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all the books i read in march and april and what i thought of them

 All the books I read in March and April and what I thought of them I actually cannot read (I could read in March) and I think it might be bad for my mental well being. I can't believe that now is the time that I am inexplicably overcome with a burning desire to blog (I have to do so many finals). I don't want to do any kind of formatting of the books and you are all just going to have to live with that.  In February, the only book I read was Lolita , but I can't talk too much on the internet about how much I love Lolita because I think that makes me look bad. I just really like the setting; I'm not kidding.  In March I only read books that were vaguely classical, except for Ada or Ardor which is another Vladimir Nabokov book about cousins who like each other way too much and also they find out that they're siblings. This book is so aggressively Nabokovian and bro really ignored everything his editor told him, so the book is too long and really weird even though no...

this blog post is my final project for my philosophy class

This blog post is my final project for my philosophy class I hope my readership will forgive this departure from the sort of thing I usually write about. I read two books about animal rights and animal welfare, Animal Liberation Now by Peter Singer and The Case for Animal Rights by Tom Regan, and I am going to compare them because Peter Singer is a utilitarian and Tom Regan was, as far as I can tell, not really a Kantian but at least a deontologist.  Animal Liberation Now by Peter Singer ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Case for Animal Rights by Tom Regan ⭐⭐ I can see that The Case for Animal Rights has a purpose and I'm not upset that it exists, but Animal Liberation Now is definitely a better book from every perspective unless you are very erudite. I think Peter Singer's book is really successful in presenting the subject matter to an audience that might not have thought about it very much (or might have some subconscious resistance to veganism because no one likes being made to feel guilty about th...

all the books i read in december and january and what i thought about them

 All of the books I read in December and January and what I thought about them Hello team, my life is in some respects falling apart faster than a vegetarian meatball (broken keyboard, unable to read, Greek homework), but I do have a kite and a new sweater, WHICH I MADE. I made the sweater, I didn't make the kite. Somehow I only read 3 books in December, and then I read 4 books in January, but I accomplished my Goodreads reading goal (66), and I feel optimistic about the future.  Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift rating: ⭐⭐⭐ The best part about this book is imagining how Gulliver would explain to his family back home why he can't tolerate being around them anymore and instead wants to chat with his pet horses for FOUR HOURS EVERY DAY. "So, I met these talking horses, and they're soooo smart, and they smell better than you." I would emancipate myself if I were Betsy or whatever his daughter is named. I like Gulliver. I think he's funny. My entire class w...

all the books i read in october and november and what i thought of them

 All the books I read in October and November and what I thought of them I would apologize to my readership (for obvious reasons), but I'm not actually sorry. The readers of my blog have not experienced a semester during which they had to write four papers in two weeks on two separate occasions. This may be why I have forgotten how to read. Nevertheless, I am still going to smash my Goodreads reading challenge. ✨✨✨ Bakkhai by Euripides rating⁚ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I really enjoy Greek tragedy because, for the first time in my life, ancient Greeks seem to me to have feelings. It was not actually obvious to me before my classical mythology professor made us read Greek tragedy that ancient Greeks love their parents and their kids. You might say, but Clara, she rips her son to pieces; how is it obvious that she cares about him? You can tell Euripides loves his kids because he writes a tragedy where the sad part is a mom going crazy and ripping apart her kids. This entire paragraph notwithstanding, in...

all the books i read in august and september and what i thought of them

 All the books I read in August and September and what I thought of them unfortunately for my readership, i am back at school now, and i have forgotten how to read. but it could be worse, because if i wasn't at school, you would still be listening to me whining. i would like to apologize specifically to frank for the late blog update because i think if it had taken me any longer, he would have just had an aneurysm. my shift key is broken. I read 6 books in August and 5 books in September (in September they were all for school except the one about the Greek alphabet). My Friends by Hisham Matar rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I think this is probably the most sophisticated book by this author so far, and my favorite for sure. I love friendship! I love reading about friendship! The last sentence notwithstanding, I was in a constant state of stress while I was reading this book because every friendship in the protagonist's life feels a little unstable. You are constantly thinking, I know they're...

all the books i read in july and what i thought of them

 All the books I read in July and what I thought of them can't stand this season, too hot, no school, bored, blah blah blah etc. etc.  In July I read 9 books :D ✨✨✨ The Real Life of Sebastian Knight by Vladimir Nabokov rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I would recommend this book to If on a Winter's Night a Traveler enjoyers because I think this book is about being a writer in the same way that book is about being a reader, but I'm not really a writer, so I can't say for sure. This book is one of my favorite entries into the mystery genre because there are no stakes. The guy is already dying. Well, the guy is always already dead, but with Sebastian Knight, the question is about what his life was like, not who killed him. I'm phrasing this in a very confusing way; it's not a murder mystery because no one killed him. I loved reading literature analyses of Sebastian Knight's fictional books, and I think The Real Life of Sebastian Knight sort of imitates the style of Sebastian Knigh...

all the books i read in june and what i thought of them

 All the books I read in June and what I thought of them I hope the readers of my blog are having a better summer than me. I am so bored on the days I don't have my internship, but this is potentially a positive thing for the readers of my blog because all I can think to do with myself is read. Consequently, I read 11 books in June.  ✨✨✨ Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie rating: ⭐⭐✨ This is the first memoir Salman Rushdie wrote about the fatwa. It is such a shame that Salman Rushdie is a good writer who had a fascinating experience and yet did not manage to write a good book about it. I understand (because I read the book) that being fatwaed and then locked up in your house/other people's houses for ten years is an emotionally taxing experience and maybe you want to rant about it for 600 pages, so I'm glad he wrote the book if it was vindicating for him, but that doesn't mean it's a good book. Joseph Anton is doing great things as a vehicle for expressing angst and air...