A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping
- Jul 2026
Reading List
Books, short stories, manga, etc. Pardon the dust. 2026 summary
Currently reading
- Dune by Frank Herbert (started May 2026)
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Robin Buss (translator) (started Jan 2026)
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Fourth Wing
In my romantasy era. Maybe read this too close to The Poppy War (same military college setting) but I think I am simply too old for books set in school now. I’ve just learned about the genre ‘new adult,’ but so far it seems the key differentiator from YA is sex? I liked the dragons but there wasn’t enough of them. Nonsensical romance, annoying writing/narration, weirdly modern language.
- Jul 2026
A Court of Thorns and Roses
😐
- Jul 2026
The Poppy War
hmm... starts off fun, spends half the book fun, then abruptly isn’t. I think it doesn’t earn its direct references to real-life historical events.
- Jul 2026
- Jun 2026
Ficciones
incredible!! favs: the circular ruins, the garden of forking paths, death and the compass, and the south
On the second floor, on the top story, the house seemed to be infinite and growing. The house is not this large, he thought. It is only made larger by the penumbra, the symmetry, the mirrors, the years, my ignorance, the solitude. (Death and the Compass)
- Jun 2026
The Secret History
- Jun 2026
Piranesi
enjoyed learning about the house
- Jun 2026
Strange Buildings
- May 2026
The Labyrinth House Murders
- May 2026
The Mill House Murders
ooh, for once I figured out part of the mystery before the reveal…
- May 2026
Batman & Robin: Year One
- May 2026
Closing Act
- May 2026
And Then There Were None
my third time reading this and the end is still so tense!!
- May 2026
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees
- May 2026
- via Patrick (H) Willems
The Nice House on the Lake
love the art
- May 2026
Sympathy Tower Tokyo
- May 2026
Strange Houses
I'm getting the impression that I simply need to just Go With It. it's a ride.
- May 2026
Dune
audiobook; prep for dune part 3
- May 2026
- reading
The Decagon House Murders
- Apr 2026
The Man Who Died Seven Times
- Apr 2026
Absolute Wonder Woman
- Mar 2026
- Vol. 1 (#1–7)
book club / perpetually behind
- Mar 2026
- reading
Strange Pictures
- Mar 2026
Carrie
- Mar 2026
- Mar 2026
what a weird book (complimentary). meant to explore only a little bit of it but ended up getting sucked into the intrigue and went through the whole thing at once.
- Mar 2026
Pride and Prejudice
first jane austen book (i know i kno...). it is as good as they say
- Mar 2026
Pattern Design: a book for students treating in a practical way of the anatomy, planning & evolution of repeated ornament
via internet archive
- Mar 2026
There Is No Antimemetics Division
really enjoyed the first section; felt kind of lost by the last. perhaps i should go and read scp stuff now
- Mar 2026
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
The use of simile and other figurative language is one of the chief delights of fiction—reading it and writing it, as well. When it’s on target, a simile delights us in much the same way meeting an old friend in a crowd of strangers does. By comparing two seemingly unrelated objects—a restaurant bar and a cave, a mirror and a mirage—we are sometimes able to see an old thing in a new and vivid way. Even if the result is mere clarity instead of beauty, I think writer and reader are participating together in a kind of miracle. Maybe that’s drawing it a little strong, but yeah—it’s what I believe.
At times like that I’m sure all writers feel pretty much the same, no matter what their skill and success level: God, if only I were in the right writing environment, with the right understanding people, I just KNOW I could be penning my masterpiece.In truth, I’ve found that any day’s routine interruptions and distractions don't much hurt a work in progress and may actually help it in some ways. It is, after all, the dab of grit that seeps into an oyster’s shell that makes the pearl, not pearl-making seminars with other oysters.
on writing retreats and ideal writing environments
The pressure to explain is always on, and a lot of your creative energy, it seems to me, is therefore going in the wrong direction. You find yourself constantly questioning your prose and your purpose when what you should probably be doing is writing as fast as the Gingerbread Man runs, getting that first draft down on paper while the shape of the fossil is still bright and clear in your mind. Too many writing classes make Wait a minute, explain what you meant by that a kind of bylaw.
on daily critiques
- Feb 2026
11/22/63
hmm, not quite the book i wanted to read…
- Feb 2026
Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
- Jan 2026
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking
- Jan 2026
No Country for Old Men
sadly already knew the plot because i had read the wikipedia summary for the movie a while back since i figured i would never watch it given the violence. didn't realize it was a book until i saw it in the library
- Dec 2025
The Ministry of Time
I started reading this on a whim before bed and ended up finishing the entire thing. It was intriguing to start—ooh, time travel, workplace drama, ooh—but I ended up disliking a lot of things. The writing is overly metaphorical; it has some extremely online energy; the narrator annoyed me deeply; it's a meandering slice-of-life until it's not. Apparently, this is going to be adapted into an A24 drama series, which may resolve many of these problems. I like the cover though, it's half the reason I wanted to read this.
- Dec 2025
Song of the Seabirds
- Nov 2025
War and the Maiden
- Nov 2025
WHEN I WAS A CHILD, I WATCHED A MAN DISMEMBER A DOVE
- Nov 2025
INJEST
- Nov 2025
Dream Loop
- Nov 2025
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
i really wanted to like this but alas
- Sep 2025
Klara and the Sun
- Sep 2025
Hawkeye
- Jul 2025
Liar Game
i love u musical chairs. those tables really do be turning. my brain will never fully wrap itself around the contraband game. or like any game but contraband especially
- Jun 2025
- reread, ch1–138 (end of round 4)
Batman / Superman: World’s Finest
dan mora’s art................
- Jun 2025
- #1–17
Batgirl
- May 2025
DC vs. Vampires
god what IS this lmao. i like the art; the story is an increasingly bizarre series of events.
- May 2025
Red Robin
- May 2025
- #1–12
The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper
a book targeted at notebook sickos (me)
- May 2025
- paused
World’s Finest: Teen Titans
- May 2025
- #1–6
Batman and Robin
- May 2025
- #1–13
Tim Drake: Robin
- May 2025
- #1–10
Robin
shoujo manga enjoyer damian al ghul wayne! beach episode! honestly i am not terribly enamoured by league stuff but the murder tournament was a fun setup
- May 2025
- #1–12
Nightwing
ugh i love the art!! the movement, panels, and backgrounds are so good. special shoutouts to of course #87 (big image) and #105 (pov). also enjoyed the small scale bludhaven plots and schemes.
- May 2025
- #78–118
The Mist
read this knowing the ending, except i couldn’t remember if it was the movie or the book ending (it was the movie ending); somehow didn’t remember any other details and i’m glad i didn’t see any of the other book covers that are more revealing. i liked the atmosphere.
- Apr 2025
When I Arrived at the Castle
weird and confusing! e.m. carroll's art is so beautiful!! obsessed with their panels and use of colour.
- Jan 2025
The Killing Joke
panel transitions: very cool!!! artwork good! also i knew the gist of the oracle backstory but, uh, this was pretty horrible.
- Dec 2024
Batman: Year One
gorgeous artwork!!! i liked the parallels between bruce/gordon
- Dec 2024
A Guest in the House
the art is so fucking good
- Dec 2024
Codebreaking: A Practical Guide
- Nov 2024
they’re so cute!! my kids are so cute!!
- Nov 2024
Framed Ink 2: Frame Format, Energy, and Composition for Visual Storytellers
excellent
- Sep 2024
Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers
simply superb.
- Sep 2024
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All
giggling kicking my feet twirling my hair whenever i read this
- Sep 2024
- reading, ch110
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
I am the target audience for this book…whether or not I fix my life remains to be seen but I found it worthwhile to read (versus reading a summarized version of tips) because the point is to change my mindset and that requires reading the whole text. Find out in a few months if I have succeeded in implementing the konmari method
- Sep 2024
Hum
I wish I enjoyed this! I didn’t like the plot (boring, anti-climactic), characters (annoying), or general execution. Some of the world-building was mildly interesting, but mostly kind of shallow.
- Aug 2024
Of Thunder and Lightning
- Jun 2024
The Heroic Legend of Arslan (Arslan Senki)
I’ve read this on and off for a long time, and just caught up with it again…I adore many things about it (Arslan being a kind, soft-hearted protag, mostly), but admittedly the war setting is not that interesting to me and a lot of time is spent on that. There’s only so many times you can watch the main characters destroy their enemies with ease before you start wishing for some actual stakes.
- Mar 2024
- reading, ch126
- Mar 2024
Pet Sematary
this filled me with so much dread
- Dec 2023
The Princess Diaries
- Nov 2023
Red, White & Royal Blue
- Nov 2023
- did not finish
The Fall of the House of Usher
- Nov 2023
How to Sell a Haunted House
My first Grady Hendrix book! I thought the atmosphere was kind of unnerving in the beginning and then the rest of it was not scary at all. Perhaps a problem stemming from how I read this at the airport and on the plane, which is the most unhorror sort of setting. But also, the characters were aggravating. And also mildly amusing: the protagonist is a product designer at Apple.
- Nov 2023
Dune
the lore..........excited to rewatch this now
- Oct 2023
Bleach
reread from pre-soul society training arc to start of the fullbring arc
- Oct 2023
- reread up to ch447
Naruto
- Sep 2023
- reread up to ch564
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
lmao. I felt like trying this because I was listening to a playlist of anime music today. I didn't find this very engaging and ended up skimming a lot of it.
- Sep 2023
Spy × Family
- Sep 2023
The Sympathizer
geez, what a book. I liked the writing—though it was challenging and made me slow down and look up many definitions. I liked the insights into orientalism and the immigrant experience, among many other things. (It feels trite for me to write that. I wish I had the ability and knowledge to write a better review here. I think this is a book I should buy a physical copy of to annotate.) There was a lot to think about. There's a scene towards the end that I had to skim over because it was too horrible. It made me think, why was this included? But I also know that these horrible things, and much worse, happened, everywhere. History is very sobering.
Sonny inherited the utter sense of conviction that motivated his honorable grandfather, who I am sure was insufferable, as most men of utter conviction are.
Ever the industrious student, I had read the screenplay in a few hours and then reread and written notes for several more hours, all under the misguided idea my work mattered.
…I had no doubt that in the Auteur's egomaniacal imagination he meant that his work of art, now, was more important than the three or four or six million dead who composed the real meaning of the war. They cannot represent themselves; they must be represented.
…the whisper of a dewy lover saying the most seductive words in our language, anh oi
You must claim America, she said. America will not give itself to you. If you do not claim America, if America is not in your heart, America will throw you into a concentration camp or a reservation or a plantation. And then, if you have not claimed America, where will you go?
- Sep 2023
Project Hail Mary
enjoyable story! I disliked the narration and writing though, and at some point I started glossing over all the science stuff, as fun as it was. I think I'll like the movie more when it comes out.
- Sep 2023
The Three-Body Problem
- Sep 2023
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy
slice-of-life vibes
- Jul 2023
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
mmmm I enjoyed many things about this. It’s quite philosophical at times but it was the kind of optimistic, sincere thing I needed to read.
Sometimes, a person reaches a point in their life when it becomes absolutely essential to get the fuck out of the city.
- Jul 2023
Destiny Comic Collection (vol. 1)
Despite my thousands of hours in Destiny, I barely follow the storyline and lore. This anthology was fun and actually filled a bunch of gaps for me. Also, fittingly, I read this while the servers were down.
- Jun 2023
The Paradox Hotel
- Jun 2023
- did not finish
How High We Go in the Dark
- Jun 2023
- did not finish
Flux
I liked some individual elements of this, but I found the way everything came together to be unsatisfying.
- May 2023
The Writer & the Witch
- Apr 2023
I think I will have to write a longer review/reflection at a later date. I first started reading this in 2013 or so, during a period of deep depression, dropped off it a few years later, before finally coming back to it now to finish. Even in a post-apocalyptic, hostile environment, the world is beautiful and worth living in.
- Nov 2022
Dead Silence
I was excited about the premise, but it didn't live up to my expectations. There were some spooky parts, because I am easily spooked, but I disliked everything else—plot, characters, writing. Mild thematic spoilers: the romance was incredibly tiresome, the mystery was disappointing, and the in-universe ghost logic was confusing.
- Nov 2022
Field Notes on Science & Nature
An interesting collection of essays on the many notetaking habits of field researchers! I skimmed over much of the scientific details as a non-scientist. I liked the essay on birding, and the one on sketching.
- Sep 2022
- via James Somers, More people should write
Making Comics
- Sep 2022
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
I liked the first few chapters more than the latter; I want to read more about craft now.
- Aug 2022
And Then There Were None
Read this some years ago, and I forgot most details. Still fun!
- Jul 2022
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Ooooooh
- Jul 2022
Death on the Nile
- Jun 2022
Murder on the Orient Express
- Jun 2022
Brave New World
- Jun 2022
Cultish: The Language of Fanatacism
interesting, but I wish it were more academic
- Jun 2022
The Magnolia Palace
Very slow, disliked the fairytale ending.
- Jun 2022
The Wake
Love the art. I enjoyed the first half, which was spooky and strange, a lot more than the second half, which was confusing.
- Nov 2021
- via Alex
New Waves
- Jan 2020
Manhattan Beach
I wasn’t feeling this, but the historical setting is interesting.
- Nov 2019
Remember It!: The Names of People You Meet, All of Your Passwords, Where You Left Your Keys, and Everything Else You Tend to Forget
This is fun and interesting. The applicable parts I might use require committing and setting up a system and practicing, such as a number system for bus schedules. Maybe other applications will come to me later and a sophisticated system will make more sense.
- Nov 2019
Women Talking
I thought this would be hard to read because of the subject matter (trigger warning: rape), but the book itself is about the philosophical discussions that come after.
I am already aware of that, says Mejal. Aren’t we all?We are aware of many things, instinctively, says Ona quietly, but to have them articulated in a certain narrative way is pleasing and fun.
— Our freedom and safety are the ultimate goals, and it is men who prevent us from achieving those goals.But not all men, says Mejal.
Ona clarifies: Perhaps not men, per se, but a pernicious ideology that has been allowed to take hold of men’s hearts and minds.
- Nov 2019
Dark Matter
Mystery! Intrigue! Quick-paced drama! Like my previous review of his other book Recursion, my review for this one is ‘oof.’ I would watch a movie of this. To compare them: I liked Recursion more—I think the writing there is more sophisticated and the themes more compelling.
- Nov 2019
The Underground Railroad
sad, horrifying, violent
- Nov 2019
This is How You Lose the Time War
Flowery, vague, flowery. It’s about two enemies that send letters back and forth. It’s light on the plot and setting—there’s a war happening and the mechanics aren’t elaborated on—and instead heavy (very very heavy) on the abstract and flowery language. Which, okay, I’m not into and I think it was a tad too much here, but this is an enemies-to-lovers narrative which is one of my favourite tropes. Also, WLW. So you know.
I wanted to say, your letter lives inside me in the most literal way possible, but didn’t—
- Oct 2019
Frankissstein: A Love Story
I bought this to read on a four-hour train ride and ended up not liking it. It’s about ideas. Characters monologue about AI and bodies and robots. I did enjoy Mary Shelley’s sections though. I haven’t read the original Frankenstein, so I’m missing context as well.
- Oct 2019
Recursion
Big oof. This was engaging and depressing with a side of fridge horror. I thought about it all day. Now I’m eagerly waiting for my library hold on his other book, Dark Matter, to come in.
- Oct 2019
White Tears
This was strange and surreal, and I’m still not sure what happened in the last bit. It gets very weird, very abruptly. I think I need to read it again.
- Oct 2019
Wilder Girls
About girls! and lots of body horror, and girls and their relationships, and dying. And surviving. And girls who love each other. I want to read the sequel.
- Sep 2019
Regarding the Pain of Others
A short book that opens up a lot of questions about photography (particularly war photography), and what it means to take photos and view photos.
Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question is what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated.
I think this is an applicable question to any number of things—I now know about x injustice, so what will I do? It is not enough to have the knowledge. This was originally published in 2001 and updated in 2004; there is probably something new to be said about the scale of how news spreads today.
- Sep 2019
Version Control
veeeeery cool
- Aug 2019
Commonwealth
I read this because of the cover, which stayed in my mind since when I first saw it. I kept reading it because the beginning was intriguing and I liked the writing. I found the rest of it slow and the ending unsatisfying. The narrative structure (told over 50 years, out of order) made me think a bit more about how long a lifetime really is.
- Jul 2019
Hawkeye
This was one of the first Marvel comics I ever read, way back years ago when I got into Marvel. It made me love Kate Bishop and the artwork of David Aja and Annie Wu. Years later, it’s just as enjoyable and touching as ever.
- Jul 2019
Fascism: A Warning
goes through the history of various ~fascist~ leaders (what makes a fascist is discussed but not conclusively defined), which is mostly new information to me. the latter chapters are dedicated to looking at current events + US administration, which I found light on the analysis. also, it was uncritical of how the US is, well, imperialist and can hardly be held up as a moral standard, and I found this pretty glaring in the analysis (or lack thereof)
- Apr 2019
My Sister, the Serial Killer
- Apr 2019
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Short & accessible, examples are drawn from European history
- Apr 2019
Borne
weirdness, inexplicable events, ecological horror. vandermeer loves his lush descriptions of an apocalyptic world and it was engrossing when I wasn’t impatient. and I really like borne the character
- Apr 2019
Jurassic Park
nom
- Dec 2018
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
yay: murder! very complicated (too complicated at times) mystery that was cleverly plotted out, the drama of it all
nay: no one is likeable, some incredibly awful fatphobia, the ending phase is pretty convoluted (on top of everything else), sometimes overly dramatic in prose
- Dec 2018
Persepolis
- Nov 2018
i love this part
i cry
- Nov 2018
The Girl on the Train
man this genre of thrillers
- Oct 2018
A Stranger in the House
- Sep 2018
The Martian
- Sep 2018
Behind Her Eyes
Now that i zoomed through this I'm not really sure if i liked it. Mysterious, suspenseful, and aggravating characters making bad decisions
- Jul 2018
Watchmen
there is so much that is beautiful about the artwork! the individual panels, composition and framing, use of shadows and light (silhouettes!!!), repeated symbolism, transitions, etc. etc. I want to own this so I can look at it all the time and study the way that it's put together. I wish I read this in class so I could sit with a bunch of people and dissect each page.
- Apr 2018
The Song of Achilles
i read this because i just finished watching troy: fall of a city and i recall hearing good things about it. Achilles sulking in his tent and the standoff is as infuriating as u might expect, and I am less enamoured by themes of honour and glory when it comes to the character's own.
i want to give this 3.5 stars. i think i would give it more if there were more space to watch them be in love. that was what i came here for. but there was a lot of ground to cover—10 years of war! and childhood!—and this was a quick, easy read (albeit sad) to fill the gaps that the troy tv show did not.
also: best of the myrmidons!!! i think this was written very well
- Apr 2018
The Shining
I can’t believe this book has dredged up my childhood fear of shower curtains covering bathtubs
- Mar 2018
Acceptance
leaves many questions to be answered. the whole series is slow and eerie and requires a lot of patience. something is always a little bit off. narration is interesting. will need to reread
- Jan 2018
A Clockwork Orange
interesting language that made the violence digestible, less interesting way of pondering free will
- Dec 2017
Authority
- Dec 2017
Annihilation
entrancing and dreamy with a side of horror. actually, a lot of horror. everything is strange and there are only questions upon questions now. also, very enjoyable writing
- Dec 2017
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
- Dec 2017
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America
- Nov 2017
How Did We Get into This Mess?: Politics, Equality, Nature
I feel like this was way too surface-level
- Nov 2017
Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change
sad
- Nov 2017
Hiroshima
- Aug 2017