apparently today is a day for reading about heartbreak and people punching stuff
day 01 | a song
day 02 | a picture
day 03 | a book
day 04 | a site
day 05 | a youtube clip
day 06 | a quote
day 07 | whatever tickles your fancy
What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers. This is the biography of a young man who is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, children who were lost or orphaned during the second Sudanese Civil War, and is therefore very upsetting in places, but it's fantastic and depressing and wonderful. Valentino goes through so much crap and I spent a lot of the book being like "holy fuck! I just want your life to stop sucking for like, two seconds!" but it's good because it doesn't shy away from that, it doesn't hold its punches. It's completely engrossing, and this is also one of the few books that has made me tear up, and just so everyone knows I very, very rarely cry at fictional things. As in...I can count on one hand when this has happened. So tearing up is a pretty friggin big deal for me, and this part just reduced me to nothing:
-We have to take this baby, Achor Achor said.
-What? No, I said. -The baby will cry and we'll be found.
-We have to take this baby, Achor Achor said again, crouching down to lift the naked infant. He took the skirt off the baby's mother and wrapped it around the baby. --We don't need to leave this baby here.When Achor Achor wrapped the baby and held it close to his chest, it became quiet.
-See, this is a quiet baby, he said.
This is severely out of context, but just trust me. I recommend this to anyone who likes books or...people.
At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill. I recommend this book to everyone because I love it so, and not many people have even heard of it. It's a beautiful, heartwrenching story about two boys who are best friends, and Ireland, and love. It is the only book that has made actual tears come out of my eyes and fall down my face. Of course, this recommendation always comes with some warnings, namely that this book is hard to read because:
It definitely helps if you've read Yeats, Wilde, or Joyce beforehand too. Recommended for anyone who likes bffs in love or Extremely Literary books.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley. This comic once made me laugh so hard I fell over. You can look at previews here! And you totally should.
day 02 | a picture
day 03 | a book
day 04 | a site
day 05 | a youtube clip
day 06 | a quote
day 07 | whatever tickles your fancy
What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers. This is the biography of a young man who is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, children who were lost or orphaned during the second Sudanese Civil War, and is therefore very upsetting in places, but it's fantastic and depressing and wonderful. Valentino goes through so much crap and I spent a lot of the book being like "holy fuck! I just want your life to stop sucking for like, two seconds!" but it's good because it doesn't shy away from that, it doesn't hold its punches. It's completely engrossing, and this is also one of the few books that has made me tear up, and just so everyone knows I very, very rarely cry at fictional things. As in...I can count on one hand when this has happened. So tearing up is a pretty friggin big deal for me, and this part just reduced me to nothing:
-We have to take this baby, Achor Achor said.
-What? No, I said. -The baby will cry and we'll be found.
-We have to take this baby, Achor Achor said again, crouching down to lift the naked infant. He took the skirt off the baby's mother and wrapped it around the baby. --We don't need to leave this baby here.When Achor Achor wrapped the baby and held it close to his chest, it became quiet.
-See, this is a quiet baby, he said.
This is severely out of context, but just trust me. I recommend this to anyone who likes books or...people.
At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill. I recommend this book to everyone because I love it so, and not many people have even heard of it. It's a beautiful, heartwrenching story about two boys who are best friends, and Ireland, and love. It is the only book that has made actual tears come out of my eyes and fall down my face. Of course, this recommendation always comes with some warnings, namely that this book is hard to read because:
- It's written in stream of consciousness
- It deals heavily with Irish history, particularly Irish political history
- All the characters speak in the Irish vernacular circa 1900
- It stomps on your heart, and then throws you down a hole and spits on you. Metaphorically speaking.
It definitely helps if you've read Yeats, Wilde, or Joyce beforehand too. Recommended for anyone who likes bffs in love or Extremely Literary books.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley. This comic once made me laugh so hard I fell over. You can look at previews here! And you totally should.