I’m roughly a quarter through Ulysses and on the verge of bailing. Just finished a 30 page chapter where I had almost 0 clue what was going on.
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Ha, I was just thinking of getting back into it. I would STRONGLY recommend reading a companion annotations book (I’m reading it with this: ). 3rd chapter is entirely in Stephen Daedalus’s head and follows his thought process in a way that’s uncanny… once you understand it.
Like, we all have those daydream moments where we invent fictional realities of the boring stuff going around us (I think). Putting that stream of consciousness into a written format was bonkers.
2025 ended up being a very down year for me reading wise. 20 or so books, all in the first half of the year. Also read a bunch of poetry but not complete books.
Oh, I did read a 300 page nonfiction book on the history of Bel Canto pegagogy lol (Bel Canto singing techniques and how they were taught from 17th through late 19th centuries).
Finished Fall of Hyperion, which lost the intrigue of book 1 imo.
I’ve been watching a lot of “best of 2025” book lists on youtube and just picked up a bunch of books. First up is the 2025 Booker Prize winner, Flesh.
I have a random chapter of Ulysses in a Norton, and I have found some satisfaction from reading it a couple pages at a time, along with all the footnotes, and then reading it again.
I don’t think I could get much out of swallowing the whole book, at least not these days, but a chunk of it was nice.
I think the lesson from the Rape of Nanking (and Naziism, Stalinism, Maoism, etc.) is that any nation of people, under the right conditions, can reach the same mindset. And in those nations, a large percent of normal “safe” people-- friends, neighbors, family-- became human monsters who committed the worst acts imaginable. And another sizable percent allow it to happen.
When I think about my friends, family, and neighbors, my first question is “If we were living in Nazi Germany, who would be committing genocide? Who would support Hitler? Who would say nothing? Who would do anything helpful at all?”
Realistically, the probabilities can’t be 1 in 100. They have to be way, way worse.
Not true that any country is capable. When Nazi Germany invaded many countries, some helped them kill Jews, some just left things alone, and some actually rescued Jews and subverted them where possible.
I don’t really like the arguments of moral equivalence. We are not all the same.
I’m not saying that every country is Nazi Germany.
I’m saying that any large population of people are capable of becoming Nazi Germany.
I’m saying Nazi Germany was the result of a cultural shift. And any large population is capable of a similar shift.
If you visited Germany or Japan today, it wouldn’t occur to you that their recent ancestors committed atrocities, because the Germans and Japanese basically act like normal nice people. You would naively give them a 0% chance of committing atrocities, just like you do your neighbors.
The truth is they are normal people. But normal people commit atrocities when exposed to the right conditions.
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There have been too many Reigns of Terror in too many countries throughout history to counter your claim. Venezuela is the latest in the news (with Maduro’s thousands of extrajudicial kilings) following a long list of South American, African, Asian and European atrocities in the 20th/21st centuries. Go back further and the atrocities were even worse - the Mongols were probably the most infamous.
There are sociopaths, bigots and mainly “I just want to keep my head down and not make any waves”-people in every society. All it takes is a certain set of economic, internal and external conditions for them to rise to the top.
I have way too many books to read. Right now, a few tome I have bookmarks in:
A Harry Houdini biography
Collection of short stories: Fannery O’Connor
Collection of short stories: Roald Dahl
A history of Post Punk Music
Infinite Jest – Wallace
Dubliners and other works – Joyce
And way too many more to count.
I wouldn’t, actually. Give them a 0% chance.
Finally got around to reading a book that had been on my reading list for a number of years: Krakatoa by Simon Winchester.
It did not disappoint as Winchester is an incredible writer. As a polymath, he frequently digressed into somewhat related topics in his detailed manner but the digressions are almost as interesting as the volcanic eruption itself. Highly recommend it.
next genre is Detective / Mystery. I chose Storm Watch by CJ Box. Not an author i know well, but there was a collection of Detective novelist short stories, put together by Lee Child. Every story had two authors and their characters worked together.
Interesting concept, and I like Box’s modern cowboy character, so i grabbed one from the Little Lending Library
Also, to further clarify, it’s not that I think we are all the same. I think some people are good and some are bad. It’s just that unlike you, I suspect my neighbors as much as anyone.
Folks always assume their friends, family, church, neighbors, country, and themselves are the good guys. This seems like obvious bias to me. Most of the people around you are only good because there is nothing to tempt them. When they are tempted, you see their real selves.
Finally finished reading “A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking” out loud to my family.
At one point, my kiddo confessed that she “accidentally” finished the book on her own.
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I picked that up for my wife for Christmas but she’s got a back log she’s working through right now.
Do I understand correctly that this is not a cookbook? Ok for little kids?
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It’s a fantasy adventure about a teen girl who can animate her baked goods.
It’s not quite for little kids. It opens with her discovering a body and trying to find/hide from the serial killer. It is about as kid-friendly as you can make that story.
TIL: the author has written little kid books under her real name.
If you are looking for kid books, I’d be happy to give advice.
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next genre is Romance, this is a Book Of The Month Club book from 40 years ago, that i was too lazy to return. Anyway, finally getting it off the shelf. I think it is the last one.
Crescent City - Belva Plain