All the books I read in November and what I thought of them

This month I read five books, and four of them were for school. I think I have forgotten how to read. Actually, the problem is that I have too much homework and poor time management skills. And I have gotten into the unfortunate habit of taking naps in the evening and that's an hour or two that I did not spend doing homework and then I stay up until three in the morning. I don't know if it counts as sleep if you take a nap in the evening. Am I getting enough sleep? Who can really say. The upshot is, this month you are primarily getting to hear my opinions about my professors' tastes in literature. Because of my poor time management. I have a few (very few) personal failings, and I appreciate my readership supporting me in spite of my flaws.

The Aeneid by Virgil

rating: ⭐⭐⭐

This book is millennia old, but that doesn't mean I don't have notes. I feel that there is no situation in which one should not want my notes, even if one has been dead for a hot minute. I actually don't know what my notes are because my feelings about this ancient epic are not so much mixed as apathetic. It's really whatever. Roman fiction, in my experience, is just sort of meh.

⛵⛵⛵

Kudos by Rachel Cusk

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I didn't read this book for school. I can't explain it, but this installment in the series was slightly worse than the other two. The ending was odd. I do, however, feel that Kudos has the clearest identity out of this series. I just can't remember what the point was. I think it was about being in a woman in a patriarchal society. Probably also about wanting things. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this book, and I am definitively a member of the Rachel Cusk hive. As far as I know, the Boston College Rachel Cusk hive consists of me and my friend Maya. It's nice to have an associate in the Boston College Rachel Cusk hive. One-person hives are lonely, which I know because I'm in a lot of them.

📚📚📚

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

I love Eric Hoffer. I love this book. I think he's almost completely correct, and I don't remember what the part was that I disagreed with. I had to write an essay on The True Believer for my poli sci class, and it was roughly 50% longer than it was supposed to be because I just had so much to say. My professor explicitly said that she would read everything I wrote if I felt that I had more to say than the suggested word limit, so really it's her own fault. My professor also says that we should be scared of mass movements and the rise of populism in America, but how can I be scared as long as I have Eric Hoffer?

🔮🔮🔮

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

rating: ⭐⭐✨

I love giving Important Books in the Western Canon low ratings. I think it's just so funny. Experts agree that this book is Very Good, but I simply cannot. It's so long, and it's not interesting enough to be as long as it is. As someone who wrote her poli sci essay far too long, I understand that this is fully a hypocritical thing to say, but Jonah Goldberg says just because one group has no standards doesn't mean no one should have standards. Increasingly, Jonah Goldberg bugs me, but I still think this particular point is a good point. Anyway, in this book, a man murders a pawnbroker and her sister and he agonizes over it for 500 pages. Really, very little happens. It isn't exciting, and you shouldn't read it for the plot. 

🪓🪓🪓

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

Yet another win for my poli sci professor and her reading list!! She pronounces his name /'kɛs.lɜːr/. That might be correct, and it might not be. I can't really say. This book is just fantastic. A guy is imprisoned in the USSR for being an old Bolshevik and there's some fun stuff about true believerism and religious imagery and flashbacks!! And the prisoners talk through the wall!! Honestly, not that much happens in this book, but, unlike Crime and Punishment, Darkness at Noon is interesting anyway. And that's why Arthur Koestler is a better writer than Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I don't make the rules; I just call it like I see it. 

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