This is a look back at the books I read in April. It's a lot of different stuff, and it was a lot of cool stuff, so April was a pretty good month.
Patrick Rothfuss you
fucking genius you can write can’t you? Yes is the answer to that. The Name of
the Wind is sensational. I really loved it. I like the story, I like the characters.
I also really liked the way it was told. I like that Kvothe was looking back on
his life and telling the story of him, I thought it was a cool way of telling a
story. It’s such a good book. I saw some people complain about the fact that
Kvothe is so good at everything and that’s boring. I don’t care. Kvothe is an
arrogant asshole for parts of this book, he’s flawed and he’s not perfect and I
like that. He’s good, but he’s also not perfect. I loved the magic in the book,
I loved how it was taught. I also had a feeling that it might go wrong a couple
of times, which I found interesting. It was just great okay. I don’t know how
to use words anymore. Elodin is by the way awesome. That crazy bastard is my
favorite character.
I read another
graphic novel. I should read more, they’re fantastic. And this one was amazing.
The art is really cool, the story is fascinating and the weird intricacies are
just really interesting. It’s about three kids who move to New England with
their mother after their father is murdered by a deranged kid who used to go to
their dad in his capacity as a guidance councilor. He is haunted by this lady
who lives in a well by Keyhouse, the house the kids move to. There they find
all kinds of odd doors and keys. It’s just really good and I want to read the
rest right now.
I have found the
thing I love more than anything else I think. I thought I’d warn you, because
I’m about to be very excited. I love science, which sounds a bit dappy, but I
do. I like that there are people out there who look at the world and wonder
something, try to find information on it and when they can’t find it they
figure it out themselves. They are glorious heroes. Also medicine and electricity
is pretty sweet. What I like more though is people who wonder weird things, and
where other people think that is so weird and creepy I’m fine with never
knowing, they think I’ll find out. What do people talk about when they think
they’re alone? I know I’ll hide under people’s beds and find out. How much
electricity does it take to electrocute an elephant? We’ll electrocute one and
find out. Some of the experiments are heinous and awful and immoral, but
they’re so interesting and strange. I love weird science and I will read all
the books about it, so I need to find more.
Neil Gaiman is one of
my favorite humans. His books are interesting and funny and sad, and cruel and
sweet and they make you laugh and cry and it’s lovely. This isn’t my favorite
of his. Not that it was bad, I loved it, but American Gods is sort of the gold
standard. Stardust is pretty brilliant though. It’s a fairytale-ish story set
in Victorian England. A young man, half fae, walks through the Wall to the
fairy world to catch a falling star for the woman he thinks is the love of his
life. The boy, Tristran, finds that the star is a girl named Yvaine and they go
on a journey through the Fairyland. Meanwhile the king of Stormhold in the
Fairyland dies and his remaining sons have to find the star as well, and the
man who finds it will be king. There’s a lot going on for a fairly short book,
but it’s interesting and funny and sweet and really cool. I sort of wanted it
to go on for longer.
Bah, September is
back and it’s great guys. In Fairyland all the shadows are disappearing and
September needs to go to Fairyland-below where September’s shadow Halloween is
dragging the shadows down to have her own party. There are some humans and
other creatures down there too, but lots of shadows, and many of them quite
like being free. We meet Ell and Saturday’s shadows and see how different and
dark they are and it’s interesting and almost scary. We get to see how
September grows up and how she’s gone from being a child without a heart to a
teenager with a heart that can break. She’s so interesting and exciting and she
grows so much. I love her so much.
I’m not sure I get Thomas
Pynchon. It might just be me. His books, at least the ones I’ve read are fun
and well, weird. It’s about a PI named Doc Sportello who is asked by his old
girlfriend Shasta to look into the disappearance of her boyfriend Mickey
Wolfmann. It’s set in the late 60s and is full of drugs and acid trips. Doc is
pulled into a lot of different conspiracies that somehow seem to bring them
back to Mickey and a creepy organization named the Golden Fang. It’s bizarre
and some of the time I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. There is so much
weirdness. I liked it though, no matter how odd it was.
My resolutions
I’ve read 22 books in
my 70 books challenge. I didn’t read any Norwegian books, but it’s okay,
because I’m sort of ahead anyway. I’ve read 14 books for the Mount TBR so I’m
on track there. Also I read another graphic novel, which was cool. And some
non-fiction. I was a bit all over the place this month, so you know, fun.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe
Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
Electrified Sheep by Alex Boese 
The Girl who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente