reading goal: 4/12
Your Utopia
Bora Chung
03.17.25
30%

03.19.25 On the other side of my (mild) aversion to long series of books is my love for a good collection of short stories. I've been looking forward to this one since I read Cursed Bunny in 2023 and so far it has been giving everything i was hoping for

the first two stories have been the perfect blend of dark comedy, sci-fi, horror - so much to love!

The Great Hunt (1990)
Robert Jordan
03.15.25
0%
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Dracula (1897)
Bram Stoker
03.01.25 | 03.13.25
"I am anxious, and it soothes me to express myself here; it is like whispering to one's self and listening at the same time."

03.12.25 - some doodles of Mina and Lucy i did while listening to the audiobook today:

03.09.25 - feeling very grateful for modern medicine right about now

03.04.25 - started the audible audiobook read by Alan Cumming and Tim Curry and its been pretty fantastic so far!

was thinking about the comfort the characters find in journalling and writing down their experiences and how i'd like that (along with their amusingly dramatic language) to inspire my own journalling/snail mail practice

03.01.25 - picked up a used copy after seeing Nosferatu twice in janurary it felt like a natural progression after the bunch of vampiric media i've been watching the past few months (Interview with a Vampire, Buffy, Castlevania). When I told J i was planning on reading this they recommended Carmilla, so that's definitely next up once it comes in from my library hold

Sensor (2019)
Junji Ito
03.08.25 - 03.10.25
"The universe is made of darkness. You can be a point of light in it."

03.11.25 - surprisingly hopeful ending for a junji ito book! thematically/plot-wise not really sure what was going on but the art was fantastic and genuinely scared the poo out of me at one point so there's that

A Magical Girl Retires (2022)
Park Seolyeon
03.05.25 | 03.06.25
"Flowing everywhere equally, never stopping nor retreating, that which is older and stronger than all else, I call upon the powers of time."

03.05.25 wah! very refreshing, short, and easy to read. a good interlude/palette cleanser between wheel of time and dracula.

Eye of the World (1990)
Robert Jordan
12.30.24 | 02.28.25
"The rose petal floats on water, the kingfisher flashes above the pond. Life and beauty swirl amidst of death."

this is the first book in the wheel of time series - very classic quest/adventure vibes. overall i really enjoyed it, i am glad i watched the show first though - it definitely handles some aspects of the narrative better than the book. it did feel like it was dragging a bit towards the end, but the last few chapters were pretty great!

what i liked:
  • "the wheel weaves as the wheel wills"
  • the world philosophy/imagery of weaving, reincarnation, fate, life paths etc.
  • the writing style, especially in tenser moments, is super evocative
  • the world is really immersive
  • small town kids seeing the world is very relatable and creates a lot of interesting dynamics and moments of growth
  • relationships between the main group
  • Rand is cool (sometimes too cool...)
what i hope to see in future books
  • more nuanced characters overall
  • more of Egwene, Nynaeve, and Moiraine's POV
Glitch Feminism (2020)
Legacy Russell
Fledgling (2005)
Octavia Butler
Carmilla (1872)
Joseph LeFanu
Parable of the Sower (1993)
Octavia Butler
Universal Harvester (2017)
John Darnielle
Bride (2024)
Ali Hazelwood
03.14.25

I didn't make it far in this one... tho i was pretty biased once I realized it was by the woman who wrote the love hypothesis. this one was not for me