Mi primer libro en español

I have been (very) slowly teaching myself Spanish over the past few years, mostly by using Duolingo for just 20 minutes or so each day. But recently I felt comfortable enough to seek out more content to read. Because how better to learn a language than by just jumping right in? This week I reached …

Psycho, in all its various iterations

I recently watched the A&E series Bates Motel, and was impressed by the acting of Vera Farmiga (Norma Bates) as well as Freddie Highmore (Norman Bates). The show did a good job of telling their story, which was intriguing and engaging. However, as with many of these TV dramas, they had to add in 78 …

The Sundial, by Shirley Jackson

As with all the Jackson books I've read so far, this one features some people confined in a house, strange visions, and fear of the outside world. Aunt Fanny, of the Halloran family, has had a vision that the world will soon end. That is, it will end for anyone who is not safely inside …

Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre

If you don't want to be uncomfortably aware of your own existence--the heat of your breath, the presence of your tongue against your teeth, the weight of your hand resting on your thigh, the stickiness of your eyes, all of this, constant and inescapable--then possibly, avoid this book. The story takes the form of a …

The Melancholy of Resistance, by László Krasznahorkai

The second book I've read by this author (the other being Satantango) and written in a similar style. The rarely ending wall of text sucks you in to the overwhelming story and crushes you into nothingness by the end. The story describes a small town in Hungary that is visited by a circus, and the …