Ryan Berger > Recent Status Updates

Do I, a 30-year-old man, have menopause?

Reading this on the L-Train and nodding vigorously

Part one was MAGNIFICENT

Save me, George

Trying to be objective about this because I am being forced to throw out the unit I'd been planning and have to teach this on a week's notice and that's going to take a bit out of the enjoyment of any book.

Up and down. Verbose to the max. Sometimes it's what you want-- it's certainly why I picked it up!

Reading so I can win an argument

Another attempt!

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL

(((((White Noise is my favorite book of all time and yet I'm only, close to five years later, reading my second DeLillo because I was so scared the next one wouldn't live up to the hype but this is fucking incredible))))

Ended up sticking with this off a weird hunch that much of it was, if you can believe it, kind of bad on purpose and I feel like I was kind of right? Also not sure it completely saves it. More to be revealed.

This is a book about how awesome it is to be a guy. Fishing trips rule! Everyone is so chill!

Looking like my book of the year, potentially.

Trying to get another recent release under my belt. This is great so far! Like an extended George Saunders story.

This just isn’t very good. Disappointment of the year brewing.

Tremendous. Not a clue why people are generally lukewarm on this one.

Trying to get back on the horse with this one.

In hindsight, I am genuinely surprised (and glad) that Larry Niven's warning about harvesting inmate organs hasn't come to pass, but you will not be shocked to hear that a guy who was an advisor to Reagan talks about the entire concept of organ donation as if it's woke socialist nonsense lmao

Deep sigh of relief that this is the first book on my school’s shiny new curriculum— a book I could teach in my sleep.

My opinions on this book have ripened and shifted, and may continue to change over the years, but I still love it. Hoping to write about those shifts in perception the more time I spend in this world.

Not very good, sadly.

Turning 30 today. Wrote about the 30 most important books in my life so far. https://ryanberger.substack.com/p/30-...

Getting marginally better, but it's still very apparent that Labatut doesn't seem to actually know much about math despite ostensibly writing two books about how it can make people insane and has not developed a trick to convey these ideas other than wiggling his fingers and make "OoooOOOoooooOo spookyyyyyyy" noises while turning some of the most important people who ever lived into cartoons.

My favorite Bugs Bunny cartoon <3

I kinda don’t fuck with Labatut’s entire deal? At all? Given the way people talk about him I think he is emerging as my pick for the most overrated writer of our day (one that people generally take seriously, anyway)

Miss you Terry!!!

Reading Gentrification: The Novel before moving to Brooklyn 😔 (this is sneakily some of the most fun 100 pages in a book I’ve read in a long time, woah)

Technically a Christmas book *bangs gavel*

The scene where that lady feeds Slothrop terrible British candy is maybe the funniest scene I’ve ever read in any book

UPDATE: I dropped my copy by accident and the binding completely fucking exploded

GRAVITY'S RAINBOW SUMMER

Profoundly upsetting!