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el dang Locked account

eldang@outside.ofa.dog

Joined 3 years, 2 months ago

Also @eldang@weirder.earth

I am an enthusiastic member of #SFFBookClub so a lot of what I'm reading is suggestions from there.

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el dang's books

To Read (View all 465)

Alan Watts: Tao (1975)
Thomas Lackmann: The Fortunes of the Mendelssohns (Oxford University Press)
Donny Gluckstein, Janey Stone: The Radical Jewish Tradition (Verso Books)

Currently Reading (View all 5)

Silvia Park: Luminous
Laozi, Gia-Fu Feng, Jane English, Toinette Lippe, Jacob Needleman: Tao Te Ching (Paperback, 1989, Vintage)
David Camfield: Red Flags (2025, Fernwood Publishing Co., Ltd.)

Read (View all 236)

Kemi Ashing-Giwa: The King Must Die (S&S/Saga Press)
Shigeru Mizuki: Showa 1944–1953 (2014, Drawn & Quarterly)
Oliver K. Langmead: Calypso (2024, Titan Books Limited)

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wants to read Tao: The Watercourse Way by Alan Watts

Alan Watts: Tao (1975) No rating

Tao: The Watercourse Way is a 1975 non-fiction book on Taoism and philosophy, and is …

I read about half of a borrowed copy before having to return it, and would like to continue. Impressions so far: very accessible without feeling oversimplifying, somewhat cranky often in ways I agree with but it can still be a bit much.

replied to jay 📚🌺's status

@j12i@wyrms.de As far as I know, he only published under that consistent pseudonym. I haven't read any of his yet and I'm wary of suggesting white men whose work I don't already know, because the last few I did all turned out to have the same predictable frustrations, and the era this is from makes me wary. Do you remember if it was cringe-inducing about gender and/or race?

replied to enne📚's status

@picklish@books.theunseen.city I agree with all of this. I think there's a bit of gender ambiguity in how Alekhai is portrayed, but I wouldn't have placed him as trans. Maybe nonbinary, but more like just not willing to be the particular kind of narrowly-templated man his family evidently meant him to be.

reviewed The King Must Die by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

Kemi Ashing-Giwa: The King Must Die (S&S/Saga Press)

Fen’s world is crumbling. Newearth, a once-promising planet gifted by the all-powerful alien Makers, now …

Fun, but thin

#SFFBookClub book from a few months ago. I read this quickly and enjoyed it, but it also felt very thin. The overall arc seemed sort of formulaic, and it just never got me caring enough about its world or characters for the ending to make me feel very much.

stopped reading The Magic Mountain [Der Zauberberg] INTERNATIONAL COLLECTORS LIBRARY SERIES by Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann: The Magic Mountain [Der Zauberberg] INTERNATIONAL COLLECTORS LIBRARY SERIES (1953, International Collectors Library)

One of the most influential and celebrated German works of the 20th century has been …

I loved this book for a while... then I started to feel bogged down in its slowness... then I put it aside for a bit to read something faster-paced... then I just never felt like picking it back up.

The writing itself really is wonderful, but eventually the extremely slow pace and the smallness of concerns while on the mountain lost me.

avatar for eldang el dang boosted

reviewed Showa 1944–1953 by Shigeru Mizuki (Showa: A History of Japan)

Shigeru Mizuki: Showa 1944–1953 (2014, Drawn & Quarterly)

"The third volume of [the author's] ... encyclopedic account of Japan before and after World …

I only wish this had felt less timely

Whew. This volume really brings home the grotesqueness of war in general and Japan's war in particular. It was already gut-wrenching to read, and then just a week after finishing it it suddenly felt very topical. Will we ever learn?

commented on The Magic Mountain [Der Zauberberg] INTERNATIONAL COLLECTORS LIBRARY SERIES by Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann: The Magic Mountain [Der Zauberberg] INTERNATIONAL COLLECTORS LIBRARY SERIES (1953, International Collectors Library)

One of the most influential and celebrated German works of the 20th century has been …

I think I might set this book aside for a bit. I enjoyed it a lot for... oh about the length of a typical modern novel. But the slowness of the story is starting to drag, and I'm getting tired of how much of the story is now about Hans Castorp's exceedingly middle school crush on a woman he'll do anything for a chance to gaze upon but heaven forbid actually speaking to her beyond the most formal of pleasantries.

I'm not sure if I'm giving up on this or just taking a break, but I need to read something faster paced and with a less tiny world.