my reading journey

Recently Read

• Solo: Building a Remarkable Life of Your Own by Peter McGraw ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  Provides a good overview of stuff but does veer into self help toward the end made me think about solitude and doing things alone more though which was interesting
• Outline by Rachel Cusk ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  4.5⭐️
• Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters by Ted Cohen ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  I think a lot of this book aged like milk but i think it is a useful time capsule to see how humor has changed and how we as a society conceive of and discourse about humor as well i also think that engages in bad faith a bit sometimes and rushes past argumentation to get across his conclusions but this is a pop philosophy book more than anything so i get it with all that being said, i think that there are some good nuggets about humor and jokes about that you can extract
• On the Calculation of Volume IV by Solvej Balle ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #6) by Matt Dinniman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century by Amia Srinivasan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  So sharp and deftly reasoned—a must-read imo my only complaints are the essay titles and that the layout of the text felt a bit cramped in my print
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections by Emily Nagoski ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  I prefer nagoski’s caya more but this is still a great accessible work filled with useful info
• The Butcher's Masquerade (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #5) by Matt Dinniman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #4) by Matt Dinniman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #3) by Matt Dinniman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• Carl's Doomsday Scenario (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #2) by Matt Dinniman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• The Healing Season of Pottery by Yeon Somin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1) by Matt Dinniman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• Severance by Ling Ma ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• The Beggar Student by Osamu Dazai ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  Fun & silly
• Love's Work: A Reckoning with Life by Gillian Rose ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  A small book that covers a lot of ground but she does have continental philosopher brain which can obscure some content 3.75/5
• Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  A meandering meditation on wintering and living seasonally and intentionally with nature
• The Divine Farce by Michael S.A. Graziano ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  A little no exit mixed with a short stay in hell mixed with i who have never know men, but ultimately a uniquely premised story about purpose, community, and relationships.
• The Employees by Olga Ravn ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• Chess Story by Stefan Zweig ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  It just keeps on getting better!
• The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  While this book is definitely closer to the area that i work in, i think i enjoyed his other book the phoenix project more. but thats not to say that i didn’t enjoy this book! would definitely recommend to my swe friends
• Mark of the Fool 2 (Mark of the Fool, #2) by J.M. Clarke ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• Mark of the Fool (Mark of the Fool, #1) by J.M. Clarke ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• On the Calculation of Volume II by Solvej Balle ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• Quarterlife: The Search for Self in Early Adulthood by Satya Doyle Byock ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  This book does not solve anything for you, it just gives you the language and framework to potentially describe the work that you need to do to craft a life that balances stability and meaning. your mileage may vary and that’s okay imo. i think this was a very self-aware and empathetic self-help book that was a very entertaining read because of the patient profile character story arcs.
• Katabasis by R.F. Kuang ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  This book gives percy jackson for post-grads as well as a love letter to paradoxes. this book is not at all comparable to babel, but it is still very much kuang-esque. i enjoyed the first and second acts, but as with babel, i didn't love the third act, but still was satisfied with the book overall. i think kuang does dark academia, with an overemphasis on the academia, very well and that if you treat this book as such then it does very well. the magic system was interesting, but also maybe not utilized as much or explored in depth as much as i would've wanted. overall i enjoyed the themes of this book, but i have often felt like kuang writes her books for people like me who share her own interests in a way. i do absolutely think that more authors should be philosophy nerds, and i compiled a list of philosophical concepts mentioned in this book: https://reeswrites.com/posts/philosop...
• Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3) by Liu Cixin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  Sci-fi at an immense scale (4.5 stars bc im too smol brained to understand everything in this book)
• My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  A brilliant and gorgeously written book with a fascinating and unbearable protagonist. while not big on plot, i think the work is able to explore a lot of themes like privilege, mental illness, addiction, and grief. i think a lot of the entertainment and value of this novel happens less from the actual read, but in thinking about it and talking it over with someone else who is reading/has read it.
• Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  A book that covers far more than the branding might suggest (or maybe it makes perfect sense): motherhood, feminism, capitalism, and more. i really enjoyed the process of this book, but i did find that she breezed by some of the big ticket outcomes and just accepted their truth rather than really arguing for it. this is more of a personal gripe and definitely shouldn’t prevent you from reading this book since you should make any decisions about her conclusions on your own!
• The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2) by Liu Cixin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  I feel kind of ashamed that i liked this as much as i did but i found myself applying a lot of the three ways and lessons in this book to things i’ve personally seen and experienced. i would only really recommend this book to swes who are interested in management or people who are interested in devops and process management in general, otherwise it won’t be a very fun read for you.
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  I love grounded sci-fi!! and standalone books!! and nuanced discussions of evolution!!
• Sad Love: Romance and the Search for Meaning by Carrie Jenkins ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  I really enjoyed her previous book, but i liked this one even more because i felt like it was more philosophically rigorous and conceptually interesting. i think that the message about shifting our definition of love will resonate with a lot of people because it goes beyond just romantic love.
• Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  As an asexual cis man i’m not really the target audience for this book (cis women/non-hormonally transitioning afab ppl), but i think that the concepts that nagoski develops are important for anyone to learn. i do wish that she explored asexuality, but any other things that were overlooked in this book were likely just due to a lack of research.
• On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  Slow, but always moving. methodical and hypnotic!
• The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  I can see why people wouldn’t like this book because in some ways it feels self-absorbed/a victory lap but this is both a man dying and a father talking to his children so it’s understandable this is what the byproduct of that is. the advice was pretty good but more than anything i enjoyed the anecdotes around the advice in action
• The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1) by Liu Cixin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  4.5 stars really engaging story and i liked how the narrative was laid out but it definitely did get confusing at times
• Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of a Self by Susan J. Brison ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  Powerful and sharp but quite philosophically dense at times which made it not the easiest read
• A Fig for All the Devils by C.S. Fritz ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• The Orange and Other Poems by Wendy Cope ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  3.5 stars witty, slight experimentation, cute
• A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  Existentially horrifying would recommend for fans of i who have never known men
• Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  Things resist categorization! would recommend the meaning of travel or the grasshopper for fans of this book
• Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  This reminded me of a tighter, more focused babel so fans and critics of babel alike would enjoy this book, i think. the magic system was very interesting and the story brought up some good moral questions!
• Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love by Amir Levine ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
  This book is a bit old at this point and probably contains outdated information, but i think there are plenty of good concepts for anyone to learn. i think there is some disservice in specifically focusing on romantic attachment relationships, but i think that a good reader can generalize. i personally believe the evolutionary and psychological thinking is a bit misrepresented or oversimplified, but for the most part i think that they did a good job trying to stick to scientific research. for instance, i think that attachment system was evolutionarily selected, but that attachment styles are more akin to something like a coping mechanism and not something that should be attempted to understand through evolutionary psychology as much. https://reeswrites.com/posts/attached/
• Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5) by Suzanne Collins ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned
• Babel by R.F. Kuang ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Owned

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