Some books I've read over the past few months

Never content to do the same kind of thing over and over again, I go through different cycles of hobbies and interests, occasionally adding something new to the rotation to keep myself on my toes.

Sometimes I'll play two or three big, hundred-hour single-player games in a row over the course of a few months. Other times I won't play any games at all for the same amount of time, or only play small indie games instead.

I've tried to learn to draw well many times in my life. Each time, I take a break after a few months and don't pick up a pencil again for quite a while, at which point I feel like I'm almost starting from scratch again.

Once in a while I'll realize I haven't read a novel in something like a year, and then I'll read a few every month until I suddenly stop again, sometimes switching it up with non-fiction.

But right now I'm in one of these novel-reading cycles, and boy do I feel smart and cultured, even if I've only listened to the audio-book for some of them. Anyway, these are the books I've read or listened to over the past few months, and some quick thoughts on each one.

I Who Have Never Known Men (Moi qui n'ai pas connu les hommes)

by Jacqueline Harpman

A French book translated into English about a very lonely woman. Bleak as hell. Bailey found this book and read it first and thought I'd like it, and she was right. I loved it. Somehow almost nothing happens in this book but I was enraptured the entire time. I love books about strange people from their perspective, and the protagonist of this book is super weird because she's lived a uniquely lonely experience in her world, and is eventually completely alone physically as well as mentally. This is the only sci-fi book I've ever read where, even by the end, it didn't feel like sci-fi. Depressing book about the human condition and capacity for absurd evil. Highly recommend if you want to be a little devastated.

The Wall (Die Wand)

by Marlen Haushofer

A German book translated into English about a very lonely woman. Bailey found this mentioned in a Reddit thread about I Who Have Never Known Men. Like that book, the protagonist in The Wall is a woman completely cut off from society who tries to live a life as good as she can despite that. Unlike that book, this woman had a somewhat normal life before the event that cuts her off from society, and instead of being completely alone, she accrues pets throughout the story. The animals in this book are so completely-realized in a way I've never heard animals described in any fictional story before. This book also has very little plot in the best way possible, and the protagonist even goes as far as telling you the few big story events way before they happen, but the quality of the writing is so good and the characterizations so rich that you want to know how the story gets to that point even with it "spoiled" ahead of time. Stephen King is also really good at doing this, telling you exactly what's going to happen later in the story to add suspense so you can imagine how and when it will happen. Anyway, great book and I'm looking forward to watching the movie adaptation sometime soon.

Earthlings (地球星人)

by Sayaka Murata

A Japanese book translated into English about a very lonely woman. Somewhat less lonely than the last two but infinitely more traumatized. Also discovered by Bailey who read it before me. Protagonist Natsuki goes through a lot of weird and awful shit in this book. Her character is well-defined, but the other two main characters don't feel as solid, although I enjoyed their dynamic and "logical" Libertarian-ass way of thinking that ends up turning the story down a fucked-up path. The ending feels like it's supposed to be the most disturbing part of the book, but by that point it almost felt so absurd to me that I couldn't be too weirded out by it, especially since the earlier parts feel so much more real and horrible. Interesting read.

The Crying of Lot 49

by Thomas Pynchon

An American book written in American English about a very lonely woman. How did I end up reading so many books with lonely women in them? This one wasn't even recommended by Bailey. I hadn't read any Pynchon before and figured it was high time, and this seems to be the one most Pynchon fans recommend to first-timers. I thought it was really entertaining and well-written. Like a lot of postmodern stuff, by the end of this book it's easy to think, "What the hell was the point of any of that?" but of course that's part of the point. Absurdity is abundant in modern life, probably more so than in '66 when this was published, so I get why any artist would want to convey that feeling. In some ways it's freeing to think that anything can happen at any point, and if none of it matters then you get to pick what matters. Unfortunately for protagonist Oedipa, the thing she decides matters is a conspiracy she's stumbled upon that she'd almost definitely be better off ignoring, but by focusing on it too much she possibly drives herself to madness. Extremely funny at times, dreamlike at others, and a neat snapshot of what life maybe felt like in California in the '60s to some people.

Now I'm halfway through reading Pynchon's Inherent Vice from 2009 because I liked Lot 49, and I saw the 2014 film adaptation of Inherent Vice in college and enjoyed it, although I probably wasn't high enough in the theater to truly appreciate it. It's fun reading a book written in the '60s and set in the '60s, then reading another book by the same author written in the late 2000s and set in the '70s. In some ways Inherent Vice so far does feel like it could have been written in the '70s, but there are some tongue-in-cheek references to things like the future of the internet with Doc's friends using ARPAnet early in its adoption, and the overall language and pacing feels a bit more modern than Lot 49's.

I also started an attempt at Infinite Jest for the second time, so I can be that white guy. But it's okay because Bailey actually finished it before me years ago in an all-women-except-for-me book club we did and enjoyed it, so when I inevitably yap at her about it we'll have fun.

After I finish Infinite Jest I am giving myself permission to play Pokopia.