Book Log!

March

So I may or may not be... 11 days late but that's fine. Sorta. It's kind of sad too because I barely read during March (ironic) because of the 'book diet' thing I had going on. I completely ditched that for April btw.

Babel by R.F. Kaung

I-

THIS WAS WRITTEN SO WELL THAT I ACTUALLY BELIEVED FOR A FEW (very unfortunate) MINUTES THAT SILVER BARS ACTUALLY EXISTED AND COULD BE ENCHANTED BY LINGUISTIC ENERGY BECAUSE THAT'S JUST HOW COMPELLING THE READ WAS.

The book follows a young boy names Robin Swift after he was orphaned from Cholera in his journeys to London at a young age and eventually attending the (made up) Institution of Translation in Oxford, also now as Babel. It was such a beautiful read that I ended up choosing it as the topic for my final Honors paper. R.F. Kaung's writing will never fail to amaze me.

12/10

Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

It was eh. I mean, it was pretty interesting because of how it talked about the neurological impacts of habits and stuff, but it also felt a lot more like a self-help book. It talked about how habits are noticed by companies and used in advertising and everything which is also very impelling. Overall, it was just a slow read.

6/10

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

I read an article that described this book as more of a story, which makes a lot of sense because that's probably the only reason I've read it like 4 times. It talks about human evolution and it's very interesting, but I also recommend doing some research on the side because not everything is fairly introduced.

8/10

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

This book actually took forever - like one week total, which feels like way too much time. It was packed with a bunch of information, so it definitely took time to process, but I loved it. The amount of satisfaction I had by completing every chapter because I knew I learnt something is extraordinary. Some parts were definitely amusing because this book was published in 2001, so things were a bit outdated (it described Pluto to still be a planet, for one example), but it was enlightening to see how society's viewpoints on science have changed over the decades.

9.5/10

1984 by George Orwell

Ew. Like actually ew. I hated it. Don't ask me why because I can go on a rant for hours. I get why it was so popular, but at the same time, it was all very... unsettling. I understand that that's the whole point, but after a while, you just want to bang it against a table. I mean, the main character's name was Winston and from a really funny article I found, he's described to be 'as bland as soggy toast' which is about the best I can explain it as. At one point, there was literally a full chapter of him recited history, which was obviously to introduce the reader to the world, but it felt very forced and not at all blended in with the rest of the text.

It was a very good idea though, and the concept of Newspeak is impressive so 4 extra points for that.

3/10

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

It's a classic, I mean, how can you not love it? It really makes me think about how some ideas that are so overused today were really original before. The idea of different living parts being fused together to form a monster is not at all new today, but when Mary Shelley published this novel (inspired by her telling a last-minute horror story to her friends), it was a revolutionary idea because it hadn't been implemented into society by then. And now today, it seems like such an obvious idea, but only because we've been introduced to it.

Besides all of that, it may be a challenging read at parts, but the childlike satisfaction one gets while travelling through the story is unmatched.

10/10

Aesop's Fables By Aesop

Can you guys tell I really was starting to run out of things to read? I found this on my kindle buried at the very bottom of my library from who-knows-when (it used to be my dad's before I 'stole' it so for all I know, it could've been there for 10 years) but it was a relaxing read. Some parts were so fun to think about because now the story concepts are overused and I already ranted about this in the last review so now I'll stop.

8/10

A Tale of Two Cities By Charles Dickens

This was such a fever dream read. The only things I really remember is... i don't even know. I kind of stopped recording during March (dw I'm doing it for April) so these are out of order. Because I read it a while ago and that too mindlessly, I don't remember much. That says a lot about my comprehension skills, but from what I do remember...

7/10

The Hero by Lee Child

It was such a short read and talked about the stereotypical hero - I didn't mind either. It was interesting to think about the concepts and just pause every few pages to really try and understand what was being presented. I liked it, but it was just that - a short read.

6/10

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 

I've read Leo Tolstoy before this with War and Peace ever since I read Wonder and Via's dad kept bragging about her reading it and I thought "well, now I want to do that so my parents can brag about it." Long story short, I read it when I was 12 and instead of being proud, my parents were both distrustful and horrified. It was also a pretty hard book to get into.

But Anna Karenina was not. From the first chapter alone, I fell in love with the characters and the topics. One thing I admire about Leo Tolstoy is how every character has such an intricate and complicated world, and this book did not disappoint. Sure, it took time to get through but that's because I was savoring every word.

10/10

If I'm being honest, the 'book diet' in March definitely starved me and as soon as April started, I read so many books that when my friends caught a peek of my log, they thought it was an April fools.

That's for next time though lol. One thing I will say is that to never do a book diet like this because while it's nice to read the classics, goals like this are what set books in such a hateful perspective - schools make us read books with no choice in it. If you read, do it because you love it and because it's for yourself, not just because there's this book that's recommended. 

See you guys next month!