A Quiet Place

Seicho Matsumoto

Very much enjoyed A Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumoto. What starts as a mystery unravels into a plot reminisent of The Stranger or Crime and Punishment. The ending is a bit sudden and takes the book in a more comic direction. If you like those and are curious about the explosion of Japanese crime novels that’s happening at the moment I recommend checking this one out.

I’m also reading Investigator Imanishi Investigates by the same author, excited to finish it now. Seems that the author is good at laying out meandering plots that arive at unexpected psychological endings.

The word interesting is now banned from this blog.

Managed to read 69 books last year - absolutely smashing my goal of 30. Going to bump it up to 50 this year. 2025 Book roundup coming soon.

Articles From 'An Editors Burial' Ranked

James Baldwin My ranking of the chapters/ articles of the New Yorker anthology An Editor’s Burial as I was reading. Included in the book is journalism that served as inspiration for Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch (a brilliant movie that deserved more than it got). I think the book’s quality and thematic cohesion wavers towards the middle but is saved in the end by superb writing from Baldwin, Liebling, and White.

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I wonder if Anthony Bourdain ever read anything from A. J. Leibling. If Bourdain could match the way Leibling writes about food I think his early writing would have been just that bit better.

Mark Fisher’s blog posts says so much more than David Foster Wallace’s oeuvre in so many less words.

Some thoughts on A Cook's Tour

Anthony Bourdain Tony’s charm, intelligence, and kindness is the glue holding this quip-of-the-week (‘Don’t order seafood on Mondays!’ ‘Hear about the gang that escaped from Arkham? They’re calling themselves Vegetarians!’) and cigarette-stained book together.

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Xteink X4 Wallpapers

Leonard Cohen was singing ‘Memories’

Got my hands on a new device, a tiny ereader from China called the X4 by a new company called Xteink. Great little thing, I’ve already plowed through a few books on it in the few weeks I’ve had it. I love it so much that I made a bunch of wallpapers (around 30) for the beautiful low res, 480x800 screen. They’re also on the community hub over @ Readme.club - look out for any posted from the username West.

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On a Philip K. Dick binge at the moment. His stories are similar enough that they’re rewarding to read and pick up how his ideas develop from book to book.