You know how people go drunk shopping online and end up ordering outlandish things? I made my first foray into drunk shopping and bought... a book. AM I DOING THIS RIGHT?

No Such Thing As A Fish fans and other strange fact nerds: someone brilliant has put together a Goodreads list of all the books referenced in the Fish podcast! I am dying, as is my TBR.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/131792.No_Such_Thing_as_a_Fish

I received a generous Powell's gift card for Christmas, and it took me forever to decide what I wanted to use it on. Been a fan of Tom Cox since I started following his My Sad Cat Twitter ages ago. Tod A is a musician (Cop Shoot Cop, Firewater) I love a lot. And, well, Raymond Chandler is Raymond Chandler. #bookhaul

Italy acquires Umberto Eco library and archive

"The acquisition follows an agreement between Eco's family and the culture ministry, with the state to guarantee the conservation of the remarkable heritage, making it accessible to students and scholars."

https://www.wantedinmilan.com/news/italy-acquires-umberto-eco-library-and-archiv...

Y'all, I need some book recommendations because I'm flailing. I want to read something that is dark, a little morbid, a little quirky. The vibe I'm looking for is along the lines of Edward Carey's Little. It can be scary, but it doesn't have to be. A character or two should be a little outside social norms in their behavior, and there should probably be some detached body parts somewhere in it. Any ideas?

I was interested in a book that was kind of sick and creepy, and this did deliver somewhat on that. But I'm wondering if Flynn hates women or if she was trying to paint a picture of a hometown that would fuck anyone up. Aside from two women from outside of the narrator's hometown, all the females in this book were portrayed as manipulative and vindictive. Most of them seemed more caricature than character. The denouement felt rushed. ⬇

Woo, managed to finish another book! I'm sure it says far too much about me that I didn't find this book creepy, and I think I might like to live with Merricat, Constance, and Jonas on the moon.

I'm in an extended can't-settle-on-one-book period, but I did manage to breeze through this one. I fully love drag queens Katya Zamolodchikova and Trixie Mattel and never miss an episode of their web series UNHhhh, so there was no way I wasn't going to read this. That being said, the book is only okay, but carries a good message of being yourself and loving yourself couched in Trixie and Katya's trademark offbeat humor.

An interesting little video at the link about The Folio Society's edition of Doctor Zhivago, with art from Paternak's father in a new translation by Pasternak's nephew.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCQbPyXJv_G/?igshid=cs93w3rkj0q2

Just finished this book, and I'm a little sad that, after over two months of dragging it out, I'll no longer have these stories of family and fantasy to dip into each night. Alameddine creates a cozy patchwork quilt of story to wrap yourself in. Stories inside of stories inside of stories.

Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.

[quoting Fernando Pessoa in _The Book of Disquiet_]

Been moving house & drawing out a particular 500+ page novel. But in the meantime, I did finish Ali Wong's book. Framed as a series of missives to her 2 young daughters, Wong puts forth the case for being unapologetically yourself, giving your all to what you love, grabbing hold of what the world has to offer, & not settling for anything less than the best in all areas of life. And, of course, it's funny.

Photo from Green Apple Books' Twitter.

1. Rebecca Solnit, Mary Roach, Sy Montgomery

2. Maya Angelou, Caitlin Doughty, all of Sleater Kinney (and women musicians in general), Malala Yousafzai

3. I'll go with an easy favorite, Sarah Scribbles https://sarahcandersen.com/

4. Bitch magazine

Love 👏 This 👏 Prompt. 🤘

#friyayintro @howjessreads @4thhouseontheleft

Blount's travelogue is appropriately subtitled "Rambles Around New Orleans". It is by no means a travel guide and by no means gives a fully rounded view of the city. But it is a charming ramble around town filled with charming, rambling stories of New Orleans and the time Blount has spent there. A good way to spend time with NOLA if you've already visited and fell in love.

I wasn't really feeling this installment in the Seasonal Quartet, and I can't quite put my finger on why. It didn't bring me as much joy as Autumn and Winter. I didn't wonder over Smith's way with words like I did the first two.

Oh well, still looking forward to Summer (the book, not the season - I hate the season).

Some evening reading in honor of Terry Jones.

Terry Jones, who was famously known as a bringer of joy as a part of Monty Python's Flying Circus, but who also was the author of several books, has died.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jan/22/terry-jones-monty-python-founder-an...

"Bear, I hate to tell you, but this is what life is like. You go along for awhile until you've had more than you can deal with and then you go the rest of the way in pieces."

Boy howdy, can I relate to that.

17 Nonfiction Books Feminists Should Read in 2020

https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/bitchreads/most-anticipated-nonfiction-books-...

I moved right on to Winter after finishing and loving Autumn. It started off a little rough because Art, one of the MCs, started out a little awful. But by the end I was quite pleased, with both Art and the book as a whole. Glad I got a tip-off about the connection between the books as I might not have picked up on it on my own.

You guys... I just let out the goofiest nerd-laugh of delight upon discovering House of Leaves has an index. So excited, yet intimidated, by this book.

I got a Powell's gift card for Christmas, and my haul arrived today! Gheeeee! So excite! 😄

My 2019 reads. I read as many books over the whole year as some of you read on one month, but I exceeded my (admittedly low-balled) goal, so I'm good with that. The definite standouts were America Is Not The Heart and Autumn.

Well, I just fell right off the radar, didn't I? Life has been... challenging. But I've still been reading. Just finished the above, my first Ali Smith, and I'm enchanted. The dreaminess, wordplay, humor, astute insight, and heart of this book had me enraged from the start and didn't let me down. A book to be cherished.

I've never had a book pull on my heartstrings as frequently as this one. A meditation on love and death and war and all the horrible and wonderful things we humans do to each other. And while it got very heavy at times, requiring me to put it down for a bit to recover, it was a true pleasure to read.

All your favorite songs reimagined as vintage book covers, from Lit Hub.

https://lithub.com/all-your-favorite-songs-reimagined-as-vintage-book-covers-you...

This book is just about killing me right now.

Hmm... It is an interesting concept, trying to engineer an ideal relationship, but the Girlfriend Experiment collapses in on itself, not least of all because the egocentric dude who has come up with the idea makes a shambles of it. The MC, Mary, is an interesting study, and it was a readable story (except for the parts where egodude Kurt was the primary focus). But I found the resolution very unsatisfying, seeming to just drift off into vapor.

About 45% of the way through The Answers. Kurt is insufferable. Please send help.

Can a year of sleep change your life? Let's find out!

Even though the MC was kind of a terrible person, I couldn't wait to see what happened next in her pursuit of a life reset through sleep. (And I have to admit I was envious of her ability to take a year off to sleep. Oh, beautiful sleep...) And that psychiatrist!

#BetterLivingThroughChemistry

Rebecca Solnit, man. Every time I read her, I feel like my mind opens a bit more, and I can see things a little more clearly. In this collection of essays, she focuses her sharp, grounded powers of analysis mainly on the subject of silence - who is silenced (spoiler: it's basically everyone except cishet white men), how, and what happens when the silence is shattered.

Photo: Haymarket Books Twitter

I finished this book a day or so ago, and I miss it. I especially miss spending time with Hero. This is a slow, quotidian book, which may not be attractive to some readers, but I feel is perfect for the story of a woman who is just learning to be human again after her world ends, and a snapshot of a Filipino-American community in 1990s Northern California. I loved it.

I sometimes volunteer at the Kids' Book Bank. One of the perks is that I sometimes get to rescue books that would otherwise be discarded and add them to my personal library. Today, I saved Encyclopedia Brown from "book heaven".

#volunteering #HeavenIsActuallyAShredder

I've seen a few reviews of this book describing the mc as unlikable, but, in all honesty, I saw a lot of myself in this book. It is a pretty accurate portrait of someone who becomes consumed by love (or "love") in an attempt to fill an unfillable hole inside (and illustrates the reason I now choose to remain single). I've never seen this aspect of myself portrayed so honestly, to the point of almost being unnerving. That being said...?

If you're looking for a book about books, this is not the book you're looking for. But you should read it anyway because it is a delight. Bythell, owner of the largest secondhand bookshop in Scotland gives a daily account of a year in his life as a bookseller, including hilarious, mystifying, and heartwarming interactions with customers and colleagues. An eminently readable dispelling of the romantic myth of owning a bookshop.

Sunny morning with a book, coffee, and a cat getting in on the sunbeam action. This is the life of leisure I was meant for.

#JokingNotJoking #CatsOfLitsy

Another visit with our friends from Barbary Lane means more soap opera-like twists and turns, and I think it's even more fun than the first one. Though our corn-pone Midwestern gal (who is a little too corn-pone and Midwestern to be from Cleveland, even in the '70s) Mary Ann gets a little annoying in this one, I feel even more in love with most of the returning characters. Also, can I please move back to northern California now?

Mixed feelings about this. I have issues with it from the portrayal of the gentile German citizens in general to the odd word and image choices (sometimes causing me to put the book down and ask, "What does that even MEAN?"). But I came to care for a number of the characters in the book, which will always pull me through to the end. I'd like to read the story Liesel wrote.

I feel very attacked right now.

Finally reading Kitchen Confidential, and while it's as entertaining as expected, man, could it use a copy editor. I'm less than 20% in, and I have already seen enough missing words, wrong words, and lack of proper punctuation to make me despair. I'm really surprised to see this kind of work in such a hugely popular, bestselling book.

Does anyone else find their reading experience marred by poor copy editing? Or am I the only nerd?

As you can tell, I couldn't relate to this book at all. 🙄

I remember spending time poring over maps and encyclopedias in my youth, and this book beautifully tapped into that casual geographer mindset. Informative and entertaining, never getting too technical, this book had me fondly remembering those evenings stretched out on the living room floor, scanning maps just to see what was out there, while also turning an eye to where maps are going.

Lazy Sunday reclining in bed with Ken Jennings' "Maphead". It's already full of the kind of informational asides and trivia you'd expect from a former "Jeopardy" champ - just my cup of tea. Stella is into it, too.

#catsoflitsy #cartography #mapnerd

I really don't know how I feel about this book. It's a memoir partially of Gold becoming an adult, but moreso of Gold coming through his kind of fucked up relationship with his mother, who has probably more than one undiagnosed mental condition. Sometimes it's compelling, but mostly it's like one, big self-therapy session. Still, I think people who have difficult relationships with their parents might find solace here.

Brilliant.

Woohoo! Finally have this memoir from the author of "Carter Beats the Devil" thanks to a Christmas gift card. The endpapers are covered with intriguing references to the content, like "lolly is a slut" and "story yeast". Excited to get started!

Every time I read science fiction, I think, "I should just not try with science fiction." This short book took me forever to read, and any interest I had in finding out what was going on fizzled out halfway through. Meh.

Image from treehugger.com.

For me, reading Raymond Chandler is not about plot or whodunit, but about beautiful turns of phrase and description, dry and sometimes unexpectedly absurd humor, and the subtle and complex peeks into the character of Philip Marlowe. In the High Window, Marlowe is referred to as a "shop-worn Galahad" and shows an almost anachronistic adherence to the practice of consent, especially as concerns a damaged young woman. Marlowe is a fascinating puzzle.

Sometimes you're reminded that Chandler wrote poetry when he was a young man.

"[...] old men with faces like lost battles."

That line keeps killing me every time I look at it.

Freaky reading coincidence: I've been reading "A Gentleman in Moscow" on my Kindle during the day, and a paper copy of "The High Window" at night (to reduce screens before bed). As most of you know the first book is about a man put under house arrest at the Hotel Metropol in Moscow. The second book takes place in 1940s Los Angeles... and refers to a Hotel Metropole.

I did a double-take when I came across that last night. ?

Sad to say, this was not the book for me. It was not the unputdownable page-turner that The Heart's Invisible Furies was. And I found the main character whose only personality trait was ambition almost completely uninteresting. But I did like the Gore Vidal and Edith chapters. And I did actually finish it, so there's that.