Everything I've Read in 2015

Here’s the third iteration of my “Everything I’ve Read in 201x.” Goals for this year: read more damn books.

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

I had high hopes for this collection of essays. When Lena Dunham’s Not That Kind of Girl was sold out in bookstores last Christmas, this was my alternative. Gay dives into contemporary politics and culture, but I found her analyses a little bit shallow and definitely lacking depth. Her works brush the surface and I know that the collection is supposed to be funny and entertaining, but I did not think that it delivered any sort of refreshing commentary.

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

This short read uses A. A. Milne’s stories and characters as allegorical devices to explaining the basic tenets of taoism. Pooh’s carefree and simple-minded nature embodies effortless being– the core principle of the Tao.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The heavy Russian classic about morality. It’s a “courtroom drama” satire, but it’s deeply about family relations. An interesting line and perhaps theme in the novel is that everyone has a secret (or perhaps not-so-secret) desire for their father to die.

The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene

The Art of Seduction outlines the art of manipulation and basic psychology/a look into the human psyche. The book catalogues people into different personality types and discusses various seduction techniques to “make people fall under your spell.” I think it’s more useful for the way he labels people into different boxes based on their seduction types and eighteen types of victims than a pick-up-artist guide. Everything comes down to power here.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

‘The quintessential novel of the Lost Generation,’ post-World War I outlining 1920s Europe from Paris to bullfighting in Spain with a group of expats. A quick-read and prime example of Hemingway’s simple, but effective prose. A great quote from the book: “You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.”

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

A fascinating novel from the author of Love in the Time of Cholera detailing the multi-generational story of the Buendía family. The patriarch/quasi-protagonist in the work, José Arcadio Buendía founds the fictional town of Macondo (metaphoric Colombia). The book weaves the themes of war, love and the the occult together to paint a vivid family portrait.

The Bhagavad Gita

Hindu scripture written in verse–a narrative dialogue between Prince Arjuna and his spiritual guide, Lord Krishna. On the brink of war, Krishna coaches Arjuna to ‘fulfill his duty as a warrior and establish Dharma.’