##=##=##=##=##=##=##=##= BOOKS^•^ =##=##=##=##=##=##=##=##
possum is currently reading:
100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
next books in queue:
THE APPLE IN THE DARK • GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
Hi. i LOVE literature. If you want to talk about any of the books you see below PLEASE talk to me.
The types of books i'm always on the lookout for are strange, bizzare, disturbing books with ethereal writing and delves into psychological/philosophical themes. if you have a book in mind that i might be interested in, i BEG YOU to recomend it to me in the chatbox above. Look into the pitiful eyes of the possum in the corner. I'm BEGgINg you (with love)
Curious about what books i'd like to read in the future? click here
• PERFUME
• NAKED LUNCH
• THE BOOK OF DISQUIET
• NAUSEA
• DESPAIR
• SPEAK, MEMORY
• ADA, OR ARDOR
• THE HOUR OF THE STAR
• A BREATH OF LIFE
• PANENKA
• DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD
• HEART OF A DOG
• MARTYR!
PLACEHOLDER TITLE
AUTHOR AUTHOR
Date published: -- 0000
Timeframe read: -- jan.01.25-jan.01.25
THOUGHTS!! ^•^
hi hi hi does this work??
**The reviews below are old, taken from my personal journal and written before i had a website to log them. Because they weren't intended to be seen, they are undetailed and not a true representation of my thoughts and are therefore meant to be forgotten by you if read. However, any recs are recent and genuine!**
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
J.D. SALINGER
Year published: -- 1951
Time read: -- approx. july.2025
UNSEASONED THOUGHTS
finished the catcher in the rye, i really liked it! he's such a negative person but i relate to his uncertainty about the future. i wish he found out where the ducks go when the pond freezes over.
AGUA VIVA
CLARICE LISPECTOR
Year published: -- 1973
Original language: -- portugese
Translator: -- Stefan Tobler
Time read: -- approx. july.2025
SPOILER-FREE REC:
Do you like beautiful writing? This "poem in prose form" is an 88-page-long stream of conciousness touching on themes of time, life, death, and personal exploration. This is currently my favourite book and there is one condition if you want to read it: don't annotate and don't try to make sense of it. Just float down the river with Lispector as she attempts to capture the "instant-now."
" Let me tell you: I'm trying to seize the fourth dimension of this instant-now so fleeting that it's already gone because it's already become a new instant-now that's also already gone. Everything has an instant in which it is. I want to grab hold of the is of the thing. These instants passing through the air I breathe: in fireworks they explode silently in space. I want to possess the atoms of time. And to capture the present, forbidden by its very nature: the present slips away and the instant too, I am this very second forever in the now. "
UNSEASONED THOUGHTS
i'm reading Agua Viva and i haven't finished it but i know it's my favourite book. this is honestly the first time i can say, confidently, that i have a favourite book and it's such. i need to get back to reading it.
•
i finished agua viva 2 minutes ago and i can confirm that it is in fact my favourite book. she did it. i remember i tried to capture an instant a long time ago and i had 2 entries before i abandonned it. i titled the doc "a pouring of my soul" and dimmed the brightness of my laptop to pitch black and just wrote nonsense as fast as i could. i left it after 2 pages and clarice has 87 and it's the most beautiful thing i have ever seen written. i wish i knew portugese. clarice writes terrifically and it's strange and raw and it's what i've been unknowingly looking for. next lispector is the apple in the dark but first i'll read the setting sun and 100 years of solitude. i love books.
PALE FIRE
VLADIMIR NABOKOV
Year published: -- 1962
Time read: -- approx. june.2025
SPOILER-FREE REC:
Amazing "unreliable narrator" type of book. The unconventional composition of this piece of fiction is interesting--it consists of an introduction by the character C. Kinbote, a 100-line poem by J. Shade, Kinbote's commentary on the poem (the main part), and an index (don't skip the index!). Except, the commentary isn't what you think it'll be about. While you uncover details about the lives of these two characters, I strongly suggest you take notes. Solving puzzles are fun, especially when they're beautifully written.
" I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane;
I was the smudge of ashen fluff--and I
Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky. "
UNSEASONED THOUGHTS
[...] also i just finished pale fire IT'S SO GOOD. i think nabokov is currently my favourite author; he writes so beautifully and about such strange subject matter, it's bold. pale fire has such an interesting and unique composition, unlike any i've ever seen. i think he basically invented the genre "hypertext," i think it's called? i have house of leaves on my shelf i'll give it a read towards the end of summer maybe. when i finished pale fire i was so confused and didn't understand anything of what i read. afterward i watched a youtube vid explaining the "plot" and the "meaning" of the book and it's just so damn clever!! i'm so devastated that i didn't figure it out on my own. my biggest regret in life is that i didn't take notes on pale fire. i hope i'll forget its contents in a few years so that i can revisit it and annotate the book and try to "solve" it myself. i think my next nabokov book is despair and then ador or ardor. what a brilliant writer. i have to sleep now.
CATCH-22
JOSEPH HELLER
Year published: -- 1961
Time read: -- approx. may.2025
UNSEASONED THOUGHTS
i just finished catch-22 and loved it. like all long books, it takes a while to get into the rhythm of it. i think it took a week or two to get through the first half, and two days to finish the nexy half. i love it so much--it's comedic but doesn't fail to highlight the horrors/absurdity of war. it reminds me a lot of salughterhouse-five. all the characters were so unique and i got attached to a lot of them. it made me so happy to find out that orr lived.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS
EMILY BRONTE
Year published: -- 1847
Time read: -- approx. march.2025
SPOILER-FREE REC:
Read this one during early spring or late autumn lol. What stuck with me the most is the ambiance of the whole book. Wuthering Heights is a slow read with many detestable characters but it's all somehow very fun. You will like this one if you're a fan of classics with a somber mood, but good luck understanding what the hell Joseph's saying.
“ He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk: I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine. ”
UNSEASONED THOUGHTS
i just finished wuthering heights, it's really good. definitely gonna be one of those books i'll remember the feeling of my whole life. first word that comes to mind when describing this book is atmospheric. emily bronte writes environment so well, it's so memorable. but oh my, all the characters were so damn detestable. it's like everyone who comes near heathcliff becomes the worst versions of themselves. i loved the journey of witnessing those 2 generations go by in those 2 households. i think healthcliff's character is so fascinating. my favourite moments in the book were his speech by the tree after catherine's death and when he was talking about catherine's grave. i loved the book's ending. happy ending. they seem like they're gonna live good lives. it was so relieving to witness because finally they get to have peace and relax. heathcliff realizing he doesnt have it in him anymore, to be so damn hateful, and dying after having experienced heaven for only a few days. i do wonder what he was doing in the woods overnight. probably walking with catherine. i'm happy for him, for them all.
FAHRENHEIT 451
RAY BRADBURY
Year published: -- 1953
Time read: -- approx. february-march.2025
SPOILER-FREE REC:
A classic dystopian novel, not too long, and is somehow more relevant today than at the time it was published. This was written when TVs were becoming a major thing in american households and the story centers around the evolution of technology and how a futuristic society has willingly traded their ability to think for themselves in exchange for entertainment (sounds familiar, huh?). I really loved the ending. There aren't any spoilers in my "unseasoned thoughts" below, just has my favourite quote.
UNSEASONED THOUGHTS
"grandfather's been dead all these years, but if you lifted my skull, by god, in the convolutions of my brain you'd find the big ridges of his thumbprint." just finished fahrenheit 451 and oh my.
the bullet point means it was significant to me
THE SETTING SUN -- O. Dazai
●AGUA VIVA -- C. Lispector
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE -- J. Salinger
●PALE FIRE -- V. Nabokov
WHY FISH DON'T EXIST -- L. Miller
THE FALL -- A. Camus
●1984 -- G. Orwell
THE BELL JAR -- S. Plath
●CATCH-22 -- J. Heller
●THE OUTSIDER -- A. Camus
●WUTHERING HEIGHTS -- E. Bronte
●FAHRENHEIT 451 -- R. Bradbury
WHITE NIGHTS -- F. Dostoevsky
●THE MASTER AND MARGARITA -- M. Bulgakov
ANNA KARENINA -- L. Tolstoy
DIARY OF AN OXYGEN THIEF -- A.
THE TRIAL -- F. Kafka
METAMORPHOSIS -- F. Kafka
THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD -- F. Dostoevsky
●SLAUGHTERHOUSE-5 -- K. Vonnegut
●THE ROAD -- C. McCarthy
●THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY -- O. Wilde
A SHORT STAY IN HELL -- S. Peck
FEAR STALKS THE LAND! -- T. Yorke & S. Donwood
●THE PLAGUE -- A. Camus
THE CASTLE -- F. Kafka
●LOLITA -- V. Nabokov
THE SECRET HISTORY -- D. Tartt
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN -- C. McCarthy
●FRANKENSTEIN -- M. Shelley
BROTHERS KARAMAZOV -- F. Dostoevsky
●FIGHT CLUB -- C. Palahniuk
AMERICAN PSYCHO -- B.E. Ellis
THINNER -- S. King
YOU LIKE IT DARKER -- S. King
LORD OF THE FLIES -- W. Golding
HARLAN ELLISON'S GREATEST HITS [●I HAVE NO MOUTH BUT I MUST SCREAM]
●BLOOD MERIDIAN -- C. McCarthy
ANIMAL FARM -- G. Orwell
NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND -- F. Dostoevsky
●CRIME AND PUNISHMENT -- F. Dostoevsky
MISERY -- S. King
●PET SEMETARY -- S. King