Ryan > Recent Status Updates

quick thoughts so far: she’s articulating a lot of things i already kinda knew but it was good to see it affirmed on the page. i particularly like how she talks about love as an action you choose, not as a feeling you fall into. this premise holds up a lot of her philosophy on love, which i resonate with, so it turns out that that belief underlies a lot of mine too.

omg she’s describing my parents wtf

i understand the words but i still have no idea what the project of the book is. which means that im reading this not understanding why its poetry as opposed to just the daily life of someone narrated in singlish. so far, my experience is that the more i read this the more i want to read something else

ohmygodohmygodohmygod this book is crazy it’s moving me so much and i’m feeling so seen and swept away

whoaa. this is a gold-standard allegory!!

camus writes beautifully. his works are considered existentialist classics for good reason. the plague and the people’s efforts to rally each other, to fight it, and their musings—great allegories and very mesmerising to read.

i tend to like books that describe the micro moments well. camus’s writing is more zoomed out than i’m used to, yet he paints the picture so well that i feel like im in the scene too

wow, this is a very good read so far that basically confirmed to me that i like optimistic sci-fi. which i haven’t read very much of yet, but i like the few optimistic sci-fi books i’ve read so far. very immersive world building, prose is very easy to read, and it switches perspective at all the right moments where im like “whoa i really want to see the other perspective right now”

wah, this book is amazing so far. i care so much about the characters. there’s such evocative writing that shows you so much with so little. short chapters. love.

“A birthday present” is such a banger. one of the best poems about depression i’ve read. i want to write like that.

hit and miss so far for me, but the hits HIT. love “lady lazarus“ and “elm” especially. elm is visceral and terrific

this book is good!!

Hit or miss so far, but the hits are really good. I couldn’t really get into the first two stories, but the third was great (“The First Night of Initiation”), and the fourth was even better (“Pavarthi Dreams About His Sex”).