How Should a Person Be?: A Novel from Life | 
It was not what I wanted, not what I had been picturing, but I adjusted myself to the reality of it. Better to have a good imagination than a good grilled cheese sandwich, I told myself. Then, thinking of Margaux: Better to have your failure right in front of you than the fantasy in your head.
pick
pickI somehow simultaneously think this book is genius, but also see how it's pretentious and annoying? There are many passages with startlingly brash wisdom, exemplified with the brilliant beginning. It's half novel, half memoir sometimes written in play format. It's about a white woman in her 20s trying to be a writer (and person). She reminded me of Holden Caulfield. I loved that the heart of the book is her friendship with fellow artist Margaux.
Is this, or is this not, the perfect opening to a book?
pickThis is one of the more structurally unique books I‘ve read—Fiction? Memoir? Self-help book? Some parts are written like a play? It‘s exactly as philosophical as the title indicates, and I ate it right up. This is absolutely not a book for everyone. Many readers would find it navel-gazing, pretentious, boring. Honestly I found it quite refreshing to read a book that could be categorized as such that wasn‘t written by a man. I really loved it.
May the Lord have mercy on me for I am a fucking idiot.
The problem is the puer ever anticipates loss, disappointment, and suffering - which they foresee at the end of every experience, so they cut themselves off at the beginning, retreating almost at once in order to protect themselves.
pickA complex book that‘s seemingly all about the author-protagonist but ends up being about female friendship.
Read April 5-8
Book 13/50
so-soI started to read this on the flight to NZ. It was hilarious in the beginning but is getting a bit weird towards the middle. She has left her husband but I‘m yet to find out exactly why other than she shouldn‘t have married him in the 1st place.
I 💙 this spa at the Ree‘s Hotel in Queenstown. It‘s a beautiful place if you ever visit this part of the world. Great service & location. Just a leisurely stroll or a quick water taxi away from town.
Saturday morning reading in bed ❤️❤️ #anunreturnedbook #riotgrams
Went to the library to drop some books back in and came out with these two. The tagged book has been on my tbr for a while and Before Night Falls is my Cuba pick for #passportlitsy
Ace flag for #acepride with bonus aro flag, too! #juneprideweek #thanksforrememberingus
@NovelDescent @howlinglibraries
I'm sure there are more I've totally blocked from my mind and a lot more I should have dumped but suffered through #DNF #readjanuary @RealLifeReading
pickI read this book during the days leading up to my 30th birthday and am not sure I would have the same response that I did if I had read it at a different moment it my life. It was one of those reading experiences when you sigh to yourself "Someone gets me" and you feel less alone as a result. Heti's "novel" is an acquired taste and I am glad I waited till I was older to read this one.
#ReadJanuary Day 1 - Bookish Resolutions
I've made "a few" reading resolutions for 2017. Here's hoping they're met!
?Goodreads goal of 52 books
?Reading through the Penguin Drop Caps series for #LitsyAToZ with @BookishMarginalia
?The 2017 @bookriot #ReadHarder Challenge
?Expanding my poetry consumption with #LitsyPoetry365 & @SharonGoforth
?Getting BINGO w/ #LitsyReadingChallenge
?Reading my own damn books
?Continuing #WinterOfWomen17
When I strip away my dreams, what I imagine to be my potential, all the things I haven‘t said, what I imagine I feel for other people in the absence of expressing it, all the rules I‘ve made for myself that I don‘t follow– I see that I‘ve done as little as anyone else in this world to deserve the grand moniker I. In fact, apart from being the only person living in this apartment, I‘m not sure what distinguishes me.
It was the most moving thing I had ever seen, painted so tenderly and with such a loose hand that it hardly seemed like it had been any work at all... I discovered it was Manet, one of my favorite painters. I wondered at this; was there something in his hand or his soul – or elsewhere – that was essentially him, so much so that it compelled me every time, and made me love everything that was his, without even knowing it was?
"Several years ago, when I was engaged to be married but afraid to go through with it....I told Misha my fears....he finally said, "The only thing I ever understood is that everyone should make big mistakes." So I took what he said to heart and got married. Three years later I was divorced."
Picking up a stack of books. Support independent booksellers!
Have any of you read this? It is a NYT Notable book, but I am really struggling I am on part 2 but I just feel like I am wasting my time!
pickThis book is about a young woman with existential questions. It is about friendship, and making art, and identity. It is beautifully written and funny in parts. I really enjoyed it but I wonder if it is for everyone?
