#poohsbookclub

[blacklinguist]

🕊 43 | pooh’s book club: the letters and the cosmos

“Oh my, what a thought-provoking book. I have had similar questions about a 'letter-world' analogy, and an everlasting intrigue based in typography. Surprisingly, De Looze managed to marry both of those interests into a fairly detailed exposition of letters, type, art, and philosophy.” ❣️

[kkaitstudies]

091519 ✧ gloomy days and long commutes make for the perfect time to catch up on some reading. the near and the far is a collection of stories from asia & australia. the foreward and introduction set the tone beautifully and i love that at the end of each story, the author are given the ability to briefly discuss their narrative. on another note, happy end of TIFF season! i was able to watch waves and jojo rabbit and ended up loving both films. overall a very good day.

[zoo-studies]

Currently reading + planning for the zoo

[captainamericastudies]

10.7.19 100 days of productivity 25/100

this week i read the handmaids tale by Margret Atwood. overall pretty good, i can see why it’s a classic

[betheflare]

Streaming, journaling and organizing.

Tmr was supposed to be my last day of whole30 diet but my dumb ass forgot OCTOBER has 31 days so basically last night was my last day and guess who's going to order a MC FLURRY SALTED CARAMEL TONIGHT?? MEEEE??? I love unexpected stuff like this lol

Anyways, I'm having a lot of fun studying thai I love it way to much I'm obsessed 🥺🥺💘💘💘 right now I'm in the process of understanding how the reading rules goes (5 tones, vowels...etc) I think it's more difficult than Japanese but I'm still enjoying the process.

What have you been up to?

🎧 - The changeling by Victor Lavalle

*so far I'm enjoying it, but I wish scribd had the ebook too 😭💚

[gostslut]

[psychedaboutstudying]

I'm starting two new challenges

(Why am I like this?)

Challenge #1: Pooh's book club

Goal: read 6 books

Running time: 01.09.19 - 31.11.19

Basically we're trying to read in the fall. Pooh's challenge is 10 books/1 per week, but I set the bar a bit lower because that helps me read more. (I don't know why my brain works that way.) My plan is to read 6 months/2 books per month. Based on my current habits this won't be a problem, but the next 3 months are going to be crazy hectic, so we'll see. I am 64 pages away from my yearly goodreads goal right now, so at least that stressor is out of the way.

Challenge #2: 50 days of productivity

Challenge: get stuff done

Running time: 02.09.19 - ?

I've tried the 100 days of productivity challenge before but that's so intimidating so I've halved the number of days. I also decided I not doing the 50 days consecutively because rest days are super important! I'm guessing that it will take ten weeks, and run roughly in sync with the book club, but we'll see how it goes.

I will also be rounding up the happiness challenge tomorrow! Maybe I am a little bit crazy, yes. Are any of you doing challenges at the moment? I'd love to hear them!

[marubooks]

I decided to join a reading challenge by @blackgrad!

It's so lovely to be inspired and motivated to read again. The book that I'm reading this week is called the pillow book, by sei shonogan. It's basically about her life as a court lady and it's in a journal/diary form.

I'm half way through the book, but for now I rate it a 4.7/5!

[quartercentry]

8/31/19

This semester I have quite a bit of reading to do for all of my classes yet, I want to read for pleasure too. I've decided to join @blackgrad reading challenge. My goal is to read five plays in five weeks. 

[bonbonmacaron]

I've been reading a lot these past few months, mostly on my kindle. I read the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. It was really disappointing. It read like a poorly written fanfic with so many clichés. I think it was written with fans of the show in mind. I haven't seen the show, but I hope it doesn't have a terrible plot like this book. I haven't hated a book so much in a long time. The Handmaid's Tale was perfect on its own and did not need a sequel.

I also read Thirst for Love by Yukio Mishima a couple of days ago as part of Antastesia's club de lecture this month. The choices were this book and Ada or Ardor by Nabokov. Since I've read lots of Nabokov before, I wanted to try out something new. This was also my second attempt at Japanese lit. I read Haruki Murakami in Russian when I was in middle school and didn't really like his work. Reading Mishima's Thirst for Love was like watching one of those slow character-driven indie films with scenes from every day life. I liked how the author puts you in the mind of the main character, Etsuko, a widow who lives with her father-in-law and his relatives. She's clearly unhappy in her situation (as she's forced to be intimate with her father-in-law), so she falls in love with the servant, Saburo. Most of the narrative highlights her suffering as her all-consuming jealousy of Saburo grows, who seems to like someone else. The novel explores jealousy and the actions it leads to. However, the ending is so cheap and nonsensical, it feels like I've just watched the denouement of a B-movie. The last sentence doesn't even make sense. It was utterly disappointing.

Also, there were way too many characters living under the same roof - Natsuo, her father-in-law, his son and wife, another widow with kids, and two servants. They all seemed superficial and weren't developed at all. Natsuo seemed very cold and stoic, someone who doesn't show her emotions, and yet everyone in the house knew that she was in love and jealous somehow? I guess it showed, but we're never told how it showed. There were a lot of descriptions of her keeping a calm face. I also didn't like Saburo. He's portrayed as a simple country boy with no depth whatsoever and someone who only acts on animalistic desires. His portrayal didn't seem fair or realistic. So, I didn't like this book at all.

Next, I'm going to read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. After reading a lot of mediocre books lately, I'm so ready for something good. I saw the film years ago and I've been wanting to read the book for a long time. I loved Everything is Illuminated, it's probably one of my favorite books, and I'm surprised it took me so long to get to another Safran Foer book. This will also be the first physical book I've read in a while, since I mostly read on my Kindle, so I'm curious to see how I like it.

I also kind of want to read Ada or Ardor because I love the excerpts Antastesia's been posting. I miss Nabokov's decadent prose. But it seems to be long, dense and intimidating, so I'll take it slow when I start it. I've also been wanting to read something in French, so I might also read Chéri by Colette. I saw the movie Colette back in June and I've been meaning to read some of her work.

[blacklinguist]

🕊 9 | pooh’s book club: the orphan girl and other stories [10/10 books read!]

with this book, i finish my reading challenge, and complete my list of 30 read books for the year. it’s literally been years since i finished more than 3 books in a calendar year...so i’m super happy about this. 

i had a fierce love of reading as a child, and to be able to re-awaken that passion (and re-gain my attention span...) is so refreshing. putting reading back on my hobby list!

taking a break for the next month to make some headway on research reading in preparation for my thesis [pls pls pls],, but i’m excited for 2020′s goals!

[captainamericastudies]

hey this week i’m reading “invisible monsters” by Chuck Palahnuik. i first heard about this book bc it inspired ‘time to dance’ by p!atd. getting back into reading has been great and i’ve been enjoying it alot

[betheflare]

*deep sigh*

Its been 8 days since I did anything other than lay down helplessly or go to work. I've been on TheWhole30 diet for 9 days now, my sugar cravings are killing me (I kinda got used to it by now) I've been really exhausted lately and I know why, I should be eating 3 meals a day but 1 or sometimes 2 is all I can manage. Also I've been trying to drink more water cause I guess I've reached my peak of dehydration my skin, hair, lips are super dry and I just don't feel great AT ALL. I'm doing kinda good with water so I'm a bit happy, I cant wait for winter to drink hot water cause it actually worked for me and I didnt feel like i wanna throw up like I usually do.

*another deep sigh*

I've also been thinking about minimalism lately. I'm a messy person but its causing me a lot ot stress so I thought why not try the konmari method or I might go crazy soon.

It's just a phase, I can be better soon.

For whomever is wondering:

The Whole30 is a 30-day diet that emphasizes whole foods and the elimination of sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, soy, and dairy. The Whole30 is similar to but more restrictive than the paleo diet, as adherents may not eat natural sweeteners like honey or maple syrup.

Currently reading: Pride and prejudice

[psychedaboutstudying]

Pooh's book club challenge update!

I started a new audiobook! I finished The Poet X a few days ago and it was so good!! I really, really loved the fact that it was narrated by the author herself. I've never read poetry before so starting out with an audiobook edition feels a bit wrong? But I've heard people say the audiobook version of particularly this novel is a great intro to poetry so that's good! Also I'm not unhappy about it at all!

Yesterday I started Like a love story about three teens in the 80s. It's already an emotional rollercoaster with racism, homophobia and AIDS, and with references to Madonna, Boy George, and Cindi Lauper... loving it!

[blacklinguist]

awesome start !

I decided to join a reading challenge by @blackgrad!

It's so lovely to be inspired and motivated to read again. The book that I'm reading this week is called the pillow book, by sei shonogan. It's basically about her life as a court lady and it's in a journal/diary form.

I'm half way through the book, but for now I rate it a 4.7/5!

[blacklinguist]

🕊 55 | pooh’s book club: the real mccoy

sigh, another slog of a read. this is actually similar to the book before last, I Love It When You Talk Retro. however, it was not nearly as successful with providing the ‘true stories’ behind turns of phrase. some of the phrases felt obscure, the writing was a bit all over the piece, and God, it was just annoying at parts. i’m pretty good on lexical reads for this year, lol!

how was your last book?