Welcome to Litsy!

Since it's banned books week, I'm taking the opportunity to revisit a favourite banned book.

Forgot to say I'd read this a while ago. Honestly can't say I enjoyed reading it, but it was interesting and subversive enough that I can't give it a negative review either. It's uncomfortable, out of the box and difficult to understand - in other words, it's exactly what Acker wanted it to be, which is a triumph in itself I suppose.

I don't have much to say. I mean... I was excited about the potential this had regarding form and genre-bending and commentaries on capitalism and sexuality, but I don't think there's anything substantial enough in this "novel" to actually take away from the reading experience. It probably was innovative at the time it was published but I don't think it's aged very well. No thanks. Next.

Ebook from the Internet Archives: Blood and Guts in HS https://archive.org/ #Reading1001 #1001Books

I wanted to like this but feel like I didn‘t really get it? I was confused most of the time, all the drawings of penises made it awkward to read on the train, and the disturbing bits just felt disturbing to me without illuminating me about anything in particular. I hate to dislike a book I‘ve been told so much is a feminist classic but I didn‘t enjoy reading it. I liked the conceptual bits at the end once we were out of the ‘real world‘.

Experimental and not always successful but definitely interesting. The first part has maybe incest but definite pedophilia, then it segues into human trafficking, and also sprinkled throughout are crude drawings and mind maps and Persian poetry. I‘m still thinking about it but not sure yet what it all adds up to, if anything.

This was a weird book and I am still processing. Some parts were extremely bizarre and some I am still thinking about.

Woke up today to an email from penguin saying a bunch of the #penguinmodernclassics are on sale for 99p just for today! I already had most of the ones that were on sale 😞 but I did pick up the tagged book, Zami by Audre Lorde and Child of All Nations by Irmgaard Keun

In a strange way I liked this novel. I liked the post modern interpretation of Hawthorne's A Scarlett Letter, I liked some of the storylines, I liked the fact that it reads like a (bad) trip and I liked the poem with whitch it all ends.
And yet I don't see why it is one of the #1001books I should read before I die.