Books After Ten

Happy Saturday! ☺️ Here’s a white stack. 📚 From the stack, I’ve read four and have three on my tbr. In a way, you could say a theme runs through them. 😄 As the fog continues to hover over my account, I thought now would be the perfect opportunity to do a tag I’ve been meaning to do for some time. My name is David. I’m in my 30s. I’m based in Manila. And after over ten months, it’s finally time to #meethebookstagrammer . 😄 Q: Why did you join Booksta? I wanted to find people I could talk to about books. Rarely do I find anyone in the outside world who I can talk to about books. I also wanted a space where I could just geek out and place all my bookish thoughts. Q: What do you read? I’m generally into classics and lit fic. I tend to gravitate towards sad (but not defeatist) books. I also tend to pick books set in periods or places I’d like to experience though that’s not a hard and fast rule. Q: Favorite part of booksta? Definitely the people. There’s a lot of kindness on booksta and it really is a wonderful community. Through the good times and the bad, there are so many people I’m blessed to have come across. If you’re still seeing this post, that probably includes you. 😄 Q: How do you come up with posts? Truth is, I’m a mood poster. I don’t know what I’m posting until I actually start doing it. Of course my Mondays and Tuesdays generally follow a set theme but all other days are actually spontaneous. 😅 Q: How many hours do you read a day? I’d say I get about 2-3 hours a day though I’m a notoriously slow reader. My usual time for reading is after ten pm since the world is asleep and I can read in peace. Q: Any last thoughts? Do not go gentle into that good night. 🌝 #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #bookstack #georgeorwell #ianmcewan #louisferdinandceline #katherineanneporter #harukimurakami #nataliaginzburg #rachelcusk #bookcommunity #booklover #booksbooksbooks

Happy Friday! ☺️ One of the reasons I read is this idea that perhaps through literature I can better understand the meaning of life. Presumptuous, I know. Yet it’s a question that has always fascinated me. It’s also, in a way, what keeps me going. Let me share with you my theory so far. My starting point is always Catcher in the Rye. Sooner or later, particularly in your teens, you’ll realize you’re headed towards a future you may or may not want, and how you deal with that affects where you end up. If you reject that future and deal with it by running away from society, you’ll get your kicks like in On the Road, and if you keep going you’ll eventually slow down and wonder at the emptiness of it all like in Lonesome Traveler. If you blindly accept what you’ve been handed without much of a fuss, you’ll end up going through life like Stevens in The Remains of the Day. If you accept/reject it but choose to proceed in your own way in a manner that does not totally embrace/reject societal expectations, you’ll end up as either Stoner or, if you lived with a bit more excitement, like Annie Ernaux in The Years (yes, it’s non-fiction but felt right to include it). If you find yourself on the Kerouac or Ishiguro path, you can still end up finding meaning in your life if you choose to. And that fulfillment lies in the beauty of nature which is the lesson from The Elegance of the Hedgehog. As for those who took the Stoner or Ernaux route, having chosen their own paths early on, there’s nothing left but to look back at the end and wonder if it was all worth it. I used to think I was on the Kerouac path but maybe I was on the Ishiguro path all along. Regardless, I’ve found solace in admiring the beauty of the world, and what a beautiful world it is. Keep questioning life, folks. You may get it wrong or you may get it right. Regardless, keep going — life is too fleeting to be left unexamined. ✨ #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #bookreview #jackkerouac #murielbarbery #kazuoishiguro #jdsalinger #johnwilliams #annieernaux #bookflatlay #booklover #bookcommunity #booksbooksbooks

For today’s bookish #tbt , I thought I’d do an homage of sorts to Berlin. Berlin is an amazing city, and if you ever have the chance to visit, you really should. From historical places, to museums, to art, to books, to architecture, to food — Berlin has it all. I was even surprised to find a Shakespeare and Company in Berlin though I don’t think it’s related to the one in Paris. As for books on Berlin, I have a small but wonderful collection. I bought the Isherwood in Berlin on my last day, and the Fallada and two Keun books were a result of a sudden desire to learn more about life in late 1930s Germany. As for Berlin Alexanderplatz, it’s a gorgeous NYRB cover I just had to have. I also thought I’d show my favorite scent — Frau Tonis’ No. 21 Berlin. They’ve got a nice shop right by Checkpoint Charlie, and if you’re looking for the perfect souvenir to remember Berlin by (like I was), this definitely does the trick. You guys have any books based in Berlin you’d like to recommend? ☺️ #books #bookstagram #irmgardkeun #christopherisherwood #hansfallada #travel #travelberlin #berlin #penguinmodernclassics #vintageclassics #nyrb #frautonisparfum

Here’s a reading update and a few quotes from Clarice Lispector’s Complete Stories. 📚 I haven’t been spending as much time with Clarice as I want to but whenever I dive back into her stories, it’s always been a delight. What keeps me enthralled is the way her prose seems to be the right tempo for me. Pacey enough to put me in a trance without resorting to single sentences masquerading as paragraphs yet slow enough to allow images to form unhurriedly in my mind. I remember someone once told me Clarice was a magician and to that I absolutely agree. 🪄 Her second story, Obsession, is an early favorite of mine from the collection. If I were to describe it briefly, I’d say it’s the story of an affair which resulted from an ideological awakening. In a way, it could also be seen as a loose look at how cult leaders gain control of their minions and how said minions can eventually break the spell. 🤷🏻‍♂️ In case you want to get a feel for the story, as well as Lispector’s writing, do check out the quotes. ➡️ Enjoy the rest of your day! ✨

Happy Tuesday! ☺️ Here’s a yellow stack to mark my first book buy of the year! 📚 I wasn’t supposed to be in a bookstore today but life started to life and I’ve found browsing books somehow brings me back to equilibrium. 😅 Jenny Erpenbeck’s Kairos is not a book I was particularly seeking out but it is definitely one I’ve seen floating around Booksta. The International Booker Prize sticker definitely caught my attention but it was the blurb at the back promising a doomed romance taking place in 1986 Berlin which made me take it home. Also, the book’s first line was incredible. ➡️ Not quite sure if I’ll be reading this right away but I’ve got a feeling I’ll soon be hopping into it properly.🤞 Anyone else randomly find themselves in a bookstore today? 🤔 Enjoy the rest of your day! ✨

Happy Monday! ☺️ Here’s a quick view of all my current reads in varying states of completion.📚 Enjoy your week ahead! ✨ P.S. It’s my last day in the world of Kobo Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes. Despite initial sentiments, I feel like it’s a bookish world I’ll miss hanging out in. 😔

Happy Saturday! ☺️ Here are some of the stamped books I have from my travels in Japan. 🔖 One of the great things about traveling in Japan is that a lot of places have free souvenir stamps. And if you happen to have a book with you while traveling around, these stamps are the perfect way to add a bit of lore to your book. 📚 If I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be a toss between the Osaka Castle stamp on my copy of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History or the Nagano stamp on my copy of Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country since they absolutely transport me back to the day I got them. 😌 Anyone else have stamped books whether from Japan or anywhere else? 🤔 Enjoy the rest of your day! ✨

Happy Friday! ☺️ I was in the mood for solitude and so I decided to go on a book date with Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World. 📚 So far it’s been an excellent read. It feels reminiscent of The Remains of the Day in the sense that there are hints every now and then that something dark has taken place beneath the surface. You also get this nice conflict brewing between traditional Japanese values and Western influences as our narrator seems annoyed that his grandchild would idolize cowboys rather than samurai. I’ve still got a long way to go but as it stands I’ll probably end up liking this one more than Never Let Me Go. Whether it’ll end up my favorite by Ishiguro still remains to be seen. Anyone hop into an Ishiguro recently? 🤔 Enjoy the rest of your day! ✨

Here’s a reading update and a few quotes from Kobo Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes. 📚 I’m 23 chapters in and the longer I stay in this book’s world, the more it starts feeling cozy. Which is of course an odd thing to say because the dunes are a horrible place. Yet in his makeshift prison our man has a devoted companion, a regular supply of water, a purpose, food, leisure time, items almost on demand, and a sense of community. All that in exchange for staying put in the dunes and shoveling some sand at night. Not the best deal in the world but it’s not the worst either. 🤷🏻‍♂️ And it gets me thinking about whether his life was any better in the outside world. He didn’t really seem to live an exciting life, if I’m being honest, and there really doesn’t seem to be anything awaiting him should he return to his old life. Which makes you wonder if the point of this book is that change happens and the faster we accept it, the better off we will be. Yet at the same time there’s a voice in my head saying that the only comfort the man is offered in the dunes is routine and that the comfort of routine is merely an illusion. Life in the dunes may be safe and predictable but life, the type that’s worth living, can only be lived if we can march to beat of our own drums. As the line goes, do not go gentle into that good night — yet would it really be so bad if we did? 🤔 Swipe right for a few quotes. ➡️ Enjoy the rest of your day! ✨

Happy Monday! ☺️ I’ve been rearranging my stacks so how about a #minimalistmonday ? 📚 Anyone else find themselves stacking more than shelving? 🤔 Have a great week ahead! ✨

Happy Saturday! ☺️ At long last I’m finally reading Clarice Lispector’s short stories. 📚 I’m currently on my second story by her and I’m quickly seeing why so many people hold her in such high regard. Her ability to write in such an evocative way is nothing short of magical, and the ideas she explores definitely make me feel like new avenues of thought are opening up in my mind. In short, I think I’ve fallen in love with her writing and am very much looking forward to seeing what the rest of this collection has in store for me. 📕 Anyone have a favorite Lispector story I should keep an eye out for? 🤔 Enjoy the rest of your day! ✨

Sadeq Hedayat’s Blind Owl is a story of love, betrayal, and madness. 📚 Our narrator has done something terrible and wishes to put in writing what led him to do it. What follows can only be described as a passionate fever dream told by a man swimming in a sea of fear, paranoia, bitterness, alcohol, and opium. What I liked most about this one is we never quite figure out what really happened. We do gets bits and pieces of what the truth probably is but it’s written in such a way that after a while you tend to wonder whether the narrative you’re being given is simply a product of the narrator’s delusions. Interestingly, there is a lot of repetition in this one where the same persons, objects, and scenarios are presented in different scenarios, making it harder to pinpoint what takes place in reality. Yet in many ways, this lack of clarity is what propels the book forward as the narrator always seems on the verge of giving a lucid version of events. Likewise, you get a sense that the narrator fully believes that the tale he tells is real, even with its seeming overlaps and inconsistencies. And in a way, it makes you realize how delusional people can, despite seeing reality in a pretty skewed way, still genuinely insist that their version of events is correct — the only reality they know is what they see through their own eyes and as the old adage goes, to see is to believe. Who would I recommend this to? Fans of Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground. Anyone looking to experience Farsi literature. Fans of psychedelic reads. 📚