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Barbarius Locked account

Barbarius@outside.ofa.dog

Joined 2 years, 4 months ago

Mostly reading sci-fi, fantasy, and comics/graphic novels, but occasionally some other stuff too.

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Barbarius's books

Currently Reading

2026 Reading Goal

23% complete! Barbarius has read 12 of 52 books.

Hwang Bo-reum, Shanna Tan: Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop (EBook, 2023, Bloomsbury Publishing)

There was only one thing on her mind.

'I must start a bookshop.'

Dissonance before moments of harmony makes the harmony sound beautiful. Just as harmony and dissonance exist side by side in music, life is the same. Because harmony is preceded by dissonance, that's why we think life is beautiful.

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by , (Page 104)

Grace Curtis: Floating Hotel (2024, DAW)

Welcome to the Grand Abeona Hotel: home of the finest food, the sweetest service, and …

The Hotel At the End of the Universe

A little bit like if The Restaurant At the End of the Universe were a hotel instead (but less fantastical/absurd), and with just a touch of The Communist Manifesto thrown in.

I really enjoyed the style of writing, where each chapter is from a different character's point of view. It meant it read a little bit like a collection of short stories, which I felt made it easier to read.

Gabrielle Zevin: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Paperback, 2023, Penguin Random House)

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur …

It's not a bad book...

But I didn't enjoy it. Though I can understand why people might like it, I won't be recommending it to anyone.

Overall I think I just found Sam and Sadie unlikeable as characters. I feel like they were pretty jerky to everyone around them, and each other, and themselves, for pretty much of the time.

I also didn't like how some elements of the story were "ret-con'd" in several chapters later: "oh hey, I never mentioned he's had a dog this whole time, well he has, and now I'll detail those past events, even though we're five chapters beyond that point." And on a similar point, there are several plotlines and characters that get introduced that seemingly go nowhere, or just outright get left undeveloped after they serve their singular purpose of introducing "blank". Like, for example, the dog.

Finally, I found the ending completely …

Catherynne M. Valente, Ana Juan: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Paperback, Square Fish) No rating

Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father …