Ariel > Recent Status Updates

Not sure how I went years thinking I’d already read Rhiannon but somehow, cleaning up my old holds/tbr lists, i found it at exactly the right time - can’t tell if I am full of feelings so the book is just hitting esp hard or vice versa but wow. I’m so in my feelings/out of my rational mind that I’m posting this unhinged update despite how dumb it sounds

Managed to find a copy of this after letting it slip thru my holds years ago & forgetting to find it again. Loving Machado’s writing; & (side note) randomly, serendipitously, during my bi-monthly 5-minute perusal of Instagram, the first post I saw was Alvin Schwartz’s illustrated version of The Green Ribbon (a childhood memory I’d forgotten.) I preferred Machado’s version.

I can’t remember how I first came upon No Longer Human, but it was after reading about Junji Ito’s manga series adapted from Dazai’s book that I prioritized reading it. A translator’s note compares Dazai to 18th-century philosophers, & the narration of semi-autobiographical character Yozo Oba feels particularly Kafka-esque from the beginning.

No idea why I never made it even 1/4 of the way through this book (most likely the availability of several long-standing & highly anticipated library holds) but I’ve yet to stop finding even more books tbr IMMEDIATELY, so this one’s going back to “Want to Read” status. Hope to find time yo finish soon.

My hold is finally available after idk how long… Ling enough that picking up where I left off at 78% to 60% to remember anything at all about the book, let alone the precise moment/mood where I was forced to stop reading thanks to the maximum 7-day check-out period from whatever library I originally borrowed from. 🥵