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Jeremiah

Jeremiah’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (33)
currently-reading‎ (6)
read‎ (636)
did-not-finish‎ (4)
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top-rated‎ (78)
magick-and-humbug‎ (68)
philosophy‎ (59)
identity-politics‎ (48)
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poetry‎ (36)
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soviet-kitsch‎ (28)
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pedagogy‎ (0)
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Jeremiah is Currently Reading

Jeremiah is currently reading

A Brief History of Thailand: Monarchy, War and Resilience: The Fascinating Story of the Gilded Kingdom at the Heart of Asia

by Richard A. Ruth

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Jul 25, 2026 02:28PM

Jeremiah is currently reading

The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)

by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

bookshelves: gothic, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in November 2025

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Jeremiah said: " Shadow of the Wind is rich and well-developed. The layers are palpable. There's substantial technique here, a strong architecture to the narrative. The structure isn't overdesigned. It's ornate, but the ornamentation serves a purpose. The post-war pe Shadow of the Wind is rich and well-developed. The layers are palpable. There's substantial technique here, a strong architecture to the narrative. The structure isn't overdesigned. It's ornate, but the ornamentation serves a purpose. The post-war period and the cultural trauma of the time stand out vividly, giving the story weight beyond its mystery plot.

When Nuria Monfort's narrative arrives late in the book, everything shifts. Her voice adds depth the adolescent narrator couldn't provide. That section redeems much of what came before, which reads as precious and adolescent. Nuria is the strongest, most developed female character in the book. But she still functions primarily to narrate the backstory of men.

That adolescent perspective is the book's central problem. Positioning Daniel as primary narrator makes it read like teen fiction, even though the book is clearly attempting more. The teenage voice creates identification and emotional intensity, but it doesn't function as a genuine formal constraint.

Books that successfully use teenage narrators make the age limitation matter. In 'Catcher in the Rye,' Holden's inability to articulate what he's experiencing creates the space where readers do interpretive work on his behalf. In 'Never Let Me Go,' Kathy's carefully modulated narration around what's happening to her generates the book's horror. But Daniel's adolescence feels more like flavoring than structure. Remove the adolescent narrator and it's basically the same story.

The female characters remain flat and underdeveloped. What makes Bea alluring beyond physical attractiveness remains unclear. She functions as a prize and a mirror rather than as a fully realized person.

I came to this book partly as Barcelona preparation, expecting the city's architecture to feature prominently. Instead, it mostly fades into the background. The literal buildings become Gothic atmosphere rather than geography. What's actually foregrounded is the narrative architecture itself: all those nested stories and structures.

The meta-literary elements fall flat. The argument for the power of books (the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, readers as guardians of stories) reads as circular reasoning. It functions almost as advertisement, this "art for art's sake" reverence that assumes literature is magical without demonstrating why. Reading here is treated as pure aesthetic experience, which represents a privileged relationship to literature that misses how books actually function as tools for understanding, for discovering social mobility, for transformation beyond beauty.

Technically accomplished and beautifully written in places. But it operates from assumptions about books and reading that limit its insight. ...more "

progress:

(57%)
— Nov 20, 2025 06:18PM

Apr 14, 2026 05:43PM · see review

Jeremiah is currently reading

Some Hard Stars

by David Thacker

bookshelves: currently-reading, poetry

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Jul 09, 2026 09:05AM

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Jeremiah’s Quotes

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”
― Bertrand Russell

tags: confidence, eccentricity, philosophy

5433 likes

“We are all born mad. Some remain so.”
― Samuel Beckett

2425 likes

“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”
― Bertrand Russell

2414 likes