august favorites

the mediocre, the bad, and the ugly

This month, I read a lot of bad books. I decided to give some new authors a chance, and it was not always an enjoyable experience. I read so many books too… I guess I see why these tech overlords want to cut out the middle man and make AI summarize everything. Maybe they too- in their infinite quest for knowledge that makes them look cool, have read way too many fucking boring ass books and they have a chip on their shoulder about it. In any case, here are my favorite books for the month of August- but they are no 10 out of 10s (sorry). I cant help it if I have bad taste in picking books to read! I am out of practice and have been reading Kierkegaard for fun like some little weirdo. Also, at a philosophy conference I called Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, Fear and Loathing. Like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas… they didn’t really like that. I read both of those books… and as existential and annoying as Kierkegaard is, it is still better than the druged up, misogynistic, and strange philosophy that is whatever Hunter S Thompson was doing. Oh well, not every month can be blessed with actually fun books to read. That being said, here are my monthly favorites for the month of August (:

Jonathan Abernathy, You Are Kind

I went to my local library and picked up a weirdo book by someone named Molly, and I was like, that’s my little sisters name (: lets read this shit. So, with absolutely no idea what was about to happen, I started reading this midsized book. It is a strange read, the protagonist is not very smart or observant, he just kind of floats through life. He is also in an insurmountable amount of debt, so despite him lacking a real personality or perspective, I understand how the pressure of poverty can numb your senses and your personality. He gets a job jumping into peoples dreams, becoming a ward of the state in doing so, and getting his debt cleared up. There are many interesting little nuggets peppered throughout the book about things like “the collective unconscious” “governments overreaching and utilizing technologies they don’t understand” “crooked business men abusing criminals whose only crime was being poor” “the idea that we are all different iterations of ‘life itself’ and maybe we ought to be a little more intentional in our actions”. I get why the protagonist was so dumb, but I am a philosophy person, and I like to read about teasing out strange philosophies about the collective unconscious and different iterations of life itself. This book doesn’t really dig into what any of this means, itsi about an average guy who is unconcerned with his work and life, mostly consumed by the crippling debt that keeps him from enjoying his life in any concrete way. I relate to this deeply, though. I just had to call Sallie Mae and the operator was not very into all the crying that was happening on my end. Oh well I’m fucking working on it ok?? I like the idea of going into dreams and sucking out people’s nightmares with strange technology I don’t understand, but unlike this protagonist, I care to understand. There is a big twist that happens in this book that makes it more interesting to read, despite the disengagement of the main protagonist. And even if in general, it felt a little mid compared to the modern classics I have enjoyed, it speaks to our current economic and social climate in way that is deeply realistic despite its strange dream hopping premise. Aren't we all feeling little numb due to the crippling debt and failing job market while being surrounded with images of the good life just out of reach because of some bullshit that happened to you when you were trying to do the right thing? At the end of the day, I do recommend reading this book, despite some of my critiques. Maybe I am just too cynical and philosophical for this world of casual fiction. Either way, 8/10.

Perfection

This book is by an Italian author who writes about an Italian couple who do freelance design work in the city of Berlin. They could live anywhere, but chose Berlin for aesthetic and vibe-y reasons. The book is incredibly dull, describing their life page after page, making the whole book feel like it is 100+ pages of set up instead of an actual thought provoking book. Most of the the thought provoking-ness is not in the prose, but in the way it is so dull, mimicking how dull their lives are. It also touches on the Airbnb economy we live in, that is slowly destroying local economies and livelihoods. (See: the airbnb protests happening in Barcelona). Maybe you and your lost friend with an unlimited travel budget should use that money on something worth while, like finding inner peace, instead of fucking up other people worlds and leaving a bunch of trash behind. People are directionless in life, and so is this book. I am not going to lie, it is very, deeply boring to read. But isn’t the life of influencers, the life of anyone who prioritizes their social media presence more than their physical presence, very deeply boring? Perfection is boring, it is just the same shit over and over and over, and isn’t that close to the definition of a crazy person? Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results (happiness as a result, instead of perpetual boredom). The book ends with the stark realization that the younger generations are just waiting for the older generations to die so they can inherit whatever is left of their lives and start living in a meaningful way again. SPOILER, one of their uncles dies giving them his property in the will, so they decide to turn it into a regular bed and breakfast as opposed to an Airbnb. I don't know what the answer is to this tourism economy that is slowly draining the world and gentrifying cultures everywhere, but this book highlights how it’s just not even worth it to do that stupid shit in the first place. The tourists aren’t even enjoying themselves at some point. I wish this book dug a little deeper into the philosophical implications of everything, but them again I am a philosopher so I always want that. I was in Barnes & Noble recently and met a guy who asked me what book I picked out (it was David Foster Wallace The Broom of the System, a book I still cant get myself to finish reading because the main woman character is written like shit, but one professor said I am like a David Foster Wallace in the making so I am like fuck it I have to finish this stupid ass book I guess). He didn’t know what the book was, so I said it was by a guy with an MFA in creative writing and an MA in philosophy so it should have some really interesting philosophical meat to chew on. His reaction was pure disgust. “I hate philosophy and how it makes me think too much, I am much more of a werewolf fiction kind of guy”. For this first time in my life I was like, wait, not everyone is interested in the perpetual examining of our lives? Perfection seems to be written with guys like that in mind. Let us discuss these things, but not so deeply that we lose the people who need to enact smooth brain mode because of the continuous philosophical debate that is existing in the 2020s. Overall, it is an ok book, better than the other stuff I read this month, so I am giving it a solid 7/10.

Prozac Nation

I finally read the supposed masterpiece that is Prozac Nation. It was a very difficult read, and I had to read it over the course of several days. Her pain is so potent it can only be felt in small flashes. I am stunned at how different the late 80s were compared to the landscape of today. I am a child of divorce who, just like the author, was forced to go to summer camps that made me want to scream, runway and resent my parents for doing that to me, mostly because I knew they needed a break from me or whatever. My parents got one week on and one week off with me anyways my whole childhood, I only spent 50% of my childhood with each of them, so what gives? Sending me off to this summer camp was just rude as hell. They said when they picked me up from summer camp it was like picking up a feral child. As much as I related to the pain that is not being praised for being a good little girl with good grades and pushes through despite it all, I did not relate to just how many friends she had. I spoke about this is in my unemployed postcard “why so merciless?” but I am still pretty annoyed by that. Is it simply the pandemic and the change of times that makes this book suddenly so unrelatable? Why does she have so many people in her life willing to let her crash on their couches? I don’t fucking get it. I get having a strange mom though. I was born in 1996 and this book originally came out in 1994, I just hope my mom didn’t read it and get inspired to be like the mom of the book… she is like the mom in the book. Always calling someone else for reassurance and then yelling at me that I am being annoying for having basic emotional needs. Also, maybe it’s the privilege of being a Harvard student, but she gets a lot of things handed to her that I just don’t believe would be the case in 2025. People are becoming more selfish, and in this book most of the people already are selfish. Additionally, there is some unnecessary fat shaming and racism peppered into the book. Hurt people hurt people I guess? And with a happy ending like “I am on prozac now and it actually works” it’s like um… ok? Think I am just sick of Gen X with their short sided bullshit perspectives and vaguely punk rock attitudes. All this to say, she obviously was in deep pain and it’s kind of bullshit we live in a world that loves consuming sad little stories, like it is their melancholy porn. Were people obsessed with Edgar Allen Poe because they too felt the sting of being rejected by all those who supposedly loved them? Or was it just the vibes he curated around that? I spent a lot of time hating on the book, but I see that it is doing its own little thing, abusing italics and throwing in so many pop-culture/philosophy/classic literature references it would make anyone’s head spin and assume that the writer knows what they are talking about. I don’t think she is whiny and should just get over it, there is real pain there. It is more striking to me just how rampant this game of pain hot potato is, and how many of us are burned by irresponsible people too insecure or afraid to face themselves. I am losing patience for people, especially when I work with kids and learn what their bitch ass parents do to them, and then I cant say anything about it because of weird school laws. I used to go home and cry every day for the little preschoolers whose parents would forget to pick them up, and that is one of the nicer things a bad parent could do. What kind of world do we live in that yields so many minds to go absolutely batshit and never come back? A bad one obviously. Somebody do something already, the world has only gotten exponentially worse since 1994, and it shows. 7/10 for being a bummer with WASP tendencies and having too many italicized sections that were stylized in that way for seemingly no reason.