Eli > Recent Status Updates

This book feels like a totally bizarre departure from the previous two. It's like pivoting from the weird fantasy books Kelsey like that are like knockoff LOTR into a Thomas Pynchon novel, in terms of vibe. It's like, the LOTR falls away and you realize that it had the 'surrealiy of life' themes of pynchon all along just cloaked in fantasy motifs.

This book slaps. It's definitely written for therapists and not patients but it's giving me a lot of self-insight and insight into the work I've been doing around reconciling different parts of myself. I know I should probably be seeking therapy again instead of trying to approach myself as my own therapist, but also it kind of makes sense ad I try to build trust between different aspects and attitudes of myself.

TIL there is a genre of lyrical sadboy leftist reimagined folklore! Listened to half yesterday and it's feeling a bit long/navel gaze. Sad folklore lyrical writing really needs action to keep me engaged. It's the themes of Logan without the fight scenes.

Wish Unate was gay, the whole 'tragically lives forever while all his female lovers die' is really hetero. Lived for 80k yrs and never sucked a dick? Unrealistic!

Living up to the hype, I think this book will absolutely devastate me

I'm gonna return to the library without finishing. T9his book was way too much about modern Japanese architecture. Really interesting use of space but sad post-industrial aesthetic sensibilities. In one case an architect used OSB as an interior and exterior finish material??! Horrible. Hideous. One cool guy, Shigeru Ban, doing temporary disaster shelters and mountain lodge lean-tos. Want to read more about his work.

Might not finish this book. The introduction was an overview of forces that have shaped current Japanese architecture: tradition, European intervention, migration to cities, bombings during ww2, earthquakes. Lots of new to me info about Japanese domestic use of space. Unfortunately most of the featured houses are high end modern concrete monstrosities. One cool architect who designs post-disaster shelters ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm annoyed it's come to this but I'm trying to loosen the increasingly complex knot of negative feelings I've had since before GRS. Definitely Nagoski could be handling trans stuf better and be less geeky-cringe but yanno, what else is new and what else am I gonna read? I'm gonna get Vic to do the exercises with me. I've been avoiding this for years! Cis people earnestly talking about straight sex embarrasses me.

It feels like the 'bartimaeus' trilogy meets 'thistlefoot'.

I'm not sure why all Jewish novels have the same vibe, maybe I'm an antisemite for saying so, but this has the Jewish Novel Vibe.

Slow start but I really got into this today! Exciting

Would really love to discuss the anti-postmodern themes in this update on Lyra with another leftist! It's kind of a weird philosophical quagmire, some mystical stuff I really vibe with combined with half-baked critique of power structures that's afraid of saying the word "capitalism"

I'm pretty into the world building and what my crush referred to as "cli-fi" in that its more like speculative than scientific fiction. The characters feel like flat political archetypes and the format/plot feel a little bit like a simplification of gravitys rainbow, so maybe I should just return to that. I'll finish because I like it enough and I wanna discuss with my crush but I'm not wildly impressed.

On page zwing out of boingboing more like.

Slow going here. I found a reading guide that's been helpful to keep track of the plot since I frequently miss actual developments among all the vibes. Kind of reminds me of a weird book I read about ecology a few months ago, which I guess must have been inspired by Pynchon. Feeling #challenged by postmodern lit. Never read anything so obsessed with erections, including smut.

Third time's the charm! I think I'll finally finish this book. In the past I never made it to the parts about organizing in her community, just read about her life as a child. I've been doing a lot of background reading about her testimony, too. I'm hoping to be able to listen to a copy of the original recordings but there's some hoops to jump through.

Becoming a bit of a slog although I was initially very interested. I think I got spoiled by taking just a few anthropology classes at college so I only read generally quite good ethnographies? This one is alright, I feel like the author should have focused on just adoption or child circulation, not both. The child circulation is a lot more interesting, imo.

Very interested to read more about frost-protected shallow foundations. This is by the same guy as 'the scoop on poop' but it's a much more professional publication lol

This book is so inspirational re: building beautiful houses and community spaces for poor people. I'm getting flora to read it so we can talk about it. It makes me feel like I have so much to learn but that it's possible to do so. It's hard to see how to make that happen without going through a school with free student labor, I'd like to see a model that actually employs people.

Finished part 1, now I'm starting the section with the actual case study. I think finishing this book will be the end of this Christopher Alexander deep dive. He's a genius but I'm feeling like I'm ready to focus on more practical building and see how the design philosophy changes that process. I got like a million of his books on interlibrary loan and this is probably the only one I'm going to finish.

It's a vibe reading this while sifting compost for the garden. Very #flow

Reading this book makes me think I read other books of Joe Sacco's too fast to really absorb them. There's so much depth and intensity in each section. I'm planning to give this book to a friend from shul who does work with the Díne/Navajo nation but grew up in Israel and doesn't want to see the parallels with Gaza's land. Maybe I can get her to read his book about Gaza after lol

Not sure if I'll finish since the audiobook is due today. I would check out again buy I'm not crazy about it. Feels like different countries' histories are simplified in order to draw parallels between them. Most interested in the reporting on Ukraine because it's the only right-wing action in the book so far. Interesting stuff about the appropriation of mass movements by the right wing in order to appear grassroots.