I read a lot less than the previous year. My total count is 42 books, but then it's because I read a lot of short books, and also I haven't finished some of non fiction books I started and I didn't count them even when it's just one chapter left. And also there were certain months where I worked on numbing tasks of finishing a tedious never ending construction drawings for my day job and I barely had time to do read. Anyhow count doesn't matter, it's just here for my personal note.
I read many good books last year and a lot of them are becoming my favorites, some I didn't really like. And I'm going to talk about them.
I read a lot of memoir/autobiography/essay books without specifically meaning to, they just happened to be the books I wanted to read at the time. I read Bob Mortimer's, Sarah Polley's, Deborah Levy's, Ursula K. Le Guin's, Annie Ernaux's, Fern Brady's, Sinead O'Connor's, Rossana Rossanda's, and Leila Khaled's. I love and would recommend all of them.
Except maybe Rossana Rossanda's The Comrade From Milan. It was actually the book I was seriously excited to read. I'm always more interested in reading personal account about certain political atmosphere rather than long ideological theories or manifesto. I wanted to know the story from the perspective of this woman who spent her life at the height of WWII fighting with the communist partisans for liberation. But I really couldn't like the way it's written. It's hard to get what the point of her stories are. There are too many tiny minuscule details which I didn't think is important and made it very tedious to read. There are lots of name drops without context without explanation.
Reading the book made me feel like talking to a ranting Italian in a not pleasant way. It reminded me of the time when I was working in Rome. I worked with more than twenty Italians and they spent their time working on a project by talking and talking and talking pointlessly without actually doing anything. It was a mad horrible experience. That I kept reminding of while reading this book. Like it's more of blurted out rants rather than a well structured narration with purpose. It was really disappointing because I really wanted to like the book.
I also happened to read her comrade's book, The Tailor of Ulm, by Lucio Magri which is a history of the Italian communist party, PCI. I had a hard time reading this because most of the time I didn't recognized the names of Italian politicians. But if anything, I would recommend reading the introduction because it explains well communism in our current time.
I still haven't really fully grasp communism as an ideology. I've always been more interested in the concept of anarchism although it seemed to me it's an impossible utopian ideology. So I picked up some books an anarchism. Malatesta's Anarchy, Kropotkin's Conquest of Bread. David Graeber who write Bullshit Jobs was also a well known anarchist although the book wasn't specifically about anarchism. I'd say after reading these, I find myself even more agree to anarchism than communism. But there are still a lot I need to read.
Still on the non-fiction side, I bought the two physical books by Kaoru Mende (LPA) from Japan, which was way out of my budget. Designing With Shadow is now basically my lighting bible. Illuminated Paris was an interesting book about lighting in the Belle Epoque era. I got many more lighting books last year which I hadn't had time to read.
I read four books on the currently still ongoing Palestine occupation and genocide. Minor Detail, Ten Myths About Israel, My People Shall Live, and The Bible and Colonialism. They reconfirmed that we live in a mad mad world controlled by a few evil elites.
The Knight, The Lady and The Priest is a research book from 1983 about the concept of marriage in Medieval France. It was surprisingly easy to read. It shows that religion is more about human culture and rules of current society than the laws from the divines.
Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment was also surprisingly not that hard to read, maybe because I intentionally chose to read one of the newest translations instead of the older classic ones. I need to read more books from the 1800s, I think.
Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea was written in 1968. It was a series and I've just read the first one. I liked it and will continue to read the next one this year. Reading her author's note made my respect her even more than I already have. The book is about a young boy wizard going to a wizardry school. At one point there's also a story of a cursed stone. It's clear how it was the book that made way for Harry Potter and if you haven't watched videos of how highly problematic Harry Potter is, I suggest you do. And read Le Guin's instead.
The second book I wouldn't really recommend which I think was overhyped on the internet is Our Wives Under The Sea. Reading some goodread reviews I agree with most of the more negative comments, the two characters have identical same voices, and the book read like a literary student trying to write a literary assignment. It tried a little too hard. I don't actually hate it, just think that it was overrated. I basically put it here just for its gorgeous cover. I do judge books by the covers.
Someone on social media said that reading Clarice Lispector is like when you put your head up from the book for like ten minutes you immediately forget what you just read. I couldn't agree more. But her writing is otherworldly.
I always wish to read more books like Stoner, a book about a man who led an ordinary and quiet life until the end and less books about people who lived successful and grandiose lives.
Sagittarius was written in 1957 but reading it was like observing the women of our mothers' generation (aka the boomers) and how annoying they are. I hope my generation's women do not end up the same in the near future.
Claire Keegan's books are shorts but they are all exceptionally good. They are proofs of how writings and stories can be powerful and great, no matter how long. I first know of her from the film, The Quiet Girl, which is brilliant. The book from which the film was adapted, Foster, is equally brilliant. But her first book I read was Small Things Like These. It was raved a lot by the book community online. And it always bothers me how so many people describe the book as a christmassy uplifting read just because it was set on snowy christmas season. They say the book is about kindness and about being a hero. I was like, do you even read the author's note? The book is so short, surely you made the time to read the author's note? Or maybe they just didn't bother to google it further. I did. The book was about the magdalene laundry in Ireland. It was an oppressive and abusive institution enslaving women completely enabled by and done by the church. More than feeling the spirit of kindness, reading it made me angry. Furious. Beyond kindness or heroism of an individual I think it speaks louder about how ignorant society always is towards the oppressed.
My google search on the magdalene laundry led me to Sinead O'Connor who spent some time of her youth in one of the institutions. I honestly didn't know much about her aside from her being a powerful singer in the 1990s. Her life stories immediately fascinated me. I also found out that her book just came out two years ago. I immediately wanted to read it. But then months later we all heard the news that she had exited life. It was sad. And then her stories were everywhere on social media. Her documentary also came out last year. She's my birthday twin, twenty years in difference, and I couldn't be prouder. A true Sagittarian with a frustrating part of Libra. Free in spirit, forever a tortured soul, with never ending search for truth.
My favorite book of the year is without a doubt, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of The Dead. It was written as a murder thriller but the writer has so much to say and gives an unapologetic conviction for her main character which I really appreciate. I feel like many people would hate her for being insufferable. But I love her. If there's a book where I wish I could read again with a fresh mind not knowing anything about it, it would be this one.
I've been wanting to read more local books but the publishers here do not put any effort on ebooks at all. Most books aren't available as ebook and I really do not want to buy physical book anymore. The one local ebook I bought this year was in PDF and the book is a choose-your-adventure book which made it extra excruciating reading in that format. I can only hope they would start to catch up very soon.
People online have made a list of books they want to read in 2024 meanwhile I'm here still trying to finish the books I started in 2023. I'll read whatever comes along the year that I want to read because I'm usually bad with reading list anyway.
