#i wish i could somehow have kept up the voracious reading habit that i had but my brain is weird now

[sanstropfremir]

what books do you like? (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

oh good question, what books do i like..... well to be honest i don't actually read a lot of fiction anymore. as i've gotten older my brain has become increasingly more visual and i find fiction to not usually be not an effort-efficient payoff for me. and also in my post secondary career i've really only had time to read nonfiction: so a lot of theory and research. i do read a lot of plays though, i read close to a sixty plays in my first year of grad school looking for ones based in science and math, which was a really fun and also at times extremely tedious task. i even have a full spreadsheet laid out with everything categorized by theme and content, which led me to see some interesting trends. if you're interested in reading plays in general and/or reading plays specifically about science/math and science fiction, there's a lot of really good ones out there if you can get your hands on them. tom stoppard's arcadia is a classic, but there's also liz lochhead's blood and ice (about mary shelley and frankenstein), lucy kirkwood's the children (a family drama in a post-nuclear-war world), simon armitage's eclipse (a very strange and poetic ya ritual play), cassandra medley's relativity (a family drama about race and its intersection with science), caryl churchill's a number (a family drama about clones), alistair mcdowell's x (horror scifi set on an abandoned space station), and anne washburn's mr burns (set in the post apocalypse without electricity where the characters re-enact an episode of the simpsons over and over again. trust me on this one its super surreal but its SO good). if you like audiobooks/podcasts some of these are available from la theatreworks as a part of their relativity series, where they've been producing readings of science plays that are available to listen to FOR FREE!!! i know arcadia and relativity are there, but there's also other good plays like david auburn's proof and michael frayn's copenhagen, along with a ton of others. it's a really invaluable resource because it's SO rare to find good quality and freely available recordings of theatre, even if it is just audio.

i also read a fair amount of poetry when i have the time or something catches my eye. i think my favourite type of book though are ones that play with narrative structure and traditional form: i wrote my dissertation on this so i did a fair amount of research into narrative mediums that do this type of unconvential structuring, including video games, theatre, and books. i read both house of leaves (mark danielewski) and nox (anne carson) for research purposes, which i think might have been the last full books i read.

i don't think that i would say i had a favourite author or favourite book though anymore. maybe ivan coyote? i love love love love their work and tomboy survival guide is very very close to my heart, but i do think they shine the most doing performances (of which i've been to several). i read waaayy too much classic literature as a child to have tastes like a normal person though. who reads war and peace at 12???

#anon this is very sweet thank you for asking!!! #i wish i could somehow have kept up the voracious reading habit that i had but my brain is weird now #seriously ive read so much classic literature and i did it all to myself of my own accord like fuckin weirdo #i also have a garbage memory and i have like a fraction of my book collection here in scotland #so honestly i dont remember what i deemed good enough to have kept copies of #(i have object permanence issues so if i dont see a thing physically in front of me i totally forget that it exists) #(and i havent seen my book collection in two years) #i brought my copy of tsg bc its signed and one of my prized possessions and a bruno latour essay collection #oh and a photography book of underground boxers in 1970s new york #if you get a chance to read nox you should its fucking incredible #i think about anne carson so much #i collect a lot of 'coffee table' books also #i do graphic and publication design and i like it when books are beautiful objects #sometimes moreso than i like the words inside #sorry this is kind of a scattered answer but ive been thinking mostly about books as art objects and vehicles for experience #rather than actually reading #god i sound so fucking pretentious #answers #text #general design questions