My laptop is finally fixed so here is my May reading wrap-up, soon to be followed by June and July! May was the month of my last essay for this term of university so I didn’t get as much reading done as I wanted. That, and I was hate-reading for the first time in a long time. I’m a big fan of putting a book down if you’re not enjoying it, so why I decided a 800-page monster needed to be finished, I’ll never know. But hey, here are the books I loved and loathed in May.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Y’all, I hated this book. People I know have similar tastes to me kept saying it was great and a slow-burn. So I listened to the whole 32-hour audiobook and y’know what? Hated it.
I understand that this story is from the point-of-view of the main character many years later, and therefore he can be the strongest, handsomest, best-at-everything kind of guy and it’s a narrative choice- but boy, male wish-fulfilment is so boring. So boring.
I also have no interest in a book with such low regard for women. 1/10 of the students at the magic university are women, literally no reason is given for this. Sex workers are “whores” but you should call them ladies because “their lives are hard enough“. A female student is asked to cross her legs by a professor who: “Now the gates of hell are closed” can begin his lecture. This was prompted by her being a few minutes late and nobody says anything.
This was the highest rated book on my Goodreads TBR. What the heck did I miss?!
✮
The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald
I read this for an essay I was writing and it was one of those required reads that I want to come back to in the future because it was a good book, but I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I think I will when I’m not reading under pressure. The language was truly beautiful.
The pine forests were black on the mountainsides, the windows gleamed like lead, and the sky was so low and dark, one expected ink to run out of it at any moment.
✮✮✮
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Finally reading The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is like showing up to a party late and deciding to just go with it. Everyone else is having fun, jump in and enjoy it. Would I have enjoyed it as much if I didn’t love the movie so much? Who knows. But I saw a lot of comparisons online to the Terry Pratchett-style humour which I didn’t really enjoy, so was glad that the audiobook had me laughing out loud several times.
The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.
✮✮✮✮✮
The Empty Chair by Jeffery Deaver
Lincoln Rhyme leaves his New York apartment in this book which I felt was a really interesting choice; the case they investigated was very not-Manhattan and really changed up the feel of the book. Sometimes crime series can get a bit same-y, but not here. Especially because he and Amelia Sachs went to the South, where I have a few friends and therefore find super interesting.
This was also the first time I’ve seen “able-bodied” used in a book, and this came out in 2000. I really like the fact that one main character is a quadriplegic and one has terrible arthritis and chronic pain because it’s really relatable to me as a disabled reader. This book also deals with Rhyme wanting a surgery that could make things better, but more likely not, or worse, or kill him. The way this is dealt with shows both sides of the coin when it comes to treatment and disability; either risking making it worse, or acceptance.
However, a very 2000’s thing was one of the characters being afraid to catch HIV from a gay man who had been shot so… swings and roundabouts?
The best criminalists […] were like talented novelists, who imagined themselves as their characters- and could disappear into someone else’s world.
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Imogen's Typewriter. 