do you really need to read all the books you buy? ✦ plus reviews of 2 excellent debut novels ✦ an Italian novella about rogue AI ✦ and an attempt to "read" "theory"
I found my way to Mating through Becca Rothfeld's essay on the book in her All Things are Too Small collection, where she really focuses on the love/conversation idea. Really enjoyed mating, and I suspect in part because I was primed to think about the relationship in those terms!
a friend of mine actually texted me to say he'd heard about Mating through Rothfeld's book too! (which I LOVE; it was one of my favorite essay collections I read last year)
Last year, my husband built me a home library for my birthday :)
So yes, I completely understand the feeling about seeing all the books you haven't read yet, but want to keep buying new ones to fill up those shelves.
This is so kind (congratulations on the handy and very generous husband!!!) but I can also imagine it making the problem of unread books even more acute…now that you have a beautiful place to store them
I love Nicolas Bourriaud! Relational Aesthetics is one of the first books I recommend to students in my contemporary art history class at the Sorbonne!
thank you for reading, Monica!! love your art exhibition newsletters, also good to know you like Bourriard…if you have any other contemporary art history recs, please let me know
I'm glad you're reading all these books...so I don't have to? Though there are at least three I might hunt down later. And I will get Rave as a gift for my younger son. Though the odds are low that he'll actually read it. I still read more than I think is good for me but after a huge culling I boxed up the remaining books and stuck them in the cupboard in the back of my office closet—technically, keeping the books because my older son thinks I should, however unclear his motivation. Now I try to get ahold of what I want to read from the library. Bless the inter-library loan and the abolishment, where I live, of late fees!. Thus I too have tons of tsudoko (did I get that word right? now that I'm commenting I can't see the essay) it's just stored out in the world, which has all the space in the...yeah.
I'm also glad you mentioned Hanif Abdurraqib because I've been trying to remember his name for two weeks since I want to re-visit his poetry and couldn't think of any search terms that worked. A little gift from the universe.
The bit you shared of Bourriaud's glossary — aesthetics as a humans-only thing? really? as if whales don't speak with syntax and elephants mourn their dead and bees dance? bower birds anyone? and Baudrillard, well, I'm glad I can skip all that. I know there are French writers I'd love, have loved. Different categories, perhaps. Oh, Proust!
I'm glad I don't really read novels anymore. I read a LOT of them though (some long ones, too, of 3 or 7 volumes) so maybe I just wore out that faculty? Unlike you, I'm currently into the fewer, less cohesive words on a page thing, poems. Easier to memorize, for one thing.
PS I like your slipping the Berkeley Bowl into one of your reviews, the cloud computing pastoral I think but maybe it was elsewhere. I got the reference! Feeling like a local.
PPS I totally enjoyed reading your reviews and am kind of in awe.
Ed! Thank you for this really thoughtful comment. Goetz's Rave is an excellent gift, imo (a really funny book to just read passages of from time to time, although the whole experience is excellent).
Also very glad I could direct you back to Hanif Abdurraqib…I've had some similar experiences, where there's an author's name loosely knocking around in my head, and from time to time I try to grasp at the memory, and then something in the world reminds me…oh! I meant to read Michel Serres!
Relieved to report only one "increasingly" in my history, a reference to Groucho Marx's age gap girlfriend/caretaker/svengali becoming "increasingly unhinged,"lol.
I think Power Broker is one of the best books I've read this year, now that it's finally available in e-book form (I took out a library loan and put my Kindle in airplane mode for 3 MONTHS to finish it).
I also went back and finished Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series (I think the first 3 came out within 2 years and then 4 years for the final book?), quite a fantastic science fiction series. The best kind of scifi isn't just pulp, it poses real questions to the reader, and this certainly delivered throughout but especially the climax!
Interestingly enough, Blindsight by Peter Watts also scratched that same philosophical scifi itch! Did not expect that from a book about a ship sent out to make first contact with aliens while captained by a vampire, lmao.
Mood Machine by Liz Pelly shouldn't be read if you are an active paying Spotify user, as it's a fantastic dive into why you *shouldn't* be using Spotify.
I admire and respect your commitment to Caro's Power Broker…I think that's the only way I'll finish it too. I had to do something very similar to finish Nixonland (❤️) and also…Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century (pretty sure I read nothing but that during a 2-week holiday to Vietnam where I had no cellular service and slow wifi)
Speaking of sci-fi…have you read Gene Wolfe? I keep on thinking I should read him, ever since someone described him to me as the Proust of sci-fi
YES! I love Gene, Book of the New Sun (4 books, usually across 2 volumes) is such a wonderful surreal experience. The version I had featured an intro by Ada Palmer and one thing it touched on was how dense the world he created is (there's a throwaway line about rats creating a written language that is never mentioned again??). Haven't read Proust *ducks* so can't compare the two, but would wholeheartedly recommend.
Also he's the inspiration for the Pringles logo! He was a mechanical engineer by day who helped figure out how to cook Pringles.
thank you David! I'd be really interested in your thoughts on Dubno's novel…lots of passages that touch on wealth and class in NYC, which you write about very insightfully
As it happens, I also read The Singularity last year, in addition to another novel by Buzzati, The Stronghold (previously translated as The Tartar Steppe). I agree with you that it reads more like a fairly tale than science fiction, although he does drop a few references to Italian cybernetics of the time (when he talks about "Ceccatieff's system," he is referring to Silvio Ceccato). However, I think that fairy tales and fables offer a more effective medium for exploring the theme of AI alignment compared to many of the currently circulating pseudoscientific writings on AI risk (I wrote a bit about this here: https://realizable.substack.com/i/169938087/the-fables-of-subcreation).
Such a thoughtful examination of these works! 💛 Thought you might enjoy this one, Celine — our recent conversation with Stephanie for Women of Letters: womenofletters.substack.com/p/stephanie-wambugu
Thank you for putting Karen An-Hwei Lee’s The Maze of Transparencies on my radar! I am always intrigued by books that challenge and remould the boundaries of the pastoral. Adding it straight onto my reading list!
When I think of all my unread book I always come back to this quote by Luc van Donkersgoed:
"Think not of the books you've bought as a 'to be read' pile. Instead, think of your bookcase as a wine cellar. You collect books to be read at the right time, the right place, and the right mood."
Great insights! What was the story about a pastoral future after the collapse of cloud computing? Thanks so much :)
oh! and more used copies here https://www.abebooks.com/9781940400099/Maze-Transparencies-Lee-Karen-An-Hwei-1940400090/plp
it's Karen An-hwei Lee's The Maze of Transparencies! out of stock at Asterism (https://asterismbooks.com/product/the-maze-of-transparencies-karen-an-hwei-lee), but you can buy a used copy here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/317348914917
I found my way to Mating through Becca Rothfeld's essay on the book in her All Things are Too Small collection, where she really focuses on the love/conversation idea. Really enjoyed mating, and I suspect in part because I was primed to think about the relationship in those terms!
a friend of mine actually texted me to say he'd heard about Mating through Rothfeld's book too! (which I LOVE; it was one of my favorite essay collections I read last year)
The only newsletter that I consistently read from stem to stern. I appreciate your writing so much!
Kat! this is so kind, thank you (and "from stem to stern" is such a beautiful description…I ❤️ alliteration)
Last year, my husband built me a home library for my birthday :)
So yes, I completely understand the feeling about seeing all the books you haven't read yet, but want to keep buying new ones to fill up those shelves.
Thank you for such relatable musings!
This is so kind (congratulations on the handy and very generous husband!!!) but I can also imagine it making the problem of unread books even more acute…now that you have a beautiful place to store them
I love Nicolas Bourriaud! Relational Aesthetics is one of the first books I recommend to students in my contemporary art history class at the Sorbonne!
thank you for reading, Monica!! love your art exhibition newsletters, also good to know you like Bourriard…if you have any other contemporary art history recs, please let me know
the first thing that comes to mind is anything by Georges Didi-Huberman!
Always glad to see more praise for Loved & Missed.
It's SO amazing…such an accomplished novel. The ending and the brief shift to Lily's perspective was also so beautifully done
I'm glad you're reading all these books...so I don't have to? Though there are at least three I might hunt down later. And I will get Rave as a gift for my younger son. Though the odds are low that he'll actually read it. I still read more than I think is good for me but after a huge culling I boxed up the remaining books and stuck them in the cupboard in the back of my office closet—technically, keeping the books because my older son thinks I should, however unclear his motivation. Now I try to get ahold of what I want to read from the library. Bless the inter-library loan and the abolishment, where I live, of late fees!. Thus I too have tons of tsudoko (did I get that word right? now that I'm commenting I can't see the essay) it's just stored out in the world, which has all the space in the...yeah.
I'm also glad you mentioned Hanif Abdurraqib because I've been trying to remember his name for two weeks since I want to re-visit his poetry and couldn't think of any search terms that worked. A little gift from the universe.
The bit you shared of Bourriaud's glossary — aesthetics as a humans-only thing? really? as if whales don't speak with syntax and elephants mourn their dead and bees dance? bower birds anyone? and Baudrillard, well, I'm glad I can skip all that. I know there are French writers I'd love, have loved. Different categories, perhaps. Oh, Proust!
I'm glad I don't really read novels anymore. I read a LOT of them though (some long ones, too, of 3 or 7 volumes) so maybe I just wore out that faculty? Unlike you, I'm currently into the fewer, less cohesive words on a page thing, poems. Easier to memorize, for one thing.
PS I like your slipping the Berkeley Bowl into one of your reviews, the cloud computing pastoral I think but maybe it was elsewhere. I got the reference! Feeling like a local.
PPS I totally enjoyed reading your reviews and am kind of in awe.
Ed! Thank you for this really thoughtful comment. Goetz's Rave is an excellent gift, imo (a really funny book to just read passages of from time to time, although the whole experience is excellent).
Also very glad I could direct you back to Hanif Abdurraqib…I've had some similar experiences, where there's an author's name loosely knocking around in my head, and from time to time I try to grasp at the memory, and then something in the world reminds me…oh! I meant to read Michel Serres!
I really miss Berkeley Bowl, I have to say…
Added a number of these to my to-read list, thank you !
so happy to hear (truly the highest praise for a newsletter of book reviews/recs)! and thank you for reading
Relieved to report only one "increasingly" in my history, a reference to Groucho Marx's age gap girlfriend/caretaker/svengali becoming "increasingly unhinged,"lol.
Janet Malcolm wrote a great essay on Sally Mann.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1994/02/03/the-family-of-mann/
I'm impressed at your conservative use of "increasingly"…this is why you are such a model for literary Substacks to aspire towards…
also I've hoarded away a PDF of the Malcolm essay on Mann to read this weekend—thank you for linking!!
I think Power Broker is one of the best books I've read this year, now that it's finally available in e-book form (I took out a library loan and put my Kindle in airplane mode for 3 MONTHS to finish it).
I also went back and finished Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series (I think the first 3 came out within 2 years and then 4 years for the final book?), quite a fantastic science fiction series. The best kind of scifi isn't just pulp, it poses real questions to the reader, and this certainly delivered throughout but especially the climax!
Interestingly enough, Blindsight by Peter Watts also scratched that same philosophical scifi itch! Did not expect that from a book about a ship sent out to make first contact with aliens while captained by a vampire, lmao.
Mood Machine by Liz Pelly shouldn't be read if you are an active paying Spotify user, as it's a fantastic dive into why you *shouldn't* be using Spotify.
I admire and respect your commitment to Caro's Power Broker…I think that's the only way I'll finish it too. I had to do something very similar to finish Nixonland (❤️) and also…Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century (pretty sure I read nothing but that during a 2-week holiday to Vietnam where I had no cellular service and slow wifi)
Speaking of sci-fi…have you read Gene Wolfe? I keep on thinking I should read him, ever since someone described him to me as the Proust of sci-fi
YES! I love Gene, Book of the New Sun (4 books, usually across 2 volumes) is such a wonderful surreal experience. The version I had featured an intro by Ada Palmer and one thing it touched on was how dense the world he created is (there's a throwaway line about rats creating a written language that is never mentioned again??). Haven't read Proust *ducks* so can't compare the two, but would wholeheartedly recommend.
Also he's the inspiration for the Pringles logo! He was a mechanical engineer by day who helped figure out how to cook Pringles.
Thanks for the reviews. I just bought Happiness and Love.
thank you David! I'd be really interested in your thoughts on Dubno's novel…lots of passages that touch on wealth and class in NYC, which you write about very insightfully
I like the book so far. She males a Proust reference early on and now I'm thinking that Eugene and Nicole have a whiff of the Verdurins about them.
As it happens, I also read The Singularity last year, in addition to another novel by Buzzati, The Stronghold (previously translated as The Tartar Steppe). I agree with you that it reads more like a fairly tale than science fiction, although he does drop a few references to Italian cybernetics of the time (when he talks about "Ceccatieff's system," he is referring to Silvio Ceccato). However, I think that fairy tales and fables offer a more effective medium for exploring the theme of AI alignment compared to many of the currently circulating pseudoscientific writings on AI risk (I wrote a bit about this here: https://realizable.substack.com/i/169938087/the-fables-of-subcreation).
Such a thoughtful examination of these works! 💛 Thought you might enjoy this one, Celine — our recent conversation with Stephanie for Women of Letters: womenofletters.substack.com/p/stephanie-wambugu
Thank you for putting Karen An-Hwei Lee’s The Maze of Transparencies on my radar! I am always intrigued by books that challenge and remould the boundaries of the pastoral. Adding it straight onto my reading list!
What a tempting collection!
It's a good thing we operate on a strict 'one in one out' rule when we buy a new book
When I think of all my unread book I always come back to this quote by Luc van Donkersgoed:
"Think not of the books you've bought as a 'to be read' pile. Instead, think of your bookcase as a wine cellar. You collect books to be read at the right time, the right place, and the right mood."