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bookafnd Locked account

agafnd@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years, 6 months ago

i read a lot of science fiction but also a lot of other random stuff. libraries are good. i also like the little free variety of library, used bookstores, & the high seas. he/him

my fake and arbitrary rating system: - 5 stars: good. i recommend it - 4 stars: fine, but not entirely my cup of tea - 3 stars: not good, but with some redeeming qualities that might make it worth reading - 2 stars: bad, with a few redeeming qualities - 1 star: horrible

mastodon: @agafnd@www.librepunk.club

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bookafnd's books

To Read (View all 5)

Currently Reading

Devil House (Hardcover, 2022, MCD) 4 stars

devil house

5 stars

this is the kind of book that takes itself and puts itself back together again. it's full of john darnielle's typical preoccupation with small towns, houses, people, & the small details of people's lives. the kind of writing you can smell the asphalt from. i listened to the audiobook, so i got to hear john darnielle read his work out loud, which of course suits the text perfectly.

The Journey to the West Volume I (Paperback, 2012, The University of Chicago Press) No rating

Anthony C. Yu's translation of The Journey to the West, initially published in 1983, …

In a small boat o’er ten thousand miles of misty waves I lean to the silent, single sail, Circled by sounds of the mermaid-fish. My mind cleansed, my care purged, here lacks wealth or fame; Leisurely I pick stems of bulrushes and reeds.

Counting the seagulls is pleasure to be told! At willowed banks and reeded bays My wife and son join my joyous laugh. I sleep most soundly as wind and wave recede; No shame, no glory, nor any misery.

The Journey to the West Volume I by , (Page 231)

Devil House (Hardcover, 2022, MCD) 4 stars

For his contribution, Derrick meditated a moment on the things that make people afraid to enter a place. In his literature class, when they did Edgar Allan Poe, they spent almost the whole time talking about fear of the unknown; to him this was a sort of training-wheels fear. The unknown is too vast and shapeless to be a threat. To Derrick, harm, the prospect of it, was the deciding quantity: the possibility that something inside will hurt you. That’s the stuff that makes you cross the street to avoid a house. It’s the chance that there’s something inside that might leave a mark on you. You’d be even more scared if you knew what it was.

Devil House by  (Page 221 - 222)