Review: The Shadow of the Wind

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sometimes books shadow life, and thus it becomes impossible to judge them beyond what impact they’ve had on you. Shadow of the Wind has been a perplexing book because it somehow fit life in that way. I don’t know what about it reflected on me, and whether that reflection is personal or universal. All I know is that it did reflect on me, in ways that few things do.

I enjoyed reading it the way one might enjoy breathing in crisp air in the presence of someone you love.

This review can’t do much more than talk about my own experience, far more so than most other ones I write. I was breathless, tired, ecstatic and lost as I read this. I hope you are too.

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Review: The Midnight Library

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

What works best about this book is the concept. It is not so much that it is novel, rather it is fulfilling. The opportunity to choose again, to relive, to move away from regret. That concept is beautiful, it gets to the heart of the fear of human existence. We don't get a second chance, but if we did, would we live differently?

It's a shame that it is executed in a way that does not do justice to the power of the core concept. The writing refuses to be significant or memorable, and sometimes is difficult to follow. It isn't bad, and would be forgiven in most cases. The setting of the library and the vague but mechanistic way in which it functions is also strange and unfulfilling. The mini-twists are unsatisfying and almost take away from the reading experience.

None of these are fatal. They are all perfectly bearable, so you might just get through the entire book and even claim to have had a decent time. The problem is that the potential oozes out of every page. The concepts, the beauty, the themes, they are begging to be expressed in a way that makes the reader scream and weep and laugh and shuffle uncomfortably till they want to live!

The book doesn't express them in that way. The book simply ambles along till it stops. The ending is perhaps the worst part, with some semblance of peace but a lot of lessons that feel almost naive after the themes explored.

There was so much here. Art, poetry, philosophy, death, mortality, the void. It isn't a bad book, but it hurts to think about what it could have been.

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Review: The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book serves two distinct purposes. First, it is a style manual of the modern kind. Second, it is a book about linguistics.

In serving these dual purposes, the book becomes a fun and interesting read. Full of linguistic curiosities and ideas, information and stories, Sense of Style is a fascinating style guide because of how the practical information comes from science and history. It is unlike any style guide I've read before.

In absolute terms, it's also probably the best one. All its tips are based in logic, powerful and well-explained. They're basic things to keep in mind, and they absolutely help. There are other guides that have made more of an impact to me personally, but I would not hesitate in saying that this is the most broadly useful style guide I've read.

If you wanna write better, you can't go wrong with this. If you don't wanna write better, then consider reading it anyway and you might change your mind.

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Review: Violence: Six Sideways Reflections

Violence: Six Sideways Reflections by Slavoj Žižek
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I find it hard to rate this book, and the 4 is a reflection of that.

I’ve been reading Pinker’s Sense of Style, which makes the tediousness of the prose all the more hurtful. It is tedious, but I don’t know if it could be anything but. The ideas in it, on the other hand, are beautiful. They are terrifying and thought-provoking and absolutely brilliant to read and think about. I highlighted so much, so much of it I will come back to and I will read over and over the passages where my eyes glazed over, if only to absorb a modicum of them.

There is shining power here, terrible and destructive and earth-shaking.

I am unconvinced that it needed to be hidden the way it is behind tediousness. Maybe it did. But I am unconvinced.

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Review: Beautiful World, Where Are You

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was beautiful.

Reading Beautiful World, Where Are You is very much like an experience of reading something fantastical and unreal, a strange amalgamation of reality and magic. It will grab you, and then leave you to amble away and amble back. You will read a little, think a little, be inspired to write a letter and then come back to see what happens next.

The rise and fall is subtle and soft, the words are harsh but careful, and the pacing works despite being unique. I loved it. I really did.

Is something wrong with it? I don’t know. The book feels better than it reads. The feel of it, the atmosphere it creates, that’s more powerful than the actual story. Even though the atmosphere is a result of the story. Maybe I need to read this one again, maybe I need to live a little more before I do.

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