This year I finally remembered that I do know how to read. Was given a copy of this for my birthday from Claire! So far I’ve finished 3 books this year, and this one will be my 4th. I’m hoping to be able to call myself a twitter academic intellectual by the end of the year
Sep 25, 2023
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I had some weird obsession with Mad Magazines when I was a kid. Looking at the older editions was some fun hobby I had to try to sift through the previous decades of culture. However, no one ever cared about this weird niche obsession for obvious reasons in my junior high years and earlier. When I came across Letters From a Nut during this time in my life, I finally had found a book that could share this comical joy. In this book a man who is very much the forebearer of the concept from Palmer Trolls, creating elaborate scenarios in the book with detail and complexity that make the letters as if they have to be real. Later in my life, I had discovered how to be serious and finally had transmuted my Sorrows of Young Whether melancholy to the power of solitude and creating an inner life through enjoying alone time.
Aug 23, 2023
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Yes I realize this is far more than one book, but I read all of these stories in very close succession & I believe they shaped me into the guy I am today. These are all very sensitive-young-man-core, but what can I say? I was a sensitive young man.
I have a very complicated relationship with Mother & Father. When I was first introduced to Kafka, it was like meeting my soulmate. I don’t have it in me to go into much detail at this moment, but being condemned to death by drowning for failing an aging father who can sense a deeply felt resentment; waking up one day to find you’ve turned into a disgusting bug after sacrificing so much for a family that cares so little— these are ideas that deeply rattled & resonated with me personally at the age that I read them. I resolved to try to live differently.
Death of Ivan Ilych was simply further exhortation for me to not live my life according to convention, to pursue wealth, status, family life for their own sakes. I think every single one of us has it in us to become an Ivan Ilych without even realizing. I was totally rapt & manic upon finishing this one I still am today, to some degree.
Portrait of the Artist really spoke to me as well. When Stephen looks at his father & realizes he’s a fool, and that he wants to be nothing like him. The moment when he sees the girl in the water & he becomes so horny he decides to dedicate his life to the pursuit of beauty, to aesthetics, to being an artist. The entire ending segment written as first person journal entries filled me with a lot of hope.
Emerson is the man. Great way to shock the materialist reductionist, the comformist, the busybody, & the consistent, conventional company man out of your system. Probably made me a more annoying person when alls said & done. Oh well.
May 12, 2024
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The Toa of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff - read at a formative time and always recenters me though I am not at all a toaist in any way
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy - I was gifted this by a beloved for graduation and truly always return to it when I feel lower than nothing.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - little needs to be said, read this often to keep on living.
Jan 30, 2025
Top Recs from @clair-clair
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This is the only brain game I’ve ever really gotten into. I had a little GameBoy type thing that only had Sudoku on it when I was younger but it kind of ruined the fun for me, I’ve realized I need to do it with a pen and paper otherwise I actually hate it.
Sep 25, 2023
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I’ve always loved locking doors. If I’m in a room the door needs to be locked.
Sep 25, 2023
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My #1 skincare obsession. It feels amazing and smells even better and has worked wondrous glowy miracles on my skin. Their website and Instagram account are incredible too.
Sep 25, 2023