maddy!

last book i read: was Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson! i decided that reading the entire Malazan Book of the Fallen was a good and not time consuming idea in june and one of those has been disproved bc these books fucking ROCK.

a book i'd recommend: Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis! these are his best work, should be taken as one because they're so similarly structured, and they're one of the best ways to disprove the image of his writing as sort of emotionless shock value satire; the brief italicised passages that both of these books use are achingly beautiful, particularly the ones in The Rules of Attraction. fantastic novels.

a book i've read twice or more: Boy Parts by Eliza Clark! genuinely do not have a competent count on how many times i read this one between the ages of 16 and 18. all time great debut from an all time great author that probably helped shape the more... perverse aspects of my tastes in literature and film and the like.

a book i couldn't put down: Feast While You Can by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta! an extremely lovely romantic and weird queer monster novel that i think i took in two or three sittings.

a book on my tbr: Carpentaria by Alexis Wright. last year i read her 700-something page masterpiece Praiseworthy and had my life forever changed by it, as well as deciding i needed to read everything she's ever written. so i impulse bought Carpentaria while i was hanging out in the next city over from me before i went to a rap show and it's now sitting proudly on my tbr pile!

a book i've put down: The Devil by Name by Keith Rosson. i veeeeeery much enjoyed Fever House, the first half of this duology, but when i finished that and tried to start The Devil by Name the post-apocalypse follow-up narrative just didn't feel like it would work for me :( i want to come back to it for sure i just am not sure when.

a book on my wish list: in this moment i am completely blanking on every single book i want to buy. maybe The Swan Book also by Alexis Wright??

a favorite book from childhood: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams! this is a classic i feel like i don't need to expound upon it at all other than by saying the 70s/80s radio show is incredible and everyone should listen to it.

a book of poetry or lyrics that i own: Stranger Music by Leonard Cohen! compiles a huge amount of his lyrics and poetry, including provisions for songs that originated as poems. obviously contains some striking number of the most beautiful lyrics anyone has ever written.

a book i'd give to a friend: The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon! i aim to confuse and confound at every turn AND! i think

a nonfiction book i own: To Anyone Who Ever Asks by Howard Fishman! an investigative biography of Connie Converse, one of the first DIY folk musicians, who recorded an album in her apartment and then just drove off one day and never came back to her old home.

what i'm currently reading: Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson, MBOTF again. rules. very fucking dense. also My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell which is nauseating and i have to give myself tolerance breaks from even though it is a fantastic novel

what i'm planning on reading next: Memories of Ice by, once again, Steven Erikson, as well as Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler!