this is just a straight up rom-com. Even the title is oversold. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" sounds poetic and romantic but it refers to the fact that this is literally a "And they wake up and think it was all a dream" plot. I'm not complaining btw. This shit was hilarious when it was written and it's all the more hilarious now. 10/10 no notes this should be THE Shakespeare work people use to start getting into it. Also it has a character called Bottom so how the [bleep] is this not insanely popular with gen z-ers. It's not like I've ever had to guide someone through their journey discovering Shakespeare but if I ever do screw Hamlet, screw Macbeth, they're starting right tf here. Just a good time all around I recommend it to everyone
20-08-2023 21:48Come the end I'll count the Divine Comedy as only one book for the year total, but I do find it necessary to discuss it in bits. I've read a lot of classics, and I'm generally against the view of classics as this inscrutable thing that takes an experienced expert to get through, but this time I have to recognize what I'm dealing with. There's not an edition of the Divine Comedy in this world that doesn't include a ton of explanatory notes after each canto, and for good reason. This thing is LAYERED. The right way to read it seems to be however tf you want to. There's the surface level reading of this book being fucking nuts and in a lot of places extremely funny, and I refuse to treat that as academically inappropriate because several instances of crass language lead me to think there's no way Dante was taking all of this 100% serious. Then there's the social critic aspect of it all. Dante's disdain for Greeks exposes a deeply rooted Italian nationalism. Next to that, his consigning of several popes to hell or infamy within it and his detailed description of the punishment of canonical enemies of Christianity Caefas, Mohammed and Judas show that he believes he is on the side of true Christianity and the Catholic Church is not. That as well as his critiques of Florence repeatedly point to his stance on the conflicts dividing the city at the time. That leads us to the next possible read: an exile metaphor. Dante journeys away from all that is good guided only by the genius that preceded him and motivated only by his desire for the most lovely thing in his memory. He is confronted by all of his enemies and repeatedly fails to be up to the task at hand and just passes out. He is forced to change and to learn in order to be afforded a chance to expiate his flaws and reach paradise. It is not very hard to see the loneliness of exile in this. It's arguably the most logical reading possible, but the deal with the many readings of the Inferno is they are all correct. Dante's writing was deeply metaphorical, so when you read that he confronted corrupt politicians being tortured by demons and ultimately had to flee those demons you can read a pure sense of narrative drama, social critique, personal critique, theology and probably some more stuff I'm not even aware of. It is one difficult book. You simply cannot get the full picture without good in book notes, choosing a solid translation, and consuming some supplementary material. I won't go around recommending it to people I don't think have it in them to put in the effort, but for the ones that do it's an absolute must
20-08-2023 21:30I was about to write a new entry into this page but I realized I'm not comfortable doing that without addressing my own feelings about my last post. First of all it seems the translation I read was slightly sanitized, and a few details seem to have been removed which would have changed my view of things, including D'Artagnan actually having sex with Lady De Winter in the dark. All around the reflection and the reading of reviews I did after writing that post made me realize the wide cast of characters in this book is composed almost entirely but horrible people, but that more changes my saying the book is cool than nullify it. It's closer to Game Of Thrones than I realized it when I said it I guess. The main characters are violent to near gratuity, break the law and treat those around them horribly, and are walking talking piles of vices. I was aware of that as I read, I suppose it just slipped my mind when I wrote the review. It's a cool story about horrible people and that's an important layer to keep an eye on. As for Lady De Winter's assassination, I won't join the team that calls it unfair but realizing the flaws on both sides adds some morally gray gravitas to it. It was already dark that just adds some substance to it. Basically my point is this is a book where the style might make you forget to be critical and look for the irony in these ridiculous characters and I advise future readers to not fall into that trap like I did. The morning after I was real embarassed after I was done rethinking it
10-08-2023 15:07It's been a while since I last managed to get a post out here for a myriad of reasons from personal issues to Amazon delays to this was a rather long one but at last here we are. Much like Frankenstein this book has had a space carved out for it in the canon of pop culture, but of all the classics with a real pop culture impact this is probably the one with the least accurate reputation. I suppose when the likes of Disney were giving this book its cartoony notoriety they chose making the title into a brand name over following the book's premise. That is to say there are four musketeers, the three that are the book's namesake and a fourth that comes along to join them and is actually the story's main character, but that's harder to make into child friendly parody I guess. Not that this book needs to be made more accessible. I've actually been told the amount of classic I read is intimidating but if you keep your distance from literature classics like that you'll never realize that most of them are just fun. Alexandre Dumas' work in particular. His books have a metric fuckton and a half of characters every time, and they all have a lot of personality. It's a blorbo feast around here. It's also definitely not a childish book in any way. I've yet to watch the Dominic Noble videos on the matter but I don't think there's ever been a truly good adaptation of this one and that's a crying shame. Both in its comedic and serious moments this book captures the reader with a level of cleverness no one could fault you for enjoying. Wrapped in a package that screams geeky, this story (outside of the pop culture kitsch associate with it) gives you very little to be a proper cringey fanboy over. It's just... cool. In my humble opinion if given a proper budget and taken truly seriously it could make for something on par with Game of Thrones, except more tasteful. I know Dumas' is an author that is taken very seriously and merits academic analysis and this and that but I've just foundn his work to be a good time. Lots of memorable bits, translates very well to the audiobook format, relatable characters, memorable characters, funny characters, drama, suspense, comedy, there's just a lot to enjoy. Special shoutout to what will stay one of my favorite endings ever, a perfect balance of everything you could have asked from it. It's one book I can without second guessing recommend to anyone. Special thanks for Lady De Winter. I get why nuanced villains are popular but I just want to hate a character on occasion. So yeah it kicks ass I like it and I think everyone should read it
My reading will do a bit of a swerve going forward as I wanna devote myself to Latin for a bit but I hope I don't take this long to finish a book again, sheesh
P.S. that I forgot to say on the maing things: ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL IS LITERALLY ONLY SAID ONCE IN THE WHOLE BOOK, NOT BY ONE OF THE THREE MUSKETEERS, AND TOTALLY OFFHANDEDLY WITHOUT A HINT OF GRAVITAS, WHY IS THIS QUOTE SO ATTACHED TO THIS BOOK IN POP CULTURE
10-07-2023 22:09On the off chance that you've clicked on that "Links to cool stuff" thingy on the side bar you'll see a link to a long list of online book clubs. One of those, Frankenstein Weekly, sent out its last email today, concluding the who knows how long journey that was reading this book. What a delight that journey was, let me say. Frankenstein is one of those books that if you're familiar with its place in the literature cannon is just as good as people say it is, and if you're familiar with its place in the pop culture cannon is way better than you'd expect. It's a tough line to walk between keeping the narrative compelling and riddling your two main characters with every fatal flaw available. It's a tour de force in pushing the limits of reader sympathy as neither Victor nor the monster are anywhere near innocent and are given leave for obscenelly self serving monologues which would make them unsympathetic were it not for the dramatic gravitas created by how much they suffer and how driven they are. Even if you hate one of the two I don't think it's possible to hate both so feeling compassion for a character that flawed leaves you with a very layered experience. It's truly a great read, if high school didn't ruin it for you please go for it
17-05-2023 23:41I mentioned a few posts back that I was reading a poetry book. I've been busy so though it was short I only finished yesterday and honestly I want more of those. I can tell there is so much to analyse there but I have no intention to, I just wanna bask in the direct emotional hit each sonnet is. The impossibility of properly translating poetry is truly a tragic element of the human experience and one of the things that drives me to put more effort into language learning. I can't recommend it if you don't speak Portuguese but I can recommend trying to have the patience to find and appreciate some poetry
13-05-2023 16:51In preparing for an exam this week I read a novel for school for what will be the last time ever. Sure is a strange feeling. I'm glad I liked it so it's a good note to go out in. I've read so many books for school I couldn't count. Really was a big influence on me
06-05-2023 17:56I asked friends and set a Tumblr poll to help me decide which book I'd read next out of my seven options and to my surprise The Three Musketeers mopped the floor with the rest on both avenues. Going into this I'd placed my bet on Shakespeare but I guess Othello isn't popular enough
06-05-2023 17:55One day this week I was perusing the living room bookshelf and I noticed an old thin book I'd never paid any mind to and not only was a poetry book from a Brazilian icon, it was my grandfather's. I'd read his stuff before, it was on his copies that I first read Sherlock Holmes, but I had no idea I had stuff of his here with me. It was nice seeing that. The poet in question is called Viniciu De Moraes. Worth noting he was a massive slut it seems. So many of these poems are about one night stands.
06-05-2023 17:53