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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Doesn't really pick up until three quarters of the book.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was kind of a fun coming of age novel and I think it has a lot of really neat ideas. The characters are all really well drawn and super incredible in terms of their ability to bounce off each other.
Due to the conceit of the book, you end up reading the same stuff four different times, and so by the end of the book i was very confidently skipping 2 or 3 pages sometimes because I knew exactly what the text was going to say. That isn't a bad thing, but it is a little bit.... boring.
I really did appreciate how this was able to capture the listlessness and FOMO of being a young person surrounded by endless possilbity and not feeling satisfied with any of your decisions. That really hit home for me. I do think it's kind of painfully heterosexual in a lot of ways.
I get that part of the joke is that the main character is a self-valorizing egotistical jerk a lot of the time, and I really liked the ending, but it grates on you a little bit. I think this may have been slightly too long (and it is really not that long, so I don't super know what to do with that.)
Due to the conceit of the book, you end up reading the same stuff four different times, and so by the end of the book i was very confidently skipping 2 or 3 pages sometimes because I knew exactly what the text was going to say. That isn't a bad thing, but it is a little bit.... boring.
I really did appreciate how this was able to capture the listlessness and FOMO of being a young person surrounded by endless possilbity and not feeling satisfied with any of your decisions. That really hit home for me. I do think it's kind of painfully heterosexual in a lot of ways.
I get that part of the joke is that the main character is a self-valorizing egotistical jerk a lot of the time, and I really liked the ending, but it grates on you a little bit. I think this may have been slightly too long (and it is really not that long, so I don't super know what to do with that.)
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I've been "saving" this book for a very long time, and the longer I saved it, the higher my expectations for it seemed to become! Despite that, it surpassed all expectations and was an absolutely engrossing read.
I loved the characters and the way that with each chapter our understanding of them and the layers of events they are involved in slowly reveal themselves.
I could never have prepared myself for the insanity of the final chapter. What a ride!
I loved the characters and the way that with each chapter our understanding of them and the layers of events they are involved in slowly reveal themselves.
I could never have prepared myself for the insanity of the final chapter. What a ride!
I got demons, who doesn’t. Yokai frattering about. Sometimes I get teleported to an endless Tatami labyrinth, hell of a thing. Fight an Ozu, beast of a man.
Cute story! The protagonist is dislikable so I wasn’t enjoying it at first, but as I read the second and third sections and understood the premise, I liked it more. My interest went like
A novel that dives into the alternate timelines that occur with different life decisions - especially those made in college. The funny thing is, sometimes those timelines end up being more similar than they might have first appeared. Read at the recommendation of a friend. Interesting book!
“Any new student walking through campus gets club flyers thrust upon them, and I was weighed down with so many that my capacity for processing information had been far overwhelmed. There were all sorts of flyers, but the four that caught my eye were as follows: the Ablutions film club, a bizarre “Disciples Wanted” notice, the Mellow softball club, and the underground organization Lucky Cat Chinese Food. They all seemed pretty shady, but each one represented a doorway into a new college-student life, and my curiosity was piqued.”
“If I had taken a different path, I would have had a very different couple of years. But actually, given the impression I got wandering the tatami world for eighty days, perhaps they wouldn’t have been so different after all. Above all—a terrifying thought—it seems that no matter which path I chose, I would have met Ozu. I guess it’s just as Ozu says; we really are connected by the black thread of fate. So I’m not going to give my past self a big hug, and I’m not going to validate my past mistakes, but I’m not opposed to overlooking them.”
““Most of our distress begins when we imagine how different life should have been. Entrusting your hopes to something as flimsy as your possibilities is the root of all evil. You must accept this you of here and now; you are incapable of becoming anyone else. There’s no way you could live a so-called rose-colored campus life to the fullest.”
— The Tatami Galaxy: A Novel by Tomihiko Morimi
https://a.co/ej6Xk5g
“Any new student walking through campus gets club flyers thrust upon them, and I was weighed down with so many that my capacity for processing information had been far overwhelmed. There were all sorts of flyers, but the four that caught my eye were as follows: the Ablutions film club, a bizarre “Disciples Wanted” notice, the Mellow softball club, and the underground organization Lucky Cat Chinese Food. They all seemed pretty shady, but each one represented a doorway into a new college-student life, and my curiosity was piqued.”
“If I had taken a different path, I would have had a very different couple of years. But actually, given the impression I got wandering the tatami world for eighty days, perhaps they wouldn’t have been so different after all. Above all—a terrifying thought—it seems that no matter which path I chose, I would have met Ozu. I guess it’s just as Ozu says; we really are connected by the black thread of fate. So I’m not going to give my past self a big hug, and I’m not going to validate my past mistakes, but I’m not opposed to overlooking them.”
““Most of our distress begins when we imagine how different life should have been. Entrusting your hopes to something as flimsy as your possibilities is the root of all evil. You must accept this you of here and now; you are incapable of becoming anyone else. There’s no way you could live a so-called rose-colored campus life to the fullest.”
— The Tatami Galaxy: A Novel by Tomihiko Morimi
https://a.co/ej6Xk5g
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
