a short break from routine
I took the past couple of days off. a Monday and a Tuesday, to be specific. Monday, I spent with family, buying them a nice lunch at one of my favourite Japanese places. After, I went to the bookstore. Possibly my favourite place in the country (that isn't my home), it was fun as fuck. Picking up more than I can carry to the point where a patron mistook me for the bookstore staff. I ended up with 5 books.
*Stendhal – The Red and the Black *《假面的告白》by Yukio Mishima (Confessions of a Mask) *Daphne du Maurier – Rebecca *Oscar Wilde – The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray *Mikhail Bulgakov – The Master and Margarita
I could have possibly ended up with more but then I also bought 2 sets of the new Pilot Kirei-Na highlighters. One set of neon, one set that was milder.
Mainly the Rebecca purchase was due to a bookclub meeting I am intending to go to at the end of the month. Which would be fun. I have only been in online book clubs so this is going to be fun!
And then the uncensored version of the Picture of Dorian Gray. I am half-ashamed to admit that despite all the friends who have recommended that book, I have not read it completely. I guess it will also be a privilege to read Dorian Gray for the first time in the form that Oscar Wilde intended. I peeked a little into Wilde's life and it was quite tragic.
One of the books I am not entirely sure if I would be able to read and understand is The Red and the Black by Stendhal. It is definitely a new genre(?) for me because I am not much familiar with the Napoleon wars and that time period. Also will I be able to understand the context and culture? I guess I will read and find out.
Something I have never shared before is that ChatGPT is very often by reading buddy. It is hard to find a friend who has the same exact reading tastes with me so often I discuss my thoughts and opinions of the stuff I am reading with AI. It is great especially when I am reading a book with social and culture nuances that I am unfamiliar with. I know many people are a bit iffy about AI but for this use case, it allows me to read books that I would usually be too afraid to start. So that is a win.
As for The Master & Margarita, I bought it even though I already have a purchased copy on Kindle. Simply because the Penguin Deluxe Classics version is so bloody pretty.
This is a good start to October's reading.