#books ✩

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

Can we get some book recommendations by any chance? 🎤

OF COURSE!!!!! i made a little book rec post a while back, but i …. can’t find it :’) so. i’m just gonna mention a few of those same books again <333

if i had to narrow my list down, i’d say my favorite books atm are beartown, eureka street and kafka on the shore ….. i say that very hesitantly though because 1) my memory is very bad and it’s been a while since i read them 2) i have many books on my tbr that i think will shoot up the rankings…………..

but yeah!!!! beartown is … probably my favorite book of all time and i will recommend it to the ends of the earth. it’s very heavy though!!!! content wise. and it’s long. but like, really easy to read because you just get sucked up into it. it’s about a small town that stays alive through its hockey team!!! but it’s not really about hockey . more about culture in general. family, friends, sports — etcetc!! i would absolutely look up the cws for this one though because it did give me a crisis 😭 it’s a really devastating book. but it means the world to me. backman’s writing is sooo pretty and i applaud him for carrying swedish literature on his back because god knows most of it sucks 🙏🙏

eureka street is, at its core, a love story <3 with a lot of humour sprinkled in. but it takes place right at the end of the irish troubles, with bombings and death all around, and it paints … a very vivid picture of those troubles. right in the middle of the book it switches genre for a chapter and is like……. devastatingly detailed & grim. only to switch back immediately after. it gave me chills bc the book just. does suchhh a good job of showing how desensitized you get to war and conflict after a while . but again, it really is mostly a story about love!!! and wilson’s writing is soooooo gorgeous i was fuming with anger while reading because i was so jealous 💀

kafka on the shore is another looong one and it’s also super weird, murakami is a freak, i don’t like him, unfortunately his writing is also gorgeous . i could give you tws for this one but we’d be here for a while. cat beheadings, sexual assault (almost)(in a dream), fantasy incest? (maybe?)(maybe not?)(it’s up for interpretation), etc. it’s so weird. but that’s exactly why it makes for such a wonderful coming of age story……. murakami likes to play around with the line between fantasy and reality and i think he does it sooooo so well . if you enjoy magic realism you’ll probably enjoy this book. the vibes are also very tasty in general……. the writing 😔…………… (<- is jealous)

…… also . this is a poetry collection not a novel but i need to recommend war of the foxes at any given opportunity………. richard siken you are the love of my life…. his crush collection is suuuuuper good too but i think i prefer wotf just a teeny tiny bit

[phantom-shell]

Big fan of Dipper "if I ever see you again outside of my nightmares, there is no force in the universe that will stop me from putting you in the ground" Pines

[catchymemes]

[freepunchesintheface]

You cannot convince me this isn’t what happened.

[evilgoodguys]

he’d forgotten how much he missed that smile.

[sourdough-seal]

bingewatching will never come close to bingereading. there is nothing like blocking out the entire Earth for ten hours to read a book in one sitting no food no water no shower no bra and emerging at the end with no idea what time it is or where you are, a dried-up prune that's sensitive to light and loud noises because you've been in your room in the dark reading by the glow of a single LED. it's like coming back after a three-month vacation in another dimension and now you have to go downstairs and make dinner. absolutely transcendental

[twocrpseswewere]

is this anything

[angelofdumpsterfires]

presented without comment

[pikatik]

Wanted to draw that scene from The Book of Bill :D

[nyanaknifegal]

･ ｡ ☆∴ ｡　* 　･ﾟ *｡★･ 　　 ･ *ﾟ｡　　 * 　 ･ ﾟ｡･ﾟ★｡ ☆ﾟ･｡°. *　　ﾟ｡·･｡ ﾟ 　　 　ﾟ *.｡☆｡ ★　･ 　　 * ☆ ｡･ﾟ*.｡ 　　　 *　★ ﾟ･｡ * ｡ 　　　　 ･　　ﾟ☆ ｡

[poptartcatz40]

THE CHILDREN YEARN FOR THE MINES

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

i finished sputnik sweetheart!! :3

okay so . well. i don’t know where to begin with this one 😭😭 it was a really lovely read!!!!!

before i say anything else:

murakami is a freak . we know this. i feel like it’s always obvious when you’re reading a murakami book because not only will you recognize the prose, you’ll recognize the Freak beneath it all . people often talk about how murakami can’t write women and i don’t think that’s true, i just think it’s very obvious that a Man wrote them …. i really loved sumire’s character and her relationship with miu, but i still felt that way. i think the narrator’s attraction towards sumire actually adds a lot to the book since it explores sexual desire, love, friendship and the lines between them, but in the beginning it really did feel like some weird … heterosexual fantasy. by the end of the book i had grown really fond of their dynamic but it started out very ’why is this guy even here’……

and in line with that!!! the theme of the book being desire sort of excuses most of the eroticism (/ gives it a purpose) but as i was reading there were still so many times where i was like pleaaaase murakami can you go two seconds without getting horny…….. please……….. like it makes sense but also . i don’t need to know about his boner . i didn’t need to know. in general i think murakami’s freakism shows a lot in how he just can’t stop thinking about sex . or conflating romance and sex. there’s a lot more to this book than just that and i actually really loved the exploration of unorthodox loves / relationships but it does have to be said . murakami is very freudian!!!!

all in all though this book really wasn’t that weird or explicit….. but maybe that’s because my standard of his freakism is kafka on the shore . anyway. those are just some disclaimers for anyone who might read this — murakami is a freak !!! a weirdo!!!!!!! i think his writing is more progressive here since at the very least the center of the narrative is two women, one of which is a lesbian (and her identity is handled with relative grace), but you can definitely sense the heterosexualism beneath it all lmao

anyway anyway ONTO THE POSITIVES because i really did love this book …… murakami’s writing is really lovely!!!!!! as always. there were a lot of lines i really adored and his prose is just very pretty……. also very gritty. it has a lot of bite to it. and his books always have a specific vibe to them... i love it a lot. ALSO SUMIRE AND MIU….. i already mentioned them but their dynamic was such a highlight for me !!!!!! sumire is so charming and miu is too ……. in really different ways. anyway i too am a lover of older women so miu just swooping in and giving sumire a job ……. all mysterious and successful……. i was foaming at the mouth . me next please . their relationship was handled well in general, and it was definitely the most interesting part of the book aside from the usual magic realism….. miu wanting to love sumire back but not being able to after losing the other half of her self…… the scene with them in bed together…… it felt very tender somehow .

i really loved these lines:

miu reached around sumire’s shoulders and pulled her closer. she’s still a child, miu thought. lonely and frightened, she wants someone’s warmth. like that kitten clinging to a pine branch.

like . the mother issues are mothering when it comes to these two (miu being almost maternal in the scene above, sumire falling for an older woman because she (presumably) longs for her dead mother?) and i guess that’s just murakami being murakami but i am sadly . into it . their dynamic feels so multifaceted. one thing murakami does a lot that i will always love is that he blurs the line between different loves …… what the characters in sputnik sweetheart feel for each other can’t be summed up in just a couple words . i said the theme was desire but Really the theme is love — the narrator’s love for sumire, her love for him, her love for miu, miu’s love for her … i really enjoyed that web between them all.

another central theme is loneliness and that appealed a lot to me too . how all the characters are isolated and alienated and feel different from others…………. and of course the way that connects to the gap between reality and dreams that murakami (and i) love so much . i just adore it !!!!!!! miu’s backstory, sumire’s disappearance, the narrator almost falling into the same dream world as sumire when he walks up that hill ….. the idea that we flee into the world of dreams to escape our loneliness. on the other side sumire can see her mother, she can find the other half of miu, she doesn’t have to face reality. i think the only reason she makes it out at all is because she can’t see the narrator there. i just love that aspect of it … magic realism my most beloved . murakami always does it very well which is why i can’t stay away from his books . i fear ……

anyway i can’t really wrap up all my thoughts in a satisfying way ….. there’s a lot i could talk about!!!!! this book has parts here and there that are very murakami in a bad way, but overall i thought it was such a lovely work :’) the writing, the concept, sumire and miu …………… yeah . kafka on the shore is still my favorite of murakami’s works, but sputnik sweetheart was very up my alley too <3 i had a lot of fun with it!!!!

some of my favorite quotes:

this beach was a little too quiet for a person to visit alone, a little too beautiful. it made me imagine a certain way of dying.

the answer is dreams. dreaming on and on. entering the world of dreams, and never coming out. living in dreams for the rest of time.

blood must be shed. i’ll sharpen my knife, ready to slit a dog’s throat somewhere.

face turned down, without a word, that something makes its exit. the door opens; the door shuts. the light goes out. this is the last day for the person i am right now. the very last twilight.

why do people have to be this lonely? what’s the point of it all? millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. why? was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness?

”you’re a part of me; i’m a part of you. you know, somewhere — i’m not at all sure where — i think i cut something’s throat.”

[molzysketch]

Twitter loved this a lot so I’ll share it here too 👍

pspspspspsp if you guys like gravity falls check out the new shakers at molzysketch.com

[catchymemes]

[knockknockwhosthereartistism]

I was inspired