Book Brag
Hello everyone. Is this thing on?
I’ve read 35 books since COVID began. I share this as a brag, yes, but also as a reveal that this has kept me feeling productive. It’s fulfilling to start a book, open it, and then get to an epilogue. It is satisfying to see the “time left in reading” the book on my kindle and say “challenge accepted.”
So, from this, I thought I’d share the top few I’ve read in case you want to share joy and make the time go faster.
Antkind by Charlie Kaufman. Full disclosure: I haven’t even FINISHED this but I know it is in my top twenty of ever. If you think Charlie Kaufman’s movies are heady, this is like a running commentary of his mind. Plus, there’s a lot of roasting of film criticism and academia.
Uncanny Valley by Ana Weiner. Silicon Valley is a cult and a fantasyland for elitists. No one wants to disrupt anything, they just want to make their own lives better.
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino I want to skin Jia and wear her as a suit and live her life and be her. God why even bother trying to be a writer when she exists.
Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews. Cheating, since I read this when I was ten, and the whole series is even more bonkers than I remember.
Patrick and released another episode of Alt! Ack! in which we discuss an obscure postmodern play, Mr Burns, A Post-Electric Play. We’re really going for a niche market here.
Coming soon: a deconstruction of Legendary on HBO Max, a breakdown of the financial lives of the characters on Caroline and the City, a queer reading of Tron Legacy, and academic asshole of the year awards.
What is this? A semi-regular newsletter about being a culture studies graduate student. Do you like it?