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marginaliant's reviews
1060 reviews
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
3.0
A good read if you're out of Augusten Boroughs to read, I suppose. There are some amusing anecdotes, but I found it grating to read Sedaris' constant admissions of his own stupidity and ignorance. Ah, well.
The World of Edward Gorey by Edward Gorey, Clifford Ross, Karen Wilkin
2.0
Allow me to sum up this book in a quote used by the author: "At best, it simply reminds you of what an extremely fascinating, multitalented individual [Edward Gorey] is, something that is hardly news to any Gorey fan, whether that fan is a long-standing devotee or a recent convert." It was essentially 100 pages of fanboying over how great Edward Gorey's art and words are, with an additional 100 pages in the back of just pictures. There was a great interview at the start where Gorey reveals himself to be the world's biggest hipster, but that's pretty much the most worthwhile thing.
The Shape of Fear: Horror and the Fin de Siècle Culture of Decadence by Susan Jennifer Navarette
5.0
This was a fabulous read, I would really recommend it to anyone who is reasonably well read and interested in late-Victorian Decadent horror fiction and art. Emphasis on well read. I was constantly putting the book down to look up some story or person I'd never heard of but was expected to know, and yet I chalk this up to myself needing to brush up on my Victorian knowledge than any fault in Navarette's writing. Her thesis, essentially, is that the "fin de siecle" culture of decadence in late Victorian horror fiction is the main precursor to the modernist mode of the early twentieth century, and her case is convincing. Besides, any book that ends by quoting T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland is an amazing book in my opinion.
Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy
3.0
"Continuous learning is the minimum requirement of success in any field."
Putting that up there in case I forget later, because it was my favorite part of this book.
This book is nice because it is succinct and actionable, rather than bogged down with too many stories, interviews, and statistics. But, it feels really unorganized. The list repeats itself several times, with steps that could be grouped together for more efficient flow. In my notes of this book, I batched the tasks he suggests into "Prioritize," "Organize," "Improve Yourself," and "Take Care of Yourself." It was much more efficient.
Putting that up there in case I forget later, because it was my favorite part of this book.
This book is nice because it is succinct and actionable, rather than bogged down with too many stories, interviews, and statistics. But, it feels really unorganized. The list repeats itself several times, with steps that could be grouped together for more efficient flow. In my notes of this book, I batched the tasks he suggests into "Prioritize," "Organize," "Improve Yourself," and "Take Care of Yourself." It was much more efficient.
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
1.0
The only book I’ve read recently that made me feel dumber just for reading it.
It’s not that it horribly misrepresents Daoism (although my memory from my Chinese history courses in college isn’t that great) it’s just that using Pooh to convince people to adopt an attitude of mindless antiintellectual obliviousness is... bad. It’s just bad.
It’s not that it horribly misrepresents Daoism (although my memory from my Chinese history courses in college isn’t that great) it’s just that using Pooh to convince people to adopt an attitude of mindless antiintellectual obliviousness is... bad. It’s just bad.
Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear by Margee Kerr
4.0
Fascinating book top to tail. While sometimes it feels like Kerr is using the book as a kind of self-searching psychoanalysis which becomes tedious (we're subjected to pages of her working out her past traumas of living in a poor neighborhood--lol--and seeing a dead sheep--double lol), the actual science and the application of it to haunted house attractions is absolutely wonderful.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
5.0
There are a lot of uncomfortable truths in this book that I think some people will resist, like that we don't really need to be connected as often as we think we do, and that we can't multitask, and that maybe we should all quit social media together. But this is a wonderful book because it doesn't shy away from those uncomfortable truths, and I found it very inspirational. I'm trying to implement some of the basics of this book's methodology into my own self-employed schedule so hopefully I'll see some results!