Untitled 37 (On books)

I’ve been reading a lot of books recently.

Here’s are some* quotes and thoughts.

*By ‘some’, I mean ‘a lot’. Feel free to scroll past this post. It’s not that well structured but here it is.

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Thoughts on Kafka on the Shore

“The process of writing was important even though the finished product was meaningless.”
- Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

I first read Kafka on the Shore when I was in high school.

I didn’t understand any of it, and after also having read the Windup Bird Chronicles, another book by the same author, 18-year-old me decided I didn’t really like Murakami.

His books just seemed to end up nowhere. 500+ pages of bizarre events and characters and interactions and in the end, it felt like we were back to where we started.

But, you know, reading the book again 12 years later, it might be one of my favorite novels ever.

I think these days, I have a finer appreciation for this— this feeling that so much has happened, and also nothing has happened. And when it seems like nothing has occurred, everything has changed.

It’s very Chekhovian (see: The Lottery Ticket)— intentionally so, as Murakami has referenced Chekhov’s gun in both Kafka on the Shore and in his more recent novel, 1Q84.

Anyway, the quote by one of the characters, above, is one of the best I’ve read in a long time.

It sums up Murakami’s writing perfectly, and also my own.

In American society, there’s a big push for finding or creating meaning in our lives— some grand scheme or end goal we are living by— but I find there is also beauty in the simple process of living. There’s something that happens that isn’t captured by some kind of grand finale. There’s no fireworks, no feast, nothing. It’s something more subtle than that, perhaps.

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More quotes from Kafka on the Shore

“It hurt more and more to hold on to them, but I never wanted to let them go… It was the only thing that proved I was alive.”

“Our responsibility begins with the power to imagine… where there’s no power to imagine, no responsibility can arise.”

“I want to be able to absorb that outside power… the strength to endure things, unfairness, misfortune, sadness, mistakes, misunderstandings.”

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Quotes from other books

“Sometimes you can’t fix what’s broken. Sometimes you just have to live with it.”
- Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

“Pathka, her best friend in the world, has been a wholly inadequate parent.”
- Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

“In practical terms, Szabo felt that libraries should begin offering classes and voter registration and literacy programs and story times and speaker series and homeless outreach and business services and computer access and movie rentals and ebook loans and a nice gift shop. Also, books.” - The Library Book by Susan Orlean

“Good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are.” - His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

“Will anyone be the better for making me miserable? … No, no one will. There’s no one to fret, no one to condemn, no one to bless me for being a good girl, no one to punish me for being wicked… I didn’t know whether God had died or whether there had never been a God at all. Either way, I felt free and lonely, and I didn’t know whether I was happy or unhappy.” - His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

“I never met a nature that made me so ardent to do good, or to be so kind… I failed so many times but each time his goodness was there to redeem me… perhaps I shall fail from time to time, but I shall try all the same.” - His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

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Select review of things I read on a 5-star scale
★★★★★ - I gave up several hours of sleep read this
★★★★ - I was excited to read this
★★★ - I finished reading this in a reasonable amount of time
★★ - I got to the end but it took concentrated effort
★ - I probably gave up and just wiki’d the plot

Modern Love by Aziz Ansari (Non-fiction) ★★★★
Pretty good, enjoyable. Interesting perspectives and info on how we date and find partners across different countries and now vs. previously. Fun.

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Fiction) ★★★★★
Wow. One of my favorite fiction novels about Vietnamese people I’ve read (and I’ve read a lot at this point— most that have been published in America, I dare say). It’s a heavy read, written in a very claustrophobic, Dostoyevskian style, so if you’re looking for something light and enjoyable, this is really not it. Heartbreaking but so real and close to my heart.

The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis (Non-fiction) ★★★★
Really interesting mix of biography and introduction to psychology. A look into the works and relationship between two of the most important figures in modern Psychology. Intriguing to read, it also just gives great background on so many psychological phenomena that I’ve read about/heard referenced.

Spark Joy by Marie Kondo (Non-fiction) ★★★★
Hahahah I love Marie Kondo. She’s pretty extreme in her philosophy but I do support what she says. To summarize, look at everything you own and think “Does this item spark joy?” If the answer is yes, keep it. If not, chuck it. Remember, useful things also spark joy, because if the options are to use a vacuum cleaner or manually sweep, I would be thrilled to use a vacuum.

Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (Fiction) ★★★
Pretty good and has interesting scenes/concepts but it could’ve been executed better. It was a little overhyped for me, so I was a bit disappointed when it wasn’t like “10/10, A+++++++, would buy again”. Objectively still okay though.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (Non-fiction) ★★★★★
Wow this was so incredibly good. I usually don’t like reading these kind of revelation, self-help types of books but this one was so, so well written. If you were going to read one book from this list, it should be this one. It’s real short, easy-to-read, but very worthwhile.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo + Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larson (Fiction) ★★★★★
Holy moly, trigger warning much. I didn’t know anything about this series before I started reading it. It got popular around the same time as Twilight and Hunger Games and whatnot, and with its stupid title, I had just boxed it into the same category of easy-to-read, overhyped garbage and never read it. And then I read it, and boy oh boy I was so unprepared. Gruesome, graphic, and really well written.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean (Non-fiction) ★★★★
A love letter to libraries, centered around the mystery of the devastating 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire. As your typical millennial who loves libraries, I also loved this book. It takes a 3-part approach to libraries, chronicling their collective history, researching the mystery of the 1986 fire which remains one of the worst library fires in history, and looking into the current state/future role of libraries in the community.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (Fiction) ★★★★
A really solid read that tackles some really great issues about families in general and about being Asian in America specifically. With that said, it had really great moments, but just didn’t have impact at the end. I had this problem with Ng’s first novel, Everything I Never Told You, as well. Like, it’s almost amazing. Almost. The story is great, the characters are fantastic, the relationships between the characters are damn real and heartbreaking. But the climax of the novel leaves me a little wanting of something more.

She Begat This by Joan Morgan (Non-fiction) ★★
A look into the life and work of the legendary Lauryn Hill— just in time for the 20th anniversary of her iconic album, the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, released in 1998. I used to love Lauryn Hill and was really excited to read this, but honestly it wasn’t that good. There were a lot of wonderful insights into what Lauryn meant to black women in America, but I found the novel’s writing to be too much of personal love letter and not enough of the academic/biographical analysis that I wanted.

The Way You Make Me Feel by Mauren Goo (Fiction) ★★★★
So I never read young adult (YA) novels as a kid, and now as an adult, I’m starting to dive into them, and while some of them are very obviously YA and not directed to me, others are really great and I love them. The Way You Make Me Feel is one of the latter. First, it’s so refreshing to having an Asian American lead character in a novel that only barely brushes on being Asian American. Clara just happens to be Asian and she’s great. I wish teenage me had more things like this and not just the East Asian Dragon Mystique of Amy Tan novels! Besides that, it’s a fun, well-written novel about highschool class clown Clara as she learns the meaning of friendship and responsibility.

The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker (Non-fiction) ★★★
I think she’s kinda extreme, but that’s the way these books are always written. Anyway, it’s a guide to how to gather and host people (from weddings to dinners to business meetings to hangouts, etc.) effectively to create lasting impressions and generate meaningful discussions. Really good ideas once you can get past the author’s very Tehani (from hit TV series, The Good Place)-like writing. (You get a lot of ‘So one time I was organizing a dinner for the Dalai Lama and 20 other world leaders…’-esque stories in this book. She doesn’t actually ever say that quote, but it sure felt like it sometimes!)

The Young Elites series by Marie Lu (Fiction) ★★★★★
A super fun, three-part YA series! It’s like X-men crossed with Game of Thrones for teenagers. The way it’s written, it’d make for a really great TV show or movie or anime or something. Lu previously wrote the Legend series, which was pretty good too, but this one is definitely better. She improved a lot in her writing and storyboarding between Legend and Young Elites.

Blood, Sweat and Pixels by Jason Schreier (Non-fiction) ★★★★
A journalist’s dive into the development, release and problems of 10 modern games, ranging from one-man phenomena like Stardew Valley to iconic indie games like Shovel Knight to blockbuster releases like Diablo III. Basically what I learned from this book is— 1) It’s a miracle any game gets published and 2) Working conditions for game developers are absolutely horrible. Fun, inspiring and horrifying, it’s a great read, but honestly by chapter 7, the stories got a little repetitive, because the above two themes are true for every single game produced, it seems.