Maaaaan this book is surreal. Like, you'd think I was joking if I called this book similar to Ice in terms of pacing and all of the this and that, but it really is just as trippy and nonsensical. There are several weird patterns Paulson puts to use in this book, including his love of constantly describing the exact quantities of certain things through bizarrely specific numbers, usage of the word "dumbo," and the way zero characters are ever looking for peace or effective conflict resolution, instead opting for senseless violence. Anyway, this book is a better transgressive satire than any of the edgy "if a guy likes this it's a red flag" novels of the 80s and 90s, because yes, all of the characters are driven through a seemingly obsessive love of violence and destruction, however, 90% of the book isn't just listing off pointlessly provocative things the characters do/think. Anyway, a highlight of this book is how virtually no revisions were made to it as it was being written, therefore the grammar gets progressively better as the book continues. I also appreciate how delightfully nonsensical the whole thing is. You can tell it was written by a kid, and it has that same weird sense of imagination you have at age 10. In conclusion, I think one of the book's funniest bits is how formulaic it all is despite how weird the formula itself is; every situation plays out more or less like this: -Weisent Wong and Muscle Man fight something. -A new character is introduced. -Everyone fights because someone calls someone else stupid. -The fight is interrupted when a larger threat emerges Anyway, it's actually a really funny book and I think everyone should read it

…I have some thoughts on Disquiet. Similarly to Pale Fire and Wittgenstein’s Mistress, I felt like I was being trolled. 500 or so passages, all of which are just an alternate persona (or heteronym) of Fernando Pessoa’s poetic writings that all equate to “Wah Wah I’m so sad” but written more delicately in that European way all philosophical fiction books are written. To call this a novel feels incorrect. I almost felt parts of this were satirical; instead of this being the autobiography it claims to be, it instead is four hundred pages of “Sadness is the happiness of man’s emotional state of misery” or whatever. The poetic metaphors can be really strong and really meaningful but sadly only for the first 200 pages, and after that you become bored with reading it. So while you may feel disquiet at first (well, actually, just mild sadness), by the end you’ll feel completely nothing. So don’t worry if you specifically like reading books that make you feel void of emotion. This book’s backstory and Pessoa himself both feel far more interesting than the actual book itself. This being a posthumously organized collection of writings found in a trunk of his. What this means for the actual book is no editing was done whatsoever and the book suffers from a case of having little to no restraint. Duh. But that still means reading this book- a book where almost nothing happens (I’m not even joking when I say that)- is a chore.

I finished Stoner in heavy, laborer breaths as if I’d been crying. Stoner is an excellent book that reads like the biography of the fictional William Stoner. It’s an incredibly dry story that feels almost beautifully unemotional in nature; it’s the fact Williams writes these events in this almost textbook-like way that makes the book brilliant. Stoner has no reason to be the main character. His life is eventful enough, but not really in a way that feels like it would make him stand out from a crowd. But that’s what makes this story so powerful. You follow this dull and sad guy no one knows through his equally dull and sad life without any stupendous climaxes, crazy plot twists, or quirky characters. Stoner is a lost classic. It has been called by The New Yorker "the greatest American novel you've never heard of." In that regard, I guess I’d put it next to my paperback of Jack Black’s You Can’t Win. However, Stoner being lost in this sense of buried beneath piles of other better known books fits with its narrative. Few cared when Stoner died. Was he a failure?

This¹ book² is³ good⁴ lol⁵ ¹okay. where do I begin. uh. Infinite Jest might be the most important novel of the 80s-90s. Man this thing is good. Wallace's vision of postmodernism is absolutely wonderful, Infinite Jest is technically a very dark book, however it's not transgressive or evil or edgy or over-the-top, no, it feels closer to a tragicomedy than the black comedy label it's typically given. ²One of my favorite sections in all of literature comes from this book, it's the part where DFW just lists out things you might learn in rehab. One of the most beautiful, funny, sad, touching, and brilliant things I've ever read. ³This book is a thousand pages, so if I have any complaints, it's that there are a lot of things you'll have to be on board with in order to enjoy it fully. Like, I personally really did not care about the ONAN stuff or the parts of the ending that discuss Gately's personal history (although I did like reading about Gately himself). This book also ends with more than a couple loose ends that aren't exactly fully resolved, but I think with a book that's supposed to kind of have a slice-of-life appeal to it, I can let it slide for the most part. ⁴Infinite Jest is kind of structureless. However, unlike a book like Confederacy of Dunces where all of the loose ends culminate in the ending, this book's biggest event is in like the 600s and the book never really gets more intense than that other than the hal stuff at the very end. ⁵After reading, I think I fully understand why people are so obsessed with this book and why poser hipsters all pretended to have read it back in the 2000s. I guess now I'll be reading Broom of the SYstem and the Pale King lol

This is like the OK Computer of books. Even though not everyone likes it, it's kind of THE book. Like, one of those things where there are plenty of people who are just fine with it, but even then, it seems to be universally agreed to be one of the greatest of all time. And while I just decently liked OK Computer, this I REALLY like. Such a weird one- absolutely heartbreaking, beautiful, and also darkly funny in a strange way. Love how this guy writes. I definitely owe it to myself to read more of his work. I love all the repeated themes and items in the story- the book opens with someone eating a Three Musketeers candy bar. If that's not genius, I don't know what is. And also yes Valencia eats one in the middle of the story too. spoiler: click to read This book is utterly brilliant, this book will kind of make you dead inside. So it goes.