Bookish Thoughts

Sadly, I have been too busy this past week to read much for the link roundup and, sadly, that will continue today. So, instead of a set of links, I figured I’d take this brief blogging time to share some thoughts on books I’ve read so far this year that I’ve enjoyed.

Due to the aforementioned time restriction, don’t think of these as full reviews or full considerations. Several of these books are on my list to eventually write full posts or even articles about. I’ll just share one or two quick thoughts from each. Their inclusion on this list, itself, signals my strong recommendation.

• Confucius, The Analects. I’ve read Confucius several times before, but given that I am teaching his ideas in my global rhetorics-based writing courses, I decided to do a reread of The Analects toward the beginning of the year. I’m about five years back into a formal Zen practice, and the cross-contamination between Confucian thought and Zen Buddhism was evident in this read. Despite certain overly traditionalist and patriarchal elements of Confucian thought, which need to be put aside, I really do appreciate the model of the “good” that The Analects offers.
• Brian Hodge, I’ll Bring You the Birds from Out of the Sky. This was just an absolutely stunning cosmic horror novella. The dread of certain passages has stuck with me for months, and given that my wife is West Virginian the location was especially intriguing.
• Han Kang, The Vegetarian. I don’t even know what to say about this novel. Most novel readers are aware of it by now but, if you aren’t, it’s an incredibly haunting text told in three parts about the dissolution of a Korean family when a woman bucks social norms by becoming a vegetarian. The story itself, oddly, has very little to do with vegetarianism and more to do with gender roles, patriarchy, and social punishment. But those are incomplete thoughts; I’m still processing this one.
• Andrew Culp, Dark Deleuze. Culp argues that academics have shockingly (note my sarcasm) deradicalized Deleuze’s thought. Deleuze is my favorite philosopher, or at least the one most influential to my general worldview, and I’ve had Culp’s book on my reading list for quite a while. It’s an odd read for me because I agree wholeheartedly with Culp’s larger points and don’t always appreciate his smaller ones in the construction of the argument. The book would be of negative interest to anyone not invested in Deleuze, but it’s highly worth a read for anyone who is.
• Sarah Manguso, Ongoingness: The End of a Diary. Sarah Manguso is my favorite living writer. Her book Siste Viator was probably the most influential text in getting me to care about language in my freshman year of college, and everything I’ve read by her has left a mark. This book focuses on the author’s archival obsession and her process of releasing it. I don’t want to say too much more yet, as I’m already working my thoughts into a larger piece, but I can say with certainty that this is my favorite book I’ve read so far, this year.

So, there are some thoughts. Apologies for not having more, but teaching calls.