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u/AutumnsSpark

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Image 1 — [56/52] Surprised I finished Early!
Image 2 — [56/52] Surprised I finished Early!
▲ 31 r/52books+1 crossposts

[56/52] Surprised I finished Early!

After only reading 26 books in the last 10 years I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it (The last time I finished 52 in a year was 2014!) But I wanted to spend less time mindlessly scrolling social media, and I had a long commute on a bus so I started reading a bit and then fell back in love with reading with Philip K Dick, and I just haven't stopped. I found myself reading just stuff I KNEW I would like / love however and tried to branch out, but I haven't found anything I would rate 1* yet. I find myself critical of my own rating scale, how do you folks approach your rating system?

I've ordered the books in each tier from left to right in order of how much I enjoyed them that's why some things in a series are out of order. I put non-fiction after fiction.

5+ Star / Favourites

Gravity’s Rainbow Thomas Pynchon

Vineland Thomas Pynchon

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick

A Scanner Darkly Philip K. Dick

We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson

Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad

The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin

Stag Dance: A Quartet Torrey Peters

The Third Person Emma Grove

Hangsaman Shirley Jackson

No Longer Human Osamu Dazai

5*

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain

The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson

Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories Amal El-Mohtar

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen

Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk

A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller Jr.

Martian Time-Slip Philip K. Dick

Ubik Philip K. Dick

Sky Daddy Kate Folk

Please Stop Trying to Leave Me Alana Saab

Tender Is the Flesh Agustina Bazterrica

The Bird's Nest Shirley Jackson

War Is a Racket Smedley D. Butler

Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men Lundy Bancroft

The Haunted Self Onno van der Hart

Apology & Crito Plato

4*

Persuasion Jane Austen

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain

You Weren't Meant to Be Human Andrew Joseph White

The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick

My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh

The Lottery and Other Stories Shirley Jackson

The Complete Stories Franz Kafka

Skin Game Jim Butcher

Heated Rivalry Rachel Reid

The Chapo Guide to Revolution Chapo Trap House

Transgender History Susan Stryker

3*

The Infinite and the Divine Robert Rath

The Fall of Cadia Robert Rath

Iron Widow Xiran Jay Zhao

The Firm John Grisham

Battle Ground Jim Butcher

Peace Talks Jim Butcher

Kiss of Seduction: A Court of Chains Story Rawnie Sabor

Game Changer Rachel Reid

Tough Guy Rachel Reid

Three Years War Christiaan Rudolf de Wet

Will Grayson, Will Grayson John Green

2*

Heretical Fishing Haylock Jobson

Common Goal Rachel Reid

Dungeon Crawler Carl Matt Dinniman

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook Matt Dinniman

Carl's Doomsday Scenario Matt Dinniman

u/AutumnsSpark — 11 days ago
▲ 18 r/52book

[92/102] August Reads!

I read a book about woman who has a weird sexual thing going on with planes, and one with a guy who has a weird sexual thing going on with rockets, what does that say about me?

Fable makes it difficult to change editions so i'm sorry this is a little hard to read, and I guess I also cant edit the order it puts rhe books in. From left to right: We have always Lived In the Castle, The Birds Nest, Gravitys Rainbow, Battle Ground, Seasons of Glass and Iron, The Third Person, Sky Daddy, Heated Rivalry, Peace Talks, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, Three Years War, The adventures of Tom Sawyer, The adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Also, look my number is inflated because I read all of Chainsaw man and half of berserk this year im sorry.

u/AutumnsSpark — 1 month ago
▲ 5 r/52book

[76/98] July reads!

Not pictured us Jim Butcher's Skin Game at 4 stars because Fable doesnt have the cover I guess? Also Martian Time Slip is a 5, ive gotten really into Philip K. Dick this year and will be seeing just how many of his books I can get my grubby little hands on this year. I also wanted to read stuff I normally wouldn't lately. I never really read romance but picked up some books that were recommended and thought they were fine. I picked up Dungeon Crawler Carl and tried three of them because fans told me it got better and it never really did, the humor did not land for me and everything else about it was kind of half baked or underdeveloped, its really the kind of thing you'll know if you should DNF after a couple chapters.

u/AutumnsSpark — 2 months ago
▲ 12 r/RSbookclub

So I read Tender is the Flesh today.

"Thats the big problem of ideologies, how to make good decent people do horrible things." -- Slavoj Zizek

"I have always believed that in our capitalist, consumerist society, we devour each other." -- Agustina Bazterrica

I don't usually write reviews, but this book really stuck with me. I have been trying to read more conscientiously recently so I was trying to think about the book more as I was reading. I also like reading other peoples reviews of books so I can see things from other peoples point of view, or if I missed something.

I was surprised to see people criticizing it for being boring or that they didn't see the point (or wanted the author to be more explicit in their point) of the book beyond the shock value. The reasons readers felt this way may have been intentional by the author, in that I think she was trying to get the reader to think about how people treat other humans in our current capitalist society like cattle. I feel like reading this book as a "what if we all started eating people, like we do animals, wouldn't that be fucked up?" isn't 100% the point the author is trying to make and is more like "isn't it fucked up how we treat people like their disposable, and dehumanize other people to justify the way things are?". Readers may feel like its boring because the system has to make all of this boring in order for you to accept what's happening, the way the governments adjust and control the language for example.

In the story, the institutionalization of cannibalism starts with immigrants, then other poor and marginalized people, and then people who criticize or do not comply with the new system. Some characters talk about how it didn't end up eliminating poverty or solving any other problems, and then we are introduced to the scavengers, a new underclass consisting of the poor and hungry. This is because capitalism always creates a new underclass to exploit and to give you an "other", to dehumanize so that you can justify the horrible things you have to do or accept to survive. At one point several people who work at a human slaughter house and the owner are shocked by the actions of the desperate and hungry scavengers, calling them inhuman. If they are inhuman because they eat humans, what does that make the people working at the factory? What does this say about the people who keep humans in a cold room in their house, slowly cutting pieces off of them to keep the meat fresh because it is a social status symbol? The characters cannot answer this in the moment, and cannot even ask the question because that would shake their entire world view. The main character grapples the whole book with this question, while trying to deal with the crippling grief of loosing a child and having no support from his family and community, not to dissimilar with how we are all disconnected and separated from our communities.

The author doesn't give you answers, and I think where the book fails for some readers is that it doesn't force you to ask these questions, and the author doesn't really give you any answers. I think if the author spent another 100-200 pages they could get this point, or the veganism point across better, but I'm not convinced it would be a better book for it.

I grappled with what to rate this book, but I ended up at 5 stars because the actual writing is very enjoyable, the way the author describes things and the main characters thoughts is very good. I'm interested to see what other people thought of it!

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u/AutumnsSpark — 4 months ago
▲ 24 r/BooksThatFeelLikeThis

Identity Confusion

Recently diagnosed with DID and have been devouring media of this type lately. Really like the books for fight club and scanner darkly as well as the movies, and the tv shows severance and mr.robot and the video game cyberpunk 2077. looking for any simular books about identity confusion, multiple personalities, not feeling at home in your body or where they ask who are we etc. Preferably sci-fi / cyberpunk, but im hungry so ill take anything really. Yes ive read Kafka.

u/AutumnsSpark — 4 months ago