The Book Thread Book • Page 181

I’ve read those four and still don’t know if I want to read Holly.

 

since buying an new iPad mini I've fallen in love with reading again. Already on my third book this year (Riley Saeger's Middle of the Night).

 

Funny cuz I’m reading that currently too!

 

So far that’s been my favorite of his books. Finished it at the end of last year. Currently reading The Last Time I Lied. Also have read Final Girls and Survive The Night. Would not recommend Survive the Night

 

how are you you finding it? I've got about 50 pages left. I really enjoyed The Only One Left, but this one has felt a little lackluster. The influence of Stranger Things is very obvious

 

I've got Home Before Dark and The House Across The Lake also in my library to read.

 

I’ve read all of them and Last Time I Lied is the one I remember the least. I hated the ending of Final Girls so much but thought Survive The Night was alright.

Currently about 1/2 through and it’s definitely a bit slow but enjoying the story so far. I’m anticipating a crazy twist any page now haha.

 

Starting up a new Elena Ferrante book I had never heard of before. Love her stories. Totally grounded and completely engrossing.

 

Finally finished Cured by Lol Tolhurst. Honestly despite it being about one of my favorite bands, didn’t really love it. Really poor writing. The final section about how recovery was better because it felt more deeply personal but the rest didn’t do a lot for me except for the fun facts about making the record. 6/10

 

Just finished Jesus’ Son, it was great

 

I’m up to the last story and I both don’t want to go back to it and don’t want it to end. Glad you enjoyed it overall!

 

I’m up to 5 books so far this month and hope to finish 7 by month end.

I’ve really been enjoying this VHS horror novella series between longer books.

Anybody have any good novella series or stand alone novellas that are good?

 

What is the VHS horror novella series?

 

The Murderbot novellas are pretty great.

 

I’ll have to look into this

 

Finished Labyrinth of Solitude this weekend and I lied—I can’t honestly recommend it as an intro to Paz. My suggestion is to pick up his Selected Poems anthology instead. Labyrinth, while poetic on its own and his most famous work, feels very removed from his poetry—yet still an interesting read. It’s a series of essays on the sociological psychology of Mexico and also goes beyond to ask how civilizations and philosophy of civilization have failed people around the world. Paz also is guilty of his own indictments in an unintentional and fascinating way. But yeah, your best bet is reaching for his poems first, which are brilliant.

 

I’d highly recommend Denis Johnson’s first novel Angels for anyone who likes Jesus’ Son. I love a lot of his books but that one hits a similar vibe for me (poetic/quasi-spiritual writing about pretty grimy characters). His last story collection Largesse of the Sea Maiden is also up there with Jesus’ Son IMO.

 

Last year my goal for reading was 10 books and I think I got to 7. So far this month I’ve “read” 4. I put the quotations because one was an audiobook, one was a short story, and one a novella. But I’m counting them dammit

 

I mean reading is just listening to your mind playing an audiobook internally

 

Unless you're one of those people who doesn't hear an internal monologue. But in general I agree — audiobooks are absolutely reading, just a format that I myself can't get into.

 

You’re getting the story and you can obviously dig into themes and stuff, but it is not reading

 

To be clear that’s not me being pretentious, I’m just a high school english teacher who sees first hand how much the skill of reading can atrophy over time if not used (reliance on audiobooks, having teachers read out loud). These kids do not come in to my class with the mental stamina to read a short story, it is wild.

 

^ think that’s far more of a side effect of screens/TikTok/reels/social media than audiobooks when it comes to to high schoolers.

For most adults, audiobooks are reading with no caveats