READING LOG
Everyone always tells me to make a Goodreads and I am going to continue to not do that. Here's what I've been reading.
Bold indicates that I haven't finished it.
*Asterisk indicates graphic novel/manga/comic.
+Plus indicates a reread.
+/Plus and forward slash indicates that I had previously read some of it.
/Slash indicates I am taking a break but it's still in progress.
@At symbol indicates short story collection (haven't added it to every applicable book yet).
%Percent sign indicates a singular short story.
The most recent thing is at the top. The list is basically upside down, so the month and year labels are under the list items to which they correspond.
- The Return of A.J. Raffles, Graham Greene (????????)
- Very Good, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
- Carry On, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse (First audiobook! Dear god what am I doing)
- Interview With the Vampire, Anne Rice (Dear stranger I am struggling with this one)
- The Inimitable Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
- How Watson Learned the Trick, Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Nicholas Meyer (?????????????????????????????????????)
August
- Geek Love, Katherine Dunn
- @A Thief in the Night, E.W. Hornung (HIGHLY recommend this series!! Will be reading Mr. Justice Raffles at some point but I can't find a physical copy and I hate e-reading)
- @The Black Mask, E.W. Hornung (Delightful!!!!)
- @The Amateur Cracksman, E.W. Hornung (Hmmmm... obsessed)
- +Sarahland, Sam Cohen (My beloved)
- Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (I'd personally say books don't need to offend minorities in order to be books)
- +The Valley of Fear, Arthur Conan Doyle
- /*Codename: Sailor V vols. 1-2, Naoko Takeuchi
July
- *Uncomfortably Happily, Yeon-Sik Hong (I love this book so so much!! Incredible!)
- *Sherlock Holmes: The Vanishing Man, Leah Moore, John Reppion, Julius Ohta (Didn't enjoy but Leslie Klinger endorses it, so maybe I'll give it another shot. Celebrity endorsements do work on nerds, unfortunantly)
- *Himouto! Umaru-chan vols. 1-3, Sankakuhead (Why do I own these? Fun manga though)
- *The Jungle, Kristina Gehrmann
- Roadside Picnic, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (Wow it's different from Stalker but I still loved it!)
- */Sunny vol.1, Taiyo Matsumoto
- *Hair Shirt, Patrick McEown (Wanted to read for a while but ultimately disappointing. Ah well)
- +@His Last Bow, Arthur Conan Doyle
June
- @Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Edogawa Ranpo
- *The Strange Tale of Panorama Island, Suehiro Maruo (and Edogawa Ranpo) (!!!!!??????!!!!!! and I just create my paradise in Pinterest!)
- No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to Buddhism, Chris Niebauer
- Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
- %Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad, M.R. James
- The Lonely Doll, Dare Wright
- @Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Thief, Maurice Leblanc, illustrated by Vincent Maille!! (Really just staring at the pictures)
- Tender is the Flesh, Agustina Bazterrica (Huh! Yeah. That's a concept. Kind of reminded me of "Season of the Sun" towards the end there)
May
- +@The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle (NA)
- +The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle (NA)
- @Welcome to the Monkey House, Kurt Vonnegut (Ehh warmed up to it after a while)
- +@The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle (Read mostly NA but some in a different book)
April
- +The Sign of (the) Four, Arthur Conan Doyle (NA) (Who needs friends when you have cocaine... ☹ )
- The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot (More pop culture research but also it's super fun)
- +A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle (NA) (Watson's mysterious bull pup haunts me)
- +@The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle (New Annotated) (...or by Dr J Watson whatever shhh)
- Loveless, Alice Oseman (Read my thoughts!)
March
- No One Writes to the Colonel, Gabriel García Márquez (Also read it in English because comprehension)
- El coronel no tiene quien le escriba, Gabriel García Márquez (For Spanish)
- +/@The Best Stories of Arsène Lupin, Maurice Leblanc (Gets the +/ because I've read some stories before in other collections)
- *Be Kind, My Neighbor, Yugo Limbo (Incredibly dark in a literal sense (eyestrain!); clearly a debut novel but enjoyable and thought-provoking nonetheless)
- *Eden II, K. Wroten (Very interesting! I'd like to read more of the author's work)
- *Wolf, Rachael Ball
- %The Box Social, James Reaney
- Season of Violence, Shintaro Ishihara (a collection that includes the stories "Season of the Sun," "The Punishment Room," and "The Yacht and the Boy") (Here's a little bit of writing about "Season of the Sun" that quite succinctly puts into words my mixed feelings on the story. Interesting collection)
- +A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan (Reading it for English this time)
- /*From Eroica With Love, Yasuko Aoike
- *Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Really just read it for cultural knowledge. Enjoyable, I guess? Entered with weird expectations. Also why is Pycal here)
February
- The Plotters, Un-Su Kim
- *Stop!! Hibari-kun, Hisashi Eguchi (Huh! That was an interesting experience)
- *Popee the Performer, Ryuji Masuda (Blessings be upon the fantranslator. Good memories of sitting in a nook in a hallway in my school's labrinthyne basement and raptly watching the anime)
- *+Through the Woods, Emily Carroll (I read this book first in middle school; terrified me; I was afraid to have it in my room. Since then I've read it a million times; I can nearly recite the song from "A Lady's Hands are Cold" by heart)
- *+Love & Rockets Volume 6: Duck Feet, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez (I read all of Love & Rockets sometime in middle school (?). Wasn't impressed by it then (too young, possibly), but, yeah, it's a classic)
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick (Very interesting vision of the future; fascinating ideas about how humans value life)
- *Shin Lupin III, Monkey Punch (And it is over. Full translation when. Crying)
- *Shubeik Lubeik, Deena Mohamed (A masterpiece! Absolutely fantastic graphic novel; one of the very best I've ever read. You have to read it)
- The Phantom Coach: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Ghost Stories, collected by Michael Sims (Enjoyed every story! My favorite was probably "The Library Window," though)
January
2024
- /*Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Hayao Miyazaki (Hold me accountable, I have to read this)
- /Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace (Started 122823... Taking a break from Infinite Jest? Pathetic)
- Seven Empty Houses, Samanta Schweblin (Read in one sitting)
- Comet in Moominland, Tove Jansson
- *Spy x Family volume 1, Tatsuya Endo (Really good!!!!)
- The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks (Going to be thinking about that for a while)
- Lullaby, Chuck Palahniuk (Not sure how I felt about this one)
- A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories of Body Horror by Women Writers, edited by Joyce Carol Oates (False advertising. Not a lot I would really count as body horror)
- Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris (My mom likes David Sedaris. I tried to read Barrell Fever and it baffled me, but this one's alright)
- A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess (This is a book about drinking milk and eating eggs)
- +The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead (Read for English class; loved it)
December
- Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk (Huh)
- Haunted, Chuck Palahniuk
- +/The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde (Took me a while to start liking it)
- Gingerbread, Helen Oyeyemi
- *How I Tried to Be a Good Person, Ulli Lust
- Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey, Chuck Palahniuk (Made me extraordinarily uncomfortable. Loved it)
- *Memoirs of a Book Thief, Alessandro Tota (Love the art; artist thieves in Paris)
- *Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection, Junji Ito (Some of these stories are so silly)
- Peaces, Helen Oyeyemi (I think I understood 60% of that, but fascinating nonetheless)
- Pet, Akwaeke Emezi (You MUST read this)
- *Voices in the Dark, Ulli Lust, Marcel Beyer (Gorgeous art, sad sad story)
- Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, Kim Fu (Loved these)
- *Hobtown Mystery Stories Volume 2: The Cursed Hermit, Kris Bertin, Alexander Forbes (Surprisingly, I did not like the sequel to the book I did not like)
November
- Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (Enjoyed greatly)
- +When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead (Millionth reread)
- Helpmeet, Naben Ruthnum
- The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson
October
- Tales from the Cafe, Toshikazu Kawaguchi (cried)
- Sarahland, Sam Cohen (I read an advanced reader's edition, so maybe the actual book differs a little, but I loved it)
- A Visit From The Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
- The Candy House, Jennifer Egan
September
- *Meat Cake Bible, Dame Darcy (Been curious about Meat Cake for a long time. Dated, but good. Love the art)
- *Hobtown Mystery Stories Volume 1: The Case of the Missing Men, Kris Bertin, Alexander Forbes (Such a sick cover and art an then I didn't like the story)
- A Desolation Called Peace, Arkady Martine
- A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Woooo yeah scifi)
- Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (I am not a fan)
Summer
2023
"There are few of us who have not sometimes wakened before dawn, either after one of those dreamless nights that make us almost enamoured of death, or one of those nights of horror and misshapen joy, when through the chambers of the brain sweep phantoms more terrible than reality itself, and instinct with that vivid life that lurks in all grotesques, and that leads to Gothic its enduring vitality, this art being, one might fancy, especially the art of those whose minds have been troubled with the malady of reverie. Gradually white fingers creep through the curtains, and they appear to tremble. In black fantastic shapes, dumb shadows crawl into the corners of the room and crouch there. Outside, there is the stirring of birds among the leaves, or the sound of men going forth to their work, or the sigh and sob of the wind coming down from the hills and wandering round the silent house, as though it feared to wake the sleepers and yet must needs call forth sleep from her purple cave. Veil after veil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern. The wan mirrors get back their mimic life. The flameless tapers stand where we had left them, and beside them lies the half-cut book that we had been studying, or the wired flower that we had worn at the ball, or the letter that we had been afraid to read, or that we had read too often. Nothing seems to us changed. Out of the unreal shadows of the night comes back the real life that we had known. We have to resume it where we had left off, and there steals over us a terrible sense of the necessity for the continuance of energy in the same wearisome round of stereotyped habits, or a wild longing, it may be, that our eyelids might open some morning upon a world that had been refashioned anew in the darkness for our pleasure, a world in which things would have fresh shapes and colours, and be changed, or have other secrets, a world in which the past would have little or no place, or survive, at any rate, in no conscious form of obligation or regret, the remembrance even of joy having its bitterness and the memories of pleasure their pain."
-Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
VIEWING LOG
Slowly, ever so slowly, attempting to become a real cinema person. Terrible at watching TV shows though. I don't have the time!
~Tilde indicates movie.
-Hyphen indicates TV show.
+Plus indicates a rewatch.
^Caret indicates documentary.
#Pound sign indicates seen in theater.
The most recent thing is at the top. The list is basically upside down, so the month and year labels are under the list items to which they correspond.
- ~The Enchanted Drawing, J. Stuart Blackton (1900) (Obviously I am browsing Wikipedia. Very fun though!!)
- ~Sherlock Holmes Baffled, Arthur Marvin (1900) (Hell yeah!)
- ~Incident at Victoria Falls, Bill Corcoran (1992) (I loved this miniseries!!)
- ~Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady, Peter Sasdy (1991) (Very aroace. Also I am experiencing grandfather envy)
September
- ~The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Billy Wilder (1970) (Silly. Um. Huh??? Very interesting)
- ~Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) (Cool!!!!!!!! Loved!!! I have never seen another Mad Max movie)
- ~Being There, 1979 (Huh! Wow)
- -A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1989-1995) (God damnit)
- -Sherlock Holmes (2013) (I really liked it! My eternal thanks to spiritcc and co. for translating and subtitling!!!)
- -Jeeves and Wooster (1990) (!!!!!!!!!)
- ~Dredd, Pete Travis (2012) (Interesting movie in which nothing happens)
- ~Poltergeist, Tobe Hooper (Spielberg?) (1982)
August
- -Lupin (2021-23) (NOOOOO... HE'S COOL... (Have you yet gathered that I'm a sucker for cool classy highly intelligent characters?) Though I doubt I'll get very far. TV shows are always a challenge for me. It's great so far though!!)
- -+Mankatsu, (2004) (This dumbass show. I was just rewatching Dirty Joke. Also rewatched Revenger and Pandora)
- ~+Jigen's Gravestone, Takeshi Koike (2014) (God I just wish it didn't have that one part)
July
- -Sherlock (2010-17) (I am losing my ever-loving mind)
- -How It's Made (2001-2019) (Fun!!)
- ~The Host, Bong Joon-ho (2006)
- -+In Search Of... original series (1977-1982) (Very special show)
June
- -Mononoke, Kenji Nakamura (2007) (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well. New favorite)
- The Kármán Line, Oscar Sharp (2014) (Short film)
- ~District 9, Neill Blomkamp (2009)
- ~Run Lola Run, Tom Tykwer (1998) (!!!!!!!)
- ~+Rope, Alfred Hitchcock (1948) (Exhilarating film! Did not pick up on the subtext when I was like 13)
- ~+Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, Hayao Miyazaki (1979) (No dub, no sub. I still laugh at the jokes)
- ~#+Brazil, Terry Gilliam (1985) (Director's cut. Feel like I was more deeply impacted this time that the previous time)
- ~Tokyo Story, Yasujirō Ozu (1953) (It would take me a while to put my thoughts into words. Beautiful film) [03]
May
- -The Muppet Show (The episode with Star Wars and the episode with Shields & Yarnell)
- ~The Muppet Movie, James Frawley (1979) [27]
- ~The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Treasures of Agra, Igor Maslennikov (1983)
- ~Glengarry Glen Ross, James Foley (1992) [20]
- ~The Marvels, Nia DaCosta (2023) [19]
- ~The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Hound of the Baskervilles, Igor Maslennikov (1981)
- ~The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Igor Maslennikov, "The King of Blackmail," "Deadly Fight," and "The Tiger Hunt" (1980) ( :,) ) [11-12-1?]
- ~Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Igor Maslennikov, "Acquaintance" and "Bloody Inscription" (1979) (REALLY GOOD!!!! RIP Toby) [0?-10]
April
- ~+The Ten Commandments, Cecil B. DeMille (1956) (Not sure if it's THE greatest epic as the case proclaims, but I certainly can't think of anything comparable) [31-01]
- ~The Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont (1994)
- ~The Woman in Green, Roy William Neil (1945) (Just went on Youtube and found that these movies are in fucking color???)
- ~+Lupin III: Dead or Alive, Monkey Punch (1996) (Much better upon rewatch, not that I disliked it the first time) [11]
- ~Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Berthelet (1916) (Why did Holmes want the letters???) [10]
- ~Russian Ark, Alexander Sokurov (2002) (Understood none of it but it's absolutely beautiful) [9]
- ~+Lupin III: Farewell to Nostradamus, Shunya Itō and Takeshi Shirato (1995) (It's a weird one but hey I wanted to revisit it) [9]
- ~Dressed to Kill, Roy William Neill (1946) (Baseline movie. Rathbone and Bruce are good though) [8]
- -Inspector Zenigata: Crimson Case Files (2017) (Watched the second episode, finally. Just as dark and upsetting as the first one. It will be a few months before I work up the courage to watch the third episode) [8]
March
- ~#The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer (2023) (If you see one Oscar winner it has to be this one) [18]
- ~#Perfect Days, Wim Wenders (2023) (!!!!!!!!) [17]
- ~+The Abyss (1989) (So forgettable I didn't realize I had seen it before for a solid 20 minutes) [16]
- -Revolutionary Girl Utena, Kunihiko Ikuhara (1997) (Got to ep 9) [16-17]
- ~Breathless, Jean-Luc Godard (1960)
- ~^Man On Wire, James Marsh (2008)
February
- ~Blue Beetle (2023)
- ~+The Shining (1980) (I thought it was set in Oregon?? Baffling. Why am I watching so many Stephen King adaptations lately? Nice to watch with my dad, though)
- ~+Blade Runner (1982) (Rewatched after reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)
- ~Dolores Claiborne (1995) (Steven King (derogatory))
- ~Stalker (1979) (We both loved it. Wet. Has profoundly impacted my psyche)
- ~The Truman Show (1998)
- ~+Green vs. Red (2008) (With dad. His review: incomprehensible)
- -Blue Eye Samurai (2023) (Watched half of the first ep. Friend wants me to watch it and I WILL)
January
2024
- ~+Alice (1988) (Eugh)
- ~How Do You Live / The Boy and the Heron (2023) (Dubbed) (In theater!) (Sick as hell. I loved it. My mom and I talked afterwards about how overly complex and rambly it is. Great.)
- ~Minari (2020)
- -+Lupin III: Part I (1971-72) (Subbed) (With my dad. I am just desperate for people to talk to aren't I)
- ~Asteroid City (2023) (I like Wes Anderson!)
- ~^In the Realms of the Unreal (2004) (PUBLISH IT. PUBLISH IT NOW)
- ~+Die Hard (1988) (Weird. I get why the only part of it I had remembered was the bit where he walks on broken glass)
- ~Arthur Christmas (2011) (Completely forgot about it)
- -+Lupin III: Part III (1984-85)
- ~+Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) (Modern sub track)
- -+Lupin III: Part I (1971-72) (Perpetually watching the Spanish dub)
- ~Repo Man (1984) (One of my dad's favorites. Cool)
- ~Elf (2003) (My mom and I watch it every year)
- -Moominvalley season 3 (2021)
December
2023